Convert PDF to HTML Portable Document Format ↔ HyperText Markup Language Free Online Secure
Your PDF is read here in your browser and written out as HTML. A PDF records where each letter sits, not what it means, so the headings, paragraphs, lists and tables are worked out from position and size — and you get something you can edit again, not a picture of a page.
Convert your file
Drop a PDF here, or choose one.
Your file never leaves this device. Everything runs in your browser.
Nothing uploaded
Where these formats come from
An EPUB is, underneath, a zipped website: pages of HTML with a stylesheet and a table of contents. That is why text in an e-book reflows — the reader chooses the type size and the words rearrange themselves, exactly as they do in a browser window. MOBI came from Mobipocket, a French company Amazon bought in 2005; it became the first Kindle format and was retired by Amazon in 2022 in favour of EPUB. The contrast with PDF is the whole story of this family: a PDF holds fixed pages, laid out once and never moved, while an e-book holds text that has no pages until a reader opens it.
Where you meet them
EPUB is what every e-reader except the Kindle expects, what public libraries lend, and what most publishers produce. MOBI is for older Kindles and for archives of books bought before the change. Converting a PDF into either is the usual way to get a report, a manual or an out-of-print scan onto a reading device where the text can be made larger.
Questions people ask
Why does my PDF look messy after converting to EPUB?
Because the two work in opposite ways. A PDF knows where every word sits on a fixed page; an EPUB has to be told what is a heading, what is a paragraph and what order it all comes in, and none of that is recorded in a PDF. The converter infers it from position and size, and does well with plain single-column text. Two columns, footnotes, headers repeated on every page, tables and figures with captions are where the guessing shows, and they usually need tidying by hand.
Should I still use MOBI?
Only for an old device that cannot read anything else. Amazon stopped accepting MOBI for sending documents to Kindle in 2022 and now wants EPUB, which modern Kindles handle directly. If you are choosing today, choose EPUB: it is the format libraries lend, publishers produce and every reader but the oldest understands.
Does the file lose quality?
It depends on what the two formats can hold. Converting between formats that store the same thing — a PNG to a BMP, a WAV to a FLAC — loses nothing. Converting into a format that throws information away to save space, such as JPEG or MP3, loses a little every time, and converting back does not bring it back. Where a choice exists, this page errs towards keeping the original quality rather than making the smallest file.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion happens inside your browser, on your own machine; the file never leaves it and there is no server here that could receive it. That is why a large file is limited by your own memory rather than by an upload, and why nothing you convert can appear in anybody's logs — including ours. The audio and video tools do fetch their conversion engine from this site the first time you use them, some thirty megabytes once; after that the work still happens entirely on your machine.
Why people convert PDF to HTML
A PDF is made to be printed and read on a page. A web page is made to be read on a screen, in any size, by anyone, including people using screen readers, search engines and mobile phones. When a document that exists only as a PDF needs to live on a website, or to be read comfortably on a small screen, or to be reused in a web project, the natural move is to convert PDF to HTML. You want the words, the headings and the pictures of the document in the language of the web.
The difficulty is that a PDF does not record what a document means. It records where each letter sits on the page: this character here, that line there, this picture in the corner. There is no stored notion of a heading, a paragraph or a list. A conversion must read the positions and the sizes and decide what is a heading, what is a paragraph, what is a list item and what is a table. This page does it in your browser, and gives you a web page you can open, edit and publish, not a picture of a page.
Your PDF is not uploaded to a server. That matters for reports, drafts and papers that you would rather keep to yourself until you choose to publish them. Below you will find how the conversion works, what comes through, what does not and how to make the most of the result.
How the conversion works
The structure is worked out from the page
Your PDF is read inside your browser. For each page, the converter collects the text with its positions and sizes and then decides what is what. A line set larger than the rest is likely a heading. Lines that follow one another with an ordinary gap form a paragraph. Rows beginning with bullets or numbers form a list. Text arranged in aligned cells forms a table. The result is written out as HTML in which those headings, paragraphs, lists and tables are real elements.
One self-contained file
The result is one self-contained file. The pictures travel inside it as data, so it can be moved anywhere and still be whole. You do not receive a page plus a folder of images that must be kept together; you receive one file that you can open in a browser, attach to a message or upload to a site.
Why this is useful
A single file is simple to handle. You can double-click it to see the result, send it to a colleague without worrying that the pictures will be missing, and store it as an archive of a document in an open, readable format.
What is kept
Headings, paragraphs, bold and italic
Headings, paragraphs, bold and italic are carried across. The text reads in the same order as on the page, and emphasis is preserved where it can be recognised.
Lists and tables
Lists come out as lists, and tables come out as tables, with rows and columns, so the structure of the document is not lost on the way to the web.
Pictures
Pictures are carried across and embedded in the file, so it shows them wherever it is opened.
What is not carried over
The file gets larger
Carrying the pictures inside makes the file considerably larger than the markup alone would be. That is the price of it being one file rather than a folder. If you plan to publish the page on a site, you may prefer to extract the pictures and compress them separately.
Layout, columns and footnotes
Page layout, columns and footnotes are dropped. A web page flows to the width of the screen, so the fixed page of the PDF has no counterpart. A page set in two columns comes out interleaved, because the lines are read across the page as they sit. If your document has columns, expect to see them mixed.
Scanned PDFs yield nothing
A scanned PDF yields nothing, because it holds a picture of text rather than text. Recognising letters in an image is a different job, called optical character recognition, and this conversion does not do it.
How to convert PDF to HTML here
Add your PDF
Drop the PDF onto the page or pick it from your device. It is opened inside your browser and is not uploaded.
Convert
Press the button. A short document takes a few seconds, and a long one with many pictures takes longer. Leave the page open until it finishes.
Download and open
Download the HTML file and open it in a browser. Go through it from the beginning, check headings and tables, and edit it in any text editor or web editor if you wish.
A closer look at PDF and HTML
Fixed and flowing
A PDF is fixed: the position of every letter is part of the file. HTML is flowing: it states what the content is, and the browser decides how to lay it out for the screen in front of it. These two ideas are almost opposite, which is why a conversion has to rediscover the structure that the PDF never recorded. HTML to PDF goes the other way, freezing a page into a document.
Why HTML is a good container for text
HTML is plain text with simple marks, readable by any browser on any device, understood by search engines and screen readers and easy to edit. A document stored as HTML will be readable for decades, with or without special software. That is a good reason to convert PDF to HTML even when you do not plan to publish.
What makes a PDF convert well
A plain text document with ordinary paragraphs converts cleanly: an article, a report, an essay. A document designed with sidebars, text boxes and multiple columns converts poorly. When you convert PDF to HTML, expect the best results from documents that were written, and not from documents that were laid out.
Common situations in detail
Publishing a document on a website
A report or a paper that exists only as a PDF can be turned into a web page that is readable on a phone, indexed by search engines and linkable by section. Convert PDF to HTML, then clean the page and place it in your site.
Reading on a small screen
A web page adapts to the screen. On a phone, an HTML version of a long document is far easier to read than a PDF that has to be zoomed and dragged.
Reusing text in a web project
A designer or developer who receives content as a PDF can pull the text out as HTML and reuse it in a page, a newsletter or a help centre, without retyping.
Archiving in an open format
An HTML file is a durable, open form for a document. Some archivists keep an HTML copy beside the PDF so that the text remains available whatever happens to the reading software.
Practical advice before you convert PDF to HTML
Test whether the text can be selected
Open the PDF in any viewer and try to select a sentence with the mouse. If the words highlight, the file holds real text and you can convert PDF to HTML with good hope. If you can only drag a rectangle over the page, it is a picture, and no conversion of this kind will find words in it.
Mind the file size
Because the pictures travel inside the file, a PDF with many images gives a large HTML. Before publishing, consider reducing the PDF with compress PDF, so that the pictures start lighter.
Extract what you need
If you want only a part of a long document, use extract pages from PDF first. A shorter document converts faster and is easier to check.
Plan to tidy the result
The page is plain, and the styling is yours to add. When you convert PDF to HTML for a site, expect to link a style sheet and adjust the headings so that they match your design.
Questions people ask before converting
Why is the file so large?
Because the pictures are carried inside it as data. That makes it one file, which is convenient, but larger than the text alone.
Why are my columns mixed up?
Because the lines are read across the page as they sit. A page set in two columns comes out interleaved.
Will it look like the PDF?
No. The words, headings, lists, tables and pictures come across, but the page layout does not. A web page flows to the screen.
Why did nothing come out?
Almost certainly the PDF is a scan. A scan holds a picture of text, not text.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The conversion runs in your browser and the document never leaves your device.
Can I turn the HTML back into a PDF?
Yes. HTML to PDF does this, using your browser's print dialog.
Choosing wisely when you convert PDF to HTML
Decide what you want
If you want an editable document, PDF to DOCX may suit you better. If you want an e-book, there is PDF to EPUB. HTML is the right choice when the destination is the web.
Start with the cleanest source you have
A PDF exported from a word processor converts far better than a scan or a copy of a copy. If you can ask the author for the original text, do so.
Keep the PDF
The PDF holds the exact layout and the page numbers. Keep it as your reference, in case you need to cite a page.
Getting a good result after the conversion
Open it in a browser first
Check how it looks before you edit anything. Read the beginning, a page in the middle and the end. Look at the tables and the pictures.
Clean up the leftovers
Page numbers and running headers sometimes slip into the text. Delete them in a text editor. Search for repeated lines to find them quickly.
Add your own styling
The converted page is plain. A short style sheet that sets the font, the width of the text and the colours turns it into a page that fits your site.
Add alternative text to the pictures
Pictures travel without descriptions. If the page will be public, add short alternative text to each picture so that people using screen readers know what it shows.
Tips for publishing a converted page
Give the page a proper title
Search engines and browser tabs use the title of the page. After you convert PDF to HTML, open the file in a text editor and set a clear title that says what the document is. It costs a minute and makes the page far easier to find.
Check the order of the headings
Headings should go from the largest to the smaller ones in a sensible order. A converted page sometimes starts with a heading that is too deep or skips a level. Correcting the order helps readers, and it helps people who navigate by headings with assistive software.
Keep a link to the original
Offer the PDF for download next to the web page. Some visitors want to print the document exactly as it was designed, and for them the PDF is the right file.
Test on a phone
Open the finished page on a phone before you publish it. Because the page flows, it should read well, but wide tables are the usual trouble, and you may want to let them scroll sideways.
Privacy and handling
Why local conversion matters for documents
Reports, drafts and private papers are not things you want sitting on a stranger's server. Many online converters upload your file, process it and send back the result, and for a while a copy lives on a machine you do not control. Here your own browser does the work, so the document stays on your device.
What happens when you leave
When you close the page, the converted file disappears from the browser, so download it first. Nothing about your document is kept.
If something goes wrong
The HTML has odd line breaks
This happens when the PDF was set with hard line breaks. A find-and-replace in a text editor can join the lines.
The page freezes with a large document
Everything runs on your device, and a long document with many pictures needs memory. Try again on a computer, or convert the document in parts.
The PDF is password protected
A protected document must be opened with its password first. Without it, the text cannot be read.
Related tools
The same family of tools covers the neighbouring jobs. To go back to a document, HTML to PDF prints a page into a PDF. For editable text, PDF to DOCX and PDF to ODT read the words from a PDF, and for tables, PDF to XLS finds rows and columns. For reading on a device, there is PDF to EPUB, and when you want pictures of the pages instead, PDF to PNG is the answer.
A worked example
Say your association has published its annual report only as a PDF of twenty pages, and you want it on your website. You drop the PDF here and press the button. A few seconds later you download one HTML file, with the headings, the paragraphs, two tables and four pictures inside it. You open it in a browser, delete the repeated page headers, add your site's style sheet and upload it. The PDF stays on the site as a download for people who want to print it.
A short checklist
Before converting
Check that the PDF is not a scan. Decide which pages you need. Keep the PDF safe.
While converting
Stay on the page until the file is ready.
After converting
Open the HTML in a browser, remove stray page numbers, check tables and pictures and add your own styling.
Common mistakes
Expecting the page layout
Do not convert PDF to HTML hoping for the same pages. The words come across, the layout does not.
Publishing without checking
Always read the page in a browser before you put it online. Look for mixed columns and stray headers.
Trying it on a scan
A scanned PDF holds a picture of text, so nothing comes out. Check that you can select text before you start.
Your document stays on your device
The conversion happens locally. Your PDF is read by your own browser, rewritten there and handed back as an HTML file. Nothing is uploaded, so no copy ends up on a server and nobody else can read it. For documents with private content, that is the safe way to convert PDF to HTML.
Summary
To convert PDF to HTML here, drop the document and press the button. Your PDF is read in your browser and written out as HTML. A PDF records where each letter sits, not what it means, so headings, paragraphs, lists and tables are worked out from position and size, and you get something you can edit again, not a picture of a page. Headings, paragraphs, bold and italic, lists, tables and pictures are kept, in one self-contained file, with the pictures inside it as data. That makes the file considerably larger than the markup alone. Page layout, columns and footnotes are dropped, a two-column page comes out interleaved, and a scanned PDF yields nothing. Nothing leaves your device.