PDF to Markdown
Convert PDF text to Markdown in your browser — headings, paragraphs and lists detected automatically. Copy, preview or download .md. Free, private.
About the PDF to Markdown
This converter extracts the text layer of a PDF and rebuilds it as clean Markdown, right in your browser. It looks at each line's font size and position to make sensible structural guesses: lines noticeably larger than the document's median text size become headings, vertical gaps become paragraph breaks, and lines starting with bullets or numbers become proper Markdown lists.
It is perfect for pulling documentation, reports and articles out of PDFs and into note apps, wikis, static-site generators or LLM prompts. The output appears in an editable text box with a copy button, a .md download, and a rendered preview so you can check the structure before using it.
Heads-up on limitations: this works on text-based PDFs — files where you can select the text. Scanned PDFs have no text layer, so run those through the OCR PDF tool first. Heading levels and list detection are heuristics, so unusual layouts (multi-column pages, heavy tables) may need a quick manual tidy-up. As always, the file never leaves your device.
How to Use the PDF to Markdown
- 1Upload a text-based PDF (one where you can select the text).
- 2Click Convert to Markdown — headings, paragraphs and lists are detected automatically.
- 3Toggle the preview to check the rendered structure, and edit the Markdown if needed.
- 4Copy the Markdown or download it as a .md file.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are headings detected?
The tool measures every line's font height and computes the document's median text size. Lines significantly larger than the median (about 1.3x or more) become ## headings, and the very largest become # headings. It is a heuristic — you can adjust levels in the editable output.
Why is my output empty or garbled?
Your PDF is probably a scan — an image of text with no selectable text layer. Use the OCR PDF tool for scanned documents. Garbled output can also come from PDFs with unusual font encodings; those are rare but do exist.
Does it handle bullet points and numbered lists?
Yes. Lines starting with bullet characters or dashes become Markdown - items, and lines starting with numbers like 1. or 2) become numbered list items, kept on consecutive lines so they render as one list.
Are tables and images converted?
No. Images are skipped entirely, and table cells come out as plain text lines since PDF has no real table structure to read. For table-heavy documents expect to reformat those sections by hand.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. Text extraction and Markdown conversion run completely in your browser — the file never leaves your device, and there is no signup.