Pdf To Md

pdf-to-md

Zero-dependency Claude Code skill for converting PDF documents to well-structured Markdown.

Most PDF-to-Markdown tools rely on heavy dependencies — Python virtual environments, AI model downloads (~2GB+), or multi-step setup. This skill takes a different approach: it leverages Claude's native multimodal Read tool to visually parse PDF pages, and uses poppler's `pdfimages` to extract embedded figures losslessly. No venvs, no pip installs, no model downloads. Just copy one file and start converting.

How it works

1. Claude's Read tool views the PDF visually - seeing the actual rendered pages, not lossy text extraction
2. pdfimages (from poppler) extracts embedded figures at their original resolution - no cropping, no guesswork
3. Claude structures the markdown with full awareness of the document layout - headings, tables, lists, references

Install

# Copy the skill file
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/pdf-to-md
cp SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/pdf-to-md/

# Install poppler for image extraction (optional, skip if PDFs have no figures)
brew install poppler        # macOS
# apt install poppler-utils # Linux

Usage

Just ask Claude Code to convert a PDF:

把这个 PDF 转成 markdown
Convert paper.pdf to markdown
PDF to MD: report.pdf

The skill triggers automatically when it detects PDF-to-markdown intent.

Output

source-document.pdf
source-document.md          # Generated markdown
images/
  figure1_architecture.png  # Extracted figures (original resolution)
  figure2_results.png

Features

• Heading hierarchy - maps section numbering (1, 1.1, 1.1.1) to markdown levels
• Image extraction - lossless extraction of embedded figures via pdfimages
• Table conversion - PDF tables to markdown tables, merged across pages
• Reference preservation - numbered citations with DOI links
• Equation support - LaTeX notation where recognizable
• Gantt charts / timelines - converted to markdown tables
• **Lar