XLS to PDF Converter Free — Convert Excel (.xls) to PDF Online

The 30-Second Method

The fastest way is a browser-based converter — no Excel install, no upload to a server.

1. Open Convertify's Excel to PDF converter.
2. Drag your .xls (or .xlsx) file into the upload area, or tap to pick it from your device.
3. Pick which sheet to convert — a preview of the first ten rows appears so you can check you got the right tab.
4. Click Convert. Your PDF downloads in seconds.

What you get is a values export: your cell data laid out as a clean table across paginated pages, with the first row bolded as a header. It is not a picture of your spreadsheet — read the next section before you rely on it for anything with charts or heavy formatting.

Why Convert XLS to PDF?

Excel files are great for working — bad for sending. Common reasons people convert XLS to PDF:

• Email-safe sharing. Many email clients block or strip macros from .xls attachments. PDFs always go through.
• Portal uploads. Government forms, bank portals, school admission systems, and tax filings rarely accept .xls — but always accept PDF.
• Layout integrity. Open the same .xls in Excel, LibreOffice, and Google Sheets and you'll see three slightly different layouts. PDF freezes the layout exactly as you intended.
• Read-only sharing. A PDF can't be accidentally edited the way an .xls can.
• Print-ready output. Excel's page breaks are notoriously fragile. A converted PDF prints predictably.
• Long-term archiving. Decades from now, .xls might be hard to open. PDFs (especially PDF/A) are designed to last.

XLS vs XLSX: What Actually Changes in the Conversion

If you're converting an .xls file, you're probably working with a spreadsheet from before Excel 2007. Two practical differences:

• .xls files have a 65,536-row limit per sheet (XLSX raised that to 1,048,576). If your XLS hits that limit, the PDF will too.
• .xls macros (.xlsm equivalents) won't run during PDF conversion. Their last-saved output values are converted, but no fresh recalculation happens.

Other than that, Convertify reads both formats the same way.

What Survives the Conversion (and What Doesn't)

Most guides on this topic are vague here, so let's be specific. Convertify reads the values out of your sheet and draws them as a table. That means:

What comes through:

• Cell values, in their original rows and columns, on paginated pages.
• Formula results. A cell showing =SUM(B2:B10) in Excel appears as 1247 in the PDF. The formula itself isn't stored.
• The header row, bolded on a tinted band so the table is readable.

What does not come through:

• Charts and images. Bar, line, pie, pivot charts — none of them are drawn. If your sheet is mostly charts, this is the wrong tool.
• Cell formatting — fills, borders, font families, conditional formatting colours, merged cells and number formats (a currency-formatted cell exports as the raw number).
• Hyperlinks. The link text appears; it isn't clickable.
• Comments and cell notes.

There are also two hard limits worth knowing before you convert: only the first seven columns fit the page layout, and each cell is truncated at 20 characters so the columns stay aligned. Wide sheets and long text cells will get clipped.

If you need a PDF that looks like your spreadsheet rather than one that carries its data, use Excel's own File → Export → Create PDF, or Google Sheets' File → Download → PDF. Both reproduce the visual layout properly. Convertify's value here is that it's free, needs no software, and never sends your figures to a server.

Converting XLS to PDF on iPhone & Android

iOS doesn't come with anything that opens .xls files, and the "Files → share as PDF" trick only works for files iOS can already preview. Use Convertify in Safari (iOS) or Chrome (Android) — same three-step flow as desktop. The converted PDF saves to your phone's Files / Downloads folder.

This is also the only way to convert .xls to PDF on phones without installing the heavy Microsoft Excel app.

Comparison: Convertify vs Excel vs Smallpdf

Troubleshooting

Columns on the right are missing

The layout fits seven columns per page and drops anything beyond that. Reorder your sheet so the columns that matter come first, or split a wide sheet into two narrower ones and convert each, then join them with Merge PDF.

Cell text is cut off partway through

Each cell is truncated at 20 characters. Long descriptions, pasted URLs and free-text notes will be clipped. Shorten those values in the spreadsheet before converting, or move the long-text column out into its own document.

Only one sheet came out

That's by design — one sheet per conversion. Convert each tab in turn, then combine the resulting PDFs with Merge PDF.

My charts and colours are gone

Expected — this is a values-only export. For a visually faithful PDF, use Excel's File → Export → Create PDF or Google Sheets' File → Download → PDF.

PDF is too large to email

Run it through our PDF compressor with the "Medium" setting. Most spreadsheet PDFs compress 60–80% with no visible quality change.

Frequently Asked Questions