PDF to Text, HTML, RTF or ODT: Getting the Words Out in the Container You Actually Need
Sometimes the layout is the point of a PDF. More often it is the obstacle: you want the words for a search, a script, a word processor that predates the PDF, an email, a LibreOffice document, or an assistant that reads plain text. This guide covers how to convert a PDF to text and to three richer containers — PDF to HTML, PDF to RTF and PDF to ODT — from the same page, what structure survives the trip, which format suits which job, and why a scanned PDF comes out empty until it has been through OCR.
1. TXT, HTML, RTF or ODT: Which One You Need
All four outputs carry the same content: the document’s text, with its headings recognised and marked. They differ in who can open them and what they can do next.
TXT — plain text
Opens anywhere, forever. Headings are set off by a blank line, pages by a page-break character that editors show as a break. The right choice for search, scripts, spreadsheets, diffing two versions, or feeding a document to an assistant that reads plain text.
HTML — a web page
Headings become <h1> and <h2>, everything else a paragraph, each PDF page its own section. Paste it into a site, an email, a wiki or a knowledge base. It previews on this page before you download.
RTF — Rich Text Format
The lingua franca of word processors: Word of any age, WordPad, Pages, LibreOffice, Google Docs all open it. Headings are bold and larger, body text is 12 pt, and each PDF page starts on a new page. Choose this for the widest possible compatibility.
ODT — OpenDocument Text
The native format of LibreOffice and OpenOffice Writer, also opened by Word and Google Docs. Real Heading 1 / Heading 2 / Text body styles, so the navigator and table of contents work the moment the file opens.
ODT, for the record, is not a LibreOffice invention: it is the OpenDocument format maintained by the OASIS Open Document technical committee and adopted as an international standard, which is why governments and public bodies so often ask for it.
If you are unsure: TXT when a program will read it, RTF when a person will, ODT when that person uses LibreOffice, HTML when it is going on a page.
2. How to Convert a PDF to Text, HTML, RTF or ODT
- Add the PDF. Drop it on the panel at the top of this page or click to choose it. The page count appears, and the page range defaults to the whole document; narrow it if you only want a chapter.
- Choose the output format. Plain text, HTML, RTF or ODT from the box. The button changes to say which one you are about to make.
- Convert and download. The file is named after the PDF with the new extension, and the status line reports how many pages went in and how large the result is. For HTML there is a preview right under the button.
That is all there is to how to extract text from a PDF here. No account, no page counter, and nothing to configure that the extraction would not do sensibly on its own.
3. What Survives the Trip, and What Does Not
Being exact about this is the whole difference between a useful export and a disappointing one.
- The words survive, in reading order line by line, including accented and non-Latin characters — every output is Unicode-clean, and RTF carries them as the escapes Word expects.
- Headings survive as headings. Text set at 18 pt or larger becomes a top-level heading, 14 pt or larger a second-level one, so a report’s structure is there in the navigator of Writer or the outline of Word, and as real heading tags in HTML. A heading that is merely bold at body size is treated as body text.
- Page boundaries survive as page breaks in RTF and ODT, sections in HTML, and a break character in TXT.
- Lines stay lines. Each visual line of the PDF becomes its own line or paragraph. For a report that is what you want; for flowing prose that was set in narrow columns, expect to join lines back into paragraphs in your editor, which a find-and-replace of line breaks does in seconds.
- Layout, images, tables, fonts, colours, links and form fields do not survive. This is a text export, not a layout conversion. A table comes out as its cell text in reading order.
4. Scanned PDFs: Why the Output Is Empty, and the Fix
The extraction reads the PDF’s text layer — the actual characters a program placed on the page. A scanned document, a photographed contract or a PDF “printed” from an image has no text layer; each page is a picture of words, and a picture contains no characters to extract. Run one through here and you get a near-empty file, which is the honest result rather than a fault.
The fix is optical character recognition. Put the scan through the PDF OCR tool first, which adds a real text layer to every page, then bring the result back here and export it to whichever container you need. The same goes for a PDF where copy-and-paste produces gibberish: that is a text layer with a broken font mapping, and OCR is again the route that recovers the words. A PDF that will not open at all because it is password-protected needs the PDF unlocker before anything else.
5. Six Jobs This Is Built For
Feeding a document to an assistant
Plain text is what language tools read best. Export TXT, paste, and the headings still show where each section starts.
Reviving a PDF in an old word processor
RTF opens in every version of Word ever shipped, in WordPad, and in Pages. When a colleague’s software cannot read anything newer, this is the file that works.
Moving a document into LibreOffice
ODT arrives with real heading styles, so Writer’s navigator, numbering and table of contents work at once instead of after an afternoon of restyling.
Publishing a PDF as a web page
HTML with h1, h2 and paragraph tags per page section, ready to paste into a site, a knowledge base or an email.
Searching or comparing versions
Two TXT exports and a diff show exactly which sentences changed between revisions of a contract or a policy.
Pulling one chapter out
Set the page range to the chapter you need and export only that — a fraction of the size and none of the rest.
6. Need Word? Use the Right Tool
RTF and ODT both open in Word, and for a text-first document either is fine. But if what you actually want is a .docx — because a system demands that extension, or because you want the closest thing to the original layout — that is a different job and a different converter. The PDF to Word converter writes DOCX directly. An e-reader wants the PDF to eBook converter, which makes EPUB; a spreadsheet wants the PDF spreadsheet suite, which keeps tables as tables. And if HTML on its own is the whole job, the PDF to HTML page is the same extraction with a page that talks only about that.
7. Why Cortexis Is the Best Free PDF to Text Converter
Plenty of sites will convert PDF to TXT. Here is what this page does differently, stated so you can check every line.
Genuinely free, no account
No sign-up, no email, no card, no daily counter, no file-size cap set by policy. The tool on this page is the entire product.
Four formats, one extraction
TXT, HTML, RTF and ODT from the same box, each written properly for the programs that open it — not four thin pages redirecting to one engine.
Headings kept as headings
Real heading styles in ODT, bold larger headings in RTF, h1/h2 in HTML, spacing in TXT. Structure you can navigate, not a flat dump.
Your documents stay private
Files are never stored on our servers, never queued, never logged and never retained after your session, and never used for training.
Honest about scans
A scanned PDF is told apart from a text PDF and routed to OCR, rather than handing you an empty file with no explanation.
Page range, page breaks
Export a chapter rather than a book, and keep page boundaries in the output so a reference like "see page 12" still means something.
It is one of a wider set of free document tools built on the same terms.
8. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How do I convert a PDF to plain text for free?
Add the PDF to the tool at the top of this page, choose Plain text in the output box, and press Convert. A .txt file named after the PDF downloads, with a blank line before each heading and a page-break character between pages. No account, no watermark, no page limit.
What is the difference between RTF and ODT?
Both are editable word-processor documents with the same content. RTF is the older, universal format that every version of Word, WordPad and Pages opens; ODT is the native format of LibreOffice and OpenOffice, also opened by Word and Google Docs, and it carries real Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles. Pick RTF for maximum compatibility and ODT if you or your reader use LibreOffice.
Why is my output empty or almost empty?
The PDF has no text layer — it is a scan or a photograph of a document, so there are no characters to extract. Run it through the PDF OCR tool first to add a text layer, then export it here. The same applies when copy-and-paste from the PDF gives you gibberish.
Are headings kept?
Yes, by size: text at 18 pt or larger becomes a top heading and 14 pt or larger a subheading, in all four formats. A heading that is only bold at body size is treated as ordinary text.
Do images and tables come through?
No. This is a text export: the words and the heading structure travel; layout, images, fonts, colours and links stay behind. A table arrives as its cell text in reading order. For a spreadsheet with tables kept as tables, use the PDF spreadsheet suite.
Can I convert only some pages?
Yes. After adding the PDF, set the from and to page numbers before converting. Only that range is extracted, and the page breaks in the output match it.
Will accented or non-Latin text survive?
Yes. TXT, HTML and ODT are written as UTF-8, and RTF carries every non-ASCII character as the Unicode escape Word and LibreOffice expect, so Urdu, Arabic, Chinese or accented European text opens correctly.
Is my PDF kept anywhere?
No. Files are never stored on our servers, never queued or logged, and never retained after your session or used for training. The exported file is a new document; your PDF is left exactly as it was.
Words extracted? Keep only the pages you need first with the page extractor, merge several sources with the PDF merger, or make a scan searchable with the PDF OCR tool. And if you would rather understand how documents are parsed than only convert them, our free Python development course covers text processing from the first week.