ConvertMagician

How to copy Arabic text from a PDF without reversed letters

You select a paragraph in an Arabic PDF, paste it into Word or WhatsApp, and the result reads backwards: letters in the wrong order, words swapped, brackets flipped. The PDF is fine on screen, so what went wrong? Many PDFs store Arabic letters in the order they are drawn on the page (left to right), not in reading order. Ordinary copy and paste takes that drawing order as it is.

Open the tool: PDF to text

Step by step

  1. Open the PDF to text tool on Convert Magician.
  2. Drop your Arabic PDF onto the page. It is processed in your browser, nothing is uploaded.
  3. Click Extract text. The tool rebuilds each line in reading order, restores the spaces between words and puts brackets the right way round.
  4. Copy the text from the preview, or download it as a .txt file that opens correctly in Word, Google Docs or Notepad.

Good to know

  • If the PDF is a scan (a photo of a page), there is no text inside it to copy. Run OCR PDF first with Arabic selected, then extract the text.
  • Mixed Arabic and English lines are kept in the right order on each side.
  • Need to edit the layout as well? Use PDF to Word, which keeps paragraphs and tables.

Questions

Why does my Arabic text come out reversed?

The PDF stores the letters in visual order, from left to right as they appear on screen. A normal copy keeps that order, so Arabic reads backwards. The extractor reorders each line before giving you the text.

Is it free?

Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no page limit.

Open the tool: PDF to text

Updated:

Guides