Convert TXT to PDF from Notepad or any text editor
Plain text laid out on a page and made presentable.
or drop your TXT anywhere on this page
TXT → PDF
From a text file to a PDF in one step
To convert TXT to PDF, drop your .txt file on this page, press Convert to PDF and download the result. It is one step on our server, graded Exact: your words are set on the page as text, not turned into a picture, so you can search the PDF and copy from it.
Notepad, TextEdit in plain-text mode and code editors all save .txt files, so the text file to PDF route is the same whichever one you typed in. The PDF keeps the file's name: notes.txt comes back as notes.pdf, with only your text on the pages and no header or page numbers added.
This text to PDF converter goes by the file name, so it takes files ending in .txt. A log file, a Markdown note or a README is plain text too: rename it to end in .txt and it converts the same way.
How to convert TXT to PDF
- 1Select or drop your text file
Nothing uploads until you press convert.
- 2Choose your options
We show the route and its fidelity grade up front.
- 3Download your PDF
Then it is deleted after 24 hours, automatically.
Just the words. No fonts, no layout, no arguments.
A page, frozen. Looks identical everywhere, resists editing everywhere.
One step, one tool. Nothing is interpreted on the way.
Good to know about converting TXT to PDF
- The text is set in a monospaced font (Liberation Mono), so columns lined up with spaces stay lined up.
- Pages are A4 and hold 64 lines each. Long lines wrap onto the next line instead of being cut off.
- Accents and symbols come through whether the file was saved as UTF-8 or in Windows' Western ANSI encoding (Windows-1252), which older Notepad used.
How the PDF pages are laid out
There are no settings for this conversion, so every PDF looks the same: the text is set in Liberation Mono, a fixed-width font, on A4 pages (210 × 297 mm).
- Every character takes the same width, so columns you lined up with spaces, such as a price list or a log file, stay lined up.
- A line holds 80 characters. A longer line wraps onto the next one at a space instead of running off the page, and a run with no spaces, such as a long web address, is split across lines.
- Blank lines are kept, so your paragraphs stay apart.
- Columns lined up with tabs can shift, because the PDF places its tab stops differently from your editor. Use spaces where columns must line up.
Accents, symbols and encodings
A text file stores its letters in an encoding, and the PDF only comes out right when the file is read the same way it was saved. We check whether the file is UTF-8; anything else is read as Western ANSI (Windows-1252), the encoding older Windows editors saved in.
| Saved as | In the PDF |
|---|---|
| UTF-8, with or without a byte-order mark | Accents, the € sign and Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic and Hebrew letters print right |
| Western ANSI (Windows-1252) | Accents such as é, ü and ñ print right |
| ANSI for another alphabet, such as Cyrillic | Garbled letters |
| UTF-16, listed in Notepad as Unicode or UTF-16 LE | Garbled letters |
Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Hindi text comes out as empty boxes, even from UTF-8, because our server has no font with those letters.
When another route fits better
A .txt file holds words and nothing else. When your document has more than that, start from the file it came from:
- Bold, headings and tables in a Word document: save it with Word to PDF. An .rtf file has RTF to PDF.
- A document from LibreOffice or OpenOffice: convert ODT to PDF rather than copying its text out.
- A web page saved as .html: HTML to PDF keeps its links, tables and embedded images.
- A scanned page is a picture, not text: convert TIFF to PDF for a scan saved as TIFF.
- Text you still want to format: convert text to Word for an editable A4 document instead of a finished PDF.
Going the other way, convert PDF to text to get the words back out of a PDF. A PDF made from plain text holds no pictures, so it is small already: in our test, about 150 lines of text made a three-page PDF of about 47 KB. The PDF size reducer mainly makes pictures smaller, so it suits PDFs full of photos or scans more than this one.
Questions people ask
How do I convert a text file to PDF?
Press Select TXT file, or drop the file anywhere on this page, then press Convert to PDF and download the result. The free plan converts three files a day, up to 25 MB each, one at a time. Both the text file and the PDF are deleted from our server after 24 hours.
Can I convert a Notepad file to PDF?
Yes. Notepad saves plain .txt files, and both of its usual encodings work: UTF-8, and the Western ANSI encoding (Windows-1252) that older versions used, so accents such as é and ü print right. Avoid its Unicode or UTF-16 option, which comes out garbled.
Can I choose a different font or page size?
No. There are no settings for this conversion: the PDF is always Liberation Mono on A4 pages. For another font or US Letter paper, convert the text to Word, change both there, and save it as a PDF.
Can I paste text instead of uploading a file?
No, this page takes a .txt file. To convert text to PDF from a copy, paste it into Notepad, or into TextEdit after Format > Make Plain Text on a Mac, save it as a .txt file in UTF-8, then drop that file here.
Which text encodings can the file be in?
UTF-8, with or without a byte-order mark, and Windows' Western ANSI encoding (Windows-1252). A file in another older encoding, such as Cyrillic or Japanese ANSI, comes out garbled: save it as UTF-8 first.
Is converting Text to PDF free?
Yes. Up to 25 MB and three conversions a day are free, with no account. Pro and Business lift the file limit to 100 MB and remove the daily cap.
What happens to my files?
Both your Text and the PDF we produce are deleted 24 hours after each conversion, automatically. Try again and Continue to another tool start a new conversion, with its own 24 hours. Nothing is used for training and no human looks at your documents.
Will the PDF look exactly like the Text?
This pair grades as “Exact”. We show the exact route and that grade before you convert, so there are no surprises about what survives the trip.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Nothing to install. Pick or drop a file here, it's converted on our servers, and you download the result.
How large can my file be?
25 MB on the free plan, and 100 MB on Pro and Business.
Can I convert several files at once?
On Pro and Business, yes: add up to 100 files before converting. The free plan converts one file at a time.
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