How to create a PDF from text, blank pages and images

Create a PDF in five steps

1. Open Create PDF.
2. Type or paste your text. Leave it empty for blank pages.
3. Add JPG or PNG images if you want image pages.
4. Choose the page size (A4, Letter or Legal), the orientation and the text size.
5. Create the PDF, download it and look through every page.

What you can set

Margins are fixed at 48 points (about 17 mm) and lines are spaced at 1.45 times the text size, which keeps plain text easy to read.

How text is laid out

Each line break you type starts a new paragraph, and long lines wrap to the page width. When a page is full, the text continues on the next one, so you never have to count lines. The text is plain: one typeface, one size and one colour. There are no headings, bold or italics, lists, columns or tables. For anything formatted, write it in a word processor and save it as PDF, then check it using the Word to PDF guide if you convert it in your browser.

Other scripts work too. Characters from other writing systems are drawn with fonts that support them, and right-to-left paragraphs are aligned to the right. Scripts that need complex shaping may be drawn as images, so if you need selectable text in those, check the result.

Choosing the text size

The text size decides how much fits on a page. On an A4 portrait page, with the fixed margins and line spacing, these are the approximate line counts:

Landscape and Letter or Legal pages change the numbers, and a longer text simply continues onto more pages.

Image pages

Every JPG or PNG you add becomes its own page after the text, fitted inside the margins without stretching. That is handy for adding a photo or a scan to a short document. If your main aim is turning photos into a PDF, with a choice of orientation and an editable order, use JPG to PDF and the images-to-PDF guide instead.

Useful things to make

• A quick note or memo you can send as a file, without opening a word processor.
• Blank pages for notes to print, or as a signature page to attach to another document.
• Divider or cover pages to combine with other files using Merge PDF; the merge guide covers the order and what to check.
• A text archive of something you pasted, such as an email or a set of instructions.

After you create it

• Add page numbers once the document is final.
• Add a signature with the signing guide.
• Mark it DRAFT or CONFIDENTIAL with a watermark.

Privacy

The PDF is generated in your browser, so what you type and any images you add are not sent to a server. Close the tab when you are done, since the text lives in the page until you do.