# Markdown to PDF Converter - Themes, TOC & Page Numbers > Convert Markdown or plain text to PDF online with a live paginated preview, three themes, paper and margin options, headers, page numbers and a TOC. - URL: https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf/from-markdown - Category: PDF Tools (https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf) - Tags: [PDF](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/pdf), [Markdown](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/markdown), [Converters](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/convert), [Documents](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/document) - Last updated: 2026-10-26 - Price: Free, no sign-up - Privacy: Runs locally in the browser; files are never uploaded Need to send or print Markdown notes, a README, a report or a paper draft? Paste text or open a .md / .txt file on the left, and a preview split into real pages appears on the right as you type. Choose a GitHub-style, academic (serif, justified, booktabs tables) or compact theme; A4, Letter, A5 or Legal paper in portrait or landscape; and narrow, normal or wide margins. Put the document name in the header and page numbers such as “1 / 5” or “Page 1 of 5” in the footer, optionally skipping the first page. Tick “Table of contents” to add a contents page listing the real page numbers, with clickable jumps. GFM tables, task lists, quotes and code blocks with light syntax colouring are supported; long tables, code and lists split cleanly across pages (tables repeat their header), headings never get stranded at the bottom of a page, and a line with forces a new page. Images can come from a URL or from your computer via Insert image. There are two ways to export: Print / Save as PDF (recommended) produces a vector PDF with searchable, selectable text and working links; Download PDF directly creates the file in one click without the print dialog, but each page is an image, so the text can’t be searched or copied. Your draft is autosaved in your browser and never uploaded. ## How to use 1. Paste Markdown or plain text, or open a .md / .txt file, and insert images if needed 2. Pick a theme, paper size, orientation, margins, header and page-number style, optionally add a table of contents, and check the live page preview 3. Click Print / Save as PDF for a text PDF, or Download PDF directly for a one-click image-based PDF ## Features - Live paginated preview - GitHub, academic and compact themes - A4 / Letter / A5 / Legal, portrait or landscape, three margin presets - Header text and page-number styles, first page optional - Table of contents with page numbers and links - Tables, task lists, quotes and highlighted code blocks - Long tables, code and lists flow across pages - Text PDF via print or image PDF via direct download ## FAQ ### What’s the difference between Print / Save as PDF and the direct image-based download? Printing lets the browser lay out real text, so the saved PDF is searchable and selectable, links and the table of contents are clickable, it stays sharp at any zoom and the file is small — that’s the recommended route. The direct download skips the print dialog, but every page is a picture, so text can’t be searched or copied and the file is larger. ### Why does my printed PDF have a URL and date on it, or odd margins? Those are the browser’s own headers and footers. In the print dialog open More settings, untick Headers and footers, set Margins to Default or None, keep Scale at 100% and choose Save as PDF as the destination; the pages will then match the preview exactly. ### Are Chinese text, images and formulas supported? Chinese, Japanese and Korean display with your system fonts. Images can be web URLs or files added with Insert image; the image-based PDF has to embed web images, and sites that block cross-origin reads get a placeholder, so upload local copies instead. LaTeX math is shown as plain text for now. ### Is my document uploaded? No. Parsing, pagination and PDF creation all run in your browser. The draft is saved only in your own browser (inserted images are not), so export before you clear your browser data. ## Related tools - [Merge PDF](https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf/merge): Free online PDF merger: combine several PDF files into one in the order you choose, with reordering. Processed locally in your browser, no upload, no sign-up. - [Split / Extract PDF](https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf/split): Free online PDF splitter: extract a page range into a new PDF, or split every page into its own file and download them as a ZIP. Processed locally. - [Rotate PDF](https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf/rotate): Free online PDF rotator: rotate all or selected pages by 90°, 180° or 270° to fix scanned documents. Processed locally, no upload. - [PDF to Image](https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf/to-image): Free online PDF to image converter: render every page as a high-resolution JPG or PNG at 72/150/300 DPI, download all as a ZIP. Processed locally, no upload. - [Image to PDF](https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf/from-image): Free online image to PDF converter: combine JPG, PNG and WebP images into one PDF in order, with A4 or image-sized pages. Processed locally, no upload. - [Compress PDF](https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf/compress): Free online PDF compressor: re-render pages with compressed images to shrink scanned and image-heavy PDFs, with adjustable quality. Processed locally. - [Watermark PDF](https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf/watermark): Free online PDF watermark tool: add text watermarks to every page, tiled or centred, with opacity and angle controls. Any language, processed locally. - [Delete PDF Pages](https://qilingtools.com/en/pdf/delete): Free online tool to delete PDF pages: remove pages by number or range and keep the rest, then download. Processed locally, no upload.