How to turn a PDF into flashcards

Pick the pages that matter, decide what one card should look like (a term and its definition, a question and its answer, a word and its translation), and then either write the cards yourself or hand the PDF to a tool that reads it. Writing by hand is slow but forces you to process the material; a spreadsheet lets you import a two-column list; an AI reader does the extraction for you, and you review what it wrote.

Updated 2026-09-16 · Português (Brasil)

Step by step

  1. Choose the pages, not the whole book

    A chapter or a lecture handout makes a good set. A whole textbook makes a set nobody finishes, and very long files read badly in one pass anyway.

  2. Decide the card format

    Term and definition for concepts, question and answer for exam material, word and translation for vocabulary. One format per set keeps the cards consistent.

  3. Extract the cards

    By hand: read a page and write the cards as you go. Spreadsheet: put fronts in one column and backs in the other, save as CSV, import it. AI: upload the PDF and say what the back of each card should contain.

  4. Review before you save

    Delete cards that are not worth learning, fix wording, split cards that ask two things at once. Ten minutes here saves hours of reviewing weak cards.

  5. Study with spaced repetition

    Let a scheduler decide when each card comes back, so you review what is due and leave the rest for later.

How it works in Flashcards.gg

Open Create, choose Document and pick the PDF (also Word or PowerPoint). Tell the AI what goes on the back of each card, or let it suggest a format from the content. The cards appear as a preview you can edit before saving. Older .doc and .ppt files need to be exported as PDF or DOCX first.

Try it in the browser

Questions

Does it work with scanned PDFs?

A scanned PDF is a set of images. Photograph or screenshot the pages instead and use the photo path.

Does a whole book work?

Very long documents exceed what the AI can read in one pass, so a chapter at a time works better than a whole book.

Can I export the result?

Every set exports to CSV, TSV, TXT, JSON and Anki .apkg.

What about Word and PowerPoint files?

DOCX and PPTX are accepted directly. The old binary .doc and .ppt formats are not; save them as PDF or DOCX first.

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