FileGizmo PDF tools
Convert a PDF to Markdown
Convert a PDF to Markdown in your browser, keeping headings, paragraphs, and lists instead of one flat block of text.
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Simple by design
PDF to Markdown in three steps
Most PDF text extractors give you a single unbroken block of prose. Every heading, list, and paragraph boundary the document had is gone, so the output has to be restructured by hand before it is useful in a notes app, a static site, or a prompt.
This converter reconstructs that structure instead. A PDF stores no headings or paragraphs, only glyphs placed at coordinates in a font size, so the shape of the document has to be inferred from what the page actually carries. Three signals do most of the work. Text set noticeably larger than the size carrying the bulk of the document is a heading, and distinct larger sizes are ranked so a document using two of them gets two levels rather than two top-level headings. A vertical gap wider than the document’s usual line spacing ends a paragraph. A line opening with a bullet or a number is a list item.
None of those signals is certain, so each is applied conservatively and the text itself is never rewritten to fit a guess. Where the structure is ambiguous the words still come through intact, which is the property that matters: a heading missed is an inconvenience, a sentence altered is a defect.
Two limits worth knowing. The text layer is what gets read, so a scanned page has nothing to convert until OCR has added one. And a PDF built from a complex multi-column layout will produce reading order that follows the page rather than the argument, because that ordering is genuinely ambiguous in the file.
- 1
Choose the PDF you want to convert
- 2
Let the text layer be read and its structure worked out
- 3
Copy the Markdown or download the .md file
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
How does it know what is a heading?
A PDF has no headings, only glyphs at a size. Text set noticeably larger than the size that carries most of the document is treated as a heading, and distinct larger sizes become successive levels.
Will it work on a scanned PDF?
No. Structure is read from the text layer, so a scan of paper has nothing to read. Run it through the OCR tool first to create a text layer.
Why are the line breaks different from the PDF?
Line breaks in a PDF belong to its page width, not its prose, so wrapped lines are rejoined into a paragraph. Blank space wider than the usual line spacing is what ends one.
Is the file uploaded?
No. The text layer is read and converted inside your browser, which matters because drafts and contracts are the documents people most often need in Markdown.
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