PDF2MD

Convert PDFs to Markdown on macOS in three ways:

• command line with pdf2md
• Finder Quick Action with Convert to Markdown
• menu bar app that watches a folder for PDFs and converts them in the background

Requirements

• macOS
• Apple Silicon build currently provided in releases
• Xcode command line tools if building from source

Install

Option 1: Download a release asset

From the GitHub Releases page, download:

• pdf2md-macos-arm64.tar.gz for the CLI binary
• PDF2MD-macos-arm64.zip for the menu bar app

Example CLI install:

tar -xzf pdf2md-macos-arm64.tar.gz
install -m 755 pdf2md ~/.local/bin/pdf2md

Example app install:

ditto -x -k PDF2MD-macos-arm64.zip ~/Applications

Option 2: Build from source

make verify
make install

That installs:

• ~/.local/bin/pdf2md
• ~/Library/Services/Convert to Markdown.workflow
• ~/Applications/PDF2MD.app

Usage

CLI

pdf2md /path/to/file.pdf

Finder Quick Action

1. Install with make install.
2. Right-click a PDF in Finder.
3. Choose Quick Actions > Convert to Markdown.

Menu Bar App

1. Launch PDF2MD.app.
2. Choose:
   • a source folder to watch
   • an output folder for Markdown files
   • a processed folder to archive PDFs after conversion
3. Start monitoring.

The app uses macOS user-selected folder permissions. If you change folders, re-select them in the app.

Release Packaging

To build release artifacts locally:

bash Scripts/package-release.sh

Artifacts are written to dist/.