# How to convert HTML to Markdown with JavaScript
By Atta Ur Rehman Shah (https://attacomsian.com/about). Published Mar 28, 2020, updated Oct 1, 2022. Topics: Node.js, JavaScript.
Canonical URL: https://attacomsian.com/blog/convert-html-to-markdown
> A quick guide to learn how to convert HTML to Markdown using Turndown in a Node.js application as well as in browser.
Markdown is a lightweight markup language with a plain-text-formatting syntax that can be converted to many other output formats. It provides a simple way to add HTML formatting like headings, bold, italic, bulleted lists, images, and so on to the plain text.
In this article, you'll learn **how to convert HTML into Markdown** in a Node.js application and a web browser using the [Turndown](https://github.com/domchristie/turndown) library. Turndown is a customizable HTML to Markdown converter written in vanilla JavaScript.
## Convert markdown to HTML using Node.js
To use Turndown as a Node.js module, type the following command in your terminal to install it from the NPM registry:
```bash
$ npm install turndown --save
```
After the installation is completed, you'll be able to import the Turndown module into your Node.js application like below:
```javascript
// import Turndown module
const TurndownService = require('turndown')
```
Now you can use the Turndown API to easily convert any HTML string to Markdown:
```javascript
// create an instance of the Turndown service
const turndownService = new TurndownService()
// convert HTML to Markdown
const markdown = turndownService.turndown(`
JavaScript for Beginners
Follow Atta to learn JavaScript from scratch!
`)
// output Markdown
console.log(markdown)
```
You should see the following output printed on the console:
```markdown
JavaScript for Beginners
========================
Follow [Atta](https://attacomsian.com/blog) to learn **JavaScript** from scratch!
```
## Convert markdown to HTML using JavaScript
Turndown can also be used in a web browser to convert HTML to Markdown. Just include the following JavaScript file in your HTML document:
```markup
```
After including the script, you should be able to convert HTML to Markdown by using the same code we've used in the above example:
```javascript
// create an instance of the Turndown service
const turndownService = new TurndownService()
// convert HTML to Markdown
const markdown = turndownService.turndown(`
JavaScript for Beginners
Follow Atta to learn JavaScript from scratch!
`)
// output Markdown
console.log(markdown)
```
In JavaScript, you can even pass [DOM](https://attacomsian.com/blog/getting-dom-elements-javascript) nodes as input to Turndown API:
```javascript
// convert document to Markdown
const markdown = turndownService.turndown(document.body)
// convert first tag to Markdown
const markdown = turndownService.turndown(document.querySelector('p'))
```
Take a look at the [documentation](https://github.com/domchristie/turndown) or [interactive demo](http://domchristie.github.io/turndown/) to learn more about Turndown capabilities.