ODT to PDF
An .odt file looks right in LibreOffice and can shift in Word or on a phone. Converting it to PDF fixes every line, table and page break in place, so a CV, thesis chapter or report reads exactly as you wrote it.
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
Choose your .odt files
Add Writer documents from LibreOffice, Apache OpenOffice, Collabora or a Google Docs download. A batch takes up to 20 files of 95 MB each.
- 2
Check bookmarks and paper size
Bookmarks from headings turns Heading 1 to 3 into a clickable outline. Under Advanced settings you can force A4 or Letter or pick PDF/A for an archive.
- 3
Convert to PDF and download
Press Convert to PDF, then save each file or a ZIP of all of them. Your documents leave our server after 30 minutes.
Upload the .odt file and press Convert to PDF: Writer headings become PDF bookmarks, fonts are embedded and the page layout stays exactly as LibreOffice showed it.
What ODT is and where your file came from
ODT is the word-processing member of the OpenDocument Format family, alongside .ods spreadsheets and .odp presentations. OASIS approved OpenDocument as a standard in 2005, and ISO and IEC adopted it as ISO/IEC 26300 in 2006. It is the default save format of LibreOffice Writer and Apache OpenOffice Writer, and Google Docs offers it under File > Download.
Some public bodies choose ODF on purpose. The UK government, for example, adopted it in 2014 as the standard for sharing editable documents, and other European administrations use it for document exchange as well. That is why an .odt can land in your inbox even if you never installed an office suite yourself.
26300the ISO/IEC standard number for OpenDocument
ODT
OpenDocument Text
ODT is the word-processing format of the OpenDocument standard, created by OASIS in 2005 and approved as ISO/IEC 26300. It is the default format of LibreOffice Writer and is required or preferred by several governments for document exchange. Like DOCX it is a ZIP package of XML files and supports styles, images, tables and tracked changes. Microsoft Word and Google Docs can open ODT, though complex layouts may shift slightly.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2005 · OASIS
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
ODT is open and editable but renders differently outside LibreOffice; a PDF freezes the Writer layout so reviewers, portals and printers all see the same pages.
What carries over from Writer to the PDF
Kept as in Writer
- Paragraph and character styles
- Tables, borders and shading
- Headers, footers and page numbers
- Footnotes and endnotes
- Images and their wrapping
- Heading 1–3 as PDF bookmarks
Worth a quick check
- Fonts you installed yourself
- Fields such as dates that update on open
- Form controls, which print as their current value
- Very large embedded images, which add to the size
Getting an ODT ready for a submission portal
Application and thesis portals usually check three things: the file is a PDF, it is under a size cap, and sometimes it is PDF/A. The first is solved here. For the second, documents with photos shrink when you lower Image quality from 90 to around 70; the guide on compressing a PDF without losing quality explains how far to go. For the third, choose PDF/A under Convert to.
Page limits are where ODT files catch people out. A five-page statement in LibreOffice can open as six pages in Word because of a different font or spacing. Convert once, check the count in the PDF, and only then upload. If a reviewer later needs to edit the document, send ODT to DOCX output alongside it.
ODT to PDF questions
Why not just send the ODT file?
Many recipients open it in Word, which reads OpenDocument but lays it out with its own engine and often substitutes fonts. Line breaks, table widths and page counts can change. A PDF removes that variable, which matters for anything with a page limit.
LibreOffice already has Export as PDF. Why use a converter?
If LibreOffice is installed, its export is fine. This page is for the cases where it is not: a work laptop without it, a Chromebook, a phone, or a folder of ODT files from someone else that you need as PDFs in one go.
Will the PDF use Liberation Serif or switch to Times New Roman?
The fonts named in the document are embedded as used, so text set in Liberation Serif stays Liberation Serif. That font was designed with the same letter widths as Times New Roman, which is why documents move between the two without reflowing.
My university wants PDF/A. Does an ODT convert to it?
Yes. Set Convert to to PDF/A and leave Open password empty, since the archival standard does not allow encryption. Every font is embedded either way.
Can I edit the document in Word instead?
Convert it with ODT to DOCX to get a Word file. Keep the PDF for sending and the editable copy for changes.
Do tracked changes from Writer show up in the PDF?
Only if you want them to. Include comments is off, so you get the final text without margin notes or recorded changes. Turn it on to print them for a reviewer.