Guide
Fonts shift. Images misalign. Margins change. These problems are common when exporting from Microsoft Word to PDF, but they are not inevitable. Here's how to get a reliable result every time.
The "Save As PDF" option in Word uses a different rendering path than the Print dialog. Print to PDF (Ctrl+P > Microsoft Print to PDF or similar) goes through the same rendering pipeline that the document would use at a commercial print shop. The result is generally more faithful to what you see on screen.
Word substitutes missing fonts with system defaults, which can make your PDF look nothing like the original. To embed fonts in Word: go to File > Options > Save, and check "Embed fonts in the file". For complex documents with non-standard typefaces, also check "Embed only the characters used in the document" to keep the file size down.
Word compresses images when saving, which can make photos and graphics look blurry in the PDF. To prevent this, go to File > Options > Advanced, and in the Image Size and Quality section, set "Do not compress images" and "Do not upscale images". This keeps your images at full resolution in the PDF.
Word's default page size is US Letter, which differs from A4 by a few millimeters - enough to cause text reflow if the PDF is opened on a European system. Verify the page size in Layout > Page Setup before exporting. Also check margins: if the document was edited with unusual margins, the text may reflow unexpectedly.
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