To convert an EPUB to Markdown on Windows, add the book to MD Factory. Conversion starts right away and saves the whole book as one Markdown file next to the EPUB. The book must be DRM-free.
A Markdown copy of a book you own is easy to search alongside your notes, to quote from, and to give to an AI agent that works with files on your PC. Our overview of ebook conversion covers EPUB, FB2, and MOBI together. This guide goes into EPUB in detail.
Convert an EPUB in MD Factory
- Open MD Factory and click Add files, or drag the EPUB onto the window. To convert a folder of books, click Add folder.
- Wait for the status next to the book: Completed, Needs review, or Failed.
- Open the Markdown file. MD Factory saves it next to the EPUB and puts the illustrations in a folder beside it:
Books/
book.epub
book.md
book_images/MD Factory does not change the EPUB. If it cannot save into the book's folder, it asks where to put the result.
If you convert the same book again, the new result replaces the old Markdown file only if you have not edited it. A file you have edited stays as it is, and the new result is saved under a numbered name, such as book (2).md, in the same folder.
What ends up in the Markdown file
MD Factory writes one Markdown file per book, not one file per chapter. Chapters follow the order that the EPUB 3.3 specification calls the spine, the book's default reading order.
| Part of the book | In the Markdown file |
|---|---|
| Chapters | One after another, in reading order, including everything else the spine lists, such as endnotes and appendices. |
| Table of contents | Included if the book lists its contents page in the spine. Its entries link to the chapters in the same file. MD Factory does not add a contents list of its own. |
| Footnotes and endnotes | Each note marker stays a link to its note, including notes collected at the end of the book. |
| Links | Links between chapters point inside the file. Links to websites stay as they are. |
| Illustrations | Saved as PNG files in the images folder, with their alt text. |
| Cover | Missing when the cover page is drawn as an SVG graphic, as in the Project Gutenberg EPUBs we tested. |
| Tables | Markdown tables. |
| Fonts, colors, and page layout | Not kept. |
Check the chapter titles. In the two Project Gutenberg EPUBs we tested on October 17, 2026, each title ended up on the line below its heading mark (##), so a Markdown viewer shows it as plain text. If you navigate by headings, move each title up onto its heading line.
When a book needs review or fails
Needs review means the book converted, but MD Factory found something worth a look. Failed means there is no Markdown file. Click the status to see the details. These are the messages you may see for an EPUB:
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| Some document content could not be represented in Markdown. | A chapter listed in the spine is missing from the EPUB file, and the message names it. The same message appears when the book embeds content such as an interactive frame. MD Factory converts the rest of the book. If a chapter is missing in your reading app too, download the book again. |
| The text encoding was inferred. Check special characters. | MD Factory could not read some characters in a chapter reliably but kept the text. Check accented letters and punctuation there. |
| An image could not be exported. | An illustration is missing from the EPUB file. Look at that page in the original. |
| An image format is not supported. | An illustration is in a format MD Factory cannot convert, such as SVG. |
| An external image or resource was skipped. | The book points to an image on the internet. MD Factory does not download it. |
| A local link target could not be preserved. | A link leads to a file that is not in the spine or does not exist. The link text stays, without the link. |
| Encrypted or DRM-protected books are not supported. | Failed: the book is protected. See the next section. |
| This file is damaged or does not match its extension. | Failed: the file is not a complete EPUB, for example after an interrupted download. Download it again. |
How to tell whether an EPUB has DRM
MD Factory converts only DRM-free books. It does not remove DRM, and this guide does not cover removing it. You can usually tell whether a book is protected before you convert it:
- You received an ACSM file instead of an EPUB. Kobo's help explains that books with the ACSM extension are protected by DRM. Libraries use the same files: OverDrive notes that Adobe Digital Editions uses ACSM files to download DRM-protected ebooks.
- The book opens only after you sign in. To read DRM-protected books outside the store's own app, you have to authorize Adobe Digital Editions with an account. Kobo's guide to Adobe Digital Editions walks through that sign-in.
- The store tells you. Kobo's help on downloading purchased books separates DRM-protected files from DRM-free ones. When you export a book from Google Play Books, you get either an EPUB or an ACSM file that needs Adobe Digital Editions.
If you add a protected book anyway, it fails with "Encrypted or DRM-protected books are not supported." Read that book in the app you bought it for, or ask the seller whether a DRM-free edition exists.
DRM-free does not mean free to share. Convert books you are entitled to use, such as DRM-free purchases, public-domain books, and your own writing. Keep the Markdown copy for your own use unless the book's license allows more.
Project Gutenberg offers public-domain books as EPUB. Its licensing page says the books are free of copyright restrictions in the United States and asks readers elsewhere to check the laws of their country. Since January 20, 2026, Amazon has let buyers download an EPUB of Kindle books that their publishers released without DRM through Kindle Direct Publishing. Our MOBI guide covers Kindle books in more detail.
Read the book in Obsidian
- Copy the Markdown file and its images folder into your vault, side by side. The image links are relative to the Markdown file, so the folder has to stay next to it.
- Open the note. Obsidian's help on links confirms that it supports standard Markdown links, which MD Factory uses for illustrations, alongside its own wikilinks.
- To give a chapter its own note, select the chapter's text in Editing view, right-click it, choose Extract current selection, and pick the note to move it to. This command comes from Note composer, an Obsidian core plugin. By default, it leaves a link to that note in place of the text.
The same vault can hold your PDF and Word files: our Obsidian import guide shows how to convert and add them.
Give the book to an AI agent
An AI agent that reads files on your PC, such as Claude Code, can open the Markdown copy directly. A whole book is long, so tell the agent where to look instead of asking it to read everything:
Search books/book.md for the passages about [topic].
Answer my question using only those passages.
Quote each passage you rely on and name its chapter.Keep the book in one folder with the agent's other sources. Our guide to preparing documents for AI agents shows a folder layout and a short source index.