Why does copy-paste from a PDF produce garbled text?

Several reasons: columns being read left-to-right across the full page instead of one column at a time, ligatures rendering as question marks, hyphenated line breaks splitting words, or the PDF being scanned rather than text-based. A proper extraction tool handles all these correctly; Ctrl+C from the PDF viewer often doesn't.

Can I extract text from a scanned PDF?

Not directly — a scanned PDF has no text layer, just images. Run the PDF through OCR first (which adds a text layer), then extract from the OCR'd version. Some extraction tools chain these steps automatically; others require a separate pass.

Does extraction preserve formatting like bold and italics?

Plain-text extraction strips formatting. If you need bold, italics, or styling preserved, export to Word, HTML, or Markdown instead of plain text. Those formats carry style information where plain text can't.

Can I extract just specific pages?

Yes. Most extraction tools accept a page range (e.g., pages 5–10). If your tool doesn't support ranges, extract the whole document and keep only the sections you need, or use the PDF splitter first to isolate the pages you want.

Is my PDF private when I use a browser-based extractor?

If the tool runs locally (client-side processing with JavaScript or WebAssembly), yes — the file never leaves your browser. Check your browser's network tab during processing: no outbound uploads should occur. Avoid extraction sites that require upload to their server for "processing."

How to Extract Text from a PDF Free (2026)

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