> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.pdf4llm.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Extract Text

> Use [ToText()](/dotnet/api/PdfExtractor#totext) to get clean, plain text output stripped of all Markdown formatting.

<div id="apiIndicatorBadge">
  <div class="inner dotnet" />
</div>

## Overview

`ToText()` extracts the content of a document as a plain text string — no Markdown syntax, no bounding boxes, no metadata. It's the simplest output format and the right choice when your downstream tool doesn't need formatting or structure, just the words.

```csharp theme={null}
using PDF4LLM;

string text = PdfExtractor.ToText("document.pdf");
Console.WriteLine(text);
```

***

## When to use plain text

| Use case                      | Recommended format                  |
| ----------------------------- | ----------------------------------- |
| Search indexing               | ✅ Plain text                        |
| Keyword extraction / NLP      | ✅ Plain text                        |
| LLM summarisation (simple)    | ✅ Plain text                        |
| RAG pipelines with chunking   | ⚠️ Consider Markdown or page chunks |
| Preserving document structure | ❌ Use Markdown                      |
| Custom layout pipelines       | ❌ Use JSON                          |

<Tip>
  If you're feeding content into an LLM and document structure matters — headings, lists, tables — use `ToMarkdown()` instead. LLMs handle Markdown well and the added structure improves output quality.
</Tip>

***

## Page selection

Extract only the pages you need:

```csharp theme={null}
string text = PdfExtractor.ToText(
    "document.pdf",
    pages: new List<int> { 0, 1, 2 }
);
```

***

## Per-page chunks

Use `LlamaMarkdownReader` to return one document object per page instead of a single concatenated string. Each chunk includes the page's plain text and a metadata dictionary with the page number and source file path:

```csharp theme={null}
var reader = PdfExtractor.LlamaMarkdownReader();
var chunks = reader.LoadData("document.pdf");

foreach (var chunk in chunks)
{
    int    page     = (int)chunk.ExtraInfo["page"];
    string text     = chunk.Text;

    Console.WriteLine($"Page {page}: {text.Length} chars");
}
```

Each chunk's `Text` property contains the plain Markdown for that page. For plain text specifically, strip Markdown syntax after loading, or call `ToText` per page using the `pages` parameter:

```csharp theme={null}
using MuPDF.NET;

Document doc    = new Document("document.pdf");
var      chunks = new List<(int Page, string Text)>();

for (int i = 0; i < doc.PageCount; i++)
{
    string pageText = PdfExtractor.ToText(doc, pages: new List<int> { i });
    chunks.Add((i, pageText));
}

doc.Close();

foreach (var chunk in chunks)
    Console.WriteLine($"Page {chunk.Page}: {chunk.Text.Length} chars");
```

***

## Saving to a file

Write the output to a `.txt` file:

```csharp theme={null}
using System.IO;
using PDF4LLM;

string text = PdfExtractor.ToText("document.pdf");
File.WriteAllText("output.txt", text, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);
```

To save each page as a separate file:

```csharp theme={null}
using MuPDF.NET;
using System.IO;

Document doc = new Document("document.pdf");
Directory.CreateDirectory("output");

for (int i = 0; i < doc.PageCount; i++)
{
    string pageText = PdfExtractor.ToText(doc, pages: new List<int> { i });
    File.WriteAllText($"output/page-{i}.txt", pageText, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);
}

doc.Close();
```

***

## OCR behaviour

Like `ToMarkdown()`, `ToText()` can invoke Tesseract OCR on pages that contain no selectable text. Pass `useOcr: true` to enable it:

```csharp theme={null}
// Enable OCR on all pages
string text = PdfExtractor.ToText("document.pdf", useOcr: true);

// Enable OCR with a specific language
string text = PdfExtractor.ToText("document.pdf", useOcr: true, ocrLanguage: "fra");
```

See [OCR](/dotnet/guides/OCR) for a full walkthrough of Tesseract installation, language codes, and patterns for mixed documents.

***

<Note>
  For the full API signature, see the [ToText() API reference](/dotnet/api/PdfExtractor#totext).
</Note>

***

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Extract Markdown" icon="markdown" href="/dotnet/guides/extract-Markdown">
    Preserve structure and formatting for LLM pipelines.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Extract JSON" icon="brackets-curly" href="/dotnet/guides/extract-JSON">
    Access bounding boxes and layout data for custom pipelines.
  </Card>

  <Card title="OCR" icon="eye" href="/dotnet/guides/OCR">
    Control OCR behaviour and language configuration.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>