Convert a PDF to an EPUB for your iPhone

An EPUB reflows to fit your screen; a PDF does not. Peony converts the PDFs you add into EPUB books so they read like ebooks.

What the conversion does

A PDF only knows where each word sits on a page. Peony's converter works out the book from that: it joins lines back into paragraphs, finds the headings and builds a table of contents, and writes a standard EPUB that opens with the same reader as every other book in your library.

What it fixes

Running headers, footers and page numbers are removed, so they no longer interrupt a sentence at the bottom of a page.
Paragraphs and headings are rebuilt, with a contents list you can jump around in.
Hyphenated line breaks are joined back into whole words.
Footnotes are kept, and code listings keep their line breaks and indentation in a monospace font.
Italic and bold inside paragraphs are kept, and numbered steps become real lists.
Tables become real tables with a header row, instead of a run of numbers.
Two-column pages are read in the right order, left column first.
Pictures and figures are kept with their captions.

What it cannot do

Pages that are mostly layout, such as forms, slides, maps and sheet music, do not reflow well. Keep those as pages.
Mathematics set inline in a paper can come out rough, because the converter cannot rebuild equations.
Very wide tables can be too wide for a phone, and tables with long sentences in the cells may stay as paragraphs.
DRM-protected books cannot be opened or converted.
The limit is 100 MB per PDF.

Scanned PDFs

If the PDF is a scan with no text, Peony first recognises the text (English, up to 600 pages) and then converts it. See reading a scanned PDF as an ebook.

What is sent, and what is kept

Conversion happens on this site's server, so the PDF is uploaded. The app needs no account; it identifies itself with a random ID it made on your phone, which the server uses only to count conversions and stop abuse. The PDF and the finished EPUB are deleted after the app has downloaded the EPUB, or within 24 hours at the latest, and the server keeps only a numbers-only record (sizes and outcome, never names or contents). You can turn conversion off in Peony's settings; then nothing is ever sent and PDFs open as pages. The privacy policy is the full text.

Why an EPUB is worth it

Once a PDF is an EPUB you can change the text size and theme, highlight passages and add notes and bookmarks (highlights are available for EPUB books), copy a highlight out as Markdown for Obsidian or Anki, and have the book read aloud. Other ways to make a PDF comfortable on a phone.

Peony is on the App Store: get it for your iPhone.

More guides

Peony is an iPhone app for reading EPUB and PDF books you already own. See the home page, the FAQ and the privacy policy.