Pandoc

jgm/pandocReviewed by AI

What it does

Pandoc is a long-running, widely used converter for text documents. It turns files from one format into another, for example Word to Markdown, Markdown to Word, HTML or EPUB e-books, and slides. It is for writers, students, researchers and anyone who moves text between tools. It has no windows or buttons: you type commands in a terminal, or try the project's online demo in a browser. Installers exist for Windows, Mac and Linux. Making PDFs needs an extra program such as MiKTeX (LaTeX). Conversions keep the structure of a document but not every formatting detail.

How easy it is to install

A · download and open · Web

Windows B
macOS B
Linux B
Web A

The project's online demos at pandoc.org/try and pandoc.org/app open in a browser with nothing to install, which is an A, but the README calls them limited. On Windows, Mac and Linux it is a B: a ready installer (`pandoc-3.13-windows-x86_64.msi`, `.pkg` for Mac, `.deb` for Linux) sets everything up and adds pandoc to the path, and the extra step is that you use it by typing commands, with LaTeX installed separately if you want PDF files.

Numbers on GitHub

Stars: 46,769on Oct 31, 2026
Downloads: 50,558,135460,614 this week
Growth: +66stars in 5 days

Stars over time

Facts

Runs on: Windows, macOS, Linux, Web
You need to install: Nothing extra
Disk space: 41 MB–122 MB · from the installer
Accounts or keys: None
Cost: Free · Open source under GPL version 2 or later.
License: GPL-2.0 (Copyleft)
Last update: Oct 31, 2026

Risk signals (3)

Infoconversions can lose formatting
README.md: "one should not expect perfect conversions between every format and every other"; pandoc keeps structure "but not formatting details such as margin size", and "some document elements, such as complex tables, may not fit into pandoc's simple document model".
AI review
Infoready binaries cannot use some add ons
INSTALL.md: "the statically linked Pandoc binaries provided by us (or those available on Conda Forge) have a limitation. They are unable to utilise Lua filters that rely on Lua modules written in C."
AI review
Infopdf output needs a separate large install
INSTALL.md: "By default, Pandoc creates PDFs using LaTeX", and it warns that "a full MacTeX installation uses four gigabytes of disk space", recommending BasicTeX or TinyTeX instead.
AI review

Evidence is shown in its original language.

What Radar could not check

How well complex Word layouts, tables and styles survive a conversion.
Disk space used by a LaTeX install such as MiKTeX if you need PDF output.
How complete the online demos at pandoc.org/try and pandoc.org/app are compared with the installed program, and whether files you drop in stay on your computer.