Convert Word to PDF

How to convert Word to PDF

1. 1

   Choose your Word document

   Drop in a .docx file or click to browse. Your original Word document is never modified.

2. 2

   Click Prepare PDF

   The document is rendered page by page in your browser, so you get the real layout rather than a stripped-down approximation.

3. 3

   Click Download PDF

   The PDF is built and saved straight to your device on A4 pages with 16 mm margins. Open it and check the page breaks before sending anything important.

There is no account, no watermark and no limit on how often you convert Word to PDF online.

What kind of PDF this produces

This is the part most converters gloss over, and it decides whether this tool is right for your document.

Each page of your Word document is rendered with its real document formatting and then written into the PDF as a page image. Visually the result is faithful: images, tables, colours, headings, columns, headers and footers and spacing all look the way they do in Microsoft Word.

The trade is that the text inside the finished PDF is no longer text. You cannot select, search or copy it. Hyperlinks stay visible but stop being clickable. Screen readers cannot read the document. Applicant tracking systems cannot parse it. And the file is larger than a text-based PDF of the same document.

Use this converter for anything meant to be looked at and printed: a designed CV emailed to a named person, an invoice, a quote, a proposal, a report, a letter, coursework a human will read.

Export from Microsoft Word instead for anything that will be machine-read or must stay accessible: a resume going into a job portal, a university submission with an accessibility requirement, a contract someone needs to search, or a document you may later want to turn back into Word. In Word, use File, then Save As, and choose PDF. That keeps real, selectable text.

Saying this plainly costs us some conversions. It costs you a rejected application, which is worse.

Your file never leaves your device

There is no upload. Rendering and PDF generation both happen in your browser using your own device, so the document is never transmitted to us, never written to a server, and never passed to a third party.

That makes this a reasonable option for a contract, a payslip, a medical letter or anything else you would rather not hand to an online service. You can confirm it yourself: disconnect from the internet once the page has loaded, and the conversion still works.

File size and limits

There is no file size cap, no daily quota, no account and no watermark, because no server does the work and there is nothing to meter. The practical limit is your device memory. A short document converts instantly, while a long one with many high-resolution images uses more memory and goes faster on a laptop than a phone.

Which Word formats are supported?

Only .docx, the format Microsoft Word has saved by default since 2007.

Can you convert a DOC file to PDF?

Not directly. To convert DOC to PDF, open the old .doc file in Microsoft Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice and save a copy as .docx first, then convert that copy here. LibreOffice does this free on Windows, macOS and Linux. The same applies to .odt, .rtf and Apple Pages files: export a .docx copy, then convert it.

What happens to your Word formatting

Page size: A4, not US Letter

Every PDF is produced on A4 pages with 16 mm margins, whatever page size your Word document uses.

For the United Kingdom, Europe, India and Australia, A4 is the standard and this is exactly what you want. In the United States and Canada, where Letter is standard, a document designed for Letter is re-fitted to the slightly narrower and taller A4 page. For a CV or a one-page letter this is rarely noticeable. For a form, a table that must line up, or anything going to a government agency with a stated page specification, export from Microsoft Word so you keep Letter.

Fonts and page breaks

The document is rendered with the fonts your browser can reach. Standard faces such as Calibri, Cambria, Times New Roman, Arial and Georgia render as expected. A licensed or unusual font embedded in the .docx cannot be loaded by a browser, so a close match is substituted. Substitution changes text metrics slightly, which is the usual reason a table or a heading shifts across page breaks.

If your document depends on an exact brand font, check the PDF before sending, or export from Word where the font is installed.

Word to PDF for job applications

Follow the employer instructions first. If a posting asks for .docx, send .docx.

Where no format is specified, a PDF emailed directly to a person is a good choice, because your layout cannot shift on their machine. But an online application system almost certainly parses the file, and a page-image PDF comes back empty. In that case send the .docx, or export the PDF from Microsoft Word so the text stays machine-readable.

This is the same decision for a US resume PDF, a Canadian resume PDF and a UK CV PDF. The terminology differs, CV being the usual word in the United Kingdom and resume in the United States and Canada, but the file-format logic does not change.

Word to PDF for university and business documents

For university work, check the institution requirements for file format, file size, naming convention and accessibility before converting. If a submission platform asks for an accessible PDF, or specifically asks for .docx, do not convert simply because PDF is more convenient. A page-image PDF cannot meet an accessibility requirement.

For business documents the calculation is easier. Invoices, quotes, proposals and reports are meant to be read and printed rather than parsed, so converting them to PDF is the right move and the visual fidelity here is the point. Contracts are the exception worth pausing on: if a contract needs an electronic signature or has to be searchable by the other side, use a signing workflow or export from Word instead. To add a signature to a PDF you already have, use Sign PDF.

Word to PDF on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android

The converter runs online in the browser, so nothing is installed and Microsoft Word is not required on the device doing the conversion. Word to PDF on Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, iPhone, iPad and Android all work the same way. Because the work happens on your device rather than a server, a long or image-heavy document is noticeably quicker on a computer than on a phone.

Word to PDF, or Save as PDF in Microsoft Word?

If you have Microsoft Word open with the document in front of you, its own File, then Save As, then PDF export is the better route. It produces a PDF with real selectable text, keeps your page size, and embeds your fonts.

Use this DOCX to PDF converter online when Word is not available, when you are on a borrowed or different device, when you are working from a phone, or when you specifically do not want to upload a sensitive document to an online service.

Before you send an important document

• Page breaks landed where you expect
• Tables did not shift or split awkwardly
• Headers, footers and page numbers appear on every page
• Images are sharp and correctly placed
• Fonts look right and nothing reflowed
• The page count matches the original
• The file name is what you want the recipient to see

Common Word to PDF problems

• I cannot select the text. Expected: each page is an image. Export from Word if you need selectable text.
• My fonts changed. An embedded or unusual font could not be loaded and a close match was substituted.
• A table moved to another page. Font substitution changes text metrics, which can push content across a page break.
• The PDF is bigger than expected. Page images are larger than text. Run it through Compress PDF.
• My document will not load. Confirm it really is .docx and not a renamed .doc, and that it is not password-protected or corrupted.
• My US Letter document came out as A4. The output page size is fixed. Export from Word to keep Letter.

Frequently asked questions