PDF to Website · Your App Cloud
Turn a PDF into a website people can read
Upload the PDF of a report, guide or menu. Choose the chapters that become pages, say where sidebars, charts and footnotes go, and read each page on a phone beside the printed edition.
From a printed layout to pages a phone can read.
Pick what becomes a page, explain what the layout was doing, then read the result beside the PDF before anyone else does.
01
Choose the edition and the chapters
Attach the final edition with the upload button above, not a proof or the file sent to the printer. In the prompt, list the chapters to keep in menu order. Name the pages to skip, such as the cover, the contents page and blank pages.
02
Explain what the layout was doing
A designer used columns, boxes, large quotes and footnotes to steer a reader across a printed spread. Say where each belongs on a narrow screen. Paste in the figures behind every chart, and ask for them as a table beside the picture.
03
Read each page beside the PDF
Open the preview at the width of a phone. Read one full chapter with the PDF open next to it, checking paragraph order, every figure and each footnote. Publish, then send the address to someone who has never seen the report.
Where each piece of the printed layout goes.
Read across each row: something printed in the PDF, its place on the website, and how to confirm it. The quoted lines come from a made-up 28-page annual report for Harbor Point Food Bank, a nonprofit in San Diego.
| Printed in the PDF | On the website | What to look for |
|---|---|---|
| The contents page, and the bookmarks or outline panel your PDF reader shows, if the file has one | The menu, with a page for each chapter you keep, such as Our Year, Programs and Financials | Open each page from the menu and compare its first and last paragraph with the PDF. Nothing from the following chapter should trail onto the end of it. |
| Body text in two columns, with a boxed sidebar such as 'How a pantry visit works' | One column of text, with the box set apart after the paragraph it explains | Read a page that had a sidebar from top to bottom. The main text should never break off mid-sentence to show the box and then carry on below it. |
| A pull quote in large type: 'I came for one Saturday and stayed three years.' | One quotation, shown once, with the name of the person who said it | A pull quote repeats a line from the body text. Search the page for its first few words, and delete one copy if the sentence now appears twice. |
| A chart drawn as a picture, such as meals served in each quarter | The chart as an image, alt text that states what it shows, and its figures in a small table | Alt text like 'bar chart' tells a screen reader user nothing. Write the finding, such as 'Meals served rose every quarter of 2025', then compare each figure in the table with the chart's labels. |
| A photo that runs across two facing pages | One wide image, cropped so its subject stays in view on a phone | Look at it at phone width. Check that the crop keeps people's faces in the frame, not the middle strip where the two printed pages met. |
| Captions and credits: 'Volunteers sort produce at the Oceanside pantry. Photo: J. Rivera' | A caption directly under its photo, and a credit wherever the license asks for one | On a printed page with three photos, captions sit wherever they fit. Check that each caption on the site describes the photo directly above it. |
| A footnote marker on a figure, as in '12,480³', explained on the last page as 'Unaudited' | The note beside the figure it qualifies, or in a Notes section at the end of that page | A marker read as plain text can turn '12,480³' into '12,4803'. Compare every footnoted figure with the PDF, and check each note still names the number it covers. |
| A financial table on a page turned sideways, with columns for 2024 and 2025 | A table with a header row, which scrolls sideways on a phone or splits into one table per year | Scroll the table sideways on a phone and check each amount still sits under its year. Ask for the split if the line-item names scroll out of view. |
| Print leftovers: '2025 Annual Report | 9' at the foot of each page, 'Continued on page 14', a blank back page | Left out. The menu and the links between pages do the job these did on paper | Before you publish, search every page for 'continued' and 'Annual Report |'. Each hit came from the printed layout, so delete it or turn it into a link. |
| The PDF itself, which people still print, forward and attach to grant applications | A link such as 'Download the 2025 annual report (PDF)' on the home page and on Financials | Follow the link from the published site. Check that it opens the final edition, not a proof, and that the year in the link text matches the file. |
A PDF fixes every line to a sheet of paper.
A PDF keeps its layout on every screen, because each line has a set place on a page of a set size. A website moves text around to suit a phone, a laptop or a screen reader. Look for these in the PDF before you upload it.
The file you sent to the printer
A print-ready PDF may carry crop marks, artwork running past the page edge and facing pages joined as spreads. If your designer also exported a version for email, with single pages and no printer's marks, upload that one.
Words that are part of a picture
In your PDF reader, try to highlight a headline, a chart label and the phone number. If you can't select the words one at a time, they are drawn as part of a picture. Type them into the prompt so they can go on the site as real text.
Dates that were true on the print day
A report says 'this year' and 'last spring'. A course guide says 'registration opens next month'. Read on a website months later, those phrases mislead, so replace each one with a date or a named year.
Fonts licensed for print
A typeface your designer licensed for print work is not always licensed for a website. Check the license before you ask for the same font, or name a similar web font and your brand colors in the prompt.
An illustrative starting point
Web pages where one long file used to be.
Your PDF's chapters as pages in a menu, text in one column that fits a phone, charts and photos with alt text, and the PDF itself as a download.
A page and an address for each chapter
A reader who wants the financials opens Financials, and you can send that page's address on its own. With the PDF alone, the same reader starts at page one of twenty-eight.
Text that reflows instead of shrinking
A PDF page shrinks to fit a phone as a whole, so readers pinch and pan. Text on a web page wraps to the screen instead. Zoom a desktop browser to 200% and check that no line runs off the side.
Charts and photos described in words
Ask for alt text on every chart and photo, and for each chart's figures beside it as text. Turn on the screen reader built into your phone and listen to one chart from start to finish.
The PDF, kept for people who print
A dated download link stays on the site for anyone who needs the whole report in one piece. When the next edition arrives, replace the file and the link text in the same round.
A next step at the end of each chapter
Ask readers to donate, volunteer or register. A link to a page you already use, such as your donation page, works on a one-page site. A sign-up form that saves entries or emails them to you makes the site an app with data. Send yourself a test entry before you share the site.
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A little more context
Good questions.
Why not put the PDF on my site and link to it?
You can, and the file is worth keeping as a download. But a linked PDF keeps its printed pages, so phone readers zoom and pan, and every chapter shares one address. Separate pages reflow to the screen, and each chapter gets a title and an address of its own.
Should I upload the PDF or the file it was made from?
Is the PDF an export of a Word document you still keep up to date? Then start from that document on the Word to Website page. Upload the PDF when it is the only final copy, such as a designed report whose layout file stays with an agency.
Which plan does a website made from a PDF need?
Free, when the site only presents what the PDF says, as sections of one page: text, images, a menu and a download link. Several pages at their own addresses, a form that saves sign-ups or a confirmation email make it an app, which needs a paid plan to go live, and a custom domain needs Pro. For donations, link to the donation page you already use.
Readers quote page numbers from the PDF. What replaces them?
A website has no fixed pages, so each chapter's web address takes their place. If people cite smaller sections, ask for a link to each heading as well. Keep the dated PDF download for anyone who must cite 'page 12' in a grant report or a board paper.
Will the pages work with a screen reader?
Check it yourself rather than assume it. Each heading should be marked as a heading, not only set in bold. Every chart and photo needs alt text, each table needs a header row, and link text should say where it goes. Turn on your phone's screen reader and listen to one full page.
What happens when next year's edition is ready?
Nothing changes on the site by itself, because an upload is a snapshot. Upload the new PDF on purpose and compare the pages before publishing. Decide whether last year's pages stay as an archive with the year in their titles, and swap the download link in the same round.
Can the building assistant in Studio draft the alt text?
Ask it for a draft of each chart's alt text from the figures you supply, and for each photo from its caption. Read every draft beside the PDF. A description that rounds a number or guesses who is in a photo needs fixing before you publish.
Explore Pricing for plans, included capabilities, and usage details.
Keep exploring.
Build a website without a source file ↗
See the outcome and the capabilities behind it.
How to turn a PDF into a website ↗
A worked page map for a sample twelve-page brochure, the rewrites it needs for phones, and a checklist to run before you publish.
Websites from other kinds of file ↗
Start here when your material is a Word file, a set of slides, a workbook or a photo instead of a PDF.
Understand data and context ↗
Give information the right place in your app.
Prepare to publish ↗
Check the experience you will share.
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