How to extract the text from a PDF on a Mac
Get every word out of a PDF as plain text on a Mac: copy and paste, or one free command that keeps the columns lined up. And what to do when nothing comes out.
The problem
You need the words from a PDF, to quote a report, search it, or paste it into another app, and copying it page by page mangles the layout.
How do I get the text out of a PDF on a Mac?
Open the PDF in Preview, click into the text, press Command A to select all, Command C to copy, and paste into TextEdit or Notes. Fine for most documents; columns and tables can come out jumbled.
How do I extract text and keep the layout?
Use pdftotext, part of the free poppler tools, with -layout. It keeps columns and spacing in place:
brew install poppler
pdftotext -layout report.pdf report.txtWe ran it on a made contract: every clause came out as its own line, numbered as in the PDF, ready to search or compare.
Why does copying from my PDF give nothing?
The PDF is a scan: pictures of text, with no words in it. Make it searchable first, or copy text straight from the scan.
Our take
Use plain text when you need the words and Word when you need the document. Plain text is the most reliable format for searching, comparing and quoting; a conversion to Word tries to rebuild layout and gets some of it wrong, which matters only if you are going to edit.
In Simply PDF
Simply PDF's Convert has PDF to text, and PDF to Word when you want headings, lists and links kept. Both need a key. See PDF to Word.
Tested on 16 October 2026 on a MacBook Air (M1), macOS 27.0.1, with pdftotext from poppler on a PDF made from a text file with cupsfilter.
Questions
How do I get the text out of a PDF on a Mac?
Select all in Preview and copy, or run pdftotext -layout in Terminal to keep the layout.
Why does copying from my PDF give nothing?
It is a scan, a picture of text. Run text recognition first.