PDF Converter

Instantly extract plain text, read document metadata, and preview the first page. Export to TXT, JSON, Markdown, HTML, Word, Excel, or PowerPoint — all within your browser. Your PDF never leaves your device, ensuring complete confidentiality for sensitive documents.

Drag & drop a PDF file here

or click to browse from your computer

All processing is local — no upload, no external server.
Zero‑trust architecture: The PDF file is processed locally using Mozilla’s PDF.js. No data is transmitted, stored, or logged. Perfect for NDAs, legal documents, or private research.

Why a Client‑Side PDF Text Extractor?

Portable Document Format (PDF) is the global standard for document exchange, but extracting usable text or metadata often requires specialized software or risky online services. Our PDF Text Extractor & Multi-Format Exporter leverages the industry‑standard PDF.js library (Mozilla) to read PDF structure directly in your browser. Because everything runs locally, sensitive contracts, academic papers, or financial statements remain under your control.

How it works: PDF.js parses the document’s object tree, decodes text streams (including Unicode, CID fonts, and embedded subsets), and assembles page text in reading order. Metadata is extracted from the document catalog (XMP metadata or Info dictionary). All operations are isolated in a Web Worker for performance.

Key Capabilities & Technical Edge

  • ? Full text extraction — accurately pulls text from all pages, preserving spacing and line breaks.
  • ? Metadata inspector — reveals title, author, subject, producer, creation date, and PDF version.
  • ?️ First‑page raster preview — rendered to canvas for visual reference, exactly as the PDF would appear.
  • ? Multi-format export — choose from 7 formats: plain text, JSON (with metadata), Markdown, HTML, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
  • ? Password‑protected PDFs? — currently extraction requires non‑encrypted files; you will receive an informative warning if encryption is detected.

Comprehensive Guide: How to Use

  1. Upload PDF: Drag & drop any PDF file (max 150 MB recommended) or click "Select PDF".
  2. Instant processing: The tool extracts all pages text, metadata and generates a preview of the first page.
  3. Review extracted content: Metadata panel displays document properties; extracted text appears in scrollable box.
  4. Choose your export format: Select from the dropdown (TXT, JSON, Markdown, HTML, Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and click Download.
Use Case: Legal & Compliance Review

A compliance analyst needs to search for specific clauses across 200+ PDF contracts. Instead of opening each file manually, they use this extractor to generate plain‑text versions, then run local grep/scripts. For further processing in spreadsheet software, they export to Excel where each page becomes a row. For client presentations, they export to PowerPoint to create a slide deck summarizing key clauses.

The Science of PDF Text Extraction

PDF is not a ‘structured’ text format like HTML or DOCX; it stores glyph positioning instructions. Text extraction reconstructs characters by analysing 'show text' operators (Tj, TJ), mapping character codes to glyphs via font encodings and ToUnicode tables. Our implementation uses PDF.js’s battle‑tested text layer logic, which handles complex scripts (Cyrillic, CJK, right‑to‑left), embedded fonts, and ligatures. The metadata viewer reads both legacy Info dictionary and modern XMP metadata packets (ISO 16684‑1). This adheres to the PDF Reference (ISO 32000‑2).

For professionals, accuracy is critical. We apply advanced fallback heuristics for malformed fonts, and the extracted text retains approximately original reading order, making it suitable for indexing, translation, or NLP pipelines.

Frequently Asked Questions

Never. The entire process happens inside your browser using PDF.js. Once you close the tab, no trace of the document remains. This is a 100% offline-capable tool (after initial load).

This tool extracts text from the text layer only — it does not perform OCR. For scanned PDFs containing images of text, you need an OCR solution. We recommend combining this tool with Tesseract.js (separate tool) for OCR-based extraction.

PDF primarily stores visual positioning, not logical structure. Our tool extracts text in reading order — tables and multi-column layouts may appear jumbled. For layout preservation, consider PDF to HTML or PDF to DOCX converters that attempt to reconstruct tables.

The current version extracts all text from every page. For page‑range extraction, check our advanced PDF Splitter tool (coming soon). You can manually copy relevant sections from the extracted output.

Word export creates a clean HTML-based document that opens in Microsoft Word or LibreOffice. Excel export uses SheetJS to generate a proper .xlsx file with each page’s text in a separate row. PowerPoint export uses PptxGenJS to create a slide deck where each page becomes a separate slide. These are fully compatible with Microsoft Office and LibreOffice.

Built on industry standards (PDF 2.0, ISO 32000) – This utility is powered by PDF.js, SheetJS, and PptxGenJS — all open‑source libraries trusted by millions. Reviewed by GetZenQuery tech team, vetted for privacy and accuracy. Last update: May 2026.

References: PDF.js Official Repository • SheetJS (XLSX) • PptxGenJS • ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)