XCF to PDF

How to Convert XCF to PDF Online

1. Upload Your XCF Files: Drag and drop, or click "+ Add Files," to load one or more GIMP project files (.xcf). Flatten layered projects in GIMP first (Image → Flatten Image, then re-save the .xcf) — a multi-layer XCF has a single layer placed on the page, not the merged canvas. Batch upload is supported, and the order of files in the list becomes the page order in a merged PDF.
2. Pick Combine Mode and Compression Type: Under "Combine?" choose "Single PDF" to bundle every XCF as pages in one document, or "Individual PDFs" for one file per XCF. Under "Compression Type," pick Screen, Ebook, Default, Prepress, or Printer — these map to Ghostscript presets ranging from 72 dpi (smallest, screen viewing) up to 300 dpi (print-shop / prepress quality).
3. Set Page Layout, Placement, and Margins (Optional): Pick a "Paper size" preset (Original, A4, A3, Letter, Legal, Tabloid, Ledger, Executive, ARCH A/B, ISO B4/B5, or Screen) and a "Page layout" of Portrait or Landscape. Under "Image placement" choose Cover (fill the page, may crop) or Contained (fit inside margins). Set "Image alignment" to Top, Center, or Bottom and "Margin" to No margin (0"), Narrow (0.5"), Moderate (0.75×1"), Normal (1"), or Large (2×1").
4. Tune Quality, Handle Transparency, and Download: Move the "Image Quality (%)" slider (default 75) for the JPEG-style compression baked into the PDF, then under "Image Transparency" pick Unchanged to keep alpha or Removed to flatten transparent pixels to white. Click Convert and download. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared.

Why Convert XCF to PDF?

XCF (eXperimental Computing Facility) is GIMP's native project format. It stores layers, channels, paths, selections, guides, and per-pixel transparency exactly as GIMP holds them in memory. The GIMP project explicitly does not recommend XCF as an interchange format — the binary layout reflects internal data structures and can shift between minor versions, so anyone you send a .xcf to needs the same (or newer) GIMP build to open it cleanly. PDF (ISO 32000-2:2020) is the opposite: a frozen, vendor-neutral standard that opens the same way in Acrobat, Preview, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, iOS, and Android. Converting XCF to PDF turns a working file into a deliverable.

• Client proofs and design reviews — most clients do not have GIMP installed; a flattened PDF lets them annotate in Acrobat or mark up directly in macOS Preview / iPadOS Markup without round-tripping through PSD.
• Print shops and prepress — the Prepress preset embeds fonts and keeps raster images at 300 dpi, which is what offset and digital print providers (Vistaprint, Moo, local print houses) ask for in their "PDF/X-style" upload guides.
• Portfolios and case studies — packaging a sequence of XCF mockups as a single multi-page PDF gives recruiters and creative directors one attachment instead of a folder of files no one can preview.
• Long-term archiving — XCF readability depends on GIMP being installed five or ten years from now; PDF/A-friendly output is the format institutions like the US Library of Congress recommend for sustained access.
• Email and chat sharing — a 50 MB layered XCF often shrinks below 5 MB at the Screen preset, comfortably under Gmail's 25 MB attachment cap and inside Discord's 10 MB free-tier upload limit.
• Accessibility for non-technical viewers — opening a .xcf on Windows or iOS without GIMP shows nothing; PDF previews in Finder, File Explorer, Outlook, Slack, and every modern browser without extra software.

XCF vs PDF — Format Comparison

Compression Type Quick Guide

These presets correspond to Ghostscript's pdfsettings profiles (/screen, /ebook, /default, /prepress, /printer), which is the same library GIMP itself calls when you "Export As PDF" from the desktop app.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are GIMP layers preserved in the PDF?

No, and the way they are dropped is worth understanding. A .xcf with several layers reaches the converter as a multi-page image and one layer of it is placed on the page — the stack is not composited the way GIMP's canvas composites it. In our testing with a three-layer GIMP project, the page carried only the bottom layer, with the regions the upper two covered coming through as transparent (or white, if you set "Image Transparency" to Removed). Flatten in GIMP first — Image → Flatten Image, then re-save the .xcf — and the page matches your canvas exactly. If you want a multi-page PDF where each layer becomes its own page, use GIMP's "Export Layers As PDF" plug-in and upload the resulting PDF instead. xconvert treats one .xcf as one page; "Single PDF" mode just bundles multiple files in upload order.

Why is my converted PDF blurry compared to the GIMP canvas?

Two likely causes. First, the Screen preset rasterises images at 72 dpi — fine for monitors, soft for print. Switch to Prepress or Printer for 300 dpi output. Second, the "Image Quality (%)" slider defaults to 75; raise it toward 90–100 if you can accept a larger file. If your XCF is itself low-resolution, no preset can recover detail that was never there.

What happens to transparent areas in my XCF?

By default, "Image Transparency" is set to "Unchanged," which keeps the alpha channel — transparent pixels stay transparent in the PDF (visible against any background colour the reader applies). Choose "Removed" to flatten transparency to white, which is what you want for printing and for clients who view PDFs over dark backgrounds and would otherwise see white halos around your artwork.

Should I pick Cover or Contained for image placement?

Use Contained when the artwork's aspect ratio matters — it scales the image to fit inside the page and margins without cropping. Use Cover when you want a full-bleed page with no white border; the image is scaled to fill the page and any overflow is cropped. For client proofs and portfolios, Contained is the safer default; for posters or anything destined for trim-to-edge printing, Cover paired with No margin (0") is closer to the prepress workflow.

Can I make one multi-page PDF from many XCF files?

Yes. Upload all the files, leave "Combine?" on Single PDF, and they are placed in upload order — drag rows in the file list to reorder before you click Convert. For many files where each is a separate deliverable instead, switch to Individual PDFs. If you specifically want to merge already-rendered images alongside XCFs, merge image to PDF accepts mixed image inputs.

Why does GIMP recommend against using XCF for sharing?

The XCF format mirrors GIMP's in-memory data structures. The developers note in the official documentation that minor format changes can ship between GIMP releases, so a .xcf saved in one version is not guaranteed to round-trip through older GIMP builds or third-party tools. For interchange they suggest OpenRaster (.ora), a standardised format developed jointly with Krita, or — for final delivery — a stable container like PDF, PNG, or TIFF.

Can I get higher colour fidelity than 8-bit per channel?

GIMP 2.10 supports 16-bit and 32-bit floating-point per channel, and your XCF can carry that depth. PDF readily handles 8-bit raster content in JPEG-encoded streams, which is what gets written here; banding-sensitive work (smooth gradients, retouching) may show subtle posterisation versus the source XCF. If colour fidelity is critical, convert XCF to TIFF instead — TIFF retains 16-bit per channel — or export to PNG via convert XCF to PNG for 16-bit lossless raster.

How do I cut PDF size after converting?

Lower the "Image Quality (%)" slider from 75 toward 50–60, switch the Compression Type to Screen, and set "Image Transparency" to Removed (transparent images carry an extra alpha channel that adds bytes). If the result is still too large — typically because you uploaded many high-resolution files in Single PDF mode — run the output through compress PDF for a second pass tuned for size.

Does this work the same as GIMP's built-in PDF export?

The pipeline used here calls the same Ghostscript-backed PDF writer that GIMP's "Export As PDF" uses on the desktop, so for a single-layer XCF the output looks substantively identical. The difference is on the input side: GIMP composites a layer stack before it writes, and this converter does not, so layered projects need the flatten step described above. The two extras you get on xconvert are batch upload (drop ten XCFs and get one combined PDF) and the named compression presets surfaced as a dropdown rather than buried in gs command-line flags.