How to Change PDF to Text File Online – Easy, Fast, Accurate

How to Change PDF to Text File Online

Introduction

PDFs are known for their consistency and layout fidelity, but sometimes, all you really need is the raw text—without the images, fonts, or embedded styles. Whether you're a researcher looking to extract study content, a data analyst needing structured input, or a developer integrating OCR pipelines, converting a PDF to a plain text file (.txt) can be a game-changer.

In this article, we'll show you how to convert PDF to text online using PDFSail, a fast, secure, and feature-rich tool. Plus, we’ll explore the key benefits, including OCR support, batch processing, PDF editing, and more.

Why Convert PDF to Text?

Before we dive into the how-to, here are real-world scenarios where a text format is more valuable than PDF:

  • 🔍 Researchers scraping academic data

  • 📊 Analysts automating input for databases

  • 📄 Lawyers or HR teams extracting contracts

  • 🧠 AI/ML engineers feeding data into NLP models

Best Online Tool: PDFSail

PDFSail is a cloud-based PDF solution that offers one-click PDF to Text conversion—as well as a complete suite of PDF utilities:

✨ Core Features

  1. PDF to Text / .TXT

    • Extract raw text with or without formatting

    • Preserve line breaks and table alignment (when possible)

  2. Advanced OCR (Optical Character Recognition)

    • Converts scanned PDFs into editable text

    • Supports multiple languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, etc.

  3. Chat with PDF

    • Use GPT-powered AI to ask questions about your PDF before extracting

  4. Merge, Split, Compress

    • Preprocess or clean your PDF before extraction

  5. Decrypt / Unlock

    • Remove password protection from secured files (with permission)

  6. Batch Processing

    • Upload multiple PDFs and convert them at once

  7. Edit PDFs Before Export

    • Highlight or annotate before conversion if needed

🎯 Other Benefits

  • Online-based: No need to install software

  • Fast Conversion: Completed in seconds

  • Data Privacy First: Files are deleted after processing

  • Custom Output Settings: Choose UTF-8, plain text, or rich text

How to Convert PDF to Text File on PDFSail

  1. Visit https://www.pdfsail.com/pdf-to-txt

  2. Upload your PDF file(s)

  3. (Optional) Enable OCR for scanned documents

  4. Click “Convert”

  5. Download the .txt file

✅ That’s it! Zero installs. Maximum efficiency.

PDF to Text: Use Cases

Industry Use Case Example
Legal Extract clauses from contracts
Healthcare Pull patient summaries from medical PDFs
Academia Collect text from papers for analysis
Finance Batch extract financial data
AI/NLP Feed training data into models

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: Can it handle scanned PDFs?
Yes. PDFSail uses OCR to extract text from image-based PDFs.

Q: What about formatting or tables?
The tool tries to preserve structure, but for rich formatting, consider converting to Word first.

Q: Is it secure?
Absolutely. Files are auto-deleted within hours and HTTPS is enforced.

Try These Tools on PDFSail