PDF to Word creates an editable .docx with paragraphs, headings, bold and italics where the font indicates them, images in their approximate place, page breaks and simple tables. Complex layouts may need some adjusting. If you need the document to look exactly like the PDF, choose the faithful mode, which places each page as an image: identical, but not editable.
PDF to Excel puts each page on its own sheet and detects tables by grouping text into rows and columns. Numbers are saved as numbers, whether they are written 1,234.56 or 1.234,56. PDF to PowerPoint turns each page into a slide with a high-resolution image of the page, and can optionally add editable text boxes on top.
For images, PDF to JPG saves pages as JPG at 72, 150 or 300 dpi, or extracts the JPG photos embedded in the PDF without recompressing them. PDF to PNG saves pages as lossless PNG, which keeps text and graphics sharp but makes larger files. Multiple images download as a ZIP. The PDF to image page uses the same converter. Extract images from PDF does something different: instead of pictures of whole pages, it saves the photos stored inside the PDF at their original resolution, as JPG or PNG, skipping small icons if you want; a scanned PDF gives one image per page, and vector drawings are not extracted.
For text, PDF to TXT extracts all the text in reading order, with an optional separator between pages, but no formatting. PDF to Markdown keeps structure: headings by font size, paragraphs, bulleted and numbered lists, and links, which is handy for documentation, notes or pasting into an AI chat.
Choose the format by what you will do next. Use Word to edit and rewrite, Excel to calculate with the numbers in a table, PowerPoint to present pages or reuse them in slides, JPG or PNG to share pages as pictures on messaging apps or social networks, TXT for raw text to paste anywhere, and Markdown when you want text that still carries its headings and lists. If you only need part of a long PDF, use Extract pages first to convert just those pages.
One rule applies to every text-based conversion: a scanned PDF is a picture and contains no text. Run OCR PDF first, then convert to Word, Excel, TXT or Markdown.