Tablizer

Convert YAML to PDF Online

Paste a YAML table below, edit it if you need to, and get PDF back. The conversion runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded, there is no size limit and there is no signup.

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The only part of this site that uses a server. The address is sent to it so the page can be fetched, because a browser is not allowed to fetch someone else's page itself. Your own files are never involved.

Nothing here is uploaded. The parsing happens on this page.
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Paste or upload something above and it will appear here.
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The output will appear here once there is a table to convert.

What YAML is

YAML uses indentation instead of brackets. It is a superset of JSON, supports comments, and is meant to be edited by hand.

Kubernetes manifests, CI pipelines, Ansible playbooks and most modern config files.

What PDF is

PDF describes a page: glyphs at coordinates, not rows and columns. A table in a PDF is a visual arrangement, not a data structure.

Reports, invoices, statements and anything sent to be read rather than processed.

What changes when you convert YAML to PDF

A YAML list of maps reads as rows and columns directly. Anchors and aliases are resolved before the table is built, so a repeated block arrives expanded rather than as a reference.

The table is drawn into a paginated document with the header repeated on every page, so a long table stays readable past page one. Page size, orientation and font size are all adjustable.

What carries over from YAML to PDF

YAML records 4 things about a table that PDF has no way to hold.

YAML knows which of its values are numbers. PDF keeps only their appearance, so nothing downstream can sort or sum them without someone reading them back off the page first.

An empty cell and a missing one are the same thing in PDF, so a null and an empty string in the YAML both come out blank and can no longer be told apart.

YAML can hold a value that is itself a list or an object. PDF has only flat cells, so nested values are flattened into one cell rather than being spread across columns.

PDF is the end of the line for this data. Reading the table back out of it is a separate and much harder problem than writing it, so keep the YAML if you will need the values again.

Questions

How do I convert YAML to PDF?

Paste your YAML into the box above or drop the file onto it. Check the table in the grid, then copy or download the PDF from the output panel. It takes one step and the data never leaves your browser.

Why did my YAML value change meaning?

YAML reads several bare words as booleans. In the 1.1 spec that includes yes, no, on and off, which is why a country column containing NO for Norway can arrive as false. Quote values you want kept as text.

Can I get my table back out of the PDF?

Out of one made here, yes, because the text is real text. Out of a scanned document, no. A scan is an image of a page, and pulling data from it needs optical character recognition, which is a different job with a different failure rate.

Can I convert the PDF back to YAML afterwards?

Not mechanically. PDF keeps how the table looks, not what it held, so going back means reading the values off the page again. Keep the YAML if you will need it.

Will my numbers still be numbers?

They will look the same, but PDF holds no values at all - only their appearance. Nothing can add up a column of a PDF without the numbers being read back out of it first.

What happens to nested values?

PDF has no nested cell, so a list or object inside a YAML value is flattened into a single cell rather than expanded into extra columns. Split it before converting if the parts need to be separate.

Is there a limit on file size?

No. The work happens on your own machine, so the limit is your machine's memory rather than an upload cap. A file with tens of thousands of rows converts in a second or two.

Is my data uploaded anywhere?

No. The parsing and generating are done by JavaScript running on this page. You can watch the network tab while you convert and see that nothing is sent.

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