PDF to UDF

How it works

Choose your PDF files in the box (tap or click) and press Convert to UDF. The tool extracts the text of the PDF page by page, turns the lines into paragraphs and produces a .udf file that opens in the UYAP Document Editor — the word processor of Turkey's national judiciary network. The result line tells you how many pages were read and how many characters were carried over. A typical case: a lawyer outside Turkey receives a 3-page court decision as a PDF and needs to file a response through UYAP, which only accepts UDF; this page produces that file in seconds. Know the limits before relying on it: bold and italic styling and table borders are not carried over; text, paragraph flow, centred headings and embedded photos (JPEG and standard RGB images) are, and a few exotic image formats are skipped. A scanned PDF, where each page is stored as a photograph, contains no selectable text; the tool says so openly instead of producing an empty document, and such a file needs an OCR tool first. If the document asks for a password, type it into the password field under the box; leaving that field empty is normal for ordinary files. You can select several PDFs at once; each one downloads as its own UDF.

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What is UDF (UYAP Document Format)?

UDF is the document format of UYAP, the national judiciary IT network of Turkey; petitions, court decisions and official correspondence enter the system in this format. Technically a UDF file is a ZIP package holding a single XML named content.xml: the entire text of the document sits in one pool, paragraphs point into that pool by character position, and page margins and font properties live in the same XML. The file only opens in software that knows the format — the UYAP Document Editor above all — which is why double-clicking a .udf on an ordinary computer usually fails.

What is UYAP?

UYAP (the National Judiciary Informatics System) is the central network on which Turkey's courts, prosecution offices, enforcement offices and lawyer portal operate. Filing a case, submitting a petition, examining a case file and receiving notifications all run electronically through it. Text documents uploaded to the system must be in UDF: a Word file or a PDF cannot enter directly and must either be converted to UDF or re-typed in the UYAP Document Editor. If you deal with a Turkish court from abroad, sooner or later a .udf file lands in your inbox — this pair of tools exists for exactly that moment.

What is the difference between PDF and UDF?

Both store documents, but for different purposes. A PDF freezes the final appearance of a page: letter positions, fonts and layout look the same on every device, and in exchange the content is close to read-only. UDF stores editable text and belongs to a single system — Turkey's UYAP: it is opened in the editor, worked on, and uploaded. That is why the direction matters. Going from PDF to UDF means moving from a frozen view back to editable text, and part of the visual information (table borders, fonts, images) naturally stays behind. If the document is headed into UYAP, UDF is the right format; if it is leaving the system to be shared, PDF is.

Text is carried over, formatting is not

A PDF stores the final look of a page: it knows where each letter sits, but most PDFs carry no notion of "this is a heading, that is a table cell". This tool extracts the text in reading order and writes each line as a paragraph into the UDF. Bold, italics, fonts and table borders are not carried over; embedded photos are placed into the document, and two-column layouts may interleave. The healthy workflow is to open the output in the UYAP editor, skim it, and rebuild headings and alignment there.

The second hard limit is the signature: converting a digitally signed PDF does NOT carry the signature into the new file. A signature is bound to the exact bytes it signed; the resulting UDF is an unsigned draft, to be re-signed on the UYAP side if needed. You are producing a working copy, not a replacement for the signed original.

When is this conversion needed?

UDF is the format Turkey's Ministry of Justice requires when uploading documents to the UYAP system. Lawyers handling Turkish cases — including from abroad — hit this wall regularly: the document at hand is a PDF from e-mail or Word, and the system wants UDF. Typical flows:

• Converting a contract or letter received as PDF so it can be edited in the UYAP editor and attached to a filing
• Recovering the text of an old petition when only its PDF survived
• Moving long text from an opposing party's PDF in one step instead of copying it by hand
• Scanned documents are not processed: OCR comes first — this tool carries text, it does not read images

Frequently asked questions

How do I convert a PDF to UDF?

Choose the PDF in the box and press Convert to UDF. The text is extracted, split into paragraphs and downloaded as a .udf file that the UYAP Document Editor opens. Several PDFs can be converted at once.

Why can't a scanned PDF be converted?

A scanned page sits inside the PDF as an image; there is no selectable text. This tool does not perform character recognition (OCR) — when it finds no text, it says so clearly. Run such a document through an OCR tool first, then bring it here.

Does the digital signature of a signed PDF carry over?

No. A signature is tied to the bytes of the file it signed; once the content moves to a new format, the signature is mathematically void. The resulting UDF is an unsigned draft — re-sign it on the UYAP side if a signature is required.

Can a password-protected PDF be converted?

Yes, if you know the password. Type the password you are asked for into the password field in the options row; the tool opens the document with it and pulls the text out. If the password is wrong it tells you so. What you typed stays on your device just like the document.

Is my document uploaded to a server?

No. Reading the PDF, extracting the text and packing the UDF all happen inside your browser; neither the file nor its name is sent anywhere. For case files and other sensitive documents, that difference matters.