In the below code the field set ‘Essay_Cover_Sheet’ contains a text area field named ‘Essay_Body__c’. Essay_Body__c has data with line breaks.
When the VF renders as PDF , I don’t see the line breaks, it directly appears as a single paragraphs
<apex:page standardController="TargetX_SRMb__Essay__c" showHeader="false" applyHtmlTag="false" applyBodyTag="false" standardStylesheets="false" renderAs="PDF">
<body>
<div>
<h2>Essay</h2>
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5px" cellspacing="5px">
<tbody>
<apex:repeat value="{!$ObjectType..FieldSets.Essay_Cover_Sheet}" var="field">
<tr>
<td><b>{!field.label}</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>{!TargetX_SRMb__Essay__c[field.fieldPath]}</td>
</tr>
</apex:repeat>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</body>
</apex:page>
wrapping the field in an outputText with escape equal to false
<apex:outputText value="{!TargetX_SRMb__Essay__c[field.fieldPath]}" escape="false"/>
