EPUB to PDF
An EPUB has no pages until a reading app lays it out. This converter lays it out once, on the paper size you choose, so the book prints cleanly and reads the same in every PDF viewer.
Convert to PDF
or drop DOC, DOCX, DOCM … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Convert the whole document or only some pages, slides or sheets.
Pages or slides to keep, e.g. 1-3, 5, 8-10. Numbers refer to the original document.
Source margins keep the document's own layout. Narrow is 12.7 mm, normal 25.4 mm, wide 50.8 mm left and right.
Excel, ODS and Numbers files: convert every sheet, or only the one that was open when the file was saved.
JPEG quality for photos inside the document. 90 looks identical to the source; lower it to make the PDF smaller.
Leave empty for no password. If set, the PDF asks for it before opening. Not available with PDF/A.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the EPUB
Drop one or more DRM-free .epub files onto the upload area, up to 20 books of 95 MB each.
- 2
Pick the page size
A5 with narrow margins is preselected because it is close to a paperback page. Switch Page size to Letter or A4 under Advanced settings if you will print at home on standard paper.
- 3
Convert and open
Press Convert to PDF. Chapters appear as bookmarks in the PDF sidebar; the files are deleted from the server after 30 minutes.
Converting EPUB to PDF trades flexible text for fixed pages: you gain printing, stable page numbers and annotation, and you choose the page size once.
Why an e-book needs a page size before it becomes a PDF
An EPUB file is a ZIP archive of XHTML chapters, a stylesheet, images and a manifest that tells the reader the order. The International Digital Publishing Forum published EPUB 2 in 2007 and EPUB 3 in 2011, and the standard moved to the W3C when the IDPF joined it in 2017. Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books and most library apps read it natively.
The design goal was reflow. Text runs like a web page into whatever box the device offers, and the reader can change the font and size at will. That is exactly why EPUB has no concept of page 47. A PDF is the opposite: each page has fixed dimensions and every glyph sits at a fixed position, which is what printers, citation styles and markup tools expect.
So the converter has to make the decision a reading app would make on the fly: how wide is a line, how tall is a page, where does chapter three begin. On this page it starts from A5 with narrow margins, a shape close to a trade paperback that also reads comfortably on a 10-inch tablet.
EPUB to PDF page sizes compared
| Page size | Dimensions | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| A5 (default here) | 148 × 210 mm · 5.8 × 8.3 in | Tablets, booklet printing, paperback feel |
| Letter | 8.5 × 11 in · 216 × 279 mm | Home printers in the US and Canada |
| A4 | 210 × 297 mm · 8.3 × 11.7 in | Home and office printers elsewhere |
| Legal | 8.5 × 14 in · 216 × 356 mm | Rarely useful for books |
| A3 | 297 × 420 mm · 11.7 × 16.5 in | Large-print editions, posters of a single page |
Which EPUB files can be converted
DRM-protected books will not convert
Books bought from most stores or borrowed through library apps are encrypted with digital rights management. The converter cannot read them and will report an error. Public-domain books, publisher review copies, course packs and your own manuscripts are normally DRM-free and convert without trouble.
EPUB
Electronic Publication
EPUB is the open ebook standard, first published by the International Digital Publishing Forum in 2007 and now maintained by the W3C. It packages XHTML, CSS, images and metadata in a ZIP file, so text reflows to fit any screen size and font setting. EPUB 3 adds audio, video, fixed layouts and accessibility features. Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books and most reading apps open EPUB, and Kindle accepts it through Send to Kindle.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2007 · IDPF (now W3C)
Portable Document Format
PDF was created by Adobe in 1993 and became the open ISO 32000 standard in 2008. It fixes text, fonts, images and layout so a document looks the same on every screen and printer. PDFs can contain forms, signatures, links, attachments and searchable text, and the PDF/A variant is used for long-term archiving. The fixed layout makes PDFs hard to edit, and scanned PDFs contain only images unless OCR is applied. Every browser and operating system can open them.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- No
- Introduced
- 1993 · Adobe
EPUB reflows to fit whatever screen opens it, which is ideal for reading but useless for printing, citing page numbers or annotating in a PDF tool; converting fixes every line to a numbered page.
Printing, studying and annotating the converted book
Students are the largest group converting EPUB to PDF. A PDF can be highlighted in the same app as the rest of their course reading, and a page number in a footnote stays valid for everyone in the seminar. Pick Letter or A4 if you plan to print, because scaling an A5 page onto bigger paper leaves wide white borders.
Long books make long PDFs. If you only need two chapters for a class, convert the whole book and then pull the chapters out with Split PDF, which is faster than editing the EPUB. Fixed-layout EPUBs, such as picture books and comics, already have a page shape; choose Same as source for those so the artwork is not reflowed.
Images inside the book are recompressed at quality 90. For a novel that hardly matters, but a cookbook or an art book can carry hundreds of photos, so lower Image quality to around 70 if the PDF must fit an email attachment.
EPUB to PDF questions
Why do the page numbers differ from my e-reader?
E-readers recalculate pages from the screen size and the font size you picked, so a book may show 300 pages on a phone and 180 on a tablet. The PDF fixes one layout based on the page size chosen here; its page numbers are permanent, which is what you want for citations.
Can I convert a book I borrowed from the library app?
No. Library loans and store purchases are usually wrapped in DRM, and converting them would break the license terms as well as the encryption. Only EPUB files without DRM, such as public-domain titles, publisher review copies or books you wrote, can be converted.
Which page size is best for printing an EPUB at home?
Letter in the United States and Canada, A4 almost everywhere else, because that is the paper already in your printer. A5 is better for reading on a tablet or for a print shop that binds booklets, since its proportions match a paperback.
Will the table of contents still work?
In most books, yes. With Bookmarks from headings on, the chapter headings of the EPUB become entries in the PDF sidebar, so you can jump between chapters the way you would in a reading app.
What if I want the book on a Kindle instead?
Kindles read PDFs, but the text does not reflow, so small pages are hard to read. Use EPUB to Kindle for a file that adapts to the screen, and see how to send an EPUB to Kindle for the email and app routes.
