How to start

Turn a document into a video

Upload a document and get a hand-drawn explainer video. Good for onboarding material, training docs, reports and the wiki pages nobody opens.

Updated 23 July 2026

Create your first video

Short answer: Document to video takes a file you already wrote and turns it into a narrated hand-drawn video. explain.ink pulls out the line of argument, drops the boilerplate, writes the narration and draws it scene by scene, so twenty pages become the three or four things a viewer actually needs.

Documents are where explanations go to be ignored. Upload one and explain.ink pulls out the line of argument, drops the boilerplate, writes narration and draws it scene by scene.

What happens to a long document?

It gets turned into a story rather than a list. Twenty pages do not become twenty minutes of video: they become the three or four things a viewer needs, in the order that makes them make sense. Section headings that exist for filing, not for reading, are ignored.

What is it good for?

Onboarding material, see onboarding
Training and process docs, see training
Reports and one-pagers that need an audience wider than the person who wrote them

When is a document a weak fit?

A file that is mostly tables, or a contract with no argument running through it, makes a thin video. The documents that work have a point to make and a reason someone outside the team should care about it.

What about PDFs?

A PDF works the same way and has its own page, see PDF to video.

Other ways to start

PDF to video

Reports, manuals and exported decks, turned into a narrated drawn video.

Script to video

Paste a finished script. Your wording is kept, the drawing follows it.

Text to video

Type a topic or paste a paragraph. It writes, draws and narrates the rest.

Whiteboard animation maker

Every stroke drawn on screen, from your topic, script or document.

All 18 styles

Pick the look the video is drawn in, from whiteboard marker to sumi-e ink.

Frequently asked questions

Does a twenty page document become a twenty minute video?

No. The document is turned into a story rather than a summary of every page, so the video covers the three or four points a viewer needs, in the order that makes them make sense.

What does it ignore in the file?

Section headings that exist for filing rather than reading, boilerplate, and page furniture. The video follows the argument, not the layout of the document.

Which documents work badly?

Files that are mostly tables, or contracts with no argument running through them. Those stay better as reference material. Documents with a point to make work best.

Can I fix the result if it misses the point?

Edit the document and run it again, or paste the wording yourself as a script with script to video, which keeps your sentences exactly as written.

Do PDFs work the same way?

Yes, and PDFs have their own page with the details, including what happens to exported slide decks and manuals.