How to start

PDF to video, hand-drawn

Upload a PDF and get a narrated hand-drawn video of what it says. Works for reports, exported slide decks, manuals, procedures and research papers.

Updated 23 July 2026

Create your first video

Short answer: PDF to video reads the text of a PDF, works out what the file is actually arguing, writes narration for it and draws the scenes by hand. Reports, exported slide decks, manuals and papers become a short narrated video instead of a file that gets saved and never opened.

PDF is the format things get filed in and then never opened again. Upload one and explain.ink reads the text, works out what the actual message is, writes narration and draws it.

What does it work well for?

Reports and one-pagers that need an internal audience
Slide decks exported to PDF, turned into something watchable on its own
Manuals and standard procedures, where the steps become a drawn sequence
Papers and whitepapers summarized for people outside the field

What does it leave out?

Page furniture: headers, footers, page numbers, the legal block at the bottom of every page. The video follows the argument, not the layout of the file.

How long will the video be?

Video length follows how much there is to say, not how many pages there are. A dense 30 page report can make a tighter video than a padded 8 page one.

What about other file types?

Plain documents work the same way, see document to video. If you would rather control the wording yourself, paste it as a script.

Other ways to start

Document to video

Upload the doc nobody reads and get the same content as a short 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

What does it do with headers, footers and legal blocks?

It leaves them out. Page furniture repeats on every page and carries no argument, so the video follows the content instead of the layout.

Does a longer PDF mean a longer video?

Not necessarily. Length follows how much there is to say, so a dense 30 page report can make a tighter video than a padded 8 page one.

Does a slide deck exported to PDF work?

Yes, and it is one of the better inputs, because a deck already carries a structure. What you get is a version that stands on its own without a presenter.

Can it read scanned pages?

It works from the text in the file. A scan with no text layer has nothing to read, so export or convert it to a text PDF first.

What if I want to control the wording?

Paste it as a script instead. Script mode keeps your sentences exactly as written and draws them line by line.