Save PDF Text: Simple Steps to Preserve Text in PDF Files

I. How to save the text in the PDF file as text?

A general format conversion tool can convert a PDF into an editable file format, allowing text extraction. However, for scanned PDFs, software with OCR is necessary, as non-OCR software often results in unrecognizable text or content confusion during conversion.

The following recommends a PDF editing software with OCR function – Renee PDF Aide. This software has advanced OCR technology, effectively solving format conversion issues when converting PDF scans. If you want to save the text in a PDF file as text, you can use its conversion function. Additionally, you can perform various editing operations on PDF files. Let’s see how to use this software to save PDF text content.

1. Use Renee PDF Aide to save the text in the PDF file as text

What is Renee PDF Aide?

Renee PDF Aide is a multifunctional tool that integrates PDF editing and format conversion. With advanced OCR technology, it converts scanned PDFs into formats like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Image, HTML, and TXT. You can convert entire PDFs or specific pages quickly, with speeds up to 80 pages per minute. The software is user-friendly and offers various functions, including repairing files, optimizing loading times, splitting and merging pages, adjusting display angles, and more. It also allows encryption/decryption of PDFs and adding watermarks.

Renee PDF Aide supports converting texts in multiple languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. In OCR mode, selecting the appropriate recognition language significantly enhances character recognition accuracy. The conversion process is highly efficient, making it easy for beginners to use.

How to save the text in the file as text with Renee PDF Aide?

Renee PDF Aide serves two functions: basic PDF editing and converting PDFs to other formats. Here’s how to use Renee PDF Aide to save text from a PDF file.

Step 1: Download and install Renee PDF Aide, run the software, and select the “Convert PDF” option.

Step 2: On the format conversion page, choose to convert the PDF into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or TEXT formats for easy text copying. To save the entire PDF as text, select TEXT and import the PDF using the Add Files button. Decide whether to check the Enable OCR option based on the PDF content to improve text recognition during conversion.

Note: If the PDF is a scanned copy or contains many pictures and built-in fonts, it is recommended to check the “Enable OCR” option.

Instructions for enabling OCR technology:

A. Recognize text in images or scanned PDFs. This option can recognize text in pictures or PDF scans, and the accuracy of text recognition can be further improved with the help of OCR technology.

B. Recognize embedded fonts (to avoid garbled codes). This option is applicable to the situation where there are built-in fonts in the PDF source file, which can avoid garbled characters after the format conversion is completed.

Step 3: Click the “Convert” button on the right to convert the PDF file into an editable file.

2. Use Smallpdf to save the text in the PDF file as text

Smallpdf is a browser-based PDF editing tool with a simple interface and comprehensive functions. It supports converting PDFs to Word, PPT, JPG, PNG, Excel, and vice versa. Additionally, it offers practical PDF editing features like encryption, decryption, rotation, merging, splitting, and electronic signatures.

Open Smallpdf’s website (https://smallpdf.com/) in your browser. Select “PDF to Word” from the top menu. Click the “Choose File” button or drag and drop the PDF file into the designated area. After uploading, initiate the conversion. Once complete, the PDF will be saved locally as an editable Word file.

3. Use LightPDF to save the text in the PDF file as text

LightPDF is a free online tool with OCR functionality that converts PDF files to various formats, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, and PNG. It also supports reverse conversions, such as converting Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPG, and PNG to PDF. Additionally, it offers PDF editing features like merging, splitting, encrypting, decrypting, compressing, rotating, and adding electronic signatures.

Open the LightPDF OCR tool in the browser at https://lightpdf.com/ocr. Upload the PDF file via the “Select File” button. Choose the file’s language (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, English, French, Arabic) and the desired output format (Docx, Xlsx, PPTX, TXT, RTF, PDF). Click “Convert” to start the conversion. Once complete, the PDF content will be saved in the selected text format.

II. Summary

We have learned three ways to save text from a PDF file as text, all using professional conversion tools to make the PDF editable. Renee PDF Aide works offline and is not affected by the network environment. In contrast, Smallpdf and LightPDF are online tools and may face transfer failures due to network issues. Additionally, online conversion requires uploading the PDF to a web server, posing potential security risks.

Renee PDF Aide has an advanced OCR function with customizable settings for different PDF contents, ensuring accurate output and conversion. In contrast, LightPDF’s OCR function is limited, fixed, and affected by network speed and operational stability. Therefore, Renee PDF Aide is more practical and robust than LightPDF.

The above is the analysis and summary of the three methods, and you can choose according to your actual situation and usage needs.