What file types can Dangerzone convert to safe PDFs?

Updated

Dangerzone accepts more than 20 file types and always produces a safe PDF as its output. That covers PDFs, all major office-suite formats, and the most common image types, so it works for the typical risky attachment: an email document you don't know whether you can trust. If your file is a PDF, an office document, or a common image, Dangerzone can sanitize it. If it's something outside those categories, you'll need another tool.

What Dangerzone supports

The project describes support for "more than 20 file types," grouped into three families:

Category What it includes
PDFs Documents already in PDF form
Office suites All major office-suite formats (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations)
Images The most common image types

The output is always the same regardless of input: a PDF rebuilt from pixel data.

How the conversion works

Dangerzone's approach explains why the input format matters less than you might expect:

  1. You give it a document you don't know if you can trust — for example, an email attachment.
  2. Inside a sandbox, Dangerzone converts the document to a PDF (if it isn't already one).
  3. It then converts that PDF into raw pixel data: a huge list of RGB color values for each page.
  4. Finally, it takes this pixel data and converts it back into a PDF.

Because the document is reduced to pixels and reconstructed, malicious content embedded in the original file — scripts, macros, exploits — doesn't survive into the output. The sandbox has no network access, so even a document that compromises the sandbox can't communicate outward.

What this means for your decision

  • Use Dangerzone when you have a PDF, office document, or common image from an untrusted source and you need a safe PDF you can open normally.
  • Expect a PDF out, never the original format. If you need the file back in its original format, this isn't the tool.
  • Check your specific format if it's unusual. The "20+ types" claim covers mainstream formats; a niche or proprietary format may not be included.

Dangerzone is a free and open source project maintained by the Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), a nonprofit that protects and defends press freedom. The current release listed on the site is Dangerzone 0.11.0, with downloads for macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), Windows, Ubuntu/Debian, Fedora, Tails, other Linux builds, and a beta for Qubes OS.