PDF to Markdown

Turn a PDF into tidy Markdown: headings, paragraphs, bullet and numbered lists, bold and italic text, and links.

Converted on your device: the PDF is never uploaded. Works with PDFs that contain real text; scanned pages need OCR first.

How to convert PDF to Markdown

  1. Choose a PDF with real text (up to 300 pages).
  2. Check the counts of headings, lists and links, and switch to Preview to see the result.
  3. Copy the Markdown or download the .md file.

How it works

The converter reads where each piece of text sits and how big it is. The size most of the text uses counts as body text; lines at least 1.6 times that size become # headings, 1.3 times ## and 1.15 times ###. Lines starting with a bullet (โ€ข, โ€“, -) or a number like 1. or a) become list items, and indented lines below an item continue it. Other lines join into paragraphs until a larger gap. Web and email links in the PDF are kept; other kinds of links are dropped.

Example

A page with a 24 pt title, a 15 pt subheading, two lines of 11 pt text, two bullets, two numbered steps and a sentence with a link becomes:

# Project Handbook

## Getting started

Install the app from the store and sign in. Your data stays on your phone.

- Open Settings
- Choose a theme

1. Back up weekly
2. Keep two copies

Read [the guide](https://palz.co.in/guide) for details.

24 รท 11 = 2.2 times the body size, so the title is a level 1 heading; 15 รท 11 = 1.36, so the subheading is level 2. Pages are separated by a line of three dashes.

Want a web page instead? Use PDF to HTML. For editing with formatting, PDF to Word is the better fit.

Frequently asked questions

Why convert a PDF to Markdown?

Markdown is plain text with light marks for headings, lists and links. It pastes cleanly into note apps such as Obsidian and Notion, into GitHub and documentation sites, and into AI chat tools, which read structured text more reliably than a raw PDF.

Are tables converted?

No. Table cells come out as lines of text. For tables, use PDF to Excel, which rebuilds the rows and columns.

Are images included?

No, only the text and its structure. Use PDF to Image if you need the pictures.

My PDF is scanned. Will it work?

Not directly: a scan is a picture of text with nothing to convert. Run it through Image to Text (OCR) first.

Is my PDF uploaded?

No. The conversion runs in your browser, so the PDF stays on your device.

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