Fix Garbled Text When Converting TXT to PDF

Have you ever converted a TXT file to PDF only to find your text turned into strange symbols, question marks, or squares? This frustrating problem—called "garbled text" or "mojibake"—happens when character encoding isn't properly handled during conversion.

The good news? This issue is completely solvable once you understand what's causing it. In this guide, we'll explain why garbled text occurs and show you exactly how to fix it, regardless of what language your text files contain.

Why Does Text Become Garbled?

Understanding Character Encoding

Every character you see on your screen—whether it's a letter, number, symbol, or emoji—is stored as a number in your computer. Character encoding is the system that maps these numbers to visual characters.

Common encoding systems:

• ASCII: Supports only basic English characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9)
• UTF-8: Supports all languages and symbols (Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, emoji, etc.)
• GB2312/GBK: Chinese-specific encoding
• Shift-JIS: Japanese-specific encoding
• ISO-8859-1: Western European languages

When Garbled Text Happens

Garbled text occurs when:

1. Wrong encoding assumption: The converter reads your file using ASCII encoding when it's actually UTF-8
2. Font limitations: The PDF uses a font that doesn't include your language's characters
3. Encoding lost in conversion: Character encoding information isn't preserved during the TXT to PDF process

Example of garbled text:

• Original: 你好世界 (Hello World in Chinese)
• Garbled: ä½ å¥½ä¸–ç•Œ or ????????

This happens because each Chinese character requires multiple bytes to store, but if the converter treats each byte as a separate ASCII character, the result is meaningless symbols.

The Two Solutions: Text Mode vs Image Mode

Modern TXT to PDF converters offer two approaches to handle special characters:

Solution 1: Text Mode (Selectable Text)

How it works: Embeds actual text characters with proper Unicode encoding in the PDF.

Advantages: ✓ Text remains selectable and searchable ✓ Smaller file size ✓ Can copy and paste text from PDF ✓ Perfect for English and basic Latin characters

Limitations: ✗ May still show garbled text if PDF fonts don't support your language ✗ Requires proper Unicode support in the converter ✗ Font compatibility issues across devices

Best for:

• English documents
• Documents that need to be searchable
• Files where you need to copy text later
• Accessibility (screen readers)

Solution 2: Image Mode (Guaranteed Display)

How it works: Renders your text as an image (like taking a screenshot) and embeds it in the PDF.

Advantages: ✓ Guaranteed to display correctly for ANY language ✓ Works with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Thai, emoji, etc. ✓ No font compatibility issues ✓ What you see is what you get

Limitations: ✗ Text cannot be selected or copied ✗ Slightly larger file size ✗ Not searchable ✗ Not screen-reader friendly

Best for:

• Non-English languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, etc.)
• Documents with special symbols or emoji
• When visual appearance is more important than editability
• Archival purposes where you just need to preserve how it looks

How to Fix Garbled Text: Step-by-Step

Method 1: Use a Unicode-Aware Converter

The easiest solution is to use a converter that properly handles Unicode encoding:

Using TXT-to-PDF.com (Recommended for multilingual files):

1. Visit TXT-to-PDF.com
2. Upload your TXT file
3. Choose conversion mode:
   • If the warning appears about special characters, select Image Mode
   • For English-only files, Text Mode works fine
4. Adjust formatting if needed (font, size, margins)
5. Click "Convert to PDF"
6. Download your perfectly formatted PDF

Why this works:

• Automatically detects non-ASCII characters in your file
• Recommends the appropriate mode
• Image mode guarantees correct display for any language
• No configuration needed—just upload and convert

Method 2: Check Your File Encoding First

Before converting, ensure your TXT file uses UTF-8 encoding:

On Windows:

1. Open your TXT file in Notepad
2. Click File → Save As
3. At the bottom, change "Encoding" to UTF-8
4. Save the file
5. Now convert this UTF-8 file to PDF

On Mac:

1. Open your TXT file in TextEdit
2. Click Format → Make Plain Text
3. Click File → Save
4. Choose Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8)
5. Save and convert

On Linux:

# Check current encoding
file -i yourfile.txt

# Convert to UTF-8 if needed
iconv -f GB2312 -t UTF-8 yourfile.txt > yourfile-utf8.txt

Method 3: Use Command Line Tools (Advanced)

For developers or batch processing:

Using LibreOffice (Command Line):

libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf --outdir . yourfile.txt

Using Pandoc:

pandoc yourfile.txt -o output.pdf --pdf-engine=xelatex

Note: XeLaTeX engine has better Unicode support than the default engine.

Preventing Garbled Text: Best Practices

1. Always Use UTF-8 Encoding

When creating or editing TXT files:

• Set your text editor to UTF-8 by default
• Avoid legacy encodings like GB2312 or Shift-JIS
• UTF-8 is the universal standard that supports all languages

2. Choose the Right Conversion Method

Use Text Mode when:

• Your file contains only English characters
• You need searchable/selectable text
• File size is a concern
• Accessibility is important

Use Image Mode when:

• File contains Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, or other non-Latin scripts
• You have symbols or emoji that might not render correctly
• Visual accuracy is more important than editability
• You're unsure about encoding compatibility

3. Test Before Batch Converting

If you're converting multiple files:

1. Test one file first
2. Verify the output looks correct
3. Then proceed with batch conversion using the same settings

4. Keep Original Files

Always keep your original TXT files as backup. If the PDF conversion doesn't look right, you can try again with different settings.

Common Scenarios and Solutions

Scenario 1: Chinese Characters Show as Squares

Problem: 你好 appears as □□

Solution:

• Use Image Mode in your converter
• Or ensure your converter supports Chinese fonts
• TXT-to-PDF.com automatically handles this in Image Mode

Scenario 2: Accented Characters Are Wrong

Problem: "Café" appears as "Café"

Solution:

• Your file is UTF-8 but being read as ISO-8859-1
• Save file explicitly as UTF-8 (see Method 2 above)
• Use a Unicode-aware converter

Scenario 3: Question Marks Replace Characters

Problem: "こんにちは" appears as "?????"

Solution:

• This is a font problem—the PDF font doesn't include Japanese characters
• Switch to Image Mode for guaranteed display
• Or use a converter that embeds comprehensive fonts

Scenario 4: Mixed Languages Partially Garbled

Problem: "Hello 你好" shows as "Hello ??????"

Solution:

• The converter handled ASCII but not Unicode
• Use Image Mode to preserve all characters
• Or use a converter with full Unicode support

Troubleshooting Checklist

If your converted PDF still shows garbled text:

• Is your TXT file saved as UTF-8?
• Did you choose Image Mode for non-English content?
• Does your converter explicitly support Unicode/multilingual text?
• Are you using a modern converter (not legacy desktop software)?
• Did you test with a small sample file first?

Recommended Tools

For Quick, Problem-Free Conversion:

TXT-to-PDF.com

• ✓ Automatic encoding detection
• ✓ Image mode for guaranteed accuracy
• ✓ Supports 10+ languages
• ✓ 100% free, no signup required
• ✓ Files processed locally (never uploaded)

For Developers/Automation:

Pandoc with XeLaTeX

• Better Unicode support
• Command-line friendly
• Customizable templates

LibreOffice Headless

• Good font support
• Batch processing capability
• Free and open source

Conclusion

Garbled text when converting TXT to PDF is frustrating, but it's easily fixable once you understand the cause. The key is ensuring your conversion process properly handles character encoding—either by using UTF-8 aware text embedding or by rendering text as images.

Quick recommendations:

• For English-only files: Use Text Mode for smaller, searchable PDFs
• For any other language: Use Image Mode for guaranteed correct display
• When unsure: Image Mode is the safe choice—it always works

The best approach is using a modern converter like TXT-to-PDF.com that automatically detects special characters and recommends the appropriate conversion mode. This eliminates guesswork and ensures your PDFs look exactly as intended.

Ready to convert without worrying about garbled text? Try our free converter now—it handles any language automatically.

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Have questions about character encoding or TXT to PDF conversion? Feel free to reach out or try our tool with a sample file to see the difference yourself.