Convert an Excel spreadsheet to PDF

How to convert Excel to PDF

1. Add your workbook. Drag an .xlsx file onto the drop zone. Every sheet is listed with its row and column count so you can see what will be included.
2. Choose the layout. Landscape fits more columns and is on by default. You can also start each sheet on its own page.
3. Convert. Each sheet becomes a headed table, with column widths and page breaks worked out automatically.
4. Download. Save the PDF. Values stay selectable and searchable.

Every sheet, laid out as a real table

Each worksheet in the workbook becomes a section in the PDF: the sheet name as a heading, then its data as a bordered table with a shaded header row. Empty rows are skipped rather than producing blank bands, and long cell contents wrap inside their column instead of being cut off.

Formulas are rendered as their calculated results, which is what a printed spreadsheet shows — you get 1,247 rather than =SUM(B2:B15). Dates are formatted readably rather than appearing as serial numbers.

Values are drawn as real text, so the output can be searched and copied. That also keeps the file small: a workbook with a few thousand rows produces a PDF of a few hundred kilobytes.

What is not carried over

This produces a clean, readable table rather than a pixel-exact reproduction of the Excel print view. Worth knowing before you convert something presentation-critical:

• Charts and images are not included. If your workbook's point is a chart, export it separately as an image.
• Conditional formatting, cell colours and custom fonts are not reproduced — the table uses a consistent house style.
• Merged cells are flattened, with the value appearing in the first cell of the range.
• Print areas, frozen panes and custom page-break settings from Excel are not read; page breaks are computed to fit the content.

Landscape, and why it is the default

Spreadsheets are wide and PDF pages are tall, which is the central tension in any spreadsheet-to-PDF conversion. Portrait A4 fits roughly five or six columns comfortably; landscape fits eight or nine before text starts to feel cramped.

Since most spreadsheets people convert are wider than they are tall, landscape is on by default. Turn it off for a narrow sheet — a two-column list of figures looks better in portrait.

If a sheet is genuinely too wide for either orientation, the columns will still all be present but each will be narrow. In that case, hiding columns you do not need before converting gives a much better result than any page setting.

Why spreadsheets should not be uploaded

Spreadsheets tend to hold the most sensitive data in an organisation: payroll, client lists, pricing, financial models, patient records, unreleased results. They are also frequently under explicit contractual restrictions about where they may be sent.

Because the workbook is parsed and rendered entirely in your browser, none of it is transmitted. That makes it usable for material you are not permitted to upload to a third-party service at all — a constraint that rules out most free converters outright.

Frequently asked questions