How to Convert PDF to HTML Web Page

PDF files have very strong compatibility, but it's not the best format when it comes to web page creation and editing. On the other hand, HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a computer language devised to allow website creation. So when we have to display PDF files in THML web pages, we can convert the PDF to HTML to embed PDF to a .html web page. Another benefit is if you open the converted HTML file with Chrome, you'll be able to view translated content with Chrome translation feature easily, no need to find another translator for the PDF.

So how to convert PDF to HTML? Here we've listed 4 different tools for you to accomplish it. These tools are classified into two categories, online converters, and offline programs. With online PDF to HTML converters, you can choose from EasePDF and Google Docs. As for offline desktop programs, we recommend Adobe Acrobat and PDFelement.

Part 1. How to Convert PDF to HTML Online

The reason we recommend online PDF to HTML converter first is because of the low cost of time and energy of it. With an online converter, you can process the tasks on any device any time, as long as you have a good internet connection. And it won't occupy much room for your devices compared to desktop software. To choose a suitable PDF to HTML converter, we may need to pay attention to a few aspects.

1.Processing speed

Normally if we have a good internet connection, the processing speed of a converter mainly depends on the document size and server performance. To optimize PDF file size, we can compress the PDF before uploading it to the server. And that leaves server performance the only factor that we can't control as a user. In conclusion, the good performance of a converter is what depends on the processing speed of PDF to HTML online conversion.

2.File limitation

Many online converters offer free service with a file or page limitation, which makes big file conversion complicated. So to check the restriction before choosing an online converter is very important.

3.Output quality

A key factor to evaluate an online PDF to HTML converter is if it can embed images that along with the original PDF to the new HTML. As we tested for the following converters, we'll list their advantages and disadvantages for you.

Option 1. EasePDF Online PDF to HTML Converter

Specializing in online PDF converting, editing and creating, EasePDF offers many practical online services that cover most of your daily PDF usages and make the work super easy. First of all, let's visit EasePDF homepage and choose "PDF to HTML".

Step 1. Open the PDF file to be converted in 3 ways. You can click the "Add File(s)" button to access files on your computer, smartphone or other devices. Or you can click on the cloud drives icons below the upload button to add files from Google Drive, Dropbox or other locations on the internet. Last but not least, you can just drag and drop the file to the uploading area.

Step 2. Download the converted HTML file. A newly created HTML file will be displayed on the page when the conversion finishes. You can download your HTML file by accessing the "Download" button, or by clicking the "URL" icon to copy the download URL. You can also save this file to your Google Drive and Dropbox.

Advantage:

+ Free and fast processing.

+ No file or page limitation.

+ No sign-up needed.

Disadvantage:

- Not perfect conversion when the PDF contains images.

Option 2. Google Docs

Google Docs is an acknowledged online alternative for Microsoft Office, which allows us to do online document editing and surprisingly formats converting. In an earlier post we've shown you how to convert PDF to Word using Google Docs, now converting PDF to HTML is much the same.

Step 1. Open the PDF file on Google Docs. Go to Google Docs homepage and log in with your Google account.

Step 2. Upload your PDF file. Click on the "File" icon below the row of the template to open a new window.

Choose "Upload" and add the PDF file you want to convert to HTML on your device. When you click the "Open" button your file will be upload to the server and opened in Google Docs.

Step 3. Open PDF with Google Docs. When your PDF file finishes uploading, it will be displayed immediately. Click the little triangle tab besides on the top bar, and choose "Google Docs" on the drop-down list. This action will lead you to the Google Docs editing page.

Step 4. Save PDF as HTML. Go to the "File" menu on the top bar of the interface, click "Download" on the drop-down list, then choose "Web Page (.html, zipped)" as the output format. A converted HTML document will be immediately downloaded to your device.

Advantage:

+ Free.

+ Fast processing.

Disadvantage:

- Can't embed any image along with the PDF into HTML.

Part 2. Convert PDF to HTML Offline

Unlike an online converter, converting PDF to HTML offline means to download a desktop converter. Normally a desktop PDF converter doesn't just contain a single tool, which means it has greater functions yet will occupy much more room on your device.

Option 1. Adobe Acrobat Pro

Since PDF is a document format that invented by Adobe, the most famous and powerful program about editing and converting PDF files is without a doubt Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

Step 1. Open your PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro. Run the program and choose "File" → "Open". Then select your PDF file in the Open dialog box, and click the "Open" button.

Step 2. Go to the "File" menu again and choose "Save As" option. On the drop-down menu, choose "More Options" and select "HTML Web Page" as your converted format.

Step 3. On the "Save As" dialog, choose "Settings" on the right blank area. If you want your converted HTML web page to contain the images from your original PDF, tick the "Include Images" box. And we suggest you tick the "Run OCR if needed" tab also because in this way a scanned PDF can be converted as well. Now click on the "OK" button. Next, enter a file name for the HTML file and choose a destination to save it. When everything looks fine, choose "OK" to start the conversion. During the converting progress, you'll see a little processing bar under the interface.

When the processing bar disappears, it means your PDF has been successfully converted to HTML. Go to the location you choose to store the file and open it now.

Advantage:

+ OCR supported.

+ Customize setting supported, optional for images conversion.

Disadvantage:

- Not Free, kind of expensive.

- Can't convert PDF to a single HTML.

Option 2. PDFelement

PDFelement is another powerful desktop software that allows you to create, edit, convert and sign PDF documents on Windows and Mac. Before getting started, please download PDFelement on your device.

Step 1. Run PDFelement on your computer, click the "Open" button on the interface to open your PDF file.

Step 2. On the top toolbar, go to "To Other" menu and select "Convert to HTML".

Step 3. On the newly pop-up dialog, you can add another PDF file to convert and set the page range you want to convert for each PDF. You can select "Enable OCR" if your PDF contains OCR materials.

When you click on the "Settings" icon, you can set the contents you wish to embed into the converted HTML. For example, if you don't want to include any links from the original PDF, just select the "Ignore Hyperlinks". To tick the "Ignore Images" box, you choose to exclude all images along with the PDF.

Advantage:

+ OCR supported.

+ Customize setting supported, optional for pages, images, and hyperlinks conversion.

Disadvantage:

- Not Free.

- Can't convert PDF to a single HTML.

It seems there's no converter to convert a PDF into a single HTML file that embeds the image in it. If you have any clue to improve that, please let us know by leaving a comment or contact us via email. If you need to do the opposite for HTML to PDF conversion or save a web page to a single HTML file, please refer to this post: How to Convert HTML Webpage to PDF.