How to Extract Text from a PDF — Free Methods Explained

Extracting text from a PDF should be simple, but the method depends on whether your PDF is text-based (created from a document) or scanned (an image of paper). Here are the three ways to get editable text, and when to use each.

Method 1: Convert PDF to Word (Text-Based PDFs)

If your PDF contains selectable text (you can highlight it with your mouse), the fastest method is to convert it to Word. PureFileConverter extracts the text, tables, and images into an editable .docx file you can open in Word or Google Docs.

Method 2: Copy and Paste (Short Text)

For a few paragraphs, simply open the PDF, select the text, and copy-paste it. This works for text-based PDFs but may lose formatting and is tedious for long documents.

Method 3: OCR (Scanned PDFs)

If your PDF is a scan or photo of paper, it contains no selectable text — just an image. You need OCR (optical character recognition) to extract text. PureFileConverter does not run OCR, but Google Drive, Adobe Acrobat, and some free OCR tools do. Upload the scanned PDF to Google Drive, open it with Google Docs, and it will automatically OCR the text.