Write Markdown, get a beautiful PDF. Pick a theme, customize the layout, download instantly.
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- pages · - · A4
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This tool uses the same API you can call from your code. Convert Markdown to PDF at scale — parse to HTML in your app, then send it to a single endpoint for Chromium-quality rendering.
import PDFBase from 'pdfbase'
import { marked } from 'marked'
const client = new PDFBase()
const html = marked(markdownString)
const pdf = await client.pdfs.create({
html,
format: 'A4'
})
// pdf.url → signed download URL
// pdf.pages → number of pages
Markdown to PDF conversion takes plain-text Markdown content and transforms it into a polished, portable PDF document. Markdown is the lingua franca of developer documentation — READMEs, changelogs, technical specs, internal wikis, and project proposals are almost always written in it. But when you need to share those documents outside your team, send a formal report to a client, or archive a spec for compliance, you need a PDF.
The conversion pipeline works in two stages: first, your Markdown is parsed into HTML (using a parser like marked.js, which supports the full CommonMark spec plus GitHub Flavored Markdown extensions). Then, a CSS theme is applied to give the HTML professional typography, spacing, and layout. Finally, that styled HTML is rendered into a PDF using a Chromium browser engine — the same approach used by the PDFBase HTML to PDF tool, giving you pixel-perfect output.
The tool above handles all of this client-side for the Markdown parsing and theming, then sends the resulting HTML to the PDFBase API for Chromium rendering. The result is a PDF that looks like it was designed by hand — not like someone printed a text file.
Type Markdown in the editor or paste content from your README, docs, or notes. The live preview updates as you type, rendering your Markdown into styled HTML in real-time. Full GitHub Flavored Markdown is supported — tables, task lists, fenced code blocks, strikethrough, and more.
Choose from three themes — Default (clean sans-serif), GitHub (familiar GFM styling), or Academic (serif, wider margins for papers). Set page size (A4, Letter, Legal) and orientation (portrait or landscape). The preview reflects your theme choice instantly.
Click "Convert to PDF" (or press Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter). Your Markdown is parsed to HTML, wrapped with the theme's CSS, and sent to the PDFBase API for Chromium rendering. The downloadable PDF is returned in under 300ms.
Markdown is perfect for writing. But there are contexts where plain text files or rendered web pages fall short, and a PDF is the right output format. Here are the four most common reasons developers reach for Markdown to PDF conversion:
Technical docs written in Markdown need to be shared with non-technical stakeholders — product managers, legal teams, clients — who expect a polished PDF, not a raw .md file or a GitHub link. Converting to PDF preserves your formatting while making it accessible to anyone.
Writing a proposal in Markdown is fast — headings, bullet points, and tables come naturally. But the final deliverable needs to be a PDF for email attachments or procurement portals. The Academic theme is designed for exactly this: serif fonts, generous margins, and a professional tone.
Weekly status updates, sprint retrospectives, and release changelogs are natural fits for Markdown. Converting to PDF creates a shareable, archivable record. Tables for metrics, task lists for completed items, and code blocks for release notes all render cleanly.
Sometimes you need your README as a PDF — for onboarding packets, offline documentation, or attaching to a project submission. The GitHub theme renders your README with familiar styling, so it looks like GitHub but in a portable PDF format.
This tool uses marked.js with GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) extensions enabled. Every standard and extended Markdown feature is supported and will render correctly in your PDF output.
Use the right theme for the audience. Default for internal docs and quick exports. GitHub for READMEs and developer-facing content (familiar styling). Academic for client proposals, research papers, and anything that needs to feel formal.
Structure with headings liberally. Headings (H1-H3) create visual hierarchy in the PDF. A well-structured document with clear sections is easier to scan and looks significantly more professional than a wall of paragraphs.
Use tables for structured data. Markdown tables render beautifully in all three themes with proper borders, padding, and alternating row styling. They're far more readable in a PDF than bullet-point lists of key-value pairs.
Add horizontal rules for page breaks. Use --- between major sections. In the rendered PDF, these create clean visual separators. For explicit page breaks, you can embed raw HTML: <div style="page-break-before: always"></div>
Preview before converting. The live preview on the right shows exactly how your Markdown will render with the selected theme. Iterate there first — it's instant, whereas PDF generation takes a network round-trip.
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