paper2epub
PDF to EPUB, for scientific papers
Papers you can actually read on your Kindle or Kobo.
A PDF is made for printing: two narrow columns and tiny type that you end up zooming and panning across on a six-inch screen. paper2epub rebuilds the paper as a real e-book. The text flows to fit your screen and your font size, equations are typeset with LaTeX, tables stay tables, and every citation is a link.
Free, no sign-up, and your files are gone within an hour.
If it saved you some squinting, you can buy me a coffee.
What you get
- The text of the paper itself, with its italics, subscripts and superscripts.
- Equations compiled with LaTeX, crisp at any font size.
- Tables as real tables, and figures with their captions.
- Citations, footnotes and cross-references you can tap.
- Pseudocode laid out line by line, indentation and all.
- A chapter for each section, and a table of contents.
Questions
How do I read an arXiv paper on my Kindle?
Download the PDF from arXiv, drop it above, and send the EPUB you get to your Kindle with Amazon’s Send to Kindle: the web page, the app or e-mail. A few minutes later it’s in your library, with a table of contents.
Why not just send the PDF?
An e-reader shows a PDF as a picture of each page. The text can’t reflow, so on a small screen it’s either tiny or you’re panning around, and converting it on the device tends to scramble two-column layouts and equations. An EPUB reflows like any book, at the font size you like.
Does it work on a Kobo, Apple Books or a phone?
Yes. It’s a standard EPUB: copy it to a Kobo over USB, or open it in Apple Books, Google Play Books, KOReader or any reading app. You can also read it right here.
Which papers can it convert?
Anything born digital: arXiv preprints, journal articles, conference papers, up to 50 MB and 300 pages. A scanned PDF is only pictures of pages, so there’s no text to work with. For safety, files with scripts, attachments or a password are refused.
What happens to my files?
The PDF is deleted as soon as it’s converted, and the EPUB after an hour. The ✕ next to it deletes it sooner. Nothing is kept and there are no accounts.