When to turn Excel into a PDF
An Excel quote or invoice may display differently on someone else’s computer, and it can be edited. As a PDF, the layout stays fixed and anyone can open it the same way.
- Send quotes, invoices and delivery notes to clients as PDFs
- Turn shift schedules, rosters and lists into printable PDFs
- Save an Excel file you received on your phone as a PDF
- Make a PDF from a spreadsheet on a computer without Excel
What’s reproduced
- Cell text (font size, bold, italic, color, underline)
- Borders (thin, thick, dotted, double and more) and fill colors
- Merged cells, text alignment (left/center/right, top/middle/bottom) and wrapping
- Number formats (thousands separators, currency, dates, percentages and more)
- Images such as logos and seals
- Charts (bar, column, line, area, pie and doughnut)
- Print area, margins and orientation (when set in the file)
Charts are supported for bar, column, line, area, pie and doughnut types. Shapes and text boxes aren’t shown. Hidden rows and columns are left out of the PDF, just as when printing from Excel.
Choosing the settings
Fit sheet width to the page
Automatically shrinks the table so its width fits the paper. Even tables with many columns fit across one page, making them easy to print and read. Turn it off to keep the actual size; columns that don’t fit continue on the next page.
Orientation
“Auto” uses the orientation set in the file. If none is set, wide tables are made landscape.
Gridlines
As when printing from Excel, the faint on-screen gridlines normally aren’t printed. Turn this on to show cell divisions in tables without borders.
Supported files
The “.xlsx” format from Excel 2007 and later, macro-enabled “.xlsm” files (macros are never run) and CSV files are supported. CSV files in Shift_JIS or UTF-8 are detected automatically. For older “.xls” files, save them as “.xlsx” in Excel first.
About the PDF
Each PDF page is a high-resolution image of the table with the cell text laid over it invisibly, so it looks sharp and the text can still be selected, copied and searched. Text is drawn with the fonts on your device, so character widths may differ slightly from Excel. Check the preview after converting.
Related tools
Combine the PDF with other documents or make it smaller. To add a hanko seal to a quote, use the Digital Hanko Stamp maker.
Your file is never uploaded
Your Excel file isn’t uploaded to a server; it’s converted to PDF in your browser. Spreadsheets with prices or personal information are never sent anywhere.