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Fylane
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Free tools › Documents

PDF to text

The text layer, in reading order, with headings and lists kept as Markdown.

More free conversions, where you upload. The Fylane extension does the same work inside any upload form, on its own free share every day.Add to Chrome

How to convert PDF to text

  1. Drop the PDF or document.
  2. Nothing to choose.
  3. Press Extract, then copy or download the text.

What happens to your file

The text layer is read in the order a person would read it — columns untangled, headers and footers dropped, hyphenation at line ends joined — and written as Markdown so headings, lists and tables keep their structure.

A scanned PDF has no text layer; the page detects that and tells you to run OCR PDF first rather than returning an empty file.

Word, PowerPoint and Excel files are accepted directly and give the same Markdown.

Questions

Why is my output empty?

The PDF is a scan — pictures of pages with no text underneath. Run OCR PDF, or Image to text for a single page.

Can I get plain text instead of Markdown?

Markdown is plain text; the extra characters are only the # and - that mark headings and lists. Delete them if you must.

Do it once, not on every form

Fixing a file here means downloading it and going back to the form. The Fylane extension does this work inside the form instead, on the file you already have.

And it keeps the result. The next application that asks for a résumé, a cover letter and a photo fills all three from one tap, each one refitted to what that site accepts.

Your files stay in the browser, encrypted, on your machine. Nothing is uploaded to keep them and nothing is sent anywhere to fill a form.

Filmed from the extension: three upload fields on a job application, filled from one tap.

Add to Chrome — freeWhat it does

Do this in code

curl -X POST https://api.fylane.dev/v1/jobs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FYLANE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "file_id": "<file id>",
    "operation": "extract-text",
    "options": {}
  }'

The same operation, extract-text — Markdown and the structured v1 content schema. Upload first with the quickstart; every option is on the operations page. 500 free credits a month, then $5 per thousand.