Word to PDF Converter

Read this first: the PDF is a picture of your document

This tool reads the text and simple formatting of your Word file and draws it as an image. Then it places that image on A4 pages. The PDF looks clean, but the pages are pictures:

• You cannot select, copy or search the text in the PDF.
• Links are shown, but you cannot click them.
• The layout is not a copy of your Word pages. Fonts, headers, footers, page numbers and page breaks are not kept.

That is fine for a simple letter or notes you want to print or share. If the PDF must look exactly like your Word file, or its text must be readable by software, use the Save as PDF or Export to PDF option in Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice instead. This matters for CVs. Many job portals read the text in your CV file, and they cannot read a picture.

Step by step

1. Add your .docx file. Drop it on the box above, or click the box and pick it. Only files ending in .docx are accepted. An old .doc file shows a message asking you to save it as .docx first.
2. Look at the Document Preview. It shows the text, headings, lists, tables and pictures that the tool found, in order. If something is missing here, it will be missing in the PDF too.
3. Click Convert to PDF. A progress bar shows the steps. When it is done, you see Your PDF is ready!
4. Click Download PDF. The file keeps your document's name, so letter.docx becomes letter.pdf.

To start again with another file, click Clear or the ✕ next to the file name.

What is kept and what is lost

The tool uses three libraries in your browser. Mammoth.js turns the .docx file into simple web page code (HTML). Html2canvas draws that page as pictures, a few pages at a time. Then jsPDF puts each page picture on an A4 page. We checked the table below against the same Mammoth version that this page uses.

How the pages are made

The tool does not know where your Word pages end. It lays out the whole document, then fills one A4 page at a time. Before it draws anything, it measures where every line of text, table row and picture sits. Each new page starts in a gap between them:

• Lines of text are not cut in half. A long paragraph can continue on the next page, but the break is always between two lines.
• Table rows stay whole. A row moves to the next page if it does not fit. Only a row taller than a whole page is split, and then between two of its lines.
• Pictures stay whole if they fit on one page. A picture that does not fit at the bottom of a page moves to the next page, so the page before it can end early. A picture taller than a whole page is cut across two pages.
• A heading is kept with the start of the text under it, so a heading is not left alone at the bottom of a page.
• Every page has the same margins: 14 mm at the top and at least 14 mm at the bottom.

Your own page breaks from Word are not kept, and empty lines are removed. So you cannot force a new page by adding empty lines. If a page must start at an exact place, use your word processor's own PDF export for that document.

The image is drawn at twice the normal screen size, about 174 DPI on an A4 page. Text is sharp enough to read and print, but the file is larger than a normal text PDF. If it is too big to send, try Compress PDF.

Which documents work well

Good results

• Short letters, notes and simple reports with headings, lists and plain tables.
• A document you need to print or share once, on a device that has no Word installed.

Poor results

• CVs with two columns, side bars or colored boxes.
• Letters on a letterhead with a logo in the header.
• Forms, flyers and anything with a designed layout.
• Documents that need page numbers, or text that others must copy or search.
• Very long documents. The tool draws four pages at a time, so a long file no longer hits the browser's limit on image size. But every page is a picture of about 0.7 MB, so a 70-page document makes a PDF of about 50 MB and takes a while. A phone may run out of memory on a very long file. If that happens, split it into parts in Word, convert each part, and join the PDFs with Merge PDF.
• Password-protected Word files. They fail with the message Error reading document. Remove the password in Word first, if you are allowed to.

Common mistakes

• Sending the PDF without opening it. Scroll through every page. Check where each page starts, and look for a very tall picture that was cut across two pages.
• Using it for a CV for an online job portal. Use a PDF with real text for that, made with Word or Google Docs, or with our Resume Builder.
• Renaming a .doc file to .docx. This does not change the format inside, and the tool will show an error. Open the file in Word or LibreOffice and use Save As .docx.
• Expecting page numbers. They live in the footer, which is not copied. If you need them, use your word processor's PDF export.