PDF to EPUB
What PDF to EPUB actually does
Reading a PDF on a small screen means pinching and dragging, because its layout is nailed to a sheet of paper that is wider than the screen. An e-book has no sheet: type size is the reader's choice and the words rewrap around it. Getting from one to the other means answering a question the source never recorded, which is where a chapter begins. Most converters answer it with the sheet, one chapter per printed page, and produce a contents list that reads Page 1, Page 2, Page 3 while cutting sections in half wherever the paper happened to run out. This page answers it with the writing instead. It works out the section headings, shows them so a wrong one can be corrected, and lets the level that begins a chapter be chosen. The result is a book whose contents name its sections and whose text rewraps at whatever size it is read at.
How to use it
- Choose a PDF. Its sections and body text are worked out in this tab and listed for review.
- Check the contents panel. Fix any section that was missed or invented, set which heading level begins a chapter, and give the book its title and language.
- Download the .epub and open it on a phone, a tablet, an e-reader or in a library app.
Useful for
- Read a long printed manual on a commute at a comfortable type size instead of zooming around a page image.
- Add a paper whose only copy is a PDF to an e-reader library, with a working contents list to jump around it.
- Produce a first draft e-book to open in a book editor with the sections already in place.
Limits worth knowing
- Sections are inferred from how much larger their text is than the body, so a document that marks them only by colour or position needs a few corrections in the review list.
- Illustrations are not carried into the book. Body text, bulleted lists and recovered grids are.
- Footnotes, page-number navigation, cover artwork and fixed-layout books are outside what this makes.
- A scanned page carries no readable text, so it yields no chapter and is reported rather than silently skipped.
Questions people ask
Is the file uploaded?
No. It is read and the book is assembled inside this tab. Nothing leaves the browser.
Which flavour of e-book is written?
EPUB 3, carrying the navigation document that version requires. An older control file is written beside it so an EPUB 2 reader still shows a contents list.
Will it open on a Kindle?
Amazon's own Send to Kindle accepts EPUB and converts it on arrival. Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play Books and most library apps open EPUB directly.
What decides where one chapter ends and the next starts?
The heading level chosen in the panel. A section that ran across a page break stays in one piece, and the whole document can be kept as a single chapter.