AI to PDF Converter

Illustrator artwork out as a plain PDF.

FREE · NO SIGN-UP · RUNS ON YOUR DEVICE

Your files stay on your device

  • PDFSTAYS VECTOR
  • 1FILE OUT
  • 0DPI APPLIED
  • 0UPLOADS
In practice

What you can count on

  • 0pixels involved
    • The shapes are kept as shapes
    • Sharp at any size, forever
  • 4things stripped
    • Illustrator’s editable layer data, XMP,
    • the title, and the original dates
  • 0uploads
    • The file never leaves the tab
    • Nothing is stored anywhere
Specification

AI to PDF at a glance

What comes out
One PDF, artboards as pages
Vector or pixels
Vector all the way through
Resolution
No resolution to choose
Choosing artboards
All artboards, always
What is removed
Private data and metadata
What that means
A deliverable, not a source file
Fonts
Embedded fonts travel with it
Color
Carried through as-is
Input formats
PDF-compatible .ai
What will not open
Non-PDF-compatible .ai
Price
Free
Account required
None
Where it runs
On your device
How to

How to use AI to PDF

  1. 1

    Add the AI file

    It is read here first, and says plainly if the file cannot be opened.

  2. 2

    Leave PDF selected

    It is already chosen on this page. The resolution and artboard boxes belong to the image outputs and do nothing here.

  3. 3

    Download

    One PDF comes back, with every artboard as a page, ready to send or print.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Is this just renaming the .ai file to .pdf?

No, and that trick is worth avoiding. A renamed .ai still carries Illustrator’s private editable block and all its metadata. Here the document is re-saved with that block, the XMP, the title, the author and the original dates removed.

Does the artwork stay sharp when it is enlarged?

Yes. Nothing is turned into pixels, so the shapes redraw at whatever size the PDF is viewed or printed at. That is the whole reason to pick PDF over PNG or JPG here.

Why does the resolution menu do nothing?

Because resolution only means something once artwork is redrawn as pixels, and this output never is. The menu belongs to the PNG and JPG outputs on the other two pages.

I only want one artboard. Can I do that?

Not from this page — the PDF output carries the whole document through, so you get every artboard as pages. Take the pages you want afterwards with the PDF page extractor, or convert that one artboard to PNG instead.

Will the colours match my print proof?

They should, which is the difference from the image outputs. CMYK and spot colours are carried through untouched rather than converted to RGB for the screen.

Can my printer open it?

Yes — it is an ordinary PDF. What it is not is a press-ready file: there is no bleed added, no colour profile forced and no preflight run. If a printer asks for PDF/X, that has to come out of Illustrator’s own export.

What happens if I switch to another tab while it works?

The work pauses and picks up where it left off when you come back. Browsers throttle hidden tabs, so a job left running in the background would slow to a crawl or stall outright.

Background

What comes out is still vector

This is the one output that is not redrawn as pixels. The shapes stay shapes, so the result is as sharp on a billboard as it is on a phone.

  • Illustrator writes a complete PDF stream inside every .ai saved with the default settings, and that stream is real vector artwork, not a preview picture.
  • Taking it out and re-saving it is lossless in a way PNG and JPG cannot be: there is no resolution decision to get wrong.
  • What is dropped is the part that made it editable: Illustrator’s private layer block, and the metadata naming you and your working dates.
  • That makes it a good file to send a client or a printer, and a bad one to keep as your only copy.

Full specification

Specification of the AI to PDF tool
What comes outOne PDF. Every artboard in the file becomes a page of it, in order.
Vector or pixelsVector. The artwork is copied through as shapes and type, never redrawn as a grid of pixels.
ResolutionDoes not apply. Nothing is rasterised on this page, so the dpi menu changes nothing about the PDF.
Choosing artboardsDoes not apply here either. The whole document is re-saved, so every artboard comes along.
What is removedIllustrator’s private editable-layer block, the XMP metadata, the document title and author, and the original creation and modification dates.
What that meansThe result is a PDF for reading and printing, not a working file. Nobody downstream can reopen your layers from it.
FontsFonts embedded in the artwork travel inside the PDF and render as designed anywhere. Fonts that were never embedded are substituted.
ColorWhatever the artwork was built in is carried through untouched, CMYK and spot colours included.
Input formatsAI files saved with Create PDF Compatible File ticked, which is Illustrator’s default.
What will not openAI saved with that box unticked, and older PostScript-based AI. Nothing in a browser can read those.
PriceFree. Supported by clearly labeled ads placed outside the working area.
Account requiredNo.
Where it runsIn your browser tab. The file is never sent anywhere.
Next step

Keep going with the same files

All image tools: Image tools on SPOTTOOLS