Adobe Reader: Copy text - how it works

With Adobe Reader you can copy the text of a document with just a few clicks. Here we show you how to do this.

Copy texts in Adobe Reader

1. In Adobe Reader, right-click in the open document and select the "Selection Tool".
2. With the left mouse button pressed, you can now mark the text that you want to copy.
3. Right-click on the marked area and select the "Copy" menu item. Alternatively, you can also press the key combination [Ctrl] + [C] to copy the text to the clipboard. Use [Ctrl] + [V] to insert the data again later.

Check copy permission in Adobe Reader

If the text cannot be copied in this way, the author of the document has stopped copying. In this case, you cannot mark any text in the PDF file. To check the security settings of the document:

1. Right-click in the open document in Adobe Reader and select the "Document properties" menu item.
2. Switch to the "Security" tab. In the "Document Restrictions - Summary" area you can see whether you can copy content or not.

We will explain to you in another practical tip what you can do if a PDF file cannot be printed.