Excel to PDF
Create print-ready PDFs while preserving workbook layout and text searchability
Drop Excel file here
or select a workbook from your device
Supported: .xls, .xlsx
Conversion Notes
Guide
Convert Excel to PDF Online Free
To convert Excel to PDF with PdfPeaks, upload your XLS or XLSX file, click Convert to PDF and download the result. The PDF follows your workbook's print settings, so set the print area, orientation and page breaks in Excel first. It is free, needs no account and accepts files up to 100 MB.
A spreadsheet looks right on the screen it was built on. Send it to someone else and things go sideways. The last column gets chopped onto its own page, a font changes because their computer doesn't have it, and the figures you meant as a final record get edited by the first person who opens the file. A PDF fixes all of that. The layout is locked, it opens the same way on a phone, a laptop and a print shop's machine, and nobody can nudge a cell by accident.
PdfPeaks converts Excel files to PDF in your browser. Upload an XLS or XLSX workbook, press Convert to PDF and download the file. You don't need an account, you don't install anything, and you don't need Microsoft Office on the device you're using. A phone is fine.
One thing is worth knowing before you start. The converter follows your workbook's print settings, which means orientation, margins, print area and page breaks carry over exactly as you set them in Excel. It's the detail most people miss, and it explains almost every bad result. If a PDF comes out with columns split across pages, the conversion didn't fail. The page setup in the workbook told it to do that. Two minutes in Print Preview before you upload usually saves a second attempt, and the Tips section below shows what to change.
Formulas stay in your original file. The PDF holds the results as they would print, which is what you want when you're sending prices or marks to someone who should read the numbers, not rework them. Text in your cells stays selectable and searchable in the PDF.
Need to go the other way? To pull tables out of a PDF into a spreadsheet, use PDF to Excel at https://pdfpeaks.com/pdf/converttoexcel, or read how table extraction works at https://pdfpeaks.com/blog/article/extract-tables-from-pdf-to-excel. If all you have is a photo of a printed table, try Image to Excel at https://pdfpeaks.com/image/toexcel.
How It Works
Step 1: Check Print Preview in Excel. Open your workbook, go to File, then Print, and look at the preview. This is what the PDF will look like. If a column spills onto page two, fix it now (the Tips below show how). It takes a minute and it's the step that matters most.
Step 2: Upload the workbook. Drag your .xls or .xlsx file into the upload box, or tap Select Excel and choose it from your phone or computer. Files up to 100 MB are accepted.
Step 3: Click Convert to PDF. A progress counter runs while the file is processed. Workbooks with lots of images or charts take a little longer than plain tables.
Step 4: Download and check. Open the PDF and scroll through before you send it. Look at the first and last pages in particular, because that's where cut-off columns and stray blank pages show up.
After that you might want to tidy the result. Shrink a heavy PDF for email with Compress PDF at https://pdfpeaks.com/pdf/compress. If your monthly report lives in several workbooks, convert each one and join them with Merge PDF at https://pdfpeaks.com/pdf/merge. Number the pages with Add Page Numbers at https://pdfpeaks.com/pdf/addpagenumbers. There's a merging walkthrough at https://pdfpeaks.com/blog/article/how-to-merge-pdf-files-free.
Security & Privacy
A spreadsheet often holds more than people realise: salaries, customer lists, prices you haven't announced yet. So here is what happens to your file. It travels to our server over an encrypted HTTPS connection, gets converted, and is deleted after processing. Nobody here opens it to read it, and it isn't sold or shared.
Two practical points. First, Excel doesn't print hidden rows and columns, and because the PDF follows print settings they should stay out, but read the finished file to be sure before it goes anywhere. Second, if the numbers are sensitive, put a password on the PDF afterwards with Protect PDF at https://pdfpeaks.com/pdf/protect and send the password by a different route from the file. A short guide is at https://pdfpeaks.com/blog/article/how-to-password-protect-a-pdf-for-free-2026-guide. Our privacy policy has the full details at https://pdfpeaks.com/home/privacy.
Common Use Cases
Quotations and price lists: Send a quote as a PDF and the client sees exactly the layout you built, with no chance of someone changing a rate before they forward it.
Payroll and salary sheets: HR teams keep the working file in Excel and send each employee a read-only PDF. If you build individual payslips, the Salary Slip Generator at https://pdfpeaks.com/documents/salary-slip-generator gives you a formatted slip without any spreadsheet work.
Invoices and statements: A PDF invoice is easier for an accounts department to file than an Excel sheet. If you don't have a template yet, the Receipt and Invoice Maker at https://pdfpeaks.com/documents/receipt-maker makes one in a few minutes.
School and university results: Teachers keep marks in Excel and publish result sheets or date sheets as PDFs so every student sees the same thing on whatever phone they have.
Timetables and rosters: Class timetables, shift schedules and duty rosters are painful when they print across three pages. Fix the page setup once, convert, and pin the PDF on a notice board or a WhatsApp group.
Inventory and stock lists: Warehouse and shop owners export a snapshot at the end of the month and keep it as a record that can't be quietly edited later.
Financial reports and board packs: Accountants convert the final workbook and combine several into one pack with Merge PDF. A lot of people also add a watermark like DRAFT with https://pdfpeaks.com/pdf/watermark until the numbers are approved.
Portal and email uploads: Many tender, admission and job portals only accept PDF. Convert, check the size, and compress if the portal has a limit.
Printing: Print shops handle PDFs without surprises. Fonts, margins and scaling arrive the way you set them.
Tips for Best Results
Set a print area. In Excel, select the range you want, then use Page Layout, Print Area, Set Print Area. Anything outside it stays out of the PDF, which is useful for leaving rough working columns behind.
Fit all columns on one page. This is the fix for the most common complaint. On the Page Layout tab, set Width to 1 page and leave Height on Automatic. Excel shrinks the sheet to fit the page width, and your last column stops landing on its own sheet.
Use landscape for wide tables. Page Layout, Orientation, Landscape. A table with more than eight or ten columns rarely reads well in portrait.
Repeat the header row. If your table runs over several pages, go to Page Layout, Print Titles, and pick the row to repeat at the top. Every page of the PDF then shows the column names. Without this, page three is just numbers with no labels.
Look at Page Break Preview. Under the View tab, Page Break Preview shows where Excel will cut the pages. Drag the blue lines if a row or column is being split in a bad spot.
Stick to common fonts. Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman and similar fonts are safest. A decorative font installed only on your laptop can be replaced when the file is converted.
Convert one sheet at a time if you only need one. Copy the sheet into a new workbook first. That leaves no doubt about what ends up in the PDF.
Coming from Google Sheets? Use File, Download, Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) and upload that file here.
Shrink big files afterwards. Spreadsheets with logos or screenshots can produce heavy PDFs. If you need it under an email or portal limit, run it through https://pdfpeaks.com/pdf/compress. There's a walkthrough for hitting exact sizes at https://pdfpeaks.com/blog/article/how-to-reduce-pdf-file-size.
Keep the original workbook. The PDF is a final copy. If you need to change a number later, edit the Excel file and convert again.