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Output formats

You can choose one or more formats for each upload. All of them are made from the same manuscript.

Format Best for Notes
PDF Reading on screen and printing Typeset with the template you choose. Has a title page, contents page, running heads and chapter openers. Limited by page count.
EPUB E-readers and phones Reflowable text with a contents list. Limited by word count.
Word (DOCX) Editing, sending to an editor Uses Word's standard styles. Limited by word count.
HTML Sharing on the web One self-contained file with its styles inside. Limited by word count.

PDF types

  • Screen PDF is trimmed to the page size you choose and is best for reading.
  • Print-ready PDF adds bleed, optional crop marks and a preflight report. See Print-ready PDF.
  • Both gives you two PDF files.

The free-plan credit line

On the free plan every PDF page carries a small, light-grey line in the bottom-right corner: Generated by markdownbooks.com. It sits inside the page margin, below your text, and never overlaps your content. It appears on screen and print-ready PDFs, including the title page. EPUB, Word and HTML files do not have it.

File names

Every file is named after your Markdown file: the first 10 characters of its name, then _MarkdownBooks, then the extension.

Your file Download
my-long-manuscript.md my-long-ma_MarkdownBooks.pdf
my-long-ma_MarkdownBooks-print.pdf (print-ready)
my-long-ma_MarkdownBooks.epub

Characters other than letters, digits, dashes and underscores become _.

If one format fails

If any format fails, the job is marked Failed and the message names the format. The formats that did succeed stay available to download. Fix the cause (often a limit, see E006) and upload again.

Tips

  • The contents page in PDF is created from your # and ## headings.
  • DOCX contents are built from headings and are updated when you open the file in Word.
  • Warnings about images or raw HTML apply to every format.

Something unclear? Tell us and we will improve this guide.