WaywardTools

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PDF Markdown Swap

PDF to Markdown

Your file never leaves this device. Conversion runs in your browser. The document itself is not uploaded.

1 · Choose a PDF file

…or drop a PDF file here

.pdf · stays in this tab

2 · Convert

3 · Download

Choose a file to convert. It is not uploaded.

FAQ and format details
Why convert PDF to Markdown?

Literature notes, meeting packets, and 'download this whitepaper' files. You want something Obsidian can search. PDF→Markdown is that dump, with honest quality: a start, not a perfect reconstruction of heading styles.

How this conversion runs

pdf.js → inferred HTML (headings, emphasis, lists, columns) → Turndown. Tables in the PDF are almost never real tables in the Markdown.

Keep in mind for PDF → Markdown

You may still spend time deleting a missed running header or fixing a heading that was just large body type. Figures become nothing. Academic papers with formulas will look like mojibake or missing glyphs.

After you have a Markdown file

Clean the .md: check titles, lists, and column order. Then it behaves like any Markdown file here. Keep the PDF as the citable original.

Do PDF bookmarks become Markdown headings?

Not yet. We use the text layer, not the outline dictionary. Copy the outline from Acrobat if you need a TOC.

Can I convert a scanned book?

Only after OCR produces a text layer. Otherwise the Markdown will be empty or nearly empty.

This pair at a glance
Accepts
.pdf
Writes
.md · text/markdown
Read fidelity
medium (PDF → HTML)
Write fidelity
high (HTML → Markdown)
Source size
Plan for files under 38 MB

The file is read in this tab. It is not uploaded.

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About PDF and Markdown

Source file

PDF

A page-description format that paints glyphs and graphics onto fixed pages. Universal for print, archival, and sharing.

PDF (Portable Document Format) describes pages, not a flowing document tree. Incoming PDFs are reconstructed as HTML: designed pages keep positioned text, fonts, images, and vectors; simpler reading documents become flowing articles. Export to PDF paints HTML onto pages via pdf-lib. Pixel-perfect Word/InDesign layout is not the goal.

Extensions
.pdf
MIME types
application/pdf
Kind
binary · binary
Category
page description
Standard
Open format · since 1993
Spec
ISO 32000
Comfortable size
Up to about 38 MB in this browser converter
Read into HTML
medium fidelity · implemented — pdf.js extracts text, fonts, images, and vectors. Designed or overlapping pages stay visually positioned; simpler reading documents become flowing HTML with inferred headings, lists, and a sidebar when one exists. Scanned PDFs without a text layer will be empty.

What this format can hold

  • page layout
  • paragraphs
  • images
  • links
  • embedded fonts

Usually dropped on the way in

  • form fields
  • javascript
  • scanned pages without ocr

Apps that consume PDF

  • Adobe Acrobat / Reader (Adobe) — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
  • Chrome (Google) — opens on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android
  • Edge (Microsoft) — opens on Windows, macOS
  • Preview (Apple) — opens on macOS, iOS
  • Foxit — creates and opens on Windows, macOS
  • Okular (KDE) — opens on Linux

Catalog notes

  • Encrypted PDFs cannot be opened in-browser without the password (not collected).
  • OCR for image-only scans is out of scope for v1.

Destination file

Markdown

A lightweight plain-text syntax for structured writing that compiles to HTML. The lingua franca of README files, wikis, and note apps.

Markdown stores documents as readable plain text with a small set of punctuation conventions for headings, emphasis, lists, links, and code. GitHub-Flavored Markdown (GFM) adds tables, strikethrough, task lists, and fenced code blocks. Conversion through HTML is a natural fit because Markdown was designed as an HTML shorthand.

Extensions
.md, .markdown, .mdown, .mkd
MIME types
text/markdown, text/x-markdown
Kind
text · utf-8
Category
markup
Standard
Open format · since 2004
Comfortable size
Up to about 3.8 MB in this browser converter
Written from HTML
high fidelity · implemented — HTML is walked into GFM with Turndown.

What this format can hold

  • headings
  • paragraphs
  • lists
  • tables
  • links
  • images
  • inline formatting
  • code blocks
  • blockquotes

Usually dropped on the way out

  • complex css layout
  • nested tables
  • custom classes

Apps that consume Markdown

  • GitHub (GitHub) — creates and opens on Web
  • Obsidian (Dynalist) — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android
  • VS Code (Microsoft) — creates on Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Typora — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Notion — creates and opens on Web, Windows, macOS
  • Jupyter — creates and opens on Web
  • Discord — opens on Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android

Catalog notes

  • Front matter (YAML between --- lines) is preserved as a prefix when converting from Markdown, and ignored when converting to Markdown.
  • Obsidian wikilinks and footnotes have no lossless HTML equivalent yet.
Other conversions

Other conversions from PDF: HTMLWordRTFOpenDocumentEPUB

Other ways to get Markdown: HTMLWordRTFOpenDocumentEPUB