Text to PDF Converter

About the Text to PDF Converter

What is a text to PDF converter?

A text to PDF converter turns typed or pasted text into a PDF document. This one lays your text out on pages and writes a PDF 1.4 file itself, with the standard PDF fonts Helvetica, Times and Courier in WinAnsi encoding. Letters outside that set, such as ł, ş or Cyrillic, are drawn with an embedded subset of the Liberation Sans font.

What should you know before converting text to PDF?

• Line breaks come from the PDF's own font widths. The layout uses the Adobe metrics for Helvetica, Times and Courier, so the file breaks lines the same way on a phone and a laptop.
• Other letters come from an embedded font. Western European letters such as é and ü use the standard fonts, while ł, ő, ş, Greek and Cyrillic use Liberation Sans. Only the letters you used go into the file, which adds about 6 KB for one letter and 13 to 17 KB for a paragraph of Polish or Russian, per font style.
• Some scripts need Print to PDF. Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Arabic, Urdu, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, the rupee sign ₹ and emoji need fonts or text shaping the built-in engine does not have. The status bar tells you before you download.
• Page setup covers five paper sizes. Choose A4, Letter, Legal, A3 or A5, portrait or landscape, a margin from 0 to 60 mm (49 mm on A5) and line spacing of 1.0, 1.15, 1.5 or 2.0.
• Nothing you type is uploaded. The PDF is built on your device, and the draft stays in this browser until you clear the editor.

How do you convert text to PDF?

1. Type, paste or open your text. Write in the editor, paste from anywhere, or open a .txt file.
2. Format it. Select text to change its font, size, color or highlight, or to make it bold, a heading or a list.
3. Set up the page. Pick the page size, orientation, margin and line spacing, and turn on page numbers if you need them.
4. Download the PDF. Name the file and press Download PDF, or use Print to PDF for a script the built-in fonts cannot draw.

Which languages work when you convert text to PDF?

The built-in engine handles English and most European languages. Western European letters use the standard fonts. Letters those fonts lack, such as Polish ł, Czech ř, Turkish ş and Romanian ț, plus the Greek and Cyrillic alphabets, use the embedded Liberation Sans subset.

Scripts that join or reorder letters, such as Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Arabic and Urdu, need a text shaping engine, and Chinese, Japanese and Korean need very large fonts. Hebrew, Georgian, Armenian and some Vietnamese letters are missing from Liberation Sans. For all of these, use Print to PDF, which draws the text with your device's own fonts.

How do you convert text to PDF on a phone?

Open the converter in your phone's browser, type or paste the text, and tap Download PDF. You can create a PDF from text this way on Android, where it lands in Downloads, and on iPhone, where Safari saves it to the Files app. Print to PDF works on phones too, through Save as PDF on Android or the Share button in the iPhone print options.

What are the ways to turn text into a PDF?

There are four common ways to turn text into a PDF, and each trades formatting for convenience.

Common mistakes

These mistakes can make a text to PDF file look different from the text on screen.

• Question marks in place of letters. The text uses a script the built-in fonts cannot draw, such as Hindi or Arabic. Use Print to PDF for that text instead.
• Text cut off on paper. A 0 mm margin puts text where most printers cannot reach. Keep at least 10 mm for anything you will print.
• Columns out of line in a plain-text table. Helvetica and Times give each letter its own width, so columns lined up with spaces drift apart. Set that text to Courier, where every character has the same width.

Common Use Cases

People reach for a text to PDF maker when the words matter more than the layout.

• Copied text. Paste an email, a chat reply or meeting notes and keep a clean copy as a PDF.
• Assignments and letters. Add a heading, set double spacing and page numbers, and hand in a PDF.
• Notepad files. Convert TXT to PDF by opening the file in the editor, with no software to install.
• Lists and agendas. Turn a packing list, a checklist or a meeting agenda into a page you can print.

Working from another source? The Markdown to PDF Converter and the HTML to PDF Converter turn markup into a formatted PDF, the PDF to Text Converter goes the other way, and the Text Cleaner tidies pasted text first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a free text to PDF converter?

Yes, our editor converts text to PDF for free, with no sign-up, no page limit and no watermark. It runs in any modern browser on a phone or a computer.

Can you convert a TXT or Notepad file to PDF without software?

Yes, open the .txt file in our editor and save it as a PDF. Windows can also print a Notepad file with Microsoft Print to PDF, and a Mac can export it from TextEdit.

How do you convert copied text into a PDF?

Paste the copied text into the editor and press Download PDF. Formatting from Word or Google Docs comes along, and Ctrl+Shift+V pastes it as plain text.

Does text pasted from Word or Google Docs keep its formatting?

Yes, bold, italic, underline, headings, lists and links survive the paste. Fonts, colors and images are dropped, and each table row becomes one line of text.

Is your text uploaded when you convert it to PDF?

No, the PDF is built on your device and your text is never uploaded. The draft stays in this browser's storage until you clear the editor.

Can you make a fillable PDF form from text?

No, converting text to PDF makes a flat document without fillable fields. A fillable form has to be built in a PDF form editor.

Can the text to PDF editor add images?

No, the editor handles text only. For pictures and tables, write the page as HTML and use the HTML to PDF Converter.