diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index df7189d..f0f2e83 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,5 +1,7 @@
 # MarkItDown
 
+[![PyPI](https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/markitdown.svg)](https://pypi.org/project/markitdown/)
+
 The MarkItDown library is a utility tool for converting various files to Markdown (e.g., for indexing, text analysis, etc.)
 
 It presently supports:
@@ -12,6 +14,7 @@ It presently supports:
 - Audio (EXIF metadata, and speech transcription)
 - HTML (special handling of Wikipedia, etc.)
 - Various other text-based formats (csv, json, xml, etc.)
+- ZIP (Iterates over contents and converts each file)
 
 # Installation
 
@@ -27,7 +30,6 @@ or from the source
 pip install -e .
 ```
 
-
 # Usage
 The API is simple:
 
@@ -39,6 +41,25 @@ result = markitdown.convert("test.xlsx")
 print(result.text_content)
 ```
 
+To use this as a command-line utility, install it and then run it like this:
+
+```bash
+markitdown path-to-file.pdf
+```
+
+This will output Markdown to standard output. You can save it like this:
+
+```bash
+markitdown path-to-file.pdf > document.md
+```
+
+You can pipe content to standard input by omitting the argument:
+
+```bash
+cat path-to-file.pdf | markitdown
+```
+
+
 You can also configure markitdown to use Large Language Models to describe images. To do so you must provide mlm_client and mlm_model parameters to MarkItDown object, according to your specific client.
 
 ```python
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 74df032..756380a 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ dependencies = [
   "youtube-transcript-api",
   "SpeechRecognition",
   "pathvalidate",
+  "charset-normalizer",
 ]
 
 [project.urls]
diff --git a/src/markitdown/_markitdown.py b/src/markitdown/_markitdown.py
index 63f7c9d..714911b 100644
--- a/src/markitdown/_markitdown.py
+++ b/src/markitdown/_markitdown.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import subprocess
 import sys
 import tempfile
 import traceback
+import zipfile
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional, Union
 from urllib.parse import parse_qs, quote, unquote, urlparse, urlunparse
 
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@ import pptx
 import puremagic
 import requests
 from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
+from charset_normalizer import from_path
 
 # Optional Transcription support
 try:
@@ -161,9 +163,7 @@ class PlainTextConverter(DocumentConverter):
         elif "text/" not in content_type.lower():
             return None
 
-        text_content = ""
-        with open(local_path, "rt", encoding="utf-8") as fh:
-            text_content = fh.read()
+        text_content = str(from_path(local_path).best())
         return DocumentConverterResult(
             title=None,
             text_content=text_content,
@@ -864,6 +864,124 @@ class ImageConverter(MediaConverter):
         return response.choices[0].message.content
 
 
+class ZipConverter(DocumentConverter):
+    """Converts ZIP files to markdown by extracting and converting all contained files.
+
+    The converter extracts the ZIP contents to a temporary directory, processes each file
+    using appropriate converters based on file extensions, and then combines the results
+    into a single markdown document. The temporary directory is cleaned up after processing.
+
+    Example output format:
+    ```markdown
+    Content from the zip file `example.zip`:
+
+    ## File: docs/readme.txt
+
+    This is the content of readme.txt
+    Multiple lines are preserved
+
+    ## File: images/example.jpg
+
+    ImageSize: 1920x1080
+    DateTimeOriginal: 2024-02-15 14:30:00
+    Description: A beautiful landscape photo
+
+    ## File: data/report.xlsx
+
+    ## Sheet1
+    | Column1 | Column2 | Column3 |
+    |---------|---------|---------|
+    | data1   | data2   | data3   |
+    | data4   | data5   | data6   |
+    ```
+
+    Key features:
+    - Maintains original file structure in headings
+    - Processes nested files recursively
+    - Uses appropriate converters for each file type
+    - Preserves formatting of converted content
+    - Cleans up temporary files after processing
+    """
+
+    def convert(
+        self, local_path: str, **kwargs: Any
+    ) -> Union[None, DocumentConverterResult]:
+        # Bail if not a ZIP
+        extension = kwargs.get("file_extension", "")
+        if extension.lower() != ".zip":
+            return None
+
+        # Get parent converters list if available
+        parent_converters = kwargs.get("_parent_converters", [])
+        if not parent_converters:
+            return DocumentConverterResult(
+                title=None,
+                text_content=f"[ERROR] No converters available to process zip contents from: {local_path}",
+            )
+
+        extracted_zip_folder_name = (
+            f"extracted_{os.path.basename(local_path).replace('.zip', '_zip')}"
+        )
+        new_folder = os.path.normpath(
+            os.path.join(os.path.dirname(local_path), extracted_zip_folder_name)
+        )
+        md_content = f"Content from the zip file `{os.path.basename(local_path)}`:\n\n"
+
+        # Safety check for path traversal
+        if not new_folder.startswith(os.path.dirname(local_path)):
+            return DocumentConverterResult(
+                title=None, text_content=f"[ERROR] Invalid zip file path: {local_path}"
+            )
+
+        try:
+            # Extract the zip file
+            with zipfile.ZipFile(local_path, "r") as zipObj:
+                zipObj.extractall(path=new_folder)
+
+            # Process each extracted file
+            for root, dirs, files in os.walk(new_folder):
+                for name in files:
+                    file_path = os.path.join(root, name)
+                    relative_path = os.path.relpath(file_path, new_folder)
+
+                    # Get file extension
+                    _, file_extension = os.path.splitext(name)
+
+                    # Update kwargs for the file
+                    file_kwargs = kwargs.copy()
+                    file_kwargs["file_extension"] = file_extension
+                    file_kwargs["_parent_converters"] = parent_converters
+
+                    # Try converting the file using available converters
+                    for converter in parent_converters:
+                        # Skip the zip converter to avoid infinite recursion
+                        if isinstance(converter, ZipConverter):
+                            continue
+
+                        result = converter.convert(file_path, **file_kwargs)
+                        if result is not None:
+                            md_content += f"\n## File: {relative_path}\n\n"
+                            md_content += result.text_content + "\n\n"
+                            break
+
+            # Clean up extracted files if specified
+            if kwargs.get("cleanup_extracted", True):
+                shutil.rmtree(new_folder)
+
+            return DocumentConverterResult(title=None, text_content=md_content.strip())
+
+        except zipfile.BadZipFile:
+            return DocumentConverterResult(
+                title=None,
+                text_content=f"[ERROR] Invalid or corrupted zip file: {local_path}",
+            )
+        except Exception as e:
+            return DocumentConverterResult(
+                title=None,
+                text_content=f"[ERROR] Failed to process zip file {local_path}: {str(e)}",
+            )
+
+
 class FileConversionException(BaseException):
     pass
 
@@ -907,6 +1025,7 @@ class MarkItDown:
         self.register_page_converter(Mp3Converter())
         self.register_page_converter(ImageConverter())
         self.register_page_converter(PdfConverter())
+        self.register_page_converter(ZipConverter())
 
     def convert(
         self, source: Union[str, requests.Response], **kwargs: Any
@@ -1062,6 +1181,8 @@ class MarkItDown:
 
                 if "mlm_model" not in _kwargs and self._mlm_model is not None:
                     _kwargs["mlm_model"] = self._mlm_model
+                # Add the list of converters for nested processing
+                _kwargs["_parent_converters"] = self._page_converters
 
                 # If we hit an error log it and keep trying
                 try:
diff --git a/tests/test_files/test_files.zip b/tests/test_files/test_files.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ef49dc0
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/test_files/test_files.zip differ
diff --git a/tests/test_files/test_mskanji.csv b/tests/test_files/test_mskanji.csv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d67f5a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_files/test_mskanji.csv
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+名前,年齢,住所
+佐藤太郎,30,東京
+三木英子,25,大阪
+�煖ｴ淳,35,名古屋
diff --git a/tests/test_markitdown.py b/tests/test_markitdown.py
index 4922c49..5c3d79f 100644
--- a/tests/test_markitdown.py
+++ b/tests/test_markitdown.py
@@ -89,6 +89,13 @@ SERP_TEST_EXCLUDES = [
     "data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20width%3D",
 ]
 
+CSV_CP932_TEST_STRINGS = [
+    "蜷榊燕,蟷ｴ鮨｢,菴乗園",
+    "菴占陸螟ｪ驛�,30,譚ｱ莠ｬ",
+    "荳画惠闍ｱ蟄�,25,螟ｧ髦ｪ",
+    "鬮呎ｩ区ｷｳ,35,蜷榊商螻�",
+]
+
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif(
     skip_remote,
@@ -146,6 +153,12 @@ def test_markitdown_local() -> None:
         text_content = result.text_content.replace("\\", "")
         assert test_string in text_content
 
+    # Test ZIP file processing
+    result = markitdown.convert(os.path.join(TEST_FILES_DIR, "test_files.zip"))
+    for test_string in DOCX_TEST_STRINGS:
+        text_content = result.text_content.replace("\\", "")
+        assert test_string in text_content
+
     # Test Wikipedia processing
     result = markitdown.convert(
         os.path.join(TEST_FILES_DIR, "test_wikipedia.html"), url=WIKIPEDIA_TEST_URL
@@ -166,6 +179,12 @@ def test_markitdown_local() -> None:
     for test_string in SERP_TEST_STRINGS:
         assert test_string in text_content
 
+    ## Test non-UTF-8 encoding
+    result = markitdown.convert(os.path.join(TEST_FILES_DIR, "test_mskanji.csv"))
+    text_content = result.text_content.replace("\\", "")
+    for test_string in CSV_CP932_TEST_STRINGS:
+        assert test_string in text_content
+
 
 @pytest.mark.skipif(
     skip_exiftool,