PDF to EPUB
Make an EPUB ebook from a PDF so the words flow to fit a phone, tablet or e-reader, rather than sitting on fixed pages you must pinch and scroll around. The work is done on your own device, so the PDF is never sent anywhere.
How to use it
- Pick your PDF, or drop it into the box.
- Confirm the title and author, and decide whether the first page should be the cover.
- Press Convert to EPUB, then save your new ebook.
How the ebook is built
TeddyPDF does not simply take pictures of each page. It reads every word along with its position, size and style, then puts the paragraphs, headings, lists and chapters back together, so the text reflows and the font size on your reader can be changed. Page numbers and repeated headers and footers are dropped, words broken by a hyphen at a line end are rejoined, and two-column pages are read in the correct order. Pictures stay in place within the text, the contents list is drawn from the headings, and the first page is used as the cover unless you untick that box. The result is a standard EPUB 3 file that passes EPUBCheck, the test ebook shops rely on.
A PDF only records where each word sits on a fixed page; it does not say which words form a paragraph or a heading. TeddyPDF works that out from the layout, which suits most documents, but an unusual layout may not come out quite as you expect, so open the book and look through it before relying on it. Everything happens in your browser: the page locks itself before your PDF is opened, so nothing can be sent anywhere, and scripts a PDF may contain are never run.
Picking a PDF that converts well
The best results come from books, reports, articles and guides produced in a word processor or publishing program. Magazines, forms, spreadsheets and pages heavy with tables or maths are only approximated: tables become lines of text, formulas are not rebuilt, and diagrams drawn with lines rather than saved as pictures are left out. Testing has covered English, French and German. Files can be up to 300 MB on a computer, but on a phone the limit is 20 MB for now, until bigger files have been tried on phones.
A scanned PDF is only pictures of pages with no words inside, and the page will tell you if yours is one. Run it through Make PDF searchable first, then convert what that gives you. A password-protected PDF needs the password taken off first with Remove PDF password.
Questions and answers
Will the ebook work on a Kindle?
It will. Amazon's Send to Kindle takes EPUB files, so you can email the book to your Kindle address or use the Send to Kindle app or website, and it will appear in your Kindle library.
Why does the ebook not look like my PDF?
Ebooks rearrange their text to suit the screen and your chosen font size, so the fixed pages of a PDF cannot be copied. Words, headings, chapters and pictures come across; page layout, columns and decorative touches do not.
Is there a size limit?
On a computer you can convert a PDF of up to 300 MB. On a phone the limit is currently 20 MB while larger files are tested there. Most books finish in a few seconds, and long illustrated ones take a little longer.
Does TeddyPDF upload my file?
No. Your browser does all the work, on your own device. Before it opens your file, this page shuts off its own ability to send or fetch anything, and your browser holds it to that. Try it: once the page has loaded, turn off your Wi-Fi and the tool still works. How the lock works.