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Extract all text from any PDF instantly — supports text PDFs (instant, 99% accurate) and scanned PDFs (automatic OCR). No signup, no download, no watermark.
Files deleted after 60 minutes · Scanned PDFs use OCR automatically · No signup
| Feature | Text PDF | Scanned PDF |
|---|---|---|
| Text extraction speed | Instant | 5–30 sec (OCR) |
| Accuracy | 99%+ | 95–99% (depends on scan quality) |
| Can you select text? | Yes | No (before OCR) |
| Works with PDFTash? | Yes — direct extraction | Yes — auto OCR first |
For text-based PDFs, accuracy is 99%+ because the text is read directly from the PDF's internal data without any interpretation. For scanned PDFs, OCR accuracy is 97%+ on good-quality scans (300 DPI or higher with clean, printed text). Handwritten text achieves 70–90% accuracy depending on legibility.
Yes. PDFTash automatically detects scanned PDFs and applies OCR before extraction. You don't need to run a separate OCR step — upload the scanned PDF and you'll receive the extracted text directly. For dedicated OCR with more language options, try the OCR PDF tool.
The text output preserves paragraph breaks and reading order, but not visual layout like multi-column formatting or table grids. For table data specifically, use the PDF to CSV tool which preserves rows and columns. For a document-structured output, use OCR which produces a new PDF with the text layer intact.
Over 30 languages including English, Bengali, Hindi, Arabic, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, and Korean. Select the document language for best results on non-English content.
Yes. Extracted text is shown in the browser in a selectable text area — click anywhere in it and use Ctrl+A, then Ctrl+C to copy all text. You can also download it as a .txt file for use in any application.