How to use it
- Choose an .epub, .fb2 or .fb2.zip file.
- Pick plain text or Markdown, and whether the title and author go on top.
- Check the text in the box, then download it or copy it.
How it works
An EPUB is a ZIP archive of XHTML pages. The tool unpacks it with the browser’s own decompressor, reads the package file to find the reading order (the spine), and turns each page into text: block elements become paragraphs, line breaks stay, scripts and styles are dropped. An FB2 file is one XML document whose sections are read in order. Words are counted as runs of letters or digits.
Worked example
A chapter page that holds <h1>Chapter 1</h1><p>It was a <em>dark</em> night.</p> becomes
- plain text: “Chapter 1”, a blank line, “It was a dark night.”;
- Markdown: “# Chapter 1”, a blank line, “It was a dark night.”.
Chapters are separated by two blank lines in text and by a — rule in Markdown.
Tips
- Text files are tiny and open everywhere, which makes them handy for reading on old devices, searching or text-to-speech.
- Use Markdown when you want to edit the book or convert it further while keeping its headings.
- To turn text back into an ebook, use the text to EPUB converter.