How to convert a text file to PDF on Linux

When you have a lot of text files to maintain, it's better to convert them into PDF documents. For example, PDFs are better for printing because PDF documents have predefined layouts. In addition, you can reduce the risk of accidental changes to your documents.

To convert a text file into PDF format, you will need to follow the two steps below.

Preparatory work

First, you need to install two required packages.

On Debian, Ubuntu, or Linux mint:

$ sudo apt-get install enscript Ghostscript

On Fedora, Centos/rhel:

$ sudo yum install enscript Ghostscript

On the Arch Linux:

$ sudo pacman-s enscript Ghostscript

Convert a text file into PDF format

After the preparation is complete, generate a PDF file from the text file in the following two steps

First, use the Enscript command-line tool to convert a text file into PostScript format.

$ enscript-p output.ps Input.txt

Finally, the PostScript format file is converted into a PDF file.

$ ps2pdf output.ps output.pdf

How to convert text files to PDF format on Linux