Why this conversion is not a button click
An EPUB has no pages. A PDF is nothing but pages. Converting means choosing where every line and page ends, and that is a layout job. Most online converters do it on a server with a specific engine. PDFSwift’s EPUB to PDF tool does it with the engine already in your browser, the same one that prints web pages.
That has one visible consequence: you finish in the browser’s print dialog, choosing “Save as PDF”, instead of getting an automatic download. The upside is that complex scripts, tables and images are laid out by an engine that has been refined for years, and the book is never uploaded.
Steps
- Open EPUB to PDF and choose the EPUB.
- Pick the page size. A4 and US Letter are the common choices; A5 gives a smaller book-like page.
- Pick the text size. 11 pt suits screens; 12 to 14 pt is easier on paper.
- Press Prepare PDF. The whole book appears in a frame so you can check it.
- Press Save as PDF…. In the dialog choose Save as PDF as the destination, set margins to Default, and turn off Headers and footers.
- Save the file, then open it and look at a chapter start, a page with an image, and any table.
What carries over
- Chapters: each chapter starts on a new page, after a simple title page built from the book’s title and author.
- Text: headings, paragraphs, lists, block quotations and preformatted text. The PDF’s text can be selected and searched.
- Images: embedded images are included and scaled to the page width.
- Tables: rows, columns and borders are kept; very wide tables are squeezed to fit.
- Right-to-left books: a book declared as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian or Urdu is printed right to left with shaped letters.
What does not carry over
- Embedded fonts. The book’s own fonts are not used; your system fonts are. For Arabic you want a system with a good Arabic font installed.
- Fixed-layout books such as comics and picture books. They are built from positioned images and lose that layout when flowed.
- Interactivity: scripts, audio and video are removed.
- A clickable table of contents and page numbers. The converted PDF has none; add them with a PDF editor if you need them.
Common problems
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Page URL or date at the top and bottom | Browser header/footer printing | Turn off Headers and footers in the print dialog. |
| Text is cut at the right edge | Margins set to None or custom | Set margins to Default. |
| Squares instead of letters | No system font for that script | Install a font that supports it, then print again. |
| Missing pictures | The book references files that are not in the archive | Check the book with the validator. |
| Browser slows down | Very long, image-heavy book | Close other tabs or use a desktop browser. |
A test worth doing
Before converting a large library, convert one chapter-heavy book and one image-heavy book and open the results side by side. If the first sets the style you like, the settings are right for the rest. If the result will be printed rather than read on screen, increase text size one step and look at how tables break across pages.
Choosing page size and text size by purpose
| Goal | Page size | Text size | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Read on a computer or tablet | A4 or Letter | 11 pt | Zoom in the viewer if needed. |
| Read on a phone | A5 | 12 pt | A smaller page means less zooming. Consider keeping the EPUB, which reflows. |
| Print on paper | A4 or Letter | 12 pt | Larger text and the default margin make long reading easier. |
| Print as a small booklet | A5 | 11 pt | Use your printer’s booklet option to print two A5 pages per sheet. |
Large books
The whole book is placed into one document before printing, so a very long illustrated book needs memory on your device. If your browser is slow or the tab crashes, split the work: use a different device, or convert chapter ranges by creating smaller EPUBs. Plain text and Markdown conversions are far lighter than PDF if you only need the words.
Accessibility of the result
The PDF contains real text, so it can be searched and selected, and it keeps the reading order of the book. It is not a fully tagged accessible PDF: it has no structure tree, no document language declaration beyond what the browser embeds, and no bookmarks. For people who rely on assistive technology, the EPUB is the better format; share the PDF as a convenience copy.
Adding what the conversion does not provide
- Page numbers: add them with a PDF editor or a print dialog option if your browser offers one.
- Bookmarks and a clickable contents page: create them in a PDF editor.
- Smaller file: if images make it large, compress the PDF. Note that compression redraws pages as images, so keep the full-quality copy.
- Combining several books: merge the EPUBs first with EPUB Merge, then convert once, or merge the resulting PDFs with Merge PDF.