> Source: https://txtfetch.com/glossary/text-layer
> Plain-text twin — every page on txtfetch.com has one. https://txtfetch.com/text

---

# PDF text layer

The grid of character codes and positions drawn into a PDF page, separate from what the page image shows. No text layer means nothing to extract.

definition

A PDF text layer is the set of font-encoded character-position operators drawn into a PDF page. This data lets you select, search, and extract text on the page, separate from how the page looks.

Also called: text layer, invisible text layer, PDF text layer vs. image

in-plain-terms

Every PDF page renders as pixels on screen. But whether those pixels came with actual characters behind them is a separate question. A born-digital PDF is one made by a word processor, a report generator, or a print-to-PDF step. It writes both the glyph shapes to draw and the character codes and positions that let a reader select and copy text. A scanned page saved as a PDF has only the picture. It has no text layer to read, because none was ever written.

This is why an empty extraction from a PDF usually isn't a bug. If you can't select a word in your PDF viewer, no extraction library can read one either, because there's genuinely nothing there. OCR is the fix when a page has none. See the ocr and searchable-pdf entries below.

example

```
>>> extracted_text
''
```

A scanned page has no text layer. Any attempt to extract text from it returns nothing. That is the correct answer, not a parsing failure.

why-it-matters

-   Some documents have a text layer on some pages but not others, like a digital cover sheet ahead of a scanned body. This case fools a whole-document blank check, because the document isn't empty overall.
-   OCR only helps pages that don't already have a text layer. Running it over a page that already has real, selectable text just adds recognition errors where there were none.

how-to-check

-   Try selecting text on the page in any PDF viewer. No highlight means no text layer on that page.
-   Run a file through the PDF text-layer checker. It reports per page instead of per document. [Check a PDF's text layer](https://txtfetch.com/tools/pdf-text-check)

related-terms

-   [OCR (optical character recognition) →](https://txtfetch.com/glossary/ocr)
-   [Searchable PDF →](https://txtfetch.com/glossary/searchable-pdf)
-   [Reading order →](https://txtfetch.com/glossary/reading-order)

faq

**How do I know if a PDF has a text layer?**: Try selecting text on the page in any PDF viewer. If nothing highlights, there's no text layer to select, and no extraction library will find one either. The PDF text-layer checker automates this per page rather than per document.

**Why did my mixed PDF come back with some text but not all of it?**: A digital cover page ahead of a scanned body means the document isn't blank overall. So a whole-document check doesn't flag the scanned pages behind it as missing their own text layer. Check per page, not per document.

related-reading

-   [Fix: empty text from a PDF →](https://txtfetch.com/fixes/pdf-extracts-no-text)
-   [Extract text from scanned PDFs →](https://txtfetch.com/extract/scanned-pdf)
-   [All glossary terms →](https://txtfetch.com/glossary)

PDF & scans

-   [Reading order →](https://txtfetch.com/glossary/reading-order)
-   [OCR (optical character recognition) →](https://txtfetch.com/glossary/ocr)
-   [Searchable PDF →](https://txtfetch.com/glossary/searchable-pdf)
-   [Font subsetting →](https://txtfetch.com/glossary/font-subsetting)
-   [DPI (dots per inch) →](https://txtfetch.com/glossary/dpi)
-   [All terms →](https://txtfetch.com/glossary)

## See the term in real output.

Drop a file into the free reader and watch it happen.

[Open the file reader →](https://txtfetch.com/tools/file-to-text)

[Get an API key →](https://app.txtfetch.com/signup)