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Free PDF Text & Page Image Extractor
A free, 100% client-side PDF extractor powered by pdf.js, the community-driven, web standards-based PDF parsing and rendering platform supported by Mozilla and built into Firefox since version 19. It reads your document directly in the browser, walking every page to pull out the embedded text layer and rendering each page to a crisp PNG image at 1.5x scale. Switch between a Text tab (concatenated text in reading order, with copy and download to .txt) and a Page images tab (per-page PNG thumbnails you can download individually) while a live progress indicator tracks each page. Because all parsing and rendering happen locally through the same Apache 2.0 licensed HTML5 engine that powers Firefox, even confidential contracts, invoices, and reports stay private on your machine. Scanned, image-only PDFs have no text layer, so the tool returns clean page images you can run through an OCR tool.
Free and provided as is, without warranty. Use at your own risk. Terms
Extract PDF text and images without uploading a thing
Most online PDF converters ask you to upload your file to their servers, where you have no idea who reads it or how long it is stored. This extractor takes a different approach: it runs pdf.js, the open-source PDF engine maintained by Mozilla, directly inside your browser, so your document is parsed and rendered on your own device. Nothing is transmitted, nothing is logged, and nothing is retained.
That makes it a genuinely safe choice for confidential material such as signed contracts, invoices, payslips, legal filings, and medical paperwork. You get the convenience of a web tool with the privacy of a desktop application, and it keeps working even when you are offline. If you want proof, open the Network tab in your browser DevTools while you extract and watch that no file data ever leaves the page.
Built on Mozilla pdf.js, the engine behind Firefox
pdf.js describes itself as a Portable Document Format viewer built with HTML5, with the goal of creating a general-purpose, web standards-based platform for parsing and rendering PDFs. It is community-driven and supported by Mozilla, and it has shipped as the default, built-in PDF viewer in Firefox since version 19, which means it has been battle-tested against millions of real-world documents.
This tool loads the same Apache 2.0 licensed library (published on npm as pdfjs-dist) and uses it for two jobs: reading the embedded text layer of each page and rasterizing each page to an image. Because the rendering pipeline is the proven Firefox one, the text and image output you get here matches what you would see opening the file in the browser itself, no proprietary or server-side converter in between.
Text and page images from one upload
After you drop in a PDF, the tool reads every page twice: once to pull out the embedded text layer in reading order, and once to render the page to a sharp PNG image at 1.5x scale. A live progress bar shows exactly which page is being processed so you always know how far along a large document is.
The Text tab gives you the full concatenated text with a character count, a one-click copy button, and a download to .txt. The Page images tab shows a thumbnail of every page with its own Download PNG button, perfect for turning slides, diagrams, or scanned forms into individual images.
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What to do with scanned PDFs
A scanned or photographed PDF is really a series of pictures, not text, so there is no embedded text layer for pdf.js to extract. When the tool detects this, it tells you clearly and switches you to the Page images tab so you still get usable output.
From there, download the page images and run them through an OCR tool to turn the pictures of words into editable, searchable text. This two-step workflow keeps everything local while still letting you recover text from documents that were never digital to begin with.
Who pulls text and images out of PDFs, and why
Researchers copy a quote or a data table out of a journal article PDF into their own notes rather than retyping it by hand, and legal teams extract the text of a filing so it can be searched, indexed, or pasted into a review tool that does not accept PDF input directly. Students convert a lecture-slide PDF into individual page images so each slide can be dropped into a study deck or annotated separately.
It also comes up whenever a system on the other end simply will not take a PDF: an old form that needs its content pasted into a web field, a CMS that only accepts plain text or images, or a colleague who asked for "just the text" from a document you only have as a PDF.
How this compares to Adobe Acrobat and paid online extractors
Adobe Acrobat Pro can export a PDF to text or images with excellent layout reconstruction, but it requires a Creative Cloud subscription around 20 dollars a month for the full feature set. Many "free" online PDF-to-text converters cap the free tier at a handful of pages or files per day and upload your document to their servers to process it, with a paid plan needed to lift those limits.
This tool has no page cap, no daily limit, and no upload step, since pdf.js does the extraction entirely on your device using the same engine Firefox ships. The tradeoff is layout sophistication: Acrobat's paid export can better preserve complex multi-column or table layouts in the extracted text, while this tool gives you clean reading-order text and full-resolution page images for free, which covers the large majority of everyday extraction needs.
How It Works
Drop a PDF onto the page or click Upload PDF to choose a file from your device.
The browser parses the document with pdf.js, pulling text from each page and rendering each page to a PNG while showing live per-page progress.
Switch between the Text and Page images tabs, then copy the text, download it as a .txt file, or save individual pages as PNG images.
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Key Features
Privacy & Trust
Use Cases
Limitations
- Scanned or photographed PDFs have no text layer, so only page images can be produced. Run those images through an OCR tool to get text.
- Password-protected or encrypted PDFs cannot be opened and will report an error.
- Very large PDFs with hundreds of pages use significant memory and may be slow on low-end devices, since pdf.js runs in your browser.
- Complex layouts, multi-column text, and tables may extract in an imperfect reading order.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this PDF to text tool free?
Yes, it is completely free with no signup, no account, and no usage limits beyond your own device memory. It is built on pdf.js, the open-source PDF parsing and rendering engine maintained by Mozilla under the Apache 2.0 license, so there is no paid tier and nothing to install.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. The tool runs completely in your browser using the pdf.js engine, the same renderer that powers the built-in PDF viewer in Firefox. Your file is read from local memory, parsed, and rendered on your device. Nothing is sent over the network, which makes it safe for confidential documents like contracts, financial statements, and medical records. You can confirm this by opening the Network tab in your browser DevTools while you extract.
Do I need to install anything?
No. There is no extension, app, or desktop download. The pdf.js library (published on npm as pdfjs-dist) loads inside this web page and does all the work in your browser. Just open the page and drop in a PDF.
Why is the Text tab empty for my PDF?
An empty Text tab almost always means the PDF is scanned or image-based, so it has no embedded text layer for pdf.js to extract. The tool detects this and switches you to the Page images tab. Download the page images and run them through an OCR tool to convert the pictures of text into editable text.
What image format and resolution are the page exports?
Each page is rendered by pdf.js to a PNG image at 1.5x the PDFs native scale, which produces a sharp result suitable for previews, slides, and documentation. PNG is lossless, so text and line art stay crisp without compression artifacts.
Can it handle password-protected PDFs?
No. Encrypted or password-protected PDFs cannot be opened by the in-browser engine and the tool will show an error message. Remove the password using your PDF reader first, then upload the unlocked file.
Is there a file size limit?
The tool accepts PDFs up to 100 MB. Because all parsing and rendering happen in your browser via pdf.js, very large or page-heavy files use more memory and take longer, especially on phones or older computers. For huge documents, a desktop browser with plenty of RAM works best.
Does it work offline and on mobile?
Yes to both. Once the page has finished loading in your browser, the extraction and rendering work without an internet connection because the pdf.js engine runs locally. It also works in mobile browsers, though very large documents may be slow or memory-constrained on a phone. This makes it ideal for working with sensitive files on an air-gapped or restricted machine.
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