PDF EPUB Swap

PDF to EPUB

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FAQ and format details
Why convert PDF to EPUB?

A textbook PDF you are allowed to repackage for personal reading, a report you want on a phone, a public-domain scan that already went through OCR. If the file is a comic or a design portfolio, stay in PDF.

How this conversion runs

pdf.js text → HTML (page sections) → EPUB. Page h2s may become too many 'chapters' if you have one h2 per PDF page — you will want to merge. There is no automatic chapter detection from 'Chapter 3' strings.

Keep in mind for PDF → EPUB

A 300-page PDF becomes a heavy HTML soup. Running headers will repeat. Hyphenation stays. DRM-encumbered PDFs should not be dropped here; encrypted files will simply error. This is not a piracy aid and it will not break DRM.

After you have a EPUB file

Open in Thorium, delete repeating headers in Sigil, merge chapters. Calibre can go to Kindle. Keep the PDF for citations and figures.

Each PDF page became a chapter. How do I fix that?

Our HTML wraps pages in h2. Convert PDF→HTML, demote those to paragraphs, add real h1s for chapters, then HTML→EPUB.

Will figures appear in the EPUB?

Not from the PDF drawing layer. You get text. Add images later in Sigil if you have rights to them.

This pair at a glance
Accepts
.pdf
Writes
.epub · application/epub+zip
Read fidelity
medium (PDF → HTML)
Write fidelity
high (HTML → EPUB)
Source size
Plan for files under 38 MB

Runs in this browser.

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About PDF and EPUB

Source file

PDF

A page-description format that paints glyphs and graphics onto fixed pages. Universal for print, archival, and sharing.

PDF (Portable Document Format) describes pages, not a flowing document tree. Incoming PDFs are reconstructed as HTML: designed pages keep positioned text, fonts, images, and vectors; simpler reading documents become flowing articles. Export to PDF paints HTML onto pages via pdf-lib. Pixel-perfect Word/InDesign layout is not the goal.

Extensions
.pdf
MIME types
application/pdf
Kind
binary · binary
Category
page description
Standard
Open format · since 1993
Spec
ISO 32000
Comfortable size
Up to about 38 MB in this browser converter
Read into HTML
medium fidelity · implemented — pdf.js extracts text, fonts, images, and vectors. Designed or overlapping pages stay visually positioned; simpler reading documents become flowing HTML with inferred headings, lists, and a sidebar when one exists. Scanned PDFs without a text layer will be empty.

What this format can hold

  • page layout
  • paragraphs
  • images
  • links
  • embedded fonts

Usually dropped on the way in

  • form fields
  • javascript
  • scanned pages without ocr

Apps that consume PDF

  • Adobe Acrobat / Reader (Adobe) — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
  • Chrome (Google) — opens on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android
  • Edge (Microsoft) — opens on Windows, macOS
  • Preview (Apple) — opens on macOS, iOS
  • Foxit — creates and opens on Windows, macOS
  • Okular (KDE) — opens on Linux

Catalog notes

  • Encrypted PDFs cannot be opened in-browser without the password (not collected).
  • OCR for image-only scans is out of scope for v1.

Destination 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
Written from HTML
high fidelity · implemented — Emits EPUB 3 with a single content document split on h1, plus nav.xhtml.

What this format can hold

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

Usually dropped on the way out

  • multi file chapter map unless h1 split

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.
Other conversions

Other conversions from PDF: HTMLMarkdownWordRTFOpenDocument

Other ways to get EPUB: HTMLMarkdownWordRTFOpenDocument