PDF to Markdown

Vellum analyzes the formatting of a PDF — font sizes, visual hierarchy — to infer a heading structure and produce a properly organized Markdown file, rather than one undifferentiated block of plain text. The result can be reused directly in a documentation editor or a static site generator. The conversion happens entirely in your browser.

How does Vellum decide on the headings in the Markdown file?

The tool analyzes the font sizes in the PDF to spot a visual hierarchy and infer level 1, 2 or 3 headings from it. On a document without a clear typographic hierarchy, the result stays plain text.

Are tables and multi-column layouts preserved?

No, tables are not rebuilt as Markdown, and a multi-column layout may be read in an unexpected order, since the analysis works line by line rather than by page region. The result works best for a document with a simple text flow.

What happens if my PDF is a scanned document?

If no text can be extracted, the PDF is probably made up of scanned images. Run it through Vellum’s OCR tool first before converting it to Markdown. The conversion itself is free and runs in your browser.

Vellum — free PDF tools whose processing stays on your device.