How to copy text from PDF

You have just obtained that PDF document you were looking for and, after carefully evaluating its content, you have decided to add pieces of text from it to the paper you are developing. Manually copying many lines of text is rather inconvenient, therefore you would need to select the text of your interest with the mouse, so that you can copy and paste it directly into your report.

The problem, however, is that you have not performed this operation before, therefore, you have opened Google in search of instructions on how to copy text from PDF, ending up right on this guide of mine. Well, today is definitely your lucky day! In fact, below I intend to explain to you in detail how to complete this operation both starting from a PDF with “naturally” selectable text, and starting from a digitally scanned document that requires optical recognition to read the characters in it contained.

Do not worry if everything may initially seem difficult, you have no reason: I can guarantee you that the programs and procedures that I am about to show you are easy to use even for those who, like you, are not very familiar with the world of information technology. How do you say? I convinced you and now you can’t wait to get started? Perfect! Without further ado, proceed with reading this guide of mine: I am sure that the result will fully satisfy you. Good job!

Index

• Programs to copy text from PDF
  • Microsoft Edge (Windows 10)
  • Preview (macOS)
  • Acrobat Reader DC (Windows / macOS)
  • Foxit Reader (Windows / macOS)
  • Other programs for copying text from PDF
• Programs to extract text from PDF (OCR)
  • FreeOCR (Windows)
  • Wondershare PDFelement (Windows / macOS)
  • Online OCR (Web)
  • Other programs to extract text from PDF (OCR)
• App to copy text from PDF
  • Google / Drive PDF Viewer (Android)
  • Safari (iOS)
  • File (iOS)
• In case of problems

Programs to copy text from PDF

If you have a PDF document generated through word processing software (eg Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer, Pages, and so on), copying the text is much easier than you can imagine. Below I show you the steps to take on some of the most popular programs suitable for viewing PDF documents.

Microsoft Edge (Windows 10)

If you have Windows 10 and you usually view PDF documents at your disposal through  Microsoft Edge, the default browser (as well as PDF reader) of the latest Microsoft operating system, you can copy text from certain documents in an extremely simple way.

So, to begin with, open  File Explorer (the yellow folder icon located in the Windows system tray), go to the folder that contains the file of your interest and double-click it to open it in Edge; alternatively, right-click on the file in question and select the items  Open With> Microsoft Edge from the context menu shown on the screen.

The game is practically done: position the mouse on the first letter of the first word to be copied until it takes on the appearance of a  cursor, then press the left mouse button and, still holding it down, “drag” the cursor to the last letter of the last word to copy, then release it: if everything went well, the selected text should be colored blue.

At this point, a sort of “keyboard” should appear in correspondence with the selection just created: to copy the text, you have to click on the icon in the shape of overlapping sheets attached to it: that’s all!

If the keyboard does not appear, you can still copy the selected text by right-clicking on any area belonging to the selection and choosing  Copy from the proposed menu. If you wish, you can send the selected text directly to a contact or an installed application (eg. Windows Mail or Office OneNote) using the Share item from the same menu above.

Preview (macOS)

Do you own a  Mac and use the macOS default viewer,  Preview, to manage PDF documents? You must know that copying text from within them is really a breeze!

To do this, open the file of your interest via Preview and position the mouse on the first letter of the first word of the text of your interest, until the “arrow” turns into a  text cursor. At this point, press the left mouse button and, still holding it pressed, drag the selection until you reach the last letter of the last word you are interested in.

Finally, right-click on an empty point in the selection and choose  Copy from the menu that opens on the screen: the selected text will be copied to the macOS clipboard and can be pasted wherever you want. Very easy, isn’t it?

Acrobat Reader DC (Windows / macOS)

Weren’t the previous solutions to your liking? Then you could give Acrobat Reader DC a chance, the free PDF reader for Windows and macOS developed by Adobe, which includes among its functions the possibility of copying text from a PDF document.

To use it, connected to the download page of the program, make sure that the boxes related to the installation of  Chrome for Acrobat Reader, McAfee Security Scan Plus and  McAfee Safe Connect  (or any other similar box) are not checked, so as to avoid installation of additional software, and click the Install Now button to download the installer to your computer.

Once the process is complete, start the file you just downloaded and carefully follow the on-screen instructions to finalize the setup: if you are on  Windows, just press the Yes button and wait for the installation to complete.

If, on the other hand, you are on  macOS, you have to click on the Install Adobe Acrobat Reader DC button that appears on the screen, confirm the desire to start the executable by clicking on the Open button  and, when requested, indicate the  Mac administration password you use to log in, so to speak) and wait for the installation to be completed.

Once the program setup is complete, start it and go to the File> Open … menu to import the document of your interest through the File Explorer / Finder panel. Once this operation is complete, click on the Selection tool  (the one in the shape of a mouse arrow  ) located at the top, move the mouse over the first letter of the first word of the text of your interest, until it takes on the appearance of a  cursor of text, then press and hold the left mouse button and highlight the entire text to be copied.

Finally, right-click anywhere in the selection and choose  Copy from the context menu that opens on the screen: the text will be copied to the operating system clipboard and can be pasted into the program you deem most appropriate.

Foxit Reader (Windows / macOS)

Another great solution for copying text from PDF is the Foxit Reader PDF  reader, available for free for Windows and macOS. If the programs shown above failed to satisfy you, you should give it a chance. For your information, a more “complete” version of this program can be obtained by purchasing a commercial license, however, for the purposes of this guide, its free version is more than sufficient.

To download it immediately on your computer, connected to this Internet site, click on the Free software tab and then on the Free Download button corresponding to the entry  Foxit Reader. Subsequently, select the operating system (eg.  Windows ) and the language (eg Italian ) using the two drop-down menus shown on the screen and click on the Download button to start the download of the installation program.

Once you have the file in question, launch it without hesitation: if you are on  Windows, press the Yes, OK,  Next buttons  6 consecutive times, put the checkmark on the item  Do not install a free 14-day trial of Foxit PhantomPDF to avoid the automatic download of additional software and, finally, press the Next, Install and  Finish buttons.

If, on the other hand, you are on macOS, you have to click twice on the Continue button, then on the Accept and  Install buttons and, when prompted, enter the  Mac password in the appropriate field, and then finish the process by pressing the Close button. Once this is done, you can launch Foxit Reader via the icon added to the Mac Applications folder.

Once the program has started, if you are on  Windows, press the Not Now button to skip the registration procedure, click on the folder-shaped button located in the upper left corner and, using the File Explorer panel, open the document from which you intend to copy the text.

Alternatively, click on the File tab, select the Open item, press the Computer and  Browse buttons and select the PDF file of your interest.

As for the Mac, opening the file is even simpler: press the large (+) button located in the center of the screen and, using the  Finder, choose the file you are interested in acting on.

Once the PDF document is open on Windows, click on the Select button  ( T- shaped with mouse arrow ) located at the top and choose the item  Select text and image from the context menu that opens; this step is not necessary, however, on a Mac.

At this point, move to the first letter of the first word to be copied and, when the mouse takes the form of a  cursor for text, “take” the first letter with the left mouse button to start the selection and “drag” the mouse to the last letter of the last word of your interest.

Once this is done, press the button in the shape of overlapping sheets attached to the small panel that appears on the screen to immediately copy the text to the clipboard; alternatively, right-click anywhere in the selection and click on the  Copy / Copy to clipboard item from the context menu that opens.

Other programs for copying text from PDF

The ones I have listed are just some of the solutions you can use to  copy text from PDF in a simple way. In general, however, I must tell you that almost all programs suitable for viewing such files provide for the possibility of copying text from within them, through procedures quite similar to those previously analyzed.

If you need more information on the best programs to view and manage PDF files, I suggest you take a look at my tutorial dedicated to the subject.

Programs to extract text from PDF (OCR)

If you have not been able to copy text from PDF with the solutions I showed you in the previous bars of this guide, then you may be dealing with documents obtained through direct scans. This means that, contrary to what happens when a PDF is generated through a word processor, the characters are not “encoded” in the file as such, but as parts of an image included in a PDF.

In this case, in order to extract the text from PDFs, it is necessary to use software with OCR functionality, ie optical character recognition: in practice, these programs are able to “understand” when a PDF generated by a scan contains text, extracting it using the association between design and character shape. Below I show you some solutions suitable for the purpose.

FreeOCR

The first program with OCR functionality that I want to tell you is  FreeOCR: this free software, compatible with Windows, is mainly designed to apply optical character recognition when scanning documents, however, it has an interesting feature that allows you to do the same operation starting from a PDF file.

To download it immediately to your computer, connect to its website and press the Download Here button located in the central part of the page that opens on the screen. Once you have obtained the file, launch it without hesitation and press in sequence on the Yes,  Next buttons  3 times,  Install and then  Finish to complete the installation procedure and immediately start the software.

Once in its main screen, click on the Open PDF button located at the top and, using the File Explorer window displayed, select the document from which you want to take the text.

At this point, choose the language of the document from the OCR Language drop-down menu, delete all the text in the box on the right (the one that begins with  FreeOCR Notes ) and press the OCR button to start extracting the text from the file that was just opened. indeed, specifying whether to carry out this operation only on the page displayed in the preview ( Current page ) or on all pages of the document ( All Pages ).

After a few moments, you should see the contents of the PDF appear on the right side of the program, in the form of simple text, ready to be copied and pasted wherever you want: to do this, all you have to do is select the part with the mouse. of your interest and select  Copy from the proposed menu. If you intend to copy all the text shown, you can also use the button in the shape of two overlapping sheets, located in the central bar of the software.

Wondershare PDFElement (Windows / macOS)

Do you need software that is also compatible with Mac? Then you might want to give  Wondershare PDFElement a chance, a complete PDF management program compatible with Windows and macOS. I must tell you right away that this is not a free solution, but that it can be purchased with prices starting from  € 39.95 one-off; However, there is a trial version of the software, usable with some limitations, which you can view for free to understand if it is the most suitable solution for your case.

To obtain it, connected to this website, click on the Try now button and, once the file has been downloaded, start it immediately on your computer. If you are on  Windows, you can proceed with the installation by clicking on the Yes,  Install and  Start Now buttons.

If, on the other hand, you are on macOS, after launching the dmg file downloaded previously, press the Accept button, drag the program icon to the Mac Applications folder and start it, then responding  Open to the warning that appears on the screen (you must do this only on first start).

Once the software is started, close the message screen by pressing the X at the top right,  accept the license agreement, click on the Edit PDF button and, with the help of the Explorer / Finder panel proposed, select the document from which you intend extract the text. At this point, click on the Edit item located at the top, press the OCR button and consent to the download of the additional plugin by pressing the appropriate button proposed on the screen (everything could take several minutes).

After setting up your add-in, affix the tick box next to the image with searchable text, or text can be edited, depending on your needs, then set the language  (eg.  Italian ) using the button  Change languages, and when you did, press the OK  button to start the OCR analysis, which may take a few minutes.

Returning to the main screen of PDFElement, you can finally select the text of your interest using the mouse, and copy it by right-clicking in an area of ​​the selection and choosing  Copy from the proposed menu.

Online OCR (Web)

If you want to extract text from a PDF document without installing anything and, above all, without spending a single euro, you could give the Online OCR service a chance, which works through the browser and can be used freely and without the obligation to register.

There are two limitations to which you must comply to use this service: the first concerns the size of the original PDF file, which must not exceed  15 MB, while the second concerns the number of pages converted per hour, which must not exceed  15.  However, it is possible to bypass this last restriction by registering for the service for free.

Having made this necessary premise, it’s time to take action: first, connected to this Web page, click on the Select file button to choose the PDF document of your interest, select the Italian language from the first drop-down menu, choose the text saving format ( Word,  Excel or plain text ) from the second drop-down menu and press the Convert button to start extracting the text.

At the end of the process, the text extracted from the PDF is made available both in the area immediately below the conversion button, and in the form of a file, in the format chosen above, which you can download by clicking on the Download the output file button.

Other programs to extract text from PDF (OCR)

So far, I’ve listed two of what I think are the best solutions for extracting text from PDF. To be fair, you should know that there are many other software that can extract text from the scanner and/or from various types of documents, including PDFs, through optical image recognition: I talked about it in detail in my guide to programs for OCR.

App to copy text from PDF

Do you need to copy text from PDF through the smartphone or tablet at your disposal and you don’t know how to do it? I’m here to help you: in the following sections I intend to show you how to do this using some of the most popular apps for Android and iOS , generally already available on the terminals in question.

Google / Drive PDF Viewer (Android)

The first two apps I want to tell you about are the  Google PDF Viewer and the  Drive PDF Viewer, both of which are installed by default on almost all Android devices. However, you can also download the Google PDF reader from the Play Store, for free. Although the two names are different, the two apps are essentially identical and, therefore, work practically the same way.

So, to begin with, open the PDF file of your interest using one of the two readers in question: if you don’t have other PDF apps installed on your device, just tap on the document to open; alternatively you may have to indicate that you want to use the Google / Drive PDF Viewer from the selection panel that appears on the screen.

At this point, make a  long tap on the first word you want to copy, until the appearance of two small circular cursors that denote the start and end of the selection, then drag the cursor to the right until the last word you want to copy and, to copy everything, tap on the Select item located at the top or on the icon in the shape of overlapping sheets, located at the top right.

To paste the copied text, start the app of your interest, make a long tap again on the typing area and touch the Paste item  (or the icon in the shape of a clipboard folder ) that should appear on the display.

Safari (iOS)

Are you using an iPhone or an iPad, the PDF document you are interested in opening is on a website and you don’t know how to copy its text directly from the Safari browser  ? Trust me, it’s a lot simpler than it sounds!

To begin with, make a  long tap on the first word you want to copy, until the zoom cursor appears, then drag your finger in correspondence with the term in question and then lift it from the screen to make the selection cursors appear.

Once this is done, move the cursor to the right until the last term of your interest and tap the Copy item to store the selection in the iOS clipboard. That’s all!

File (iOS)

A very similar argument can also be made as regards the opening of PDF files through the app files for iOS: The procedure is almost identical to that seen a few lines ago!

So, in practice, all you have to do is view the document of your interest by recalling it from the File app, make a  long tap on the first word of your interest to view the zoomed cursor and move your finger in correspondence with it to make the selection cursors appear. To conclude, drag the right cursor until the selection is complete and touch the Copy item  in the retractable panel.

In general, almost all PDF management apps allow you to copy text from within documents using the techniques discussed above. So, if you are not satisfied with the default viewers of Android and iOS and would like to discover some alternative that best suits your needs, you can refer to my guide to apps for reading PDFs: I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

In case of problems

When you try to copy text from a PDF file and paste it into a Word file (or any other document), do you get unreadable characters? Then you are probably dealing with a character encoding problem: if the fonts used in PDFs don’t have Unicode tables and don’t use a standard encoding for character mapping, you can run into this kind of problem. The applicable solutions are different: now I recommend some that may come in handy.

• Use Adobe Acrobat’s “Preliminary Check” tool– if you use Acrobat Reader, Adobe’s very popular software to view, create and edit PDFs (paid, monthly subscription, after the first 7 days of free trial), you can try solve the problem of “strange” characters after copy-and-paste using the Preliminary Check tool included in the latter. To access it, open the PDF on which the problem of “strange characters” occurs, select the Tools tab at the top left and click first on the item Print production (in the menu that opens) and then on  Preliminary check(in the right sidebar). In the next window, select the Profiles tab, expand the PDF Corrections item and double-click the Embed Missing Fonts option that appears below. Select, therefore, the folder in which to save the output document, assign a name to it and click on the Save button to complete the procedure. If the missing fonts in the PDF are present in the system, they will be embedded in the document, which should no longer cause problems when copying-and-pasting texts.
• Using a PDF printer– if the solution just mentioned did not give the desired result, you can try to generate a new document from the PDF that is having problems with copy-and-paste via a PDF printer, for example doPDF  (which I have talked about in my tutorial on how to save to PDF ). Then open the document of your interest with any program suitable for the purpose, call the print function from the File menu and print the file via the virtual PDF printer. The document you will get should not suffer from the problem of “weird characters” after copying and pasting.
• Use OCR software– in “extreme” cases, you can solve problems related to characters copied from PDFs by scanning them OCR (optical character recognition) and then “extrapolating” the characters displayed on the screen. The programs for OCR there are many: you just choose what you like the most and use it according to the instructions that you find in my tutorial on the subject.