How to convert Word to PDF and keep the fonts
By Nasir Uddin Shamim · Founder, PrintxPDF
Updated 2026-07-25 · 6 min read
Short answer: In Word, use File → Save As and pick PDF, or File → Export → Create PDF/XPS. Word embeds every font it can automatically. On macOS choose "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility" rather than printing to PDF, because the print route drops hyperlinks and accessibility tags.
Word to PDF is a two-click job that goes wrong in exactly three ways: a substituted font, a lost hyperlink, or a file four times bigger than it needed to be. All three come from picking the wrong export route.
Word on Windows
- Use Save As, not Print File → Save As, then set "Save as type" to **PDF (*.pdf)**. This uses Microsoft own PDF writer, which embeds fonts, keeps hyperlinks clickable and writes structure tags.
- Open Options before saving Click the Options… button next to the Optimize choice. This is the dialog most people never open and it controls everything below.
- Decide on bookmarks Tick Create bookmarks using: Headings for any document over about ten pages. It builds a clickable outline in the PDF from your Word heading styles, for free.
- Keep the accessibility tags Leave Document structure tags for accessibility ticked. It costs a few kilobytes and makes the PDF readable by screen readers and reflowable on phones.
- Choose PDF/A only if you need it ISO 19005-1 compliant (PDF/A) forces every font to be fully embedded and forbids external dependencies. Right for legal and archival submissions, but it produces a bigger file and disallows transparency effects.
- Pick Standard, not Minimum size Back in the Save As dialog, "Minimum size" downsamples every image to about 96 DPI. Fine for a web handout, wrong for anything that will be printed.
Note: File → Export → Create PDF/XPS opens the same dialog by a different route. There is no difference in the output.
Word on macOS
Mac Word gives you two very different paths and only labels the difference obliquely:
- File → Save As → File Format: PDF → "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility" uses Microsoft own converter. Hyperlinks stay clickable, headings become bookmarks, accessibility tags are written. Use this one.
- "Best for printing" routes through the macOS print pipeline. The pages look right, but hyperlinks stop working, tags are gone and bookmarks are gone.
- File → Print → PDF → Save as PDF is the same print pipeline with the same losses. Convenient, but not for a document you are sending to someone.
Why fonts get substituted
PDF embeds fonts so the file renders identically on a machine that has never heard of your typeface. Word does this automatically, with one exception you cannot argue with: some commercial fonts carry an embedding permission flag in their OS/2 table set to "Restricted License". Word obeys it and substitutes a similar font instead. There is no setting that overrides this, and no honest tool that ignores it.
| Route | Fonts embedded | Hyperlinks | Bookmarks | Accessibility tags |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word Windows → Save As PDF | Yes, subset | Yes | Optional | Optional |
| Word Mac → "electronic distribution" | Yes, subset | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Word Mac → "Best for printing" | Yes | No | No | No |
| File → Print → Save as PDF | Yes | No | No | No |
| Google Docs → Download PDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| LibreOffice → Export as PDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Word → Save As → PDF/A | Yes, full embedding | Yes | Optional | Required |
Font embedding by export route.
To confirm afterwards, open the PDF in a full viewer and check File → Properties → Fonts. Every entry should say "Embedded" or "Embedded Subset". Anything without that label will be substituted on a machine that lacks the font.
Google Docs
File → Download → PDF Document (.pdf). It embeds fonts, keeps links clickable and turns your heading styles into bookmarks. The catch is upstream: if you uploaded a .docx using a font Google does not have, Docs already substituted it when it opened the file, so the PDF faithfully records the wrong typeface. Check the document on screen before exporting.
LibreOffice Writer
File → Export As → Export as PDF opens the most detailed export dialog of any free office suite. The General tab controls JPEG quality and image downsampling; Digital Signatures lets you sign at export time; the PDF/A-2b checkbox is on the General tab. LibreOffice embeds fonts by default and honours the same licence restrictions Word does.
No Word licence? Convert a .docx to PDF in your browser, nothing is uploaded.
Keeping the file small
A Word document with a few phone photos in it routinely exports as a 30 MB PDF, because Word stores the images at their original camera resolution. Before exporting, click any image, then Picture Format → Compress Pictures → Apply to all pictures, choose Print (220 ppi), and tick Delete cropped areas of pictures. That one step frequently removes 80 percent of the eventual file size. There is more in why your PDF is so large, and you can always run the compressor afterwards.
Watch out: Converting to PDF does not protect your content, it just makes editing inconvenient. It also does not remove the document history. The author name, company and editing time are copied straight from the Word properties into the PDF metadata. Strip the metadata before sending anything outside your organisation.
If the finished PDF needs a signature, do that last: sign the PDF after every other change, because any later edit invalidates it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert Word to PDF for free?
Word itself does it: File → Save As, then choose PDF as the file type. Google Docs does it with File → Download → PDF Document. LibreOffice does it with File → Export as PDF. All three are free at the point of use and all three embed fonts.
Why do my fonts change when I save a Word file as PDF?
Either the font carries a restricted embedding licence, which Word must obey and substitutes around, or you exported through the macOS print pipeline. Use Save As with "Best for electronic distribution", and check File → Properties → Fonts in the result.
How do I keep hyperlinks working in the PDF?
Use Save As → PDF rather than Print → Save as PDF. The print pipeline flattens the page and loses link annotations. On a Mac specifically, pick "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility", not "Best for printing".
What is PDF/A and should I use it?
PDF/A is the archival standard: every font fully embedded, no external references, no encryption. Use it for legal filings, thesis submissions and long-term archives. Skip it otherwise, because it produces larger files and forbids some transparency effects.
Why is my exported PDF so much bigger than the Word file?
Word compresses images internally and references fonts; the PDF embeds fonts and often stores images at full resolution. Run Picture Format → Compress Pictures at 220 ppi with "Delete cropped areas" ticked before exporting, then compress the PDF if needed.