Skip to content
Butter Tools Logo
Butter Tools

PDF to Markdown

Convert a text-based PDF into clean Markdown. Headings, lists and bold runs are detected automatically. Everything runs in your browser — the file never uploads.

Drop a PDF here or click to upload

Text-based PDFs only · stays on your device

How it works

  1. 1

    Upload a PDF

    Drop a text-based PDF. Scanned image-only PDFs need OCR first and won’t extract text.

  2. 2

    We parse it

    pdf.js reads the text runs, their positions and font sizes — locally, in your browser.

  3. 3

    Get Markdown

    Headings, lists and bold are inferred from layout, then exported as clean .md.

PDF is a layout format, not a structured one — heading and list detection is heuristic. Results are excellent for reports, articles and documentation, and a great starting point for everything else.

menu_book

How to Use PDF to Markdown Converter

To convert a PDF to Markdown, upload your PDF file by clicking the upload area or dragging it onto the page. The tool extracts the text content from the PDF and attempts to infer heading levels, paragraphs, lists, and other structural elements, converting them to the appropriate Markdown syntax.

The output is displayed in a live preview showing how the Markdown renders, alongside the raw Markdown text you can copy or download. This is useful for importing PDF documentation into wikis, static site generators, GitHub repositories, or any platform that accepts Markdown content.

help

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Markdown? expand_more

Markdown is a lightweight text formatting syntax that uses plain-text characters to represent formatting. For example, # creates a heading, **text** makes text bold, and - creates a bullet list. It is widely used in documentation, GitHub, wikis, and blogging platforms.

How accurately does the converter detect headings and formatting? expand_more

The converter uses font size and positioning heuristics to detect headings and structure. Results are generally good for well-structured PDFs, but complex layouts, tables, or heavily formatted PDFs may require manual clean-up.

Does the converter handle scanned PDFs? expand_more

Scanned PDFs contain images rather than text and cannot be converted to Markdown directly without OCR (optical character recognition). This tool works best with PDFs that contain selectable text.

Are images from the PDF included in the Markdown output? expand_more

No. Images embedded in the PDF are not extracted to the Markdown output. Only text content is converted. You would need to export images separately.

Is my PDF uploaded to a server? expand_more

No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser using PDF.js for text extraction. Your PDF never leaves your device.

Related Tools

All PDF Toolsarrow_forward
table_view

CSV to PDF

Drop a CSV and get a beautifully formatted PDF table in seconds.
merge_type

PDF Merge

Combine multiple PDFs into one file. Drag to reorder pages.
compress

PDF Compress

Shrink any PDF's file size with three quality presets.
splitscreen

PDF Split

Extract pages or split a PDF into smaller files instantly.