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PDF to text & Markdown

Get the words out of a PDF, ready to paste into notes, a wiki, an email or an AI chat.

  • Works in your browser
  • No sign-up
  • Free to use

How to use PDF to text & Markdown

  1. 1

    Pick a PDF, or drop it on the box.

  2. 2

    Choose Markdown to keep headings and lists, or plain text for just the words.

  3. 3

    Tick "Keep the PDF's line breaks" if you want the lines exactly as they are on the page.

  4. 4

    Press "Convert", check the preview, then copy the text or download the .md or .txt file.

What this tool does

PDF to text & Markdown reads the text layer of a PDF and writes it out as a Markdown (.md) or plain text (.txt) file. Instead of a jumble of broken lines, you get paragraphs, headings and lists you can paste straight into another app.

Features

  • Markdown or plain text: headings become #, ## and ###, bullets become - items and numbered lists stay numbered.
  • Joined paragraphs: lines that the PDF wrapped are joined again, and words split with a hyphen at the end of a line are mended.
  • Reading order: text on each line is put in order from left to right, even when the PDF stores it in pieces.
  • Preview and copy: see the result on the page and copy it with one click, or download the file.
  • Options: keep the PDF's own line breaks, or mark where each page starts.

Limits

  • Scanned PDFs have no text layer, so they need OCR first.
  • Tables come out as lines of text, and pages with two or more columns may mix the columns together.
  • Headers, footers and page numbers that repeat on every page are kept as normal text.
  • Bold and italic aren't detected, and images are left out.
  • Text turned on its side, such as a vertical label in a margin, is skipped.

Where your file is processed

This tool works in your browser: your PDF is processed on your own device, so it isn't sent to our server for this tool. Some other tools on UtiloNest do use our server, and their pages say so.

Frequently asked questions

What is Markdown, and when should I pick it?

Markdown is plain text with a few marks for structure, such as

Why did I get an error saying there is no text?

The PDF is probably a scan, which is a picture of each page rather than real text. A picture has no letters to read, so it has to go through OCR (optical character recognition) first.

How are headings found?

The tool measures the font size of every line. The size used most often is taken as the body text, and short lines that are clearly larger become headings of level 1, 2 or 3. Bold text of the same size as the body stays normal text.

Are tables converted?

Not as tables. Each table row comes out as a line of text with the cells separated by spaces. For a real spreadsheet, a PDF to Excel converter is the better choice.

Where is my file processed?

In your browser. This tool works on your own device, so the file isn't sent to our server for it.

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