FB2 → Markdown
Converting a novel from FictionBook (.fb2) to Markdown (.md) is a routine step in practice — Markdown is plain text, so any editor opens it and it versions cleanly. Going from FictionBook to Markdown does raise extra questions worth thinking about: you lose metadata such as title, author and language. Below we explain in detail how FictionBook becomes Markdown and what to watch out for, and the page ends with a converter that does the job right in your browser — nothing is uploaded, the file never leaves your machine.
What is FB2?
FB2 (FictionBook) is an open e-book format based on XML. Text, metadata and illustrations all live in a single file, with images embedded as Base64, so one file distributes completely and you never end up with the text present but the images missing. Its structure is simpler than EPUB and therefore easier for readers to implement, and it is most popular in Russian-speaking regions. The drawback is that it supports almost no complex CSS, so it suits text-plus-illustration books rather than titles that depend on fine layout. Read the FB2 format guide
| Extensions | .fb2 |
|---|---|
| Typical use | Russian-language e-books; single-file distribution where embedded illustrations and full metadata matter. |
What is Markdown?
Markdown is plain text plus markers (# headings, ** bold, | tables) — effectively a superset of .txt. Any text editor opens it, and it versions cleanly in Git. Its expressiveness is deliberately limited: no pagination, no headers or footers, no precise control over type size or position, and no complex layouts. Those trade-offs make Markdown an excellent authoring and conversion source, but as a final reading format its experience depends entirely on which app opens it. Read the Markdown format guide
| Extensions | .md |
|---|---|
| Typical use | Authoring, notes and technical docs; a clean intermediate format before converting to EPUB or TXT. |
How to convert FB2 to Markdown
FB2 is a single XML file with Base64-embedded images. Parsing must handle the XML namespace and <binary> nodes; ignoring them silently drops every image. Base64 also makes the file roughly a third larger than an equivalent EPUB.
Markdown output keeps text and only the most basic hierarchy (# headings, paragraphs, simple lists). Pagination, headers and footers, comments, tracked changes, precise type sizes and text wrapping are all gone — it is a content archive, not a layout archive.
Metadata in the FB2 source — title, author, publisher, language, table of contents, cover — has nowhere to live in the target, so converting to Markdown loses all of it.
If you still want chapter navigation inside the Markdown file, a novel reader such as Tide Reader can split it automatically by recognising explicit chapter-heading lines in the text.
Convert FB2 to Markdown
FB2 → MARKDOWN
The conversion runs entirely in your browser — your file is never uploaded.
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