How to Convert FDX to PDF (Final Draft Script to PDF)

How to convert FDX to PDF: the short version

Three ways, all free:

1. In the browser. Open the FDX to PDF converter, drop the .fdx in, download the PDF. No login, works on any device.
2. On your phone, tablet or Mac. Open the FDX in Zen Writer and export PDF. Best when you also need to fix something first.
3. In Final Draft, if you own it. Save as PDF from the File menu rather than printing to a PDF driver, which can substitute fonts and shift line breaks.

Whichever route you take, the PDF is not finished until you have opened it and checked the page count, the title page and the font. The rest of this guide explains what a correct screenplay PDF looks like and the mistakes that get noticed.

Why you share a PDF and keep the FDX

The two files do different jobs. An FDX file stores meaning: which paragraph is a scene heading, which is dialogue, which scene carries number 14. It is the master, and it is the only version that repaginates when you cut four pages from act two. A PDF stores a rendering: the fonts, the line breaks and the page breaks, fixed. It looks identical on a producer's laptop, a reader's iPad and a contest portal's preview, and nobody needs Final Draft to open it.

That fixity is the point. When you send a PDF, the reader sees the page breaks you intended, a first read on a phone works without any app, and nobody can reflow your script into their own template by accident. When you send the FDX, you hand over a file the recipient can edit and repaginate, which is what you want for a co-writer or a production office and not what you want for a first read.

So: PDF leaves the machine, FDX stays. Check the submission rules before assuming — most contests and fellowships take PDF, some also take FDX, and the rule is whatever they wrote down. If you only have the PDF and need the editable file back, the reverse trip is covered in how to convert PDF to FDX.

Convert FDX to PDF in the browser, free

The FDX to PDF converter reads the Final Draft XML — element types, not page positions — and lays the script out on the standard template. Because it works from element types, the output is a properly formatted screenplay rather than a screenshot of one.

1. Open the tool in any browser. It needs no account.
2. Drop the .fdx in. The tool parses each <Paragraph Type="…"> and positions it: action at the left margin, dialogue indented, cues higher, transitions right-aligned.
3. Download the PDF. It is paginated at Courier 12 on US Letter with the standard margins and page numbers top right.
4. Open it and compare the page count to the FDX. If the FDX was written on a non-standard template, the export reflows it and the count moves.

If you only need to see the script rather than produce a file, the free FDX viewer renders it in the browser with correct indents and a page count. It is the quickest answer to "someone sent me an FDX and I just want to read it".

Export a PDF from Zen Writer on iPhone, iPad or Mac

If the FDX needs a fix before it goes out — a stray scene number, a missing title page, a typo in a cue — a viewer is not enough. Open the file in Zen Writer, which imports FDX on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android, make the change, and export.

1. Open the FDX. From Files, Mail, AirDrop or a cloud drive, share the file to the app. It appears as a formatted screenplay, not XML.
2. Check the script statistics. Pages and estimated runtime are shown; note the page count now so you can compare it against the PDF.
3. Export PDF. Choose PDF from the export options. The output uses Courier 12, US Letter, standard margins, a title page and page numbers.
4. Share it. Mail, AirDrop, Files, Drive — the PDF is an ordinary file on the device. Nothing has been uploaded anywhere in the process.

On a Mac the same steps apply with the desktop app, and it is the fastest way to turn an emailed FDX into a readable PDF without installing anything from Final Draft: Zen Writer for Mac opens it, and export is one menu away. The free tier watermarks exports and holds one screenplay; Pro removes both limits.

What a correct screenplay PDF looks like

A screenplay PDF is not a generic document with a nice font. Its geometry is a standard, and the standard exists so that a page count means something: one page runs about one minute of screen time.

• Paper: US Letter, 8.5" by 11". A4 is accepted for UK and European submissions but holds a slightly different number of lines, so the page-per-minute calibration drifts.
• Font: Courier, 12 point, one font in one size throughout. Courier is monospaced, ten characters to the inch, which is what makes the standard margins produce a predictable line count.
• Margins: 1.5" left, 1" right, 1" top and bottom. Dialogue sits in a block about 3.7" wide starting 2.5" from the left edge; character cues start at 3.7"; parentheticals at 3.1"; transitions are right-aligned. The margins and font article has the full grid.
• Page numbers: top right, followed by a period. The first page of the script is conventionally unnumbered, and the title page never is.
• Title page: title centred about a third of the way down, a credit line (Written by), the author's name, and a contact block bottom left. No page number, no draft date on a spec unless the recipient asked. The title page guide covers the layout; the free title page generator builds it.

Two markers appear only when pagination splits a speech across pages. The bottom of the page carries (MORE) and the cue is repeated at the top of the next page with (CONT'D):

                    DEV
          You said the doors would be open.
          You said nobody else knew about
          the shipment. You said you
                    (MORE)

                                            14.

                    DEV (CONT'D)
          handled it yourself.

A good exporter also refuses to leave a scene heading as the last line of a page, or a character cue stranded with its dialogue overleaf. If your PDF shows either, fix it in the FDX and export again — do not send it.

For comparison, the script body itself should look exactly like this, whichever app produced it:

INT. HARBOUR OFFICE - NIGHT

A single desk lamp. DEV counts cash into a tin, twice.

                    DEV
          You're late, and you're wet.

                    RUTH
               (dripping)
          Ferry's cancelled. Everything's
          cancelled.

                                        CUT TO:

Checking the page count before you send

The page count is the first thing a reader looks at and the easiest thing to get wrong, because an FDX does not store page breaks. Every app computes them from page size, element indents and the font's metrics. Two apps can put the same script at 104 and 107 pages, and both are "right".

1. Note the count in the editor before exporting.
2. Open the PDF and read the last page number. A difference of a page or two is normal. A difference of ten means a template mismatch — usually a non-standard font or margins carried inside the FDX.
3. Sanity-check against the range. Features run 90–120 pages, comedies shorter; a half-hour TV script 25–35, an hour 50–62. A 150-page spec PDF gets a wince before it gets a read, and the page count guide explains why.
4. Read the last page. It should be a real page, not a two-line orphan. If it is, tighten somewhere in the last scene rather than shipping it.

The free runtime estimator gives a second opinion on page count and read time from the file itself, which is useful when the editor and the PDF disagree and you want to know which one to believe.

Common FDX to PDF mistakes

1. Scene numbers on a spec. Numbered scenes belong to a shooting script. Turn numbering off before export, then confirm in the PDF — the rendered page is the only thing that counts. The spec vs shooting script article covers the difference.
2. Revision colours in the file. A PDF for a reader should be black on white. Coloured pages and revision asterisks mean nothing outside a production office.
3. Printing to PDF instead of exporting. A print driver may substitute a proportional font for Courier, and the moment that happens your pagination is no longer standard. Use the app's PDF export.
4. Locking the PDF. Password protection and copy restrictions make a script harder to open on tablets and phones, and some contest portals reject protected files. Send it open.
5. A bloated file. A text-only feature PDF is a few hundred kilobytes. Tens of megabytes means embedded images or duplicated fonts, and portals cap uploads.
6. A lazy filename. script_final_v3_REAL.pdf is what producers see in a folder of two hundred downloads. Use Title_YourName.pdf.
7. No phone test. A growing share of first reads happen on a handset. Open the PDF on yours before sending; a bad margin or a missing page number is obvious there.

The rest of the FDX guide covers opening, editing and converting the format on every device, including how to open an FDX on iPhone when the file arrives by email and you are nowhere near a desk.

Frequently asked questions

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