Convert LaTeX to PDF, Word & Markdown

To convert LaTeX to PDF, compile it in a browser editor like LetX (no install, seconds). To convert LaTeX to or from Word, use Pandoc (pandoc in.tex -o out.docx). For Markdown to LaTeX, use the LetX Markdown converter or Pandoc. PDF back to LaTeX is the hard direction — a PDF throws away the source — so you recover what you can (especially equations via OCR) and rebuild the rest. Details below.

LaTeX → PDF (the easy one)

Compiling LaTeX is converting it to PDF. The only question is where the compiler runs. Locally you’d install a TeX distribution and run latexmk -pdf paper.tex. Online, open the project in LetX and press compile — it runs the same latexmk on cloud workers and returns the PDF in about 1 second, with SyncTeX so you can jump between source and output. Upload an existing project as a .zip to convert a whole folder at once.

LaTeX ↔ Word

The standard tool both directions is Pandoc:

# LaTeX to Word
pandoc paper.tex -o paper.docx

# Word to LaTeX
pandoc paper.docx -o paper.tex

Pandoc handles headings, lists, tables, and citations well. Where it struggles: complex equations, custom macros, and bespoke layouts — expect to clean those up by hand. For Word → LaTeX, the output is a solid starting skeleton you then refine in the editor rather than a finished document.

PDF → LaTeX (the hard direction)

There is no lossless PDF-to-LaTeX conversion: a PDF is the rendered output with the source discarded. The practical workflow is to recover the parts that matter — OCR or retype the equations, recover the prose, then rebuild the document structure from a template.

Markdown → LaTeX

Drafting in Markdown and publishing in LaTeX is a fast workflow. Run pandoc notes.md -o notes.tex — headings, lists, and emphasis map to LaTeX commands and $...$ math is preserved. The full guide covers the details.