Free Markdown to PDF Converter

What Is a Markdown to PDF Converter?

Quick answer: A markdown to PDF converter turns plain-text Markdown into a fixed-layout PDF. Ours is free and reads GitHub Flavored Markdown from an .md file or pasted text, then returns A4 pages with selectable text. Convert your own file in the form above.

Expect a print job, not a design tool. Headless Chromium, a browser with no window, prints the HTML that a CommonMark parser makes from your Markdown. There is no live preview, editor or page setup, and each run takes one file or one paste.

How to Convert Markdown to PDF Online

Converting md to pdf here takes one form and three actions.

1. Give it Markdown. Pick a file under "Upload a Markdown file" (the browser's button, usually Choose File) for an .md, .markdown or .txt file, or paste into the text box under "Or paste your Markdown". A file wins if both are filled. Guests get 3 MB per file, a free account 10 MB, and pasted text over 400,000 characters is refused.
2. Press Convert to PDF. The page reloads with the result: no preview, no progress bar, and the button stays clickable, so press it once. A short document took us 4 to 6.5 seconds.
3. Download. The Result card lists File Name, Size and a Download button. My Notes (v2).md becomes my-notes-v2.pdf. Download right away, because the link works for about two hours.

Try it: paste a heading and a short table into the form.

What the PDF Looks Like: Page Size, Margins and Fonts

We measured a 7 page A4 test file, and the page margins were the surprise.

Printing? Check page 2 in your print preview: the top margin is nearly gone and many printers cannot print that close.

Markdown Syntax That Converts (and What Prints as Typed)

For a GitHub Markdown to PDF job the flavor matters. We parse GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM), CommonMark plus the pipe table, task list, strikethrough and autolink, and tested no other flavor. See the GitHub Flavored Markdown spec.

Delete front matter first and turn a contents list into a plain list.

README to PDF: Images, Raw HTML and Headers

Two things break most README.md to PDF conversions: images and raw HTML.

• Give images a public address. Our server downloads each image before converting, so it must be public and a PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP. In our tests a 1600 by 750 PNG and a WebP both embedded. A relative path, a dead link, a non-public address or an SVG, which is what most README badges are, becomes the image's alt text, and the rest converts.
• A silent host costs ten seconds. An image host that never answers is given 10 seconds, then its image becomes alt text and the conversion carries on.
• Block-level raw HTML disappears with its text. A centered logo and an aligned HTML heading both vanished in our README sample. Inline HTML loses its tags but keeps its text, so a<br>line prints as aline. The CommonMark library security notes document the option that strips it.
• Rewrite the header in Markdown. Use a Markdown heading and an image with alt text. If your source is a web page, use the HTML to PDF converter, because this one strips the markup.

Long Code Lines, Wide Tables and Page Breaks

Code does not wrap. About 100 characters fit across the page, and a clipped code line is gone, not hidden: the rest is missing from the text layer. Wrap long commands by hand.

Apart from code, one unbreakable element wider than the page shrinks the whole document to fit, down to about two thirds, and anything still wider is clipped. In our tests a table of 8 columns with seven-letter headings stayed full size, 10 columns printed at 83 percent and 14 columns hit the two thirds floor, as did a 193 character URL typed as plain text. Give a long URL short link text: the label in square brackets, the address in round brackets.

A page break does not split a table or code block that fits on one page, so the page before it can end almost empty (we saw gaps up to 169 mm). A code block taller than a page starts on a fresh page, then splits, and all 120 lines of ours arrived. Before sending, check the first and last page.

File Size Limits and Conversion Time

The limits are 3 MB for visitors, 10 MB with a free account and 400,000 pasted characters, counting each line break as two. On a busy server, 399,129 characters gave 232 pages in 37.7 seconds, and a 1 MB file gave 579 pages in 87.4 seconds. The converter quits at two minutes, so a file much over 1 MB may not finish (we tested nothing larger). Split it at a heading and join the parts with Merge PDF. A heavy result tends to come from images, and the PDF compressor can shrink it.

Why a Conversion Fails and How Long the Link Lasts

A failure reloads the form with "We could not convert this document. Please check the file and try again." Pasted text stays in the box and a chosen file must be picked again. Nothing is queued, so there is nothing to resume.

We reproduced two causes: a UTF-16 file (Notepad's Unicode option) or a Windows-1252 file with accented letters, both fixed by re-saving as UTF-8. A very large file can fail too.

If a restart leaves only the converter down, you should get the same message with your pasted text still in the box. If the whole site is down, you get an error instead of the form, so keep your Markdown in your editor until the PDF has downloaded. Press Convert again once it is back.

The link works for about two hours, then shows not found, and reloading the result page converts again, so download first.

Markdown to PDF or Markdown to Word?

Choose PDF for a final copy, because line and page breaks stay fixed and nobody reflows your tables by accident. To change the text, edit the Markdown and convert again. Choose the Markdown to Word converter when the person reading has to edit or comment.

More Free PDF Tools

Pick up from the file you just downloaded.

• Split PDF: pull a few pages out of a long result.
• Lock PDF: put a password on the file you just made.
• all PDF tools: the full list, including a tool for adding page numbers.