How to make a PDF from a text or Markdown file

Plain text and Markdown files both turn into PDFs in PDF by Zaweba with File > New > From a text or Markdown file. Pick the file and it's laid out on A4 pages, ready to save, print or send. A plain text file comes out in a clear fixed-width font, and a Markdown file comes out formatted, with its headings, lists and emphasis shown properly.

Text files are everywhere: notes, logs, README files, minutes typed in a hurry, drafts written in a plain editor. A PDF is the polite way to share one, because it looks the same for everyone and prints neatly.

Plain text files

A .txt file is set in Consolas, a fixed-width font where every character takes the same space. That keeps columns lined up, so tables made with spaces, code, and logs with aligned fields look the way they did in your editor.

Long lines are wrapped to fit the A4 page rather than running off the edge. And if the file contains a form feed character, which some programs use to mark the end of a page, a new page starts there. That matters for older reports and printouts saved as text, which often use form feeds to keep their pages.

Markdown files

Markdown is plain text with simple marks for formatting: a hash for a heading, a star or dash for a list item, stars round words for emphasis. PDF by Zaweba reads those marks and lays out the document properly.

Headings, lists, quotes, code blocks and horizontal rules all come out as you'd expect. Bold, italic and inline code are shown in the text. Links are handled too. So a README, a set of meeting notes or a short guide written in Markdown becomes a neat, readable document without being copied into a word processor first.

Converting your file

Choose File > New > From a text or Markdown file and pick the file. The new PDF opens in a tab, not yet saved. Read it through, then save it.

If you want to change the wording, it's usually easiest to fix the text file and make the PDF again. For a last-minute typo, though, PDF by Zaweba can edit text directly in the PDF too.

Getting a good result

Give Markdown files a top-level heading as their first line. It reads as a title and makes the document look finished.

Check long lines in plain text files. Wrapping keeps them on the page, but a carefully aligned table with very long rows may wrap in the middle. Shortening the lines in the source gives a cleaner page.

Think about the reader. A plain text PDF in a fixed-width font suits logs and code. For a letter or a report, Markdown's headings and paragraphs read better, so it can be worth adding a few marks to a plain file before converting it.

Other ways to make PDFs

The same File > New menu makes PDFs from pictures, from an HTML file or a web page, from the clipboard and from a screen capture, and can convert many files to PDFs at once into a folder you choose. If you write in Jotter by Zaweba, its plain text files are exactly the kind this command turns into PDFs.

PDF by Zaweba is free software for Windows that works offline with no account, so your notes become PDFs without leaving your computer.