ODT is the native format of LibreOffice and, before it, OpenOffice.org. It is an open international standard, which is why schools, universities and parts of the public sector use it. The catch appears when the file leaves that world: a recipient with Word sees shifted tables and different fonts, and a phone often cannot open it at all. A PDF removes the question of which office suite the other side runs.
Typical reasons to convert ODT to PDF
- Sending to Word users. Current Word opens ODT files, but it converts them into its own model on the way in. Frames, some numbering styles and text boxes do not always survive. A PDF arrives exactly as you laid it out.
- Homework and theses. Students working in LibreOffice often submit to systems that accept only PDF.
- Offices and applications. An ODT is a perfectly valid document, but the clerk who receives it may not have LibreOffice. PDF is the format everybody can open, print and file.
- Printing at a copy shop. The shop prints from PDF, so pages break exactly where they did on your screen.
Why ODT converts more faithfully than Word files
Our converter runs on our own servers in the Czech Republic and reads ODT natively. For a DOCX this means mapping a foreign format first. For an ODT there is nothing to translate, because ODT is an open standard with a published specification. Styles, frames, numbering, footnotes, fields and page styles come out the way they looked in LibreOffice Writer.
The one variable is fonts. The server has the common free fonts (Liberation Serif and Sans, DejaVu, Carlito, Caladea) plus the Noto family, which covers most scripts including Chinese, Japanese and Korean. A document written in a font we do not have, for example a school's licensed handwriting font or a Windows font such as Verdana, gets a similar substitute and the text can reflow. The rest of the export behaves like this:
- Fonts are embedded, headings become PDF bookmarks and the PDF is tagged for screen readers.
- Links and cross-references stay clickable. The text is searchable.
- Images are stored as JPEG at quality 90 and downsampled above 300 DPI.
- Comments are not exported, not even in the margin. Unaccepted tracked changes appear as coloured text.
- Form controls are printed with their current values. The result is not a fillable form.
PDF/A and hybrid PDF: what our converter does not do
We produce a standard PDF. Two variants that LibreOffice offers on your own computer are not part of it:
- PDF/A (ISO 19005) is the archival variant of PDF: all fonts embedded, no external dependencies, no encryption. Archives, courts and some e-government services require it. The UK government, for instance, adopted ODF in 2014 for documents that are shared and edited, and recommends PDF/A or HTML for documents that are only viewed. If you need PDF/A, open the file in LibreOffice, choose File > Export As > Export as PDF and tick the PDF/A option on the General tab.
- Hybrid PDF embeds the original ODT inside the PDF, so the recipient sees a PDF and you can still open it in LibreOffice for editing. This is also only available in the desktop export dialog, described in the LibreOffice help.
Common problems when converting ODT to PDF
Images are missing in the PDF
LibreOffice can insert a picture as a link to a file on your disk instead of storing it in the document. Such an ODT contains only the path, and our server cannot see your disk. In LibreOffice open Edit > Links to External Files, select the links, click Break Link, save and convert again.
The PDF has different fonts than my document
See above: the font is not installed on our server. Either switch to Liberation Serif or Sans before converting, or export the PDF in LibreOffice on your own computer, where your fonts are available.
The ODT won't open or convert
Password-protected ODT files are encrypted and cannot be opened without the password. Save an unprotected copy first. An ODT is a ZIP archive, so if it was damaged in transfer, renaming it to .zip and trying to open it is a quick test.
About the format
OpenDocument grew out of the XML format of OpenOffice.org (files like SXW). OASIS approved it as a standard in 2005 and it became ISO/IEC 26300 in 2006. ODF 1.2 followed as ISO/IEC 26300:2015, and in December 2025 OASIS approved ODF 1.4. Inside an ODT you will find content.xml with the text, styles.xml with the formatting and a Pictures folder. The Library of Congress lists ODF among acceptable formats for textual works.
| ODT | ||
|---|---|---|
| Standard | ISO/IEC 26300 (OASIS ODF) | ISO 32000 |
| Purpose | editing | reading and printing |
| Layout | calculated by the application | fixed |
| Archival variant | none | PDF/A (ISO 19005) |
Other ways, and when this converter helps
In LibreOffice itself, the Export Directly as PDF button in the toolbar does the job in one click. Word can open an ODT and save it as PDF too, but it lays the document out with Word's engine first. Our converter makes sense when LibreOffice is not installed, when you are on a phone, or when you have a batch of files: up to 10 at once, downloaded as a ZIP or sent as a link by e-mail. Each file up to 100 MB, 10 files per hour, no registration. Uploads are deleted right after conversion, results after 14 days.
More about ODT and PDF. Working with Word files instead? Use DOCX to PDF.