EPUB Markdown Swap

EPUB to Markdown

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…or drop a EPUB file here

.epub

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FAQ and format details
Why convert EPUB to Markdown?

Commonplace books, course notes, public-domain etexts you want to quote with diffs. Markdown is searchable and linkable. This is not a way to launder a store-bought novel into a free file you redistribute — keep your licenses.

How this conversion runs

EPUB spine → concatenated sanitized HTML → Turndown. Tables and emphasis survive better than publisher-specific classes. Images inlined as data URLs make enormous Markdown; replace them with files if you keep the note.

Keep in mind for EPUB → Markdown

Publisher EPUBs are full of spans and page-break markup that become noise. Footnotes may not map to Markdown footnotes. You will edit. Fixed-layout books should not take this path.

After you have a Markdown file

Split the .md on headings if you want one file per chapter. Link it in your vault. Do not upload copyrighted Markdown to a public repo.

Can I convert just one chapter?

Not as a picker yet. Unzip the EPUB yourself, drop that XHTML on the HTML→Markdown page, or flatten and delete the rest.

Will the EPUB TOC become a Markdown TOC?

nav.xhtml is not specially treated as a TOC list in the Markdown. Chapter headings in the bodies are what you get. Rebuild a TOC in the .md if you want one.

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

Runs in this browser.

Something off with this pair? Send feedback.

About EPUB and Markdown

Source file

EPUB

The open ebook format: a ZIP of XHTML chapters, CSS, and a package manifest. What Apple Books, Google Play Books, and most non-Kindle readers consume.

EPUB 3 is HTML in a spine. That makes the HTML hub almost native: we concatenate or split XHTML documents and rewrite the OPF package. Kindle’s AZW/MOBI family is a different type and is not in this matrix.

Extensions
.epub
MIME types
application/epub+zip
Kind
zip · binary
Category
ebook
Standard
Open format · since 2007
Comfortable size
Up to about 38 MB in this browser converter
Read into HTML
high fidelity · implemented — Spine XHTML documents are concatenated in reading order.

What this format can hold

  • headings
  • paragraphs
  • lists
  • links
  • images
  • inline formatting
  • chapters
  • table of contents

Usually dropped on the way in

  • per chapter css
  • fixed layout pages
  • media overlays
  • encryption

Apps that consume EPUB

  • Apple Books (Apple) — opens on macOS, iOS
  • Google Play Books (Google) — opens on Web, Android, iOS
  • Calibre — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Thorium Reader — opens on Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Foliate — opens on Linux
  • Kindle (via conversion) (Amazon) — opens on e-ink, iOS, Android
  • Sigil — creates on Windows, macOS, Linux

Catalog notes

  • DRM-encumbered EPUBs are rejected.
  • Kindle AZW3/MOBI is a later type, not an alias of EPUB.

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 EPUB: HTMLWordRTFOpenDocumentPDF

Other ways to get Markdown: HTMLWordRTFOpenDocumentPDF