In computing, plain text is the contents of an ordinary sequential file readable as textual material without much processing, usually opposed to formatted text and to "binary files" in which some portions must be interpreted as binary objects.

The encoding has traditionally been either ASCII, one of its many derivatives such as ISO/IEC 646 etc., or sometimes EBCDIC. Unicode-based encodings such as UTF-8 and UTF-16 are gradually replacing the older ASCII derivatives limited to 7 or 8 bit codes.

You can convert PDF to text online, by PDFConvert desktop software or command line program.

PDF to TXT Converter Form
Local PDF File:		(*.PDF)

Use this form to upload a local PDF file and convert the PDF file to text (*.txt) file.

1. Click the "Choose File" button (different web browsers may have different button names such as "browse..."), a browse window will open, select a local PDF file (*.pdf) and click the "Open" button.
2. Click the "Convert Now!" button to convert. Wait a few seconds for the file conversion to finish.
3. All PDF pages will be saved as one txt file. You can download or view the txt file on your web browser after conversion. No email address required to receive files.

After installing PDFConvert software, click Start - Programs - PDFConvert - PDFConvert to run.

Click the "Convert PDF" Toolbar, click the "PDF to text" button, then click the "Add Files" to add local PDF files. You can also directly drag PDF files from file explorer and drop to list.

When selecting a PDF file, PDFConvert will check the PDF file's security information. PDFConvert will automatically remove owner password and restrictions if the PDF file is secured by owner password. PDFConvert will prompt to enter user password if the PDF file is secured by user password which is unable to crack.

The files selected will be shown on the list. You can select a PDF file on the list and click the "Drag Up" or "Drag Down" button to adjust its position.

Choose output format, output mode and text encoding. Click the "Convert PDF" button to convert PDF files you selected to text files.

The default output directory is "PDFConvert" directory in "My Document". PDFConvert will try to create this directory if it doesn't exist and open it when conversion is completed.

Download pdfconvert.exe, and run pdfconvert.exe command line program to convert PDF to text on background without windows showed.

/?

Shows all command line parameters of pdfconvert.exe.

/i

input files

For example: pdfconvert.exe /i "c:\pdf\1.pdf"

/o

output folder

For example: pdfconvert.exe /o "c:\txt"

/cs 9000

convert pdf file to text file

/pto

Set output text format (0: plain text, 1: CSV text)

/pte

Set output text encoding format (0: ANSI format, 1: Unicode format, 2:BigEndianUnicode format, 3: UTF8 format)

For example: This command will convert local PDF file "c:\pdf\1.pdf" to text file "c:\txt\1.txt".
pdfconvert.exe /cs 9000 /i "c:\pdf\1.pdf" /o "c:\txt" /pto 0