Sending a README to someone outside the team
Headings, lists and code blocks all carry over. Check the result if the file leans on tables, since those come through as plain lines.
Markdown to PDF
Convert Markdown into a paginated PDF with headings, lists and code blocks laid out as real text.
Maintained by Roshan.
Use Markdown to PDF
Lays Markdown out as a real PDF in this tab. Headings, lists, quotes and code blocks are typeset as selectable text, not printed to an image.
Built-in fonts only, which limits the alphabetPDF's fourteen standard fonts cover Latin script and little else. Text in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew or Cyrillic, and any emoji, cannot be written with them - those characters become question marks and the count is reported rather than hidden.
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Browse all pdf toolsAbout Markdown to PDF
Markdown exists to be readable as plain text and rendered as something better, and a PDF is usually where it goes when it has to leave a repository: a README sent to a client, documentation attached to a proposal, notes circulated to people who will not open a code editor. The conversion here reads the structure and typesets it - headings get their own scale and spacing, lists keep their markers and nesting, quotes are set apart, code blocks are held in a monospaced face so alignment survives. Everything lands as selectable text rather than an image. What this deliberately does not attempt is a faithful reproduction of a browser's rendering, because matching a CSS engine needs a CSS engine, and a converter that gets tables almost right is more annoying than one that says plainly which parts it handles.
What happens to the PDF
- Headings from one to six hashes are recognised, with levels beyond three treated as the third, since a PDF page rarely benefits from six distinct sizes.
- Bulleted and numbered lists keep their markers, and indentation in the source becomes indentation on the page so nesting reads correctly.
- Fenced code blocks are set in a monospaced font and their contents are left exactly as written, so Markdown characters inside a code sample are not interpreted as formatting.
- Block quotes are indented and set in a lighter italic face, and horizontal rules are drawn as actual lines rather than printed as dashes.
- Inline markers are removed so they do not print literally: bold, italic, inline code and strikethrough all resolve to their text, and a link becomes its label followed by the address in brackets, which is the only way a printed page can carry a destination.
Common markdown to pdf jobs
Meeting notes into a circulated document
Notes are mostly headings, bullets and quotes, which is exactly the subset this handles well. Add page numbers afterwards if it runs long.
Check before relying on the PDF
- Tables are not laid out as tables. Column layout needs measurement and reflow logic this typesetter does not have, and a misaligned approximation would be worse than the plain lines you get instead.
- Images are not fetched or embedded. An image reference resolves to its alternative text, since downloading remote files would break the promise that nothing leaves this tab.
- Inline bold and italic are stripped rather than rendered. Changing font mid-line requires measuring each run separately, and with only the built-in fonts available the result would not justify the complexity.
- Only PDF's fourteen built-in fonts are used, so non-Latin scripts and emoji cannot be written and become question marks. The number affected is always reported.
- Raw HTML inside the Markdown is treated as ordinary text and will print as written.
Questions about Markdown to PDF
Are tables supported?
No. Laying out columns properly needs measurement and reflow this tool does not do, and an almost-right table is worse than plain text. The rows print as written.
What happens to images?
Their alternative text is printed. Fetching remote images would mean making network requests with your document's contents, which this site does not do.
Why is bold not bold?
Rendering mixed emphasis within a line requires per-run measurement, and with built-in fonts only the payoff is small. The markers are removed so they do not print as asterisks.
Is the text selectable afterwards?
Yes. The PDF is typeset with real fonts, so it can be searched and copied. Nothing is rasterized.
Does my Markdown leave this device?
No. Parsing and typesetting both happen in this tab, and no image or font is fetched from anywhere else while it runs.
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