TXT to PDF: plain text into a clean, printable file

For a letter or notes that should look typeset rather than typed, paste the text into Word or Google Docs instead and export from there. For logs, code and transcripts, keep it plain and monospace, as below.

getPDF has no text to PDF converter, because the print dialog genuinely is the answer. Where it helps is after: several converted logs into 1 file, page numbers on an exhibit.

Merge PDFCombine files, reorder, keep bookmarks. Free, runs on your device.Open

Which route should I use?

Your text	Route	Keeps monospace	Long lines
A log, code, a data dump	Notepad or TextEdit, print to PDF	Yes, with a monospace font set	Check the preview; landscape helps
Any .txt, quickly, on any system	Open it in Chrome or Edge, print to PDF	Yes	Wrapped to the page width
A letter, notes, a transcript to read	Paste into Word or Docs, then export	Your choice	Reflowed into paragraphs
Many files, the same way every time	A command-line tool such as pandoc	Your choice	Your choice

On Windows: Notepad and Microsoft Print to PDF

1. Open the file in Notepad. Double-click a .txt and it usually opens there.
2. Set the font, if columns matter. Notepad uses Consolas by default, which is monospace; if someone changed it, set it back in Notepad’s settings under Font.
3. Press Ctrl+P and pick Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer.
4. Check orientation and the preview. Wide logs read better in landscape.
5. Click Print, then name the file and choose where to save it.

Notepad’s page setup (File, Page setup) sets margins and the header and footer it prints on each page, where you can put a file name or a page number. If Microsoft Print to PDF is missing from the printer list, it is a Windows feature that can be switched back on; the Windows print-to-PDF guide in this cluster covers it.

On a Mac: TextEdit and Save as PDF

1. Open the file in TextEdit. A .txt opens as plain text.
2. Press Cmd+P.
3. Open the PDF menu at the bottom left of the print dialog and choose Save as PDF.
4. Name it and save.

In the print dialog, the TextEdit section has a Print header and footer option for the file name, date and page numbers on each page. Untick it for a clean copy.

The browser route: wrapped, monospace, everywhere

Drag the .txt file into a Chrome or Edge window. The browser shows it as plain monospace text and wraps long lines at the window edge. Then Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac), Destination Save as PDF, and in More settings untick Headers and footers unless you want the file path and date on every page. This route behaves the same on Windows, macOS and Linux, which makes it the one to give a colleague.

Long lines: the trap in every log file

A log line of 300 or 400 characters does not fit on an A4 page in any readable size. Depending on the program, it either wraps onto the next line (sometimes in the middle of a word) or simply stops at the right margin, and the rest of the line is not in the PDF at all. The second case is the dangerous one: nothing warns you, and the PDF looks fine until someone needs the end of line 2,481.

Three fixes, in order of effort:

1. Look at the preview in the print dialog and find the longest line. If it ends at the margin without continuing, the program cuts.
2. Switch to landscape and, if needed, a smaller font (8 or 9 points in a monospace font still reads well in a PDF).
3. Use the browser route, which wraps every line to the page.

Letters print as symbols: the encoding trap

A file written in UTF-8 and read as an older Windows or Mac encoding (or the other way round) turns ä into ä and ł into a box or a question mark. The text in the file is fine; the program guessed wrong. Fix the reading, not the file:

• TextEdit: File, Open, select the file without opening it, click Options, and pick the encoding in Plain Text Encoding (UTF-8 for almost every modern file). Apple documents this in “If characters aren’t displayed correctly in TextEdit” (Apple Support, checked on 11 October 2026).
• Windows: Notepad shows the encoding it chose at the bottom right of the window. To read the file in a different one, a free editor such as Notepad++ is the dependable route: its Encoding menu lets you pick the character set the file was really written in, and then convert it to UTF-8.

Print only once the preview shows the letters right. A PDF made from mangled text keeps the mangled text, searchable and all.

The nicer route: paste into Word or Docs

For a letter, meeting notes or an interview transcript, a monospace printout looks like a 1990s fax. Paste the text into Word or Google Docs, pick a proportional font and real margins, and export: in Word, File, Export, Create PDF/XPS; in Docs, File, Download, PDF document. The text reflows into paragraphs, so hard line breaks inside sentences (common in text copied from emails) need a quick find and replace first.

Do not do this for logs or code. A proportional font gives an “i” less room than an “m”, so columns that lined up stop lining up, and the reader cannot tell which value belongs to which field.

After the PDF: merge, number, compress

An exhibit for a dispute in Linz is often 6 log files that must go in as 1 numbered document. Each step runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded:

1. Merge PDF: add the 6 PDFs, order them with Up and Down, Merge. Bookmark per file gives each log its own entry.
2. Add page numbers: Page 1 format, at the bottom right, so “see page 14” means something. The numbers are added as real text.
3. Compress PDF: usually unnecessary. A text-only PDF is small already, and the tool returns it unchanged and says why.

What the print route cannot do

The honest part:

• It does not reflow or tidy text. What is in the .txt is what prints, including trailing spaces and tab widths.
• Some programs cut long lines silently. Check the preview, as above.
• It cannot repair a file in the wrong encoding; it only shows what the program read.
• getPDF does not convert TXT to PDF. The built-in route is free, local and exact; we would only be wrapping it.