Hack the HydraKey facts
| Input formats | PDF with selectable text (scanned PDFs need OCR PDF) |
|---|---|
| Size limit | 100 MB per file (checked in the browser) |
| Where it runs | In your browser with pdf.js 4.10.38; the file is not uploaded (the library itself is downloaded from a CDN) |
| Cost | Free, no sign-up |
| Output | Plain text, copy or download as .txt |
Text or Markdown?
Plain text is best for search indexes, word counts and simple copy-paste. If you will give the document to ChatGPT or Claude, use PDF to Markdown instead: headings help the model.
Scanned PDFs
If almost no text comes out, the PDF is a scan. Use OCR PDF, which reads every page with OCR in your browser.
What the tool repairs
Copying from a PDF viewer keeps every line break of the page. This tool rebuilds paragraphs instead: lines of the same paragraph are joined with a space, a word split by a hyphen at the end of a line is glued back together ("informa- tion" becomes "information"), a larger vertical gap starts a new paragraph, and bullet or numbered items stay on their own lines. Headings are kept as separate lines without Markdown marks.
Example
The same one-page PDF as on the PDF to Markdown page, extracted as plain text: no heading marks, paragraphs kept, the broken line joined.
Input
(one-page PDF) Remote work policy <- 20 pt bold Who can work remotely <- 14 pt bold Employees can work from home up to three days a week, after agreement with their manager. <- 11 pt, two lines Equipment <- 14 pt bold The company provides a laptop and a headset.
Output
Remote work policy Who can work remotely Employees can work from home up to three days a week, after agreement with their manager. Equipment The company provides a laptop and a headset.