How to Create a PDF File from Any Document, Photo or Page

The right method depends on what you start with. An app that can export PDF directly gives the best result, because text stays selectable and searchable, links keep working and the file stays small. Printing to PDF works from almost any app but can drop links and bookmarks. Converters fill the gaps for images, scans, text and HTML.

Word and Google Docs both save PDFs directly, with no extra software. Exporting this way keeps your text real text, so readers can search and copy it, and it keeps headings and links.

In Word on Windows, select More options, then Options, in the save dialog to export only a page range or create PDF bookmarks from your headings. For very large Google Docs, Google suggests printing instead. In Chrome, choose File, then Print, and set Destination to Save as PDF.

PDFToolz JPG / PNG to PDF puts each image on its own page and joins them into one PDF. It accepts JPG, PNG and WebP files. Most JPG photos are placed into the PDF without being re-compressed, so they keep their quality, and phone photos are turned the right way up using the orientation stored in the photo.

You can drag the images into order before converting. The page options are A4, Letter or Fit image, which sizes each page to its photo. With A4 or Letter, orientation can be automatic, portrait or landscape. The margin can be none, small or normal.

A plain photo of a page often has a tilted angle, a table showing around the edges and gray shadows. PDFToolz Scan to PDF cleans this up. It finds the sheet of paper and trims the background, straightens tilted pages and applies a Color, Document or Grayscale filter. The Document filter turns the paper white and darkens the ink, even in uneven light.

On a phone, the file button can open the camera, so you can shoot each page and add them in order. Turn on Searchable OCR to add a hidden text layer, so the PDF can be searched and copied. The OCR reads English text and runs in your browser. For the cleanest crop, shoot the page on a darker surface.

Phones also have built-in scanners. On iPhone, both the Notes app and the Files app scan pages. In Notes, tap the Attachment button, then Scan Documents. In Files, tap the More button, then Scan Documents. On Android, the Google Drive app scans with its Camera button and can save the result as a PDF.

For notes, README files, drafts or anything typed in a plain text editor, PDFToolz Text / Markdown to PDF builds a clean document without a word processor. Paste the text or open a .txt, .md or .html file.

In Markdown mode, headings, bold and italic text, lists, quotes and code blocks keep their formatting. Plain text mode keeps every line exactly as typed. HTML files are read as text, with the tags removed, so use the HTML to PDF tool when you need the page's layout. Accented letters, Greek and Cyrillic are supported. You can pick A4 or Letter, a margin from 5 to 40 mm and a text size from 8 to 20 pt.

To turn HTML into a PDF that keeps its layout, use PDFToolz HTML to PDF. Paste HTML code or open an .html file, and it builds A4 or Letter pages that keep the page's styles, tables and images. The conversion runs in your browser, so your HTML is not uploaded.

For a live web page, printing is usually quicker. In Chrome on a computer, press Ctrl+P, or Cmd+P on a Mac, and set Destination to Save as PDF. On iPhone, Safari can save a page as a PDF. Open the Share menu, tap Markup, then choose Save File To.

Print to PDF works from any app that can print, such as a browser, an email client, an accounting program or a photo viewer. Instead of paper, the print goes to a virtual printer that writes a PDF file. It is built into Windows, macOS, Chrome and Android, so there is nothing to install.

The trade-off is that printing turns the content into printed pages. Bookmarks and form fields are usually lost, links sometimes are, and some apps print text as images. When an app offers a real Save As PDF or Export option, use that instead.

A PDF you create from Word, Google Docs or a scan is flat. People can read it but can't type into it. To make a form people fill in, add form fields to the finished PDF. PDFToolz Create Fillable PDF lets you place fields on each page and saves them as standard PDF form fields, known as AcroForm fields, which Acrobat Reader, web browsers and Preview on a Mac can fill.

You can add text boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns, date fields and signature lines. A signature line is a box where the signer types their name, not a certificate-based digital signature. Like the other tools, it runs in your browser.

A quick check catches most problems. Open the PDF in a different app from the one that made it, since that is what the recipient will do.