5 Methods on How To Copy Text From Secured PDF [2023 Updated]
Summary :
Secured PDFs come in two types: password-protected or with restricted permissions like no copying, printing, or editing. When dealing with either, how can you copy the text? Check out this article for 5 perfect solutions!
Table of Contents
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How To Copy Text From Secured PDF With Editing Restrictions
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How To Copy Text From Secured PDF With Password
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FAQs
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Conclusion
How To Copy Text From Secured PDF
When you find a PDF that contains exactly the information you are looking for and want to copy for your records, you find that you can’t copy and paste text from PDF. It will surely make you feel very disappointed and frustrated.
After researching and trying, this article summarizes 5 reasonable and convenient ways for you to choose from.
How To Copy Text From Secured PDF With Editing Restrictions
PDF mainly plays a role in protecting the content and data of the document. Therefore, many people will set editing permissions when sharing PDFs. So the PDF document you receive may be in a state where cannot be edited, or when you want to copy text from it, you will find that the operation is not effective.
You can copy text from a protected PDF in the following two ways.
Extract Text and Copy from PDF Using PDFgear
PDFgear is an all-in-one, completely free PDF editor that allows you to convert over 30 formats, experience hyper PDF compression, and easily crop, merge, split, and more. If you want to copy the text in a restricted PDF file, you can extract and copy the text you need by selecting it with PDFgear.
Step 1. Get PDFgear Desktop Software
PDFgear is compatible with all platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. You can install PDFgear by clicking on the button.
100% Clean & Safe
Step 2. Import PDF to PDFgear
Click Open File on the main page of PDFgear to upload PDF files. After uploading, you will be automatically redirected to the preview and editing page.
Import PDF to PDFgear
Step 3. Extract Text from PDF in PDFgear
Navigate to the OCR button in the upper toolbar > Select the text you need to copy by moving your mouse > Click done in the bottom right corner after you finish the selection > Tap on Copy text to clipboard.
Some more ways to extract text from PDF.
Copy Text from PDF Via PDFgear
Recently, PDFgear introduced a new feature – Edit PDF like in Word. When you open a PDF in PDFgear, you can directly edit, add, copy, paste, and change texts or fonts as if you were editing a Word document.
After importing your PDF > Click Edit > Choose Edit Text.
Alternatively, you can type your instructions into the PDFgear Copilot to jump directly to the editing mode.
Edit Like in Word
Convert PDF to Editable Word With PDFgear
PDFgear offers you two options for copying text from protected PDFs for your convenience. In addition to the above-mentioned text extracted from it to copy, PDFgear Online Converter can change PDF into editable Word documents to copy the text.
Step 1. Open PDFgear Online Converter
Access to PDFgear PDF to Word online converter, as long as you are in a network environment, you can quickly access PDFgear operating pages.
Step 2. Upload PDF to PDFgear Online Converter
Upload PDF files by dragging the mouse or browsing local files. Alternatively, Click the Choose files button to select a PDF from your device.
Import PDF to PDFgear Online Converter
Step 3. Download Word from PDFgear Online Converter
Wait for a few seconds, after the PDF to Word conversion is completed, you can see the “Download” button in the box, click it to save it on your device.
Save Word from PDFgear Online Converter
Step 4. Copy Text in Word
Use Microsoft Word or the application you prefer to use to open Word files to open the downloaded Word document and select copy the texts you desired.
Copy Text from the Converted Word
Take a Snapshot in PDF Using PDFgear
When you encounter editing permissions, you can complete the required part of the text copy by taking a screenshot. PDFgear Desktop supports you to take a screenshot of PDF.
Step 1. Take a Screenshot
Open the PDF with PDFgear Desktop > Click Screenshot > Box out the area you desired > Click Save to download the screenshot.
Snapshot PDF
Step 2. Convert Image to PDF
Navigate to Tools > Click Convert drop-down menu > Choose Image to PDF > Hit Add Files to import the screenshot > The Convert button can change screenshots to PDFs.
PDFgear supports importing image files in batches.
Convert Screenshot to PDF
Step 3. Copy Text from PDF
Open the PDF converted from the screenshot in PDFgear > Select the text you desired > Use the shortcut key Ctrl + C to copy.
Alternatively, right-click the mouse and hit Copy.
Copy Text from PDF in PDFgear
How To Copy Text From Secured PDF With Password
When you receive a PDF file with a password, then it means that the PDF is locked in its entirety, so it is more impossible for you to copy the text. At this point, we can use Adobe Acrobat Pro to remove the password in the PDF, and then the text in the PDF copy. Specific operations are as follows.
Step 1. First, you need to open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat Pro and then click Tools – Encrypt – Remove Security, in the Security Method drop-down box, select “No Security” to remove the password in the PDF.
Remove the Password in the PDF through Adobe Acrobat Pro
Step 2. Click File – Save to download the PDF document without the password. Then you can click the right mouse button in the Document Properties – Security to see that you already have permission to copy the text in the PDF.
Save the PDF with the Password Removed in Adobe Acrobat Pro
Step 3. Similarly, select the text area by swiping the mouse, right-clicking the mouse, and selecting Copy.
Copy Text from PDF in Adobe Acrobat Pro
FAQs
How To Copy Text From a Password-Protected PDF?
For a password-locked PDF file, you need to open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat when you enter the file password, locate the “File-Properties-Security”, remove the password and save, and then reopen it after the text Copy.
How To Copy Text From Secured PDF Online?
If you are in a place with a good network environment, then online tools can help you copy text from PDF. You can go to the PDFgear online editor, upload the PDF to the website, and copy the text by scanning it. Or you can also use PDFgear PDF to Word Converter to convert PDF to editable Word and then copy the text.
How To Copy Text From a Secured PDF Mac?
PDFgear is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS platforms. So no matter what devices you are using, PDFgear is compatible with them. So, if you want to copy text from a secured PDF on Mac, you can download a PDFgear desktop, and you will automatically enter the edit mode after importing the PDF to finish copying the text.
How To Copy Text From a Secured PDF in Acrobat?
To copy text from a secured PDF in Acrobat, first, you need to click on the “Document Properties-Security” to see if you have permission to copy the document. If not, you need to open this permission, and then select “Select Tool” to choose and copy the text.
Conclusion
When the entire PDF document is protected by a password, the first step is to locate the password setter to obtain the password and open the PDF document for copying. However, if you only receive a PDF that is partially restricted by operations like copying, printing, or editing, you have the option to convert or scan the document to copy the text.
These five methods can effectively address most text-copying issues in PDFs, allowing you to select the program or tool that you deem most suitable for your needs.
