Fix Arabic Text Copied from a PDF
Paste Arabic that came out reversed or with broken letters, or drop the PDF itself, and get clean, searchable Arabic text you can copy anywhere.
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In short
To fix Arabic text copied from a PDF, paste it into the box and press Fix the text, or choose the PDF itself. The tool converts display-form letters back to normal Arabic, puts reversed lines back in reading order and removes hidden direction marks, all inside your browser.
Copying Arabic out of a PDF often goes wrong. The letters come out reversed (ةسردملا instead of المدرسة), disconnected, separated by spaces, or they look right but cannot be found with search. The cause is how the PDF was made, not your keyboard or your computer, and it affects reports, contracts, resumes, government forms and university papers alike.
There are two common reasons. First, many PDF generators store Arabic as presentation forms: special Unicode characters (U+FB50 to U+FDFF and U+FE70 to U+FEFF) that each draw one fixed shape of a letter, such as the initial or final form. They display correctly but are different characters from normal Arabic, so search, spell check and ATS systems do not recognise the words. Second, some generators save the letters in visual order, left to right as they appear on the page, so a copied line reads backwards.
This tool repairs both. It reads how neighbouring letters join to decide whether the text is reversed, keeps English words, emails and numbers such as 2019 - 2023 in their correct order, mirrors brackets, joins letters that were split by spaces, and converts every presentation form back to standard Arabic. Your diacritics stay on the right letters, and you can remove tatweel or harakat if you need plain text.
How to fix Arabic text copied from a PDF
Step 1: Paste the text or choose the PDF
Paste the broken text into the box, or switch to From a PDF and choose the file. A PDF is read page by page on your device, in reading order, even with two columns.
Step 2: Keep automatic detection
Detection decides whether lines are reversed. If some words still look backwards, choose Reverse whole lines or Reverse letters inside words only.
Step 3: Check the result
The fixed text appears with a short report: lines reordered, display-form letters converted, hidden marks removed and split letters joined.
Step 4: Copy or download
Copy the text to your clipboard, or download it as a UTF-8 .txt file that opens correctly in Notepad, Word and Excel.
Zero-Server
Your text never leaves your device
Pasted text is repaired by JavaScript in this browser tab and is never sent anywhere. When you choose a PDF, the file is read by the PDF.js engine inside a Web Worker on your device, which starts only at that moment. No server receives the file, the extracted text or the result.
Nothing is stored either: there is no account, no history and no cookie. Close the tab and the text is gone. This matters because the documents people need to fix are often contracts, payslips, medical reports and identity papers.
When people use the Arabic text fixer
- Quoting an Arabic report, law or research paper in Word without retyping it.
- Checking your Arabic resume: if the text copies out broken, an ATS reads it broken too.
- Moving Arabic tables from a PDF into Excel or Google Sheets.
- Making Arabic text searchable before pasting it into notes, a website or a database.
- Translating Arabic PDF content, since translation tools fail on reversed or display-form text.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Arabic text reversed when I copy it from a PDF?
Because the PDF stores the letters in visual order, left to right as they are drawn, instead of reading order. The page looks correct, but a copied line starts with the last letter. The tool detects this from how the letters join and puts each line back in reading order.
Why are the Arabic letters disconnected or not found by search?
The PDF uses Arabic presentation forms: separate Unicode characters for the initial, medial, final and isolated shape of each letter. They look right but are not normal Arabic letters, so search and spell check miss them. The tool converts them all back to standard Arabic.
Can it extract text from a scanned PDF?
No. A scanned PDF is a picture of the page with no text layer, so there are no letters to fix. The tool tells you when a PDF has no text. A scan needs OCR software first.
Does it change English words and numbers?
No. English words, emails, web addresses and numbers keep their own left-to-right order inside a reversed Arabic line, and a range such as 2019 - 2023 comes out in the right order.
Will my diacritics (harakat) survive?
Yes. Each mark stays attached to its letter, even when a line is reversed. If you need plain text for search or a database, tick Remove diacritics.
Is there a size limit?
Pasted text has no practical limit. A PDF can be up to 50 MB, and the first 200 pages are read.
Which browsers does it work in?
Current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari and Samsung Internet on desktop, Android and iPhone. JavaScript must be enabled because the text is repaired on your device.