At a glance
- Accepts
- One PDF of slides, or a CSV/TSV (front, back, image filename) with its images
- Outputs
- An Anki package (.apkg) with one note per slide or slide pair, slide images embedded
- Where it runs
- Entirely in your browser, on your device
- What leaves your device
- Nothing - the file never leaves your device
- Limits
- No size or count cap; bounded by your device's memory; fronts are the slide titles (largest text) or what you type - no AI-written questions; scanned slides have no text to use as a title
- Account
- Not required - there is no sign-up
- Price
- Free, with no watermark and no usage cap
- Made by
- Visrut
- Last updated
- 12 October 2026
PDF slides to Anki turns a lecture PDF into an Anki deck (.apkg) with each slide's image on its card. The front starts as the slide's title, which you can edit; the back is the slide. You choose which slides to keep, name the deck and add tags. Everything runs in your browser, so slides from your school never leave your device.
Why this exists
Anki is free and already imports CSV files, so for text-only cards you don't need this. A CSV can't carry images, though: it can only point at pictures you have already copied into Anki's media folder by hand (Anki manual). Lecture slides are mostly diagrams and images. The tools that turn slides into cards for you typically ask you to upload the slides to their servers. This one builds the .apkg, images included, on your own device.
How to use it
- Drop the slide PDF. Each slide's title is read from its text.
- Choose the card type: title on the front and slide on the back, or pairs of consecutive slides (useful when a question slide is followed by its answer slide).
- Edit the fronts and untick slides you don't want, such as title pages or "Questions?" slides.
- Set the deck name and tags, then press "Make Anki deck". Import the .apkg file in Anki with File, then Import.
Good to know
- Titles are a best guess: the largest text on the slide. Check them in the list before exporting.
- Scanned slides have no text, so their fronts start empty. Run them through OCR PDF first if you want titles filled in.
- There is no AI here: nothing writes questions for you. If you only need the slides as pictures, use PDF to JPG.
- To make cards from a recorded lecture, transcribe it first with Transcribe Audio.
Frequently asked questions
Are my slides uploaded?
No. The PDF is read and each slide is rendered to an image in your browser tab, and the Anki package is assembled there too. The only download is the SQLite engine the package needs (about 0.3 MB, served from this site the first time you export). Your slides never leave your device.
Anki already imports CSV files. Why use this?
Anki's text import is free and works well for text. A CSV can only point at images that are already in Anki's media folder, so you would have to export every slide as a picture and copy them into that folder by hand first, which is awkward on a computer and not really possible on a phone. An .apkg file carries the slide images inside it, so one import brings in the cards and their pictures together.
Does it write the questions for me?
No, and that is deliberate. The front of each card starts as the slide's title, read from the PDF's text, and you can change every front before you export. Writing the question yourself is a large part of what makes a flashcard useful. Nothing is sent to an AI service.
How do I open the deck in Anki?
On a computer, open Anki and choose File, then Import, and pick the .apkg file. On Android, opening the .apkg file from your downloads or a file manager opens it in AnkiDroid. On iPhone or iPad, open the file with AnkiMobile, for example from the Files app. The cards land in a deck with the name you chose.
What do the cards look like?
They use a note type called "candidtools Slide" with four fields: Front, Back, Slide text and Source. In "Title on the front" mode the front is the title you wrote and the back is the slide image, with the slide's text under it if you keep that option on, so you can search for it in Anki. In "Pairs" mode the front is one slide and the back is the next one.
Some slides show no title. Why?
Those pages have no selectable text: they are scans or pictures of slides. Type a front for them, or run the PDF through OCR PDF first to add a text layer, then load it here again. Slides without a front you typed get "Slide 3" and so on.
What if I fix a card and export again?
Each note gets an ID made from the file name, the card type and the slide number, so the same slide gets the same ID every time. When you import the new file, Anki recognises notes it already has; by default it updates them when the file's copy is newer, according to the Anki manual.
Can I make cards from a spreadsheet with images?
Yes. Choose a CSV or TSV file with the front in the first column, the back in the second and, optionally, an image filename in the third, and choose the image files at the same time. Each image is packed into the deck and shown on the back of its card. Fields can contain HTML, as with Anki's own import.
Can I share the deck?
The deck contains images of your slides. Lecture slides usually belong to your school or lecturer, so check before you share a deck made from them, for example on AnkiWeb. Keeping it for your own study is the safe default.
Is there a slide limit?
No fixed limit. Each slide becomes a JPEG: a simple text-and-shapes slide is about 25 KB at the standard size, and slides full of photos are larger. Long PDFs take longer on a phone; untick slides you don't need, or pick the small image size.