Markdown is the text format most engineering teams and writers actually use day-to-day: documentation, RFCs, blog drafts, release notes, READMEs. PDF is the format you have to hand it off in — to non-engineers, to PMs, to legal, to clients, to a printer.
Most tools that bridge these (pandoc, gh markdown-pdf packages, etc.) want you to install something. The browser converter does it in a tab with the same GitHub-flavored Markdown features you write in.
Why it’s safe to use for confidential docs
Engineering RFCs, vendor evaluations, internal proposals — these often live as Markdown in Notion, GitHub, or your local notes. They’re not meant to be uploaded to a random PDF service. The browser converter parses with marked, renders inline with KaTeX (math) and a highlighter (code), and emits the PDF locally — no upload of the content.
Step-by-step
- Open Markdown to PDF.
- Drop a
.mdfile or paste Markdown directly into the editor pane. - Tweak settings: page size (A4 / Letter), font (Inter, sans-serif default; or Georgia for printed prose), code theme (light/dark), TOC on/off, page numbers on/off.
- Click Convert. Live preview updates as you tweak.
- Download PDF.
The preview is real-time, so you can iterate on the look without re-uploading anything.
GFM features that work cleanly
- Tables with alignment (
:---,:---:,---:) - Fenced code blocks with language hints (
ts,python, ```bash, etc.) — highlighted - Task lists (
- [ ],- [x]) — checkboxes - Strikethrough (
~~text~~) - Footnotes (
[^1]…[^1]: text) - Autolinks (raw URLs become clickable)
- HTML inline (limited — safe subset; no
<script>) - Anchor headings for clickable TOC
Best practices for clean output
- Use H1 for the document title once, then H2 for major sections, H3 for sub. PDF outline mirrors this structure.
- For code-heavy docs, pick the dark code theme — it reads better when printed in color, and is still legible if printed grayscale.
- Insert a manual page break with
<div style="page-break-before: always;"></div>between major sections if you want chapter-style pages. - For tables wider than the page, the converter wraps cell content. For very wide tables (timelines, comparison matrices), consider landscape orientation in the settings panel.
Use cases that work well
- Engineering RFCs — code blocks, diagrams, decision matrices
- Release notes — bullet lists, version headings
- API documentation — tables of params, fenced JSON examples
- README → PDF — for distributing to non-GitHub users
- Blog drafts — preview your post in print-ready form before publishing
- Lecture notes / study guides — math support via KaTeX
After converting
If you want to share or sign the result:
- Protect PDF — password the doc before emailing a draft RFC
- Compress PDF — for image-heavy docs
- Sign PDF — for any doc that needs a signature
All in-browser, all without uploading the content of your RFC anywhere.
Use Markdown to PDF: Convert Markdown to formatted PDF in your browser. GFM supported. No signup, nothing uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Yes — tables (with column alignment), fenced code blocks (with syntax highlighting for common languages), task lists, strikethrough, autolinks, and footnotes. The parser is the `marked` library with the gfm flag on, the same parser GitHub itself uses for many flows.
Inline LaTeX math (single $...$) and display math ($$...$$) render via KaTeX in the converted PDF. For documents with heavy math, sanity-check a sample page first — KaTeX covers ~95% of LaTeX math syntax.
Mermaid (```mermaid blocks) are pre-rendered to inline SVG before the PDF is built, so flowcharts and sequence diagrams come through as vector graphics, not as raw code. Same for PlantUML if you've pre-converted it.
Both. Images referenced by URL are fetched at convert time (your browser does the fetch, the converter never sees the image). Local images dragged in alongside the markdown work too. Base64-embedded images render directly without a fetch.
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