Question 1

What's the difference between this and PDF OCR?

Accepted Answer

This tool extracts real, selectable text from PDFs that already contain a text layer — digitally-created PDFs from Word, Google Docs, etc. It's instant and accurate. OCR is for scanned PDFs that are just images of text — those need character recognition, which is slower.

Question 2

Does it preserve formatting?

Accepted Answer

Text is extracted in reading order with line breaks preserved. Paragraph structure, tables, and columns are approximated. For perfect formatting, you'd need a PDF-to-Word converter.

Question 3

Is anything uploaded?

Accepted Answer

No. The PDF is parsed locally in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.

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