There are many ways to convert PDF to text, and some of those methods are just not going to give you the results you need.

Enolsoft PDF to Text for Mac. Enolsoft PDF to Text for Mac is a powerful Mac PDF Converter that allows the users to convert PDF documents into Word, Excel, PPT, Epub, Image, etc. This Mac PDF Converter uses OCR technology to transform scanned PDF documents into editable text files, thus saving you from manually having to type in the text again. Trusted Mac download PDF to Text Converter Expert 3.0. Virus-free and 100% clean download. Get PDF to Text Converter Expert alternative downloads. To Text Converter is an application to convert files from various formats (PDF, HTML, RTF, RTFD) to standard plain TEXT files. Usage: To extract from your files the content in pure text format for successive use. Original files are always leaved untouched and unmodified. Accepts a single or multiple files in a single drag and drop operation. Master PDF Editor for Mac. Master PDF Editor is PDF editing software for Mac that comes with loads of features allowing you to convert PDF to numerous other file types and edit just about any aspect of your PDF document. Pros: It can be used to edit both text and images. You can convert PDFs to other formats, including Word and Excel.

The easiest ways to convert PDF to text on Mac

Here, we'll show you the right ways to convert PDF to text, and highlight a few pdf to text converter apps we really like.

OCR and PDF to Text Converters

Convert your PDFs to text files with ease. Best utilities in one pack, give it a go!

OCR PDF to text

Prizmo is a very powerful document scanning and PDF exporter for Mac. It excels when you need to convert scanned PDF to text on your desktop, but it's so much more than that!

Prizmo also converts PDFs to text using an advanced OCR, or optical character recognition. Its 'recognize' feature scans your PDFs for characters, which helps it know what should be converted to a text file, and what might be an image or formatting that can be omitted.

We like Prizmo because its PDF to text OCR is really clever, and omits formatting other converters may leave behind. In side-by-side testing, we've found it to produce better true text documents than many other services.

Here's how to use Prizmo to convert your PDF document to a text file:

1. Open Prizmo. Select 'New File.'
2. Choose 'Open Image File.'

1. Select the PDF file you want to convert to text from your computer.
2. Select 'Recognize' from the top right corner of the screen.
3. From the Menu bar, go to File > Export.
4. From the drop-down menu, select 'Rich Text.'
5. Select 'Export to File.'
6. Name your new text file, and choose where you'd like to save it.

Convert pdf to searchable text

If you've got huge PDFs you want to convert to text documents, there's a really good chance you'll want those new files to be as searchable as your PDF was. This is especially critical for wordy PDF files, as text documents lack formatting. Instead of visual cues to tell you where to look, you'll have a wall of text.

PDFPen is a great application focused on making PDFs editable, which is awesome when you need signatures on documents or for people to fill-in forms. But it's also a really powerful PDF to txt converter, and allows for batch converting if you need that functionality.

Here's how to convert a PDF to text with PDFPen:

1. Open PDFPen, and select the document you want to convert. Select 'Open.'
2. From the Menu bar, go to File > Export.
3. Choose 'Rich Text' from the drop-down menu.
4. Select 'export,' and you're done!

That's really all it takes! Now you have a searchable text document from your PDF. Check out how to search a PDF.

Keep a few things in mind when using PDFPen to turn PDF documents into text files. It retains some formatting, which can be handy in certain cases. While there are times you will definitely want to strip out all of the formatting a PDF has, sometimes objects are actually necessary bits of info.

We converted a financial document boasting of zero-percent introductory rates for a credit card, and most text converters left out the actual '0' from the document because it was an object, not a character. PDFPen didn't have an issue, but did retain some formatting after converting the PDF to a text document, which may not be what you're looking for.

Convert Handwriting to Text

Pdf To Text Converter Free Mac Online

When we talk about converting PDF to text, we're most often discussing the OCR. While many OCR services intend to strip anything not immediately recognizable as a character out of the final product, MathKey does things a bit different.

The app makes itself really handy for those who prefer to handwrite, especially for mathematical purposes. It's built for recognizing mathematical equations, which is great for those who like to put pen to screen on an iPad with Apple Pencil to work out math problems.

Because it's focused on math, MathKey allows you to export scanned images as images, LaTex, or MathML.

MathKey also has a really handy method for linking your iPad or iPhone works to the Mac. In the mobile app, you can scan a QR code to link to the MathKey website. Once linked, you can then transfer your math problem sketches to your Mac, where you are able to convert your handwriting. After you convert it, you're able to export it as an image, LaTex, or MathML file, which can be used in any document you like.

It's great for those times you have to include some mathematical equations to a document, but don't feel like fussing with the Mac's keyboard workarounds for typing the equations out.

Convert anything to text

Another useful tool in your work is TextSniper. The app converts any text on your screen to text. Just use the app shortcut Command + Shift + 2, select the part of the screen with the text you want to convert, and the text will be copied to your Mac’s clipboard. Copy-paste wherever you need it and you are done! Bonus feature — the app also reads QR and barcodes.

Use TextSniper’s simple selection tool to get the text from images, PDFs, screenshots, videos, banners, or anywhere you need. Whether you want your PDF scans or images deciphered, TextSniper got it all.

And if you don’t want to remember the app’s keyboard shortcut, just click on the app’s icon in your menu bar to manually trigger the selection tool.

How to use Automator to convert pdfs to text - a native macOS solution

You can use Preview to save text files as PDFs, but not PDF to txt. Instead, Apple's built-in Automator is your go-to solution. Just keep in mind Automator is a 'pro' tool, so follow along closely so you don't mess anything up:

1. Open Automator on your Mac.
2. Select 'New Document.'
3. Select 'Workflow' from the menu that appears.
4. From the menu on the left side, select 'Files and Folders.'
5. On the sub-menu to the right of the main menu, find 'Ask for Finder items.' Drag that to the open space on the far right side of the window.
6. Select 'PDFs' from the menu.
7. Select 'Extract PDF text' from the sub-menu that appears. Drag it to the right side of the screen, under 'Ask for Finder items.'
8. In 'Extract PDF text,' select 'rich text' as your output type. Your Automator screen should look like this:

1. From the menu bar, select File > Save.
2. Enter the name of your new app.
3. Choose where you want to save your app.
4. Select 'Application' as the file format. (The default is 'workflow.)

That's all you have to do set your new Automator app up. Now, let's run it and extract text from PDF:

1. Double-click your app.
2. Choose the PDF file you want to convert, and select 'Choose' on the bottom right of the window.

Now your PDF has been converted to a text document, and saved to your desktop. All you have to do is open it up and your PDF is readable as a text document!

A few things to note. First, your PDF will not be destroyed or altered in any way. This Automator app only extracts text from the PDF and saves that text as a new file.

Because the app will only convert PDF to txt, no images will be converted.

How to convert text in PDF in Adobe Acrobat

You can use OCR with Adobe Acrobat, though there are some things to keep in mind. Acrobat is a professional tool, and can be really difficult for first-timers or novices. Because it was designed of professionals, those who don't need a powerful PDF viewer will likely find Adobe Acrobat far too fussy for most use cases.

And remember while we're discussing a finite use-case in converting PDFs to text documents, that doesn't mean it has to be difficult. This is why we suggest Prizmo, PDFPen, and MathKey. Chances are one of those apps suit your needs far better than Adobe Acrobat.

But if you want to use Adobe Acrobat's OCR functionality, here's how:

1. Open a PDF file within Acrobat.
2. Select 'Tools' in the top right corner of the window.
3. Select 'Recognize text.'
4. Select 'In this file.'
5. On the next screen, choose how many pages in your document you'd like scanned. You can also make edits to the language or output preferences by clicking 'edit.'

That's really all it takes to scan the document, but it's a lot more granular than other apps.

This also doesn't export your document, so keep that in mind. All you've done with Adobe Acrobat is make your PDF searchable, and each character recognizable.

What about OCR PDFs online?

There are several unique online services for scanning PDFs using an OCR online feature. Their capabilities are similar – all scan your PDFs and turn them into text documents using an optical character recognition service, but there are things to consider.

First, you're using a cloud-based service, and there's no way to know what's happening behind the scenes. While we don't doubt most are simply converting PDFs to text as a service, we do wonder why they offer it free of charge. It may be to train a machine learning algorithm using what amounts to crowdsourced data, or they could be saving copies of your PDFs or text files for some purpose.

Online services are sometimes a front for capturing your email address for marketing purposes. They may also have a model where your first scan is free, and subsequent scans cost money, or you have to subscribe to some service. Many might do so just to get some scans done, but if you forget about your subscription, the cost adds up over time.

Simply put, we prefer using native apps to get the job done.

Converting a PDF to a text file is one of those use-cases where your needs are unique enough that it can be difficult to find a solution, but urgent enough that you need a solution quickly.

It's difficult to recommend Adobe Acrobat. While it's robust, it's usually overkill for most of us. Adobe thrives in legacy enterprise settings where companies need the power Acrobat provides.

Automator is handy, and provided good results. It held onto too much formatting for our liking, and rendered some text in colors. Text documents opened in the TextEdit app on the Mac, and it was difficult to read much of the text Automator provided. We wanted clear, concise, accurate text from a PDF that was readable, and search-able.

That's what Prizmo and PDFPen excel at. We like both because they make accomplishing your tasks easy. Each are strong in their respective ways; Prizmo ha a much stricter OCR engine, while PDFPen captures more of the page info. We ran some side-by-side testing of three documents, and discovered this to be true across all PDF documents we used.

There's no recommendation, and we think both are easy enough to use it doesn't warrant a decision to be rendered. If one doesn't work, the other app can fulfill your needs quickly and easily.

Best of all, Prizmo, PDFPen, TextSniper and MathKey are all available for free as part of a free trial of Setapp, the most well-rounded suite of productivity apps for Mac.

When converting scanned invoices, reports or images into editable formats, OCR is required. If you are looking for the best free OCR solutions for mac like many others, we collect a list for you: a list of 12 powerful mac free ocr software or online, free OCR services to perform satisfactory OCR on digitized files for 2021.

Full List of Mac Free OCR

Free Try on The Best Mac OCR Program

• Perform OCR on scanned documents and images
• OCR files and export as 10 editable formats
• Advanced OCR settings to improve OCR accuracy
• Batch OCR
• Recognize 27~200 languages
• High quality OCR results

6 Best Free OCR Software for Mac in 2021

There are 2 types of free OCR solutions for Mac users, either online or offline. In this part, we list 6 top free OCR software for MacOS basing on text recognition accuracy and overall features.

1. PDF OCR X Community

PDF OCR X Community is a simple drag-and-drop utility that converts single-page PDFs and images into text documents or searchable PDF files, it supports for more than 60 languages. For multi-page PDFs and batch conversion features, you need to pay its enterprise version.

Download Address: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdf-ocr-x-community-edition/id571442933?mt=12

Advantages:

1. Extremely easy to use;
2. Support both PDF and image;
3. Recognize 60 languages;

Disadvantages:

1. Free edition only OCR single-page PDF;
2. Formatting is messed up when working on complicate files;
3. Relatively slow OCR process;

2. Evernote

Evernote is a popular note-syncing service, enables users to collect, nuture and share ideas across desktop and mobile platforms. One of its easily overlooked features is automatic OCR service. Users will be allowed to add images into Evernote server for automatic OCR, you may have to wait, but 10 minutes will be quite enough to finish the OCR.

Download Address: https://evernote.com/download

Advantages:

1. Available for all platforms (MacOS, Windows, iOS, Android);
2. Support both PDF and image;
3. Recognize 28 languages;

Turn Pdf Into Word Mac

Disadvantages:

1. Limited OCR feature when dealing with PDF (file size, pages, resolution, etc.);
2. Relatively slow OCR processing;

Evernote OCR review, how-to guide and troubleshooting

Evernote is one of the best and most popular cross-platform note-taking apps. In this article, you will find how to use Evernote OCR and what to do if Evernote OCR is not working.

3. OneNote OCR

Microsoft OneNote is a program to take and manage notes anytime and anywhere. It greatly facilitates the collaborations between team members. Not only limited to manually input texts to create notes, Microsoft OneNote also embeds the OCR feature, OneNote OCR allowing users to recognize texts from images, so the image texts can be copied and paste as editable or searchable note.

Download Address: https://www.onenote.com/download

Advantages:

1. Available for all platforms;
2. Support both PDF and image;

Disadvantages:

1. Can only copy text from PDF or image, no formatting is retained;
2. OCR fails or crashes sometimes;

How to Do OneNote OCR on Image or PDF(Mac, Windows, iPad)

An impressive feature of OneNote is its built-in capability to do OneNote OCR. Here we are going to introduce OneNote OCR, demonstrate how to OCR image or PDF with OneNote.

4. OCR App by LEADTOOLS

OCR App by LEADTOOLS is a MacOS application designed to recognize and extract texts from images. Also it offers a set of tools to improve the OCR accuracy, such as tweak OCR Engine Settings, flip, reverse, adjust binarization or brightness of the image. It can also perform OCR on scanned PDFs, but only export files as text. If you want o convert uploaded files to other format with LEADTOOLS, you will need to copy and paste to the text processor accordingly.

Download Address: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/leadtools-ocr/id604393629?mt=12

Advantages:

1. Easy to use;
2. Advanced settings to improve OCR accuracy;
3. Support both image and PDF;
4. Fast OCR;

Disadvantages:

1. Recognize only 5 languages;
2. No formatting is retained, only text;

5. Easy Screen OCR for Mac

It is a light and simple Mac free OCR software to recognize texts from images. All you need to do is, capturing the screenshots of your file first, then performing OCR on the file to make the image text copyable. Also, it allows users to save the screenshot as PNG or PDF format. However, this free OCR software for mac only allows users to OCR 20 images for free.

Download Address: https://easyscreenocr.com/

Advantages:

1. Easy to use;
2. Small in size;
3. Support to take screenshots from any files;

Disadvantages:

1. Only 20 images can be processed with OCR;
2. No formatting is retained;
3. Unstable OCR accuracy;

6. DigitEyeOCR

Though DigitEyeOCR has discontinued to update for many years, for users who are using MacOS 10.10 and earlier, it is still worth a try. It is a free OCR software for mac to recognize texts from BMP and GIF images. If you want to do OCR on other image formats, you will need to convert the file to DigitEye OCR supported formats.

Download Address: https://digiteyeocr.en.softonic.com/mac

Disadvantages:

1. Only support BMP and GIF;
2. Unstable OCR accuracy;
3. Relatively slow OCR process;
4. No update for years;

6 Best online, free Services for Mac

Also, there are quite a lot of online, free OCR services for mac users, but not all of them can actually perform OCR or bring satisfactory OCR results. And here we pick 6 best free OCR tools online according to our OCR testing.

7. Google Docs

Google Docs is a service offered by Google to manage web-based documents, like creating, editing Word, Spreadsheets, presentations, even store them online for easy access on different devices. Users can perform Google OCR on images, scanned PDFs, it is fast with basically satisfactory results.

Advantages:

1. Support images and PDF;
2. Excellent support on output format (searchable PDF, Word, ODT, RTF, TXT, HTML, ePub);
3. Edit files after OCR processing within Google Docs;

Disadvantages:

1. Require several steps to finish the OCR;
2. Unstable OCR accuracy;
3. Take time to process OCR;

8. Online OCR

Online OCR is an online OCR service that can recognize the texts and characters from scanned files and images. It requires no software installation, what you need to do is upload the file (not exceeding size of 5MB) as guided, choose the language and output format(Word, Excel or Text), then 'Convert' to start the OCR process. Once finish, a download link will be offered to download the converted file.

Advantages:

1. Support both image and PDF;
2. Easy to use;
3. Export files as Word, Excel and Text;
4. Recognize 46 languages;

Disadvantages:

1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
2. Need to manually adjust formatting in the output file;
3. Max file size limit 15 MB;

9. Online2PDF

Online2PDF is another online platform to manage PDF files, such as editing, compressing ,unlocking ,converting, merging, protecting and so on. Comparing with other online, free OCR tools, Online2pdf offers extended features to customize the output and support more output formats.

Advantages:

1. Batch OCR;
2. Support both image and PDF;
3. Excellent support for output format;
4. Allow customizing output files;

Disadvantages:

1. File quantity and size limit;
2. Recognize only 6 languages;
3. Unstable OCR accuracy;

10. ConvertioOCR

Convertio is an online, free tool to OCR image and scanned documents, then save them as various editable formats. You can upload files from local or via url, even icloud storage accounts. It allows users to perform OCR on a multiple-language file.

Advantages:

1. Upload files from local, URl or icloud storage services;
2. Recognize multiple-language file;
3. Excellent support for output formats (11 formats);
4. Convert all or specific pages;
5. Save converted files to Dropbox or Google Drive;

Disadvantages:

1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
2. Relatively slow OCR processs;
3. Need to manually adjust the formatting;
4. Only 10 pages can be done with OCR for free;

11. New OCR

New OCR can convert JPG, PNG, GIF, MBP, TIFF, PDF and DJVU files into Doc, TXT or PDF format. To improve the OCR accuracy, New OCR allows users to rotate images and analyze page layout before the OCR processing. If you want to export the files as other formats, you need to click the “Download” button at the bottom of its page to export.

Advantages:

1. Support image, PDF and DjVu files;
2. Export files as Word, Text and searchable PDF format;
3. Allow to rotate or analyze page layout for more accurate OCR results;

Disadvantages:

1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
2. Fail to do OCR sometimes;

12. Free Online OCR

Free Online OCR is a free service enabling users to convert images, scanned PDFs into editable and searchable text, such as DOC, RTF,TXT or PDF. It will rotate the pages automatically for accurate OCR, you can get editable files with nice formatting.

Advantages:

1. Support both image and PDF;
2. Export files as Word, PDF, Text and RTF;

Disadvantages:

1. Unstable OCR accuracy;
2. Need to manually adjust formatting in the output file;

What if Mac Free OCR Tools Fall Short?

However, these online/free mac OCR tools are not suitable for all mac users, you may feel not satisfied in one way or another:

1. There is a size limit of the files;
2. It doesn’t support various input or output format;
3. Risk of privacy leakages;
4. The tool doesn’t support your expected language;
5. The OCR result is not satisfied;
6. It is feature limited;

Pdf Converter Mac Free

......

As we all know, “free” means you cannot get everything you desire from the service, if you require higher than those free services can offer, you will need to pay. This is also true to OCR services.

Best Solution If Mac Free OCR Software/Service Not Working

Choices on paid professional OCR software for Mac users are large in quantity. But if you are looking for the one combining simplicity, versatility and affordability, Cisdem PDF Converter OCR is absolutely the best choice.

Cisdem PDF Converter OCR is a dedicated Mac OCR software to convert and create PDF, also perform OCR on scanned documents or images to make them editable & searchable. One thing makes Cisdem outperform its competitors is its high quality OCR performance：accurate OCR results and maintained original formatting.

Use Cisdem to OCR All Files Now

• Convert PDF to 16 formats;
• OCR scanned documents and images into Word, Excel, PPT, Keynote, Pages, etc;
• Convert images;
• Create PDF from virtually all documents;
• Batch conversion;
• High quality OCR and conversion results;

Steps to Perform OCR on Files with Cisdem

1. Add scanned PDF or image to Converter interface.
   Drag and drop, or click '+' to add files.
2. Turn the OCR button ON, choose page range, file language and output format.
3. Optional. Tweak the advanced OCR settings for more accurate results.
   Click the 'Settings' icon, a new interface will appear. You will find all the contents are marked as Texts, Images or Tables in different colorful boxes. If you want to output a part as table, remove the current mark box, click on 'Mark Tables' in the OCR applied zone, then drag a mark box to select the part you want to mark as Tables.
4. Click “Convert” to start OCR.

So, did you think this list is helpful? Help us spread the word.