Convert to PDF · guide
What Text to PDF does
Text to PDF typesets a plain text, CSV or Markdown file into a clean PDF on A4 or Letter pages. CSV files become a table, including exports that use semicolons or have commas inside quoted fields; Markdown headings, lists, tables, code and links are formatted; plain text keeps its spacing in a monospaced font; and text saved as UTF-8, UTF-16 or Western European Windows-1252 is read correctly. Everything happens in your browser.
How to convert text, CSV or Markdown to PDF
- Choose a text, CSV or Markdown file Select a .txt, .log, .csv, .tsv or .md file. It opens in this browser tab and is not uploaded.
- Set the options Read as follows the file extension unless you choose Plain text, CSV or TSV, or Markdown. Then choose A4 or Letter paper.
- Create and save Select Create the PDF and save it. For Markdown, the document title is taken from the front matter or the first heading. A very long file stops at 1,200 pages, and the result says so.
Worked example
Typeset a CSV price list without changing its product codes.
- Starting point
- Choose a CSV containing codes such as 00123 and confirm the detected input kind.
- What to do
- Select A4 or Letter and convert. Check the first row, leading zeros and column headings in the result.
- Result
- Expect a paginated PDF with CSV/TSV values treated as text rather than automatically converted to dates or numbers.
If the result is not right
If columns are wrong, check the input kind and delimiter. For broken characters, save the source with a suitable text encoding and retry.
Limits worth knowing
- TXT, CSV, TSV and Markdown have different structures. Markdown support is focused rather than a complete CommonMark implementation.
Questions and answers
Can I turn a CSV file into a PDF table?
Yes. The CSV is parsed properly, so commas, quotes and line breaks inside fields stay in their cells, and the separator is detected automatically, including the semicolons that spreadsheets in much of Europe use. Values print exactly as they are in the file, so leading zeros and decimal commas survive. A first row of labels above rows of numbers is treated as a header, set in bold and repeated on every page. Columns are narrowed and their text wrapped to fit the paper, and a table whose columns still do not fit even at about 1.3 cm each is set in labelled groups of columns, so nothing is cut off.
Why is my text file set in a typewriter font?
On purpose. Plain text carries its layout in spaces, such as aligned columns, ASCII tables and indented blocks, and only a monospaced font like Courier keeps them lined up. Tabs advance to every fourth column, a line too long for the page wraps with an indent rather than being cut off, and a form-feed character starts a new page. If the file is really prose, choose Read as Markdown for proportional type, bearing in mind that Markdown joins lines not separated by a blank line.
Why are some characters wrong or shown as boxes?
Usually the file's encoding. UTF-8 and UTF-16 are detected with or without a byte-order mark, and a file that is not valid UTF-8 is read as Windows-1252, the old Western European Windows encoding; the notes say which one was used. Other legacy encodings, such as Shift-JIS, GBK or KOI8-R, are not recognised and come out garbled, so re-save the file as UTF-8 first. A box in place of a character means this device has no font for it.
Can I search and copy the text in the finished PDF?
Yes, for English and other Western European text, which is set as real PDF text. Characters outside that set, such as Chinese, Greek, Cyrillic or emoji, are drawn with this device's fonts and placed as small images in line with the rest, so they print correctly but cannot be searched or copied. Check Arabic or Hebrew lines too: the letters of each word come out right, but a line's words are laid out from left to right, so their order can be reversed.
Which Markdown features are supported?
Headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, fenced code blocks, nested bullet and numbered lists, block quotes, horizontal rules, pipe tables and links, which stay clickable in the PDF. Images are replaced by their alt text, because fetching them would mean contacting another server. YAML front matter is skipped and its title used as the PDF's title, and inline HTML prints as written, including HTML comments, which Markdown previews hide. Footnotes, reference-style links and definition lists are not supported, and task-list checkboxes print as typed.
Can I change the font size, margins or orientation?
No. The choices are how the file is read and the paper, A4 or Letter, always portrait. Text is set at 10.5 pt with margins of about 2 cm, and table text a little smaller. The type is not shrunk to fit: the columns of a wide CSV are narrowed and their text wrapped to fit the paper. A table whose columns still do not fit even at about 1.3 cm each, usually 13 or more columns, is set in groups of columns, one after another, each labelled with its column numbers. For a denser layout of a spreadsheet export, open the CSV in a spreadsheet, save it as .xlsx and use Excel to PDF, which sets each cell in smaller type.