Bindery · help
Bindery or Pandoc?
Three ways to turn Markdown into a document: the standard command-line tool, an app on the phone, and a website that asks you to upload. An honest account of when each is the right one, from people who use the first and make the second.
Pandoc, if you have a terminal
Pandoc is free, open source, and converts between more formats than anything else. On a Mac, Windows or Linux machine with a terminal it is the right tool, and no app on this site is trying to replace it there.
What it asks of you: a PDF needs a separate engine installed alongside it, such as a LaTeX distribution; a Mermaid diagram needs a filter and a renderer, or it comes out as its source text; Kobo's KEPUB is not one of its outputs; and there is no build of it for an iPhone. If you write on the phone, or want to send somebody a document from the train, Pandoc is on the other machine.
Bindery, if you are holding a phone
Bindery does one thing Pandoc does, with taps instead of flags, on an iPhone or iPad: Markdown to Word, PDF, EPUB or KEPUB, from one file or a folder of chapters. The PDF engine, the diagram renderer and the equation typesetter are all inside the app, so there is nothing to install and nothing it fetches.
It is free for twenty pages a month, with a one-off purchase to remove the limit, and it asks for no permissions and no account. It does not edit Markdown, and it writes four formats rather than forty.
A website, if you are willing to upload
Search for “markdown to epub” and most of what you find is a page with an upload button. It works. What it costs is that your manuscript, your contract or your notes go to a server you know nothing about, and you have only the site's word for what happens to them next. For a shopping list that is fine. For the reason most people write something long, it is not, and that is the reason Bindery exists.
Side by side
| Bindery | Pandoc | Online converter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on | iPhone and iPad | Mac, Windows, Linux | Their server |
| Your file goes | Nowhere | Nowhere | To them |
| Formats out | Word, PDF, EPUB, KEPUB | Dozens | Varies |
| Built in | Needs a separate engine | Usually | |
| Mermaid diagrams | Drawn | Needs a filter and a renderer | Rarely |
| A folder into one book | Yes, up to 500 files | Yes | Rarely |
| Works offline | Yes | Yes | No |
| Price | Free for 20 pages a month, then a one-off purchase | Free | Varies |
Still stuck?
Raise a case with or without an email address — your choice. Say which format you chose and what came out.