XLS to PDF
Convert XLS files to PDF with the layout intact.
Drop your file here
Processed securely and deleted within the hour.
Why convert XLS to PDF?
XLS is the pre-2007 binary Excel format. It still appears in exports from older accounting and banking systems, and converting it to PDF is usually about producing a statement or report that will not change under someone else's settings.
What to watch for
Very old XLS files with macros or unusual formatting can convert imperfectly. The data is reliable; the styling occasionally is not.
Landscape and fit-to-width are applied automatically for wide sheets.
How the conversion works
Your file is converted by headless LibreOffice — the same engine behind the desktop suite, so what it produces matches what Excel 97–2003 would show. It runs on our server because there is no browser equivalent: rendering a document faithfully needs the full layout engine, fonts and all.
Your file is processed in a directory created for that one job and deleted the moment your download has been sent. Nothing is logged, nothing is retained, and there is no account to create.
Archival PDF/A
If the document is going into a records system, a legal filing or any archive meant to outlive the software that made it, turn on PDF/A. It embeds every font and forbids anything that could make the file render differently in twenty years. The file gets larger — that is precisely what you are paying for.
Going the other way
Converting back out of PDF is a much harder problem, because a PDF has no paragraphs or cells to recover — only glyphs at coordinates. PDF to Word and PDF to Excel do their best at it, and are honest about where the guesswork shows.
Common questions
Why do my columns split across pages?
That is the classic spreadsheet conversion failure. Fit-to-width is on by default here to prevent it, applied to the workbook itself.
Are formulas preserved?
They are rendered as their current results. A PDF cannot recalculate.
Does it convert every sheet?
Yes, every sheet in the workbook, each with the page setup applied.
Which formats are accepted?
XLSX, XLS, ODS and CSV.
My sheet is enormous. Will it work?
It converts, but beyond fifteen to twenty columns fit-to-width makes the text very small. Hide columns or split the sheet.
Is conditional formatting kept?
Yes, along with colours, borders and number formats.