PDF to Markdown Converter
Extract text from a PDF into editable Markdown — free, no upload, no signup
Want to read the result properly? Drop the .md file into the free online viewer, or open it straight from Finder with MDViewer for Mac — tables, code highlighting and Mermaid diagrams included.
How to Convert PDF to Markdown
- Click Choose a PDF file or drag a PDF onto the box above.
- Wait a moment while each page is read. Large documents take a few seconds.
- Review the Markdown, fix anything that needs it, then copy or download the
.mdfile.
What This Converter Does — and Doesn’t
A PDF stores positioned pieces of text, not paragraphs and headings. This tool rebuilds the structure from the layout:
- Headings — lines in a larger font than the body text become
#,##and###. - Paragraphs — lines are joined back into paragraphs, and words hyphenated across lines are rejoined.
- Lists — lines starting with bullets or numbers become Markdown lists.
- Headers, footers, page numbers — text repeated on most pages is removed.
It does not rebuild tables, keep images, or read scanned PDFs (pages that are pictures of text). Multi-column layouts may come out in reading order per column or mixed, depending on how the PDF was made. For those cases, see the other methods in our PDF to Markdown guide.
FAQ
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. The PDF is read by JavaScript in your browser tab and never leaves your device.
Why is the output empty for my PDF?
The PDF is probably a scan: its pages are images, not text. Run OCR first (on a Mac, open it in Preview and use Live Text, or use a tool like Marker), then convert again.
Are tables and images converted?
No. PDFs do not store tables as tables, so table cells come out as separate lines of text, and images are skipped. For table-heavy PDFs, an AI-based tool such as Marker gives better results.
How are headings detected?
Lines set in a noticeably larger font than the body text become headings. The largest size becomes #, the next ##, and so on.