PDF to EPUB Converter
Turn a fixed-page PDF into a reflowable EPUB that resizes on any e-reader.
The PDF to EPUB converter reads and repackages your document on your device. Manuscripts and drafts are never uploaded.
Listen to the document instead
About PDF to EPUB
Reading a PDF on a small screen is an exercise in pinching and panning, because the page size was decided by whoever made it. An EPUB has no pages until your reader draws them, which is why the same book is comfortable on a phone and on a tablet. Converting means giving up fixed layout and recovering the text: paragraphs rejoined from wrapped lines, headings identified by their size, lists kept as lists. Chapters can be cut at headings, at page boundaries, or not at all, and each becomes a navigable entry in the book's table of contents. The result is a valid EPUB 3 package with a proper spine.
Features
- Text recovered from the layout, with wrapped lines rejoined into paragraphs
- Chapters split at headings, at page boundaries, or kept as one
- Every chapter listed in both the EPUB 3 navigation document and the NCX
- Book title, author and language written into the package metadata
- Readable serif stylesheet included in the book
- Table of contents shown on screen before you download
- Standards-compliant package that Apple Books, Kobo and Calibre all open
How to use the PDF to EPUB
- Drop the PDF onto the page
- Set the book title and author for the EPUB's metadata
- Choose how chapters are split — at headings, per page, or one chapter
- Check the table of contents and download the .epub
Example
Input
field-guide.pdf — 96 pages with numbered section headings
Output
field-guide.epub with 14 chapters, a working table of contents, and text that reflows on any reader.
Splitting at headings gives a table of contents that matches the document's own sections.
Common errors & troubleshooting
- The book has one enormous chapter. — No headings were detected, so there was nothing to split on. Switch to per-page chapters, which at least gives the reader navigation points.
- Images and diagrams are missing. — Only text is carried over. For an illustrated book, keep the PDF for the figures or add the images to the EPUB afterwards in an editor.
- Kindle will not open the file. — Kindle wants its own format. Send the EPUB to your device by email or convert it with a library manager, which Amazon's service handles automatically.
- Footnotes appear in the middle of the text. — Footnotes sit at the bottom of a fixed page, and reflowing has nowhere to put them. They land where the page ended — expect to tidy those by hand.
Frequently asked questions
- Is my PDF uploaded to make the EPUB?
- No. The text is read and the book is packaged in this tab, which matters for manuscripts and unpublished work.
- Which EPUB version does it produce?
- EPUB 3, with an NCX table of contents included as well so older readers can still navigate the book.
- Will page numbers from the PDF survive?
- No, and they should not — an EPUB has no fixed pages, so a reference to page 42 becomes meaningless. Chapter titles are the navigation instead.
- Can I convert a scanned book?
- Not directly. A scan holds pictures of words, so recognise the text first and then convert what comes out.
- How do I check the EPUB is valid before publishing it?
- Open it in a reader app, then run it through an EPUB validator if it is going to a store. The package here includes the metadata and spine those checks look for.
Related tools
- EPUB to PDF — Convert an EPUB book into a paginated PDF you can print.
- PDF to HTML — Convert a PDF into clean, searchable, responsive HTML.
- PDF to Word — Rebuild a PDF as an editable .docx document.
- PDF to Text — Extract selectable text from a PDF as plain text or Markdown.
- PDF Read Aloud — Listen to a PDF read out loud, passage by passage.
- Markdown to PDF — Render Markdown — headings, lists, tables and code — as a PDF.
- PDF OCR — Recognise the text in a scanned PDF and make it searchable.
All ArrayKit tools