About

Generating a properly formatted PDF from raw text requires compliance with the PDF 1.4 binary specification. This tool constructs a valid PDF file entirely in your browser by building the object catalog, page tree, and content streams with correct cross-reference tables. It handles automatic word-wrapping based on your chosen font size s and page margins m, calculating line capacity as w = (612 − 2m) points for a standard US Letter page. Text exceeding page height triggers automatic page breaks. No server upload occurs. Your content never leaves your device.

Incorrect PDF construction leads to corrupted files that fail to open in readers like Adobe Acrobat or Preview. Common errors include malformed xref tables, incorrect byte offsets, and unescaped special characters such as parentheses. This tool handles those edge cases. Note: only PDF built-in fonts (Helvetica, Times-Roman, Courier) are available since embedding custom font binaries would require full TrueType parsing. Pro Tip: keep paragraphs under 50,000 characters for optimal browser performance.

Formulas

The number of characters per line is determined by the available text width divided by the average character width for the selected font at the chosen size:

chars_per_line = W_page − 2 ⋅ mw_char

Where W_page = page width in points (e.g., 612 pt for US Letter), m = margin in points, and w_char = average character width at font size s.

Lines per page are calculated from the usable vertical space:

lines_per_page = H_page − m_top − m_bottom − h_header − h_footers ⋅ 1.4

Where H_page = page height, h_header and h_footer = reserved header/footer heights, and the factor 1.4 represents standard line spacing (leading). The total page count is then P = ceil(total_lines ÷ lines_per_page).

PDF byte offsets for the cross-reference table are accumulated as each object is written: offset_n = offset_n−1 + length(obj_n−1). Incorrect offsets produce the most common PDF corruption error.

Reference Data

PDF Built-in Font	Type	Avg. Char Width (pt at 12pt)	Best Use Case	PDF Internal Name
Helvetica	Sans-serif	6.7	General documents, reports	/Helvetica
Helvetica-Bold	Sans-serif Bold	7.2	Headers, emphasis	/Helvetica-Bold
Times-Roman	Serif	6.2	Academic papers, formal letters	/Times-Roman
Times-Bold	Serif Bold	6.7	Legal headings	/Times-Bold
Courier	Monospace	7.2	Code listings, tabular data	/Courier
Courier-Bold	Monospace Bold	7.2	Code emphasis	/Courier-Bold
US Letter	Page Size	612 × 792 pt	Standard North American	-
A4	Page Size	595 × 842 pt	International standard	-
1 inch	Unit	72 pt	Margin reference	-
1 cm	Unit	28.35 pt	Metric margin reference	-
Header Zone	Layout	Top 10% of page	Title, document name	-
Footer Zone	Layout	Bottom 5% of page	Page numbers, notes	-
PDF Version 1.4	Spec	Most compatible	All readers since 2001	%PDF-1.4
Max Portable Line Length	Spec	255 bytes	PDF spec recommendation	-
Special Chars	Escaping	( ) \ must be escaped	Prevent stream corruption	\( \) \\

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the 14 standard PDF fonts guaranteed by the PDF specification (ISO 32000) to be available in every compliant reader without embedding. Embedding custom fonts requires parsing TrueType or OpenType binary tables, subsetting glyphs, and encoding CIDFont descriptors - a process that adds hundreds of kilobytes and significant complexity. The built-in fonts cover sans-serif, serif, and monospace needs for most text documents.

In PDF content streams, parentheses ( ) delimit string literals and backslashes \ serve as escape characters. This tool automatically escapes these characters by prepending a backslash: ( becomes \(, ) becomes \), and \\ becomes \\\\. Without this escaping, the PDF reader would interpret unmatched parentheses as stream corruption and refuse to render the page.

The generator calculates usable vertical space by subtracting top margin, bottom margin, header height, and footer height from the total page height. It then divides this by the line height (font size multiplied by a leading factor of 1.4). When accumulated lines exceed this capacity, a new PDF page object is created with its own content stream. Header and footer are repeated on each page automatically.

The tool enforces a soft limit of 50,000 characters per section (header, body, footer) to maintain responsive browser performance. PDF generation for a 50,000-character body produces approximately 15-20 pages depending on font size. For larger documents exceeding this, consider splitting content across multiple generations. The PDF binary size scales roughly at 1-2 KB per page of text content.

No. The output conforms to PDF 1.4 (compatible with Acrobat 5 and later), which is the broadest compatibility baseline. PDF/A compliance requires embedded ICC color profiles, XMP metadata streams, and font embedding - features beyond the scope of a lightweight browser-based generator. The generated files will open correctly in Adobe Acrobat, Foxit, Chrome's built-in viewer, macOS Preview, and all modern PDF readers.

True justified text in PDF requires calculating the exact width of each word using precise glyph metrics from font tables, then distributing remaining space via the Tw (word spacing) operator. This tool uses approximate character widths for the built-in fonts. For Helvetica at 12pt, the average character width is approximately 6.7 points, but individual glyphs like "W" (9.5pt) and "i" (2.8pt) vary significantly. Left and center alignment are pixel-accurate; justified alignment is a best-effort approximation.