Quick Guide: How to Extract Text from PDF on Any Device

During the process of developing a thesis, the students and researchers have to go through a wide range of business articles and journals. These articles are usually in PDF Format and are accessed through academic databases. For their research paper, they need to extract text from PDF documents. But, how will they extract the texts from the PDF file documents? There are multiple manual methods, and also an automated Cigati PDF Extractor Software that offers a direct and faster approach to extract the text from PDF accurately. Continue reading the blog to better understand the entire process.

A PDF (Portable Document Format) is a structured layout file type that preserves the layout, formatting, fonts, etc. 

Also Read: How to Extract Images from PDF

Why Is there a Need to Extract Text from Scanned PDF File?

Extracting text from a PDF helps in gathering and analyzing the data in bulk. Here’s why you should do it:

• Text extraction from PDFs supports academic projects by allowing students and researchers to pull relevant content from the articles.
• Extracting text from PDFs helps researchers to gather and compare data from multiple sources. It is also used to analyze research and trends in academic writing.
• Users extracting texts from PDFs gather important information faster, saving both time and human errors.
• People working in fields like data science, finance, and law need to extract texts from many PDFs to gather data in bulk.
• Storing the extracted texts from PDFs enables users to quickly find specific information from the large document.

Based on all the reasons outlined above, extracting content from a PDF is recommended.

How to Extract Text from PDF Online and Offline Methods

To extract text from a PDF file, users can choose to do it manually with copy-paste or an online free converter tool. Another way is by using a secure automated converter tool. What works best really depends on how large and complex the file is.

#1: Copy-Paste to Extract Content from PDF

Use this method for quick and one-time extraction from selectable, non-restricted PDFs. 

These are the steps to follow to extract text from PDF File:

1. Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat or a web browser.
2. Click and drag the mouse to select the desired text that you want to copy.
3. Right-click on the highlighted text and choose Copy.
4. Now, open any document editor such as MS Word or Notepad and paste the text into it.

Limitations: This method will not work in the case of scanned PDFs and PDFs that have restrictions. The copied text may lose the original formatting. Moreover, this is not useful and efficient for large documents. 

#2: Extract Only Text Using an Online PDF Converter 

A free online PDF Converter requires no installation and is a practical solution for quick access. But if you have an option of using a dedicated and secure tool, then you should skip this method. You should not upload any sensitive information to online sites due to privacy concerns.  

Follow these steps to extract only text from PDF files:

1. Choose a reliable free online PDF Converter tool.
2. Then, click on Choose File or Upload PDF to select and upload the PDF file.
3. Click on the Convert button.
4. Once the process gets completed, download the document and save it on your Computer.

#3: Fully Secure Software to Extract Text from PDF File

The Cigati PDF Converter provides comprehensive features to extract the content from PDF files. The software allows users to extract not only text, but also images and fonts from PDFs. It supports batch processing with smartly skipping already processed files. Users can choose the specific page ranges, unlock password-protected PDFs, and preview the content before the extraction. The tool can also capture hyperlinks and bookmarks. 

Simple Steps to extract text from PDF Files:

1. Download and launch the tool as an administrator.
2. Click on the Add File button, locate the PDF File, and click Open to add it.
3. Under the Check PDF Preview section, select Preview text.
4. In the Data Extraction Filter, select Text > Save Text into > Text. Select the Page Filter as per your need.
5. Check Skip previously processed data. 
6. Finally, click on Extract. 

Conclusion

Student researchers often need to extract text from PDF to quickly gather and analyze the data in bulk. Through this blog, we’ve learnt why there is a need for extraction. Also, we have addressed the various solutions, both manually and by using a professional tool. The user can now choose the best-suited method as per their requirements.

You May Also Read: How to Copy Text from Secured PDF

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