About
About ECF PDF: a free, private PDF converter for court filings
ECF PDF turns exhibit images into court-ready PDFs, entirely in your browser. It is free, it needs no account, and it was built for pro se litigants and attorneys filing in federal court through CM/ECF.
What the tool does
Drop in images — JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, or TIFF — and the tool assembles them into a single PDF formatted for electronic filing. You choose the page size (Letter by default, with A4, Legal, and fit-to-image options), the orientation (auto-detected, portrait, or landscape), and how each image sits on the page: contained without cropping, filled to the edges, or at actual size. Name the file, generate it, and file it.
Output is tuned for CM/ECF: a Letter-size default, clean formatting that courts accept, and file size monitoring so you know how large the document is before you upload it.
Private by design
Everything happens on your device. The conversion runs in JavaScript in your browser; nothing is uploaded, and we can't see your documents even if we wanted to. We operate no backend servers, collect no data, store no files, and use no cookies. For a tool that handles legal exhibits, which often contain things no one else should see, that is not a feature. It is the whole point.
The tool also works as a progressive web app. Install it on a desktop, tablet, or phone and it runs offline, with no software to download.
Who it's for
Self-represented litigants first. Filing pro se in federal court means learning CM/ECF, local rules, and formatting requirements at the same time as the law itself, and a scanned exhibit that comes out sideways or oversized is one more way to lose a day. Attorneys filing the same way get the same benefit: a quick conversion that leaves no copy of a client's documents on anyone else's server.
The blog
The tool is one piece; the blog is the rest. Its guides cover representing yourself in federal court, the rights and the common mistakes of pro se litigants, how to present evidence, litigation strategy, and district-by-district filing guides with courthouse locations, local rules, and CM/ECF access. Several posts explain how to use the RECAP browser extension and the RECAP Archive to avoid paying PACER fees for documents that are already free.
Free, open, and kept that way
The footer says it in one line: this tool is free, open, and built for people who need it. If it saved you time or money, there is a Buy Me a Coffee link in the footer, and that is the only ask. Questions, bug reports, and suggestions for the blog go through the contact page.