Can't copy text from a PDF? Here's why

You highlight text, hit copy, and get nothing — or garbage. There are two usual causes, with different fixes.

It is a scan

If the page is an image, there is no text to copy. Run OCR to create a selectable text layer first.

Copying is restricted

Some PDFs set a permission flag against copying. If you own the file, re-saving without that restriction resolves it.

Garbled copies

Occasionally fonts use non-standard character mappings, so copied text is scrambled. OCR sidesteps this by reading the pixels.