How to Extract Text and Images From a PDF

Sometimes you don't want the whole PDF — you want what's inside it: a few paragraphs to quote, a table to reuse, or an image to repurpose. Extracting that content directly beats retyping text or screenshotting figures, and it keeps the original quality intact.

Extracting text

If a PDF has a real text layer — most documents created digitally do — you can pull the text out cleanly and paste it wherever you need it. No retyping, no transcription errors. This works for reports, articles, and any PDF that wasn't simply scanned as an image.

Extracting images

• Pull embedded photos and graphics out at their original resolution.
• Reuse a chart or diagram without screenshotting and losing sharpness.
• Save logos or figures from a document for use elsewhere.

When the PDF is a scan

Scanned PDFs are images of pages, so there's no text layer to extract — yet. Running OCR (optical character recognition) first turns the picture of text into selectable, copyable text, after which extraction works normally. If you find you can't select any text in a PDF, that's the sign it needs OCR. All of this can run in your browser, so the document never gets uploaded.