Overview
Opens an EPUB ebook in your browser so you can read it chapter by chapter and convert it to plain text, Markdown or a single HTML page. It reads EPUB 2 and EPUB 3 books, shows the title, author, cover and table of contents, and removes scripts and forms from every chapter. The book never leaves your device.
How It Works
Drop a DRM-free .epub of up to 200 MB onto the page. The tool shows the metadata card, word count, estimated reading time and image count, then lists the contents on the left. Click a heading, or move through the list with the arrow keys, Home and End, to show that section in the reader. Previous and Next step through sections in reading order. Choose Plain text, Markdown or Single HTML and copy or download the whole book, or copy the current section on its own.
Step-by-Step Usage Guide
- Drop a DRM-free .epub file onto the page or click to choose one.
- Check the title, author and cover in the metadata card.
- Pick a heading in the contents list to read that section.
- Choose Plain text, Markdown or Single HTML as the export format.
- Copy the result or download it as .txt, .md or .html.
Technical Specifications & Standards
An EPUB is a ZIP archive. The reader follows META-INF/container.xml to the OPF package file, takes the title, creator, language, publisher and date from its Dublin Core metadata, and walks the spine to get chapters in reading order. The contents list comes from the EPUB 3 nav document when there is one and from the older toc.ncx otherwise, with nested entries indented. Links are resolved relative to each file, so hrefs with ../ segments or percent-encoded spaces still find their target. Each chapter is rebuilt through a whitelist: script, style, iframe, object and form elements are dropped, every on* event attribute is discarded, and only http, https, mailto and #fragment links survive. Pictures are copied out of the archive as data URLs, which keeps the single HTML export self-contained. The reader view is a sandboxed iframe with a Content-Security-Policy that blocks script as a second layer. If META-INF/encryption.xml lists real encryption rather than font obfuscation, the book is DRM-protected and the tool says so instead of showing scrambled text.
Targeted Use Cases
- Feeding the text of a public-domain novel into a word-frequency or text-analysis script.
- Converting an ebook to Markdown so notes and quotes can live in Obsidian or a Git repository.
- Reading an EPUB on a work computer where installing an ebook app is not allowed.
- Archiving a book you own as one HTML file that opens in any browser.
- Checking the chapter structure and metadata of an EPUB you are about to publish.
Notes & Gotchas
- Use the Markdown export when you want headings, lists, tables and emphasis kept, and plain text when you only need words.
- Check that a book is DRM-free first, because books bought from most stores are locked to their app and cannot be read here.
- Expect the single HTML file to be large for illustrated books, because every image is embedded in it.
- Copy one section at a time when you only need a quote, rather than exporting the full book.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I convert an EPUB to a TXT file?
Drop the .epub onto the page, choose Plain text under Export whole book as, then click Download .txt. Chapters are separated by blank lines, list items start with a dash and table cells are separated by tabs.
Can it open DRM-protected EPUB books?
No. When the archive's encryption.xml shows the content is encrypted, the tool stops and explains that the book is DRM-protected. Books that only obfuscate embedded fonts are not locked and open normally.
Is it safe to open an EPUB from an unknown source?
Chapters are rebuilt from a list of allowed elements, so scripts, event handlers, forms and javascript: links are removed before anything is shown. The reader frame is also sandboxed and blocks script with a Content-Security-Policy.
Are images kept when I export to HTML or Markdown?
The single HTML export embeds every picture as a data URL so the file works offline. The Markdown export keeps an image reference with the original file name and alt text, because Markdown cannot hold the picture itself.
Does it support EPUB 2 as well as EPUB 3?
Yes. The contents list is read from the EPUB 3 navigation document when present, and from the EPUB 2 toc.ncx file when it is not. Covers are found through either the cover-image property or the older cover meta tag.
Related tools
- Markdown to EPUB Converter - Turn Markdown into a valid EPUB 3 ebook in your browser. Each # heading becomes a chapter, with a title, author, language and optional PNG or JPEG cover, a navigation document and an NCX for older readers.
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- PowerPoint Text Extractor (PPTX to Text) - Pull slide titles, bullet points, tables and speaker notes out of a .pptx file in slide order, export them as Markdown, plain text or JSON, and download every embedded picture as a ZIP. Runs locally in your browser.
- HTML to Plain Text Converter - Strip HTML tags and turn a web page or email into readable plain text, keeping paragraphs, list bullets, table rows and optional link URLs, with entities decoded.
- Word to HTML / Markdown - Convert a Word .docx file to clean HTML and GitHub Markdown with headings, lists, tables and links kept, and images embedded as base64 or exported as separate files in a ZIP.
- Markdown → HTML Converter - Convert Markdown to clean HTML. Preview rendered output and copy the raw HTML.