A PDF contains more than text when it includes diagrams, photographs or a scanned attachment. PDF to Markdown extracts the words and packages the page images and artwork alongside the Markdown document. The download is a ZIP with relative asset links. Extract the complete folder before opening it in your documentation editor, and review the reading order and structure before publishing the result.
By VelloDoc · Editorial policy
What the conversion retains
The Markdown contains extracted text and links to files in an assets folder. On pages without special effects, these are the PDF's original images and an SVG file of the page's vector drawings. When a page has layered transparency or blend effects, gradients, cropped or clipped pictures or shapes, a picture that runs past the page edge or a skewed picture, its graphics are saved as rendered artwork instead: a high-resolution transparent PNG for each area, with an SVG copy, and that page's original images are not saved separately. Keeping the folder structure intact lets the document find its assets after you move or publish it. Fonts and fixed page coordinates are not part of Markdown, so the editor controls typography.
Reviewing the result
Markdown does not preserve a fixed page design, embedded document fonts or the original editing structure. Review headings, lists, tables and column order. Image links break if the asset folder is removed or moved separately. Scanned words need OCR to become editable text.
Scans and related tools
For editable scanned words, use OCR PDF first. For separate picture downloads, use Extract Images. The format guide helps you choose the output.
When people use PDF to Markdown
Moving documents into a wiki
Bring policies and procedures that exist only as PDFs into a team wiki as editable pages.
Notes in Markdown apps
Import articles and papers into a Markdown note-taking app to highlight, link and annotate.
Documentation drafts
Start documentation for a website or repository from the text of an existing PDF manual.
Limitations to know
Markdown does not preserve a fixed page design, embedded document fonts or the original editing structure. Review headings, lists, tables and column order. Image links break if the asset folder is removed or moved separately. Scanned words need OCR to become editable text.
PDF to Markdown: common questions
Are original images included?
On pages without special effects, yes, as files in the assets folder. On a page with layered transparency, gradients, cropped or clipped artwork or a picture past the page edge, the images are part of that page's rendered artwork files.
Are scanned words editable?
Scanned pages remain images. Use OCR to add editable text first.
Does conversion change my source file?
No. The uploaded original is not modified.
Will every application render it identically?
No. Review the output in the application you plan to use.