PDF to Markdown turns a PDF's text layer into clean Markdown you can edit, search and reuse. It rebuilds headings, paragraphs and lists from the text's position, and adds page breaks if you want them. Everything runs in your browser, so the document never leaves your device.
How to convert a PDF to Markdown
- Drop your PDF onto the tool or click Choose file.
- Leave Pages to convert set to every page, or type a range such as
1-3, 7, 10-. - Choose whether to Detect headings, Include page breaks and Keep line breaks. Headings and page breaks are on by default.
- Click the convert button and wait for the progress bar to finish.
- Check the result in the Markdown box and edit it if a heading or paragraph needs fixing.
- Click Copy Markdown to paste it elsewhere, or Download .md to save it as
<name>.md.
How the text is reconstructed
A PDF rarely stores sentences and paragraphs. It places characters at coordinates on the page, so the tool has to rebuild the structure from geometry.
The extractor reads every text item with PDF.js. Items whose baselines sit within about 2–3 points of each other are treated as one line, then sorted left to right. Small horizontal gaps become spaces, and lines are sorted top to bottom. The median text height on the selected pages is the body size, which gives a reference for judging headings.
When heading detection is on, a line must be clearly larger than the body text. Lines around 1.15–1.35 times the body size may become ###; 1.35–1.65, ##; and 1.65 or more, #. Short lines are preferred, so a long sentence in a larger font stays ordinary text. This produces a sensible outline without turning every line into a heading.
Bullets and numbers at the start of a line are converted to Markdown lists. Bullet characters such as •, ·, ‣, - and * become - items, and patterns such as 1. or 2) keep their numbers. Lines that wrap inside a list item are joined back into the item where the spacing makes that clear.
Body lines are joined into paragraphs. A larger vertical gap, a first-line indent or a sentence ending followed by a capital starts a new paragraph. Words split across lines with a hyphen are joined without a space. Repeated headers and footers are left out when the same line appears at the top or bottom of most pages.
What the Markdown includes
- Headings as
#,##and###, based on relative font size. - Paragraphs rebuilt from the visual lines, with a blank line between blocks.
- Lists for common bullet symbols and numbered lines.
- Page breaks as
---between pages when the option is on. - Plain text in reading order, including punctuation, numbers and accents.
It does not recover bold, italic, underlining, colours, links, images or comments; those styles are not reliably present in the text layer, and guessing them would produce false formatting. Tables usually come out as text lines, not a Markdown table.
Limitations to know about
PDF to Markdown works best on reports, articles, manuals, contracts and other single-column documents. Several things can affect the result:
- Scanned PDFs contain pictures of text, not text itself. Nothing can be extracted without OCR, which this tool does not include. If no selected page has usable text, the tool explains why rather than returning an empty file.
- Multi-column layouts are read in visual order, which may mix columns or put the wrong block first. Newsletters, magazines and some papers often need manual reordering, and rotated pages or vertical text can come out in the wrong order too.
- Tables and forms lose their cell structure. Text may still be present, but rows and columns can run together.
- Headings are estimated. A decorative title, page number or pull quote can be promoted by mistake, and a heading the same size as body text stays plain.
- Encrypted or damaged PDFs cannot be read. Remove the password in your PDF reader first, then try the unprotected copy.
- Unusual fonts and encodings can produce missing or garbled characters, especially in older PDFs. Right-to-left scripts may not keep their expected reading order.
The original file is never modified; the downloaded .md file is a separate copy.
When PDF to Markdown is useful
Markdown is easier to edit than a PDF and works almost anywhere. Converting is handy when you want to:
- Turn a report or set of notes into something you can revise in Obsidian, Notion, GitHub or a plain text editor.
- Feed a document to a language model or search tool that works better with plain text than with a PDF.
- Reuse the words from a leaflet, manual or contract without retyping them.
- Keep a lightweight, searchable copy of a document for your own reference.
It is not the right tool when layout matters. If you need the exact appearance of the pages, keep the PDF, or save them as images. If you need an editable Word file, use PDF to Word.
Privacy: the file stays in your browser
The PDF is opened, read and converted by JavaScript in your browser. There is no upload step, no server-side conversion and no network request containing the document. That makes it suitable for private notes, internal reports and confidential contracts, provided you trust the device and browser you use.
As with any browser tool, the result exists in the page until you close or reload it, so copy or download anything you want to keep.
Related PDF tools
- To edit the text in Word, use PDF to Word.
- To pull tables into a spreadsheet, use PDF to Excel.
- To save only the pages you need as a new PDF, use Extract PDF Pages.
- To combine several PDFs before converting, use Merge PDF.
PDF to Markdown FAQ
Is this PDF to Markdown converter free?
Yes. There is no sign-up and no watermark. Very long documents are limited only by your device's memory.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read by your browser and never sent to Lembog or another service.
Why is the Markdown empty?
The PDF probably contains scanned images, not selectable text. Try selecting a sentence in your PDF reader; if you cannot, it needs OCR. This tool does not include OCR.
Does it keep bold, italic and links?
No. It keeps words, headings, paragraphs and lists, but not inline styling or hyperlinks. Those details are not reliably stored in the text layer, so adding them would mean guessing.
Can it convert tables into Markdown tables?
Not reliably. Simple tables sometimes come out as readable lines, but the tool cannot detect columns and borders well enough for a proper Markdown table. Rebuild the table if the layout matters.
Why is the reading order wrong in a two-column PDF?
The extractor follows the position of text on the page. In two columns, a line from the left and a line from the right can share the same height, so they may be read together. Editing the Markdown by hand is usually quicker.
Can I edit the Markdown before saving it?
Yes. The result box is editable. Changes are included when you copy or download. The original PDF is not changed.
Does it work with password-protected PDFs?
No. The PDF must be unlocked before it can be read. Open it in your reader, enter the password and save an unprotected copy, then convert that copy.