Convert PDF to Rich Text You Can Edit Anywhere
Convert PDF to rich text in your browser: get an RTF file with real headings, styles and images that most word processors open. Free, with OCR for scans.
- Free to use, no login
- Runs locally in your browser
- Clean output, no stamp
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Save a PDF as an RTF document
Drop a PDF on the page. Got a whole folder of them? Add them all and each one becomes its own document.
Glance at the live page preview, decide between the original look and a tidy single-font version, and type a page range when you only need part of a file.
Press Convert to RTF and save the result. Open it in Word, Writer, TextEdit or Google Docs and start typing.
What this toolbox does with your PDF
A document, not a pile of lines
Broken lines are stitched back into whole paragraphs and split words are rejoined, so editing a sentence no longer means fixing a dozen manual line breaks.
Outline ready for long reports
Big or bold titles are tagged as heading levels 1 to 3. In Word that means a clickable outline in the navigation pane and an automatic table of contents ready to insert.
Scans get read too
A page that is only a picture can go through on-device text recognition in one of 38 languages, stay in the file as an image, or be dropped. You decide before converting.
No installer, no account
Everything runs inside the browser tab: the PDF is not sent anywhere, there is no watermark and no page cap. Locked files ask for their password locally.
Convert PDF to rich text for everyday editing jobs
A PDF is built for reading and printing, which is exactly why changing a date or a paragraph in one is such a hassle. Rich Text Format sits at the other end: it is a plain, decades-old standard that almost every word processor on Windows, macOS, Linux and the web can edit. Turning the PDF into RTF gives you the words back with their styling attached.
Who uses it, and for what
- Students: pull a chapter of a course reader into a document, highlight it and add your own notes between paragraphs.
- Office and HR staff: refresh an old policy or job description that only survives as a PDF, without retyping a single page.
- Freelancers: take a client brief or a contract template and adapt the wording for the next project.
- Real estate agents: reuse the text of a property listing sheet or a lease for a new address.
- Teachers: rework a scanned worksheet with OCR and print a corrected version for class.
Picking the right settings
Want the file to look like the original? Leave Keep formatting on, and fonts, colours, indents and alignment follow the PDF. Planning to restyle everything anyway? Clean document gives one font, even spacing and only the essentials such as bold, italic, lists and links. Under More options you can also force a font like Georgia or Verdana, turn off pictures for a lighter file, or let the text run on without a new page for each PDF page. For scans, the accuracy menu trades speed for detail: 150, 220 or 300 dpi.
Where the limits are
Text boxes, form fields and table grids are not rebuilt, and text drawn as vector outlines cannot be read without OCR. If you need a .docx rather than RTF, the PDF to Word tool is the better pick.
Other ways to get content out of a PDF
Questions people ask about this task
How do I convert a PDF to rich text without any software?
Open this page, drop in the PDF and press Convert to RTF. The browser builds the rich text file itself, so nothing needs to be installed and no account is required.
Will Google Docs accept the rich text file?
Yes. Upload the .rtf to Google Drive and open it with Google Docs; it also opens directly in WordPad, LibreOffice Writer, Pages, TextEdit and WPS Office.
Why does my converted file have no text, only pictures?
The PDF was probably scanned, so its pages carry images rather than characters. Choose the OCR option for scanned pages, set the document language and convert again.
Can I get just chapter 3 out of a long PDF?
Yes. With a single PDF, type a range such as 41-58 or 2, 5, 9- in the Pages field and only those pages end up in the RTF.
How do I get rid of page numbers and running headers?
Open More options and tick Remove headers, footers and page numbers. Page numbers and lines that repeat at the top or bottom of many pages are then left out of the document.
Does a form or a table stay a table after converting?
No. Text comes out as normal paragraphs in reading order, with cells on the same row separated by tabs. For spreadsheet-style data, the PDF to Excel tool fits better.