konvertt

Konvertt is a community-driven open standard and software framework for automated conversion of digital content between formats. It offers a declarative transformation language, a modular plugin system, and a cross-platform runtime for data pipelines, digital libraries, and content-management workflows. Metadata preservation is a focus.

Konvertt originated in 2023 from a collaboration of developers and librarians seeking interoperability amid fragmented formats. It is maintained by volunteers and released under an open-source license. It is not an official standard of any standards body.

The architecture includes a core runtime, a rules language for transformations, and a plugin ecosystem for format backends. It supports streaming and buffered processing, provenance logging, and robust error handling.

Initial backends cover formats such as PDF, DOCX, HTML, EPUB, PNG/JPEG, and MP4/MP3. It can map metadata, normalize structures, and apply quality controls. The rules language allows conditional transformations and metadata mapping.

Konvertt is used in libraries, archives, and research workflows to automate normalization, batch conversions, and exports. There are bindings for Python and Node.js, plus example pipelines and test datasets.

Governance is community-driven with a lightweight steering group. Some critics warn of fragmentation if competing backends diverge, underscoring the need for clear interoperability guidelines.

Example: a pipeline that converts DOCX to PDF while preserving authors and embedding a DOI reference.