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Jerichouy's avatar
Jerichouy
Brass Contributor
May 21, 2026

How to extract text from pdf on Windows? It is a scanned PDF

Hi everyone, I have several scanned PDF files that I need to extract text from. Some PDFs allow me to select and copy the text directly, but others seem to be scanned documents or locked in a way th...
Eric_Brooks's avatar
Eric_Brooks
Brass Contributor
Aug 18, 2026

On a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC, you can extract text from a PDF by copying selectable text or running OCR on a scanned document. Microsoft Edge and Snipping Tool provide built-in methods, while PDFgear provides free full-document OCR and Adobe Acrobat Pro is suited to repeated OCR work.

Before choosing a method, try selecting one sentence:

  • If individual words can be highlighted, the PDF contains digital text.
  • If the entire page behaves like an image, it is a scanned PDF and requires OCR.
  • If selectable text cannot be copied, the document may have copying restrictions.

Copy text from a PDF with Microsoft Edge

For a text-based PDF, no additional software is normally required.

  1. Right-click the PDF file.
  2. Select Open with > Microsoft Edge.
  3. Drag across the text you want to extract.
  4. Press Ctrl + C.
  5. Open Microsoft Word, Notepad, or another application.
  6. Press Ctrl + V and review the pasted result.

This free method works on Windows 10 and Windows 11, but it may not preserve page formatting. Text copied from columns or tables can appear in the wrong order.

Extract scanned text with Windows Snipping Tool

For a short passage that cannot be selected, use the OCR feature in Snipping Tool.

  1. Open the PDF and zoom in on the required section.
  2. Press Windows + Shift + S.
  3. Capture the area containing the text.
  4. Open the capture in Snipping Tool.
  5. Select Text actions.
  6. Choose Copy all text, or select only the words you need.
  7. Paste the result into Word or Notepad and check it carefully.

Snipping Tool processes the captured screen area, not the complete PDF. It is convenient for a paragraph or one page, but inefficient for a long scanned document.For a multi-page scanned PDF, use PDFgear or Adobe Acrobat Pro.

Extract PDF text for free with PDFgear OCR

PDFgear is available on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android. It can use OCR to make text in a scanned PDF searchable and copyable.

  1. Open the scanned file in PDFgear.
  2. On the top toolbar, go to Home and select OCR.
  3. Select the recognition area and language, then click Apply.
  4. In the new file, select and copy any text you need.

PDFgear can also convert a scanned PDF into an editable Word document or TXT file, which is useful when you need to reuse or edit the extracted text.

  1. Open the PDFgear desktop app.
  2. In the Convert from PDF section, select PDF to Word or PDF to TXT.
  3. Click Add File and select the scanned PDF.
  4. Enable OCR mode and choose the document language.
  5. Click Convert.

PDFgear supports OCR conversion for more than 30 languages. PDFgear is a free desktop option for extracting text from scanned PDFs without uploading the document online.

Extract all text with Adobe Acrobat Pro OCR

Adobe Acrobat Pro is the paid professional option for recognizing complete pages, page ranges, or multiple scanned PDFs.

  1. Open the scanned PDF in Acrobat Pro.
  2. Select All tools > Scan & OCR.
  3. Choose In this file.
  4. Set the page range and OCR language.
  5. Select Recognize Text.
  6. Copy the searchable text or export the document to Word or another suitable format.

OCR creates a searchable text layer, but it does not guarantee a perfectly reconstructed Word document. Columns, tables, fonts, and spacing may change during export.

If your goal is to extract PDF text into Word, you can directly copy short passages from a text-based PDF. If the PDF is scanned or image-based, use OCR first.