PDF to Markdown

Convert a PDF's text into clean Markdown — headings, lists, and paragraph structure preserved — ready to paste into a README, wiki, or notes app instead of fighting with pasted PDF formatting.

Runs 100% in your browser — files never leave your device.

Click or drag & drop a PDF file

Supported: PDF files with selectable text

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Why use PDF to Markdown?

PDF text doesn't paste cleanly into Markdown editors — headings lose their hierarchy, lists lose their bullets, and paragraph breaks come out inconsistent. This converter reads the PDF's actual structure (heading sizes, list markers, paragraph boundaries) and maps it to proper Markdown syntax, rather than just dumping the raw text. The result is close to what you'd get writing the document in Markdown from scratch, which makes it a practical starting point for moving PDF content into a README, wiki, or any Markdown-based publishing workflow — though PDFs with complex multi-column layouts or heavily styled tables may need some manual cleanup afterward, since those layouts don't map perfectly onto Markdown's simpler structure.

Key benefits

Preserves heading and list structure, not just raw text
No software install required
Free, works entirely in your browser
Output is ready to paste into any Markdown editor

Features

Heading level detection from font size and structure
Bullet and numbered list conversion
Clean paragraph breaks, no leftover PDF formatting artifacts

Popular use cases

Moving a PDF report into a wiki or documentation site that uses Markdown
Converting a PDF spec into a GitHub README
Getting a PDF's content into a note-taking app that supports Markdown
Repurposing a PDF's structure for a blog post draft

How to use PDF to Markdown

1
Upload a PDF
Choose the document you want converted.
2
Wait for conversion
Text, headings, and lists are converted to Markdown syntax.
3
Copy or download
Get the .md file or copy the text directly.

Frequently asked questions

Does this preserve formatting like bold and italics?

Text-level formatting where detectable in the PDF's structure is converted to the equivalent Markdown syntax; complex layouts (multi-column PDFs, heavily styled tables) convert with best-effort structure since Markdown itself is a simpler format.

Will tables convert correctly?

Simple tables typically convert to Markdown table syntax; complex or irregular table layouts may need manual cleanup, since PDF tables don't always have a clean underlying structure to map from.

Does it work on scanned PDFs?

This converts text that exists as selectable text in the PDF. A scanned PDF with no text layer (just an image of a page) won't have text to extract — you'd need OCR first.

Last reviewed: August 2026

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