I formatted an entire book directly in Microsoft Word and now need to send it to print as a PDF. Unfortunately, every conversion method changes something. Printing to PDF keeps the font but switches the document to A4, while saving or exporting as PDF changes some fonts—especially bold text—and adds two blank pages, even though the reported page count stays the same. I have tried Word's built-in PDF options, Adobe Acrobat, Foxit, and CuteWriter, and someone else also tested the file on another computer. How can I preserve the original page size, formatting, fonts, and page count?
4 Answers
Word can be unreliable for book typesetting because small font substitutions and page-size differences affect every page. For future projects, a tool such as LibreOffice, Scrivener, or a dedicated typesetting workflow may give you more predictable PDF output. For this file, verify that the exact font files are installed and embedded, and compare the PDF’s page dimensions with the Word document before sending it to print.
For a quick workaround, uploading the document to Google Docs and downloading it as a PDF may avoid the blank-page problem, although it can introduce different pagination. Test a short section first before converting the whole book.
Check the document’s actual page size in Word first, then match that size in the PDF printer settings. If the book is meant for Letter or another custom size, make sure both Word and the selected printer use it rather than A4. Also enable font embedding, since missing fonts can be replaced with similar ones and cause the text to reflow, creating blank pages or changing the layout.
I tried setting it to Letter, but the output still switches to A4 and adds two blank pages. Embedding the fonts helped keep the general font, but bold text still becomes narrow.
Use Word’s own Save As or Export to PDF instead of printing through a virtual printer, and check the paper size under the printer’s preferences as well as in the document itself. The PDF should be generated from a file whose page dimensions already match the intended print format.
I have tried Word’s PDF export several times, but it still changes the bold fonts and inserts the extra pages.
That removed the two blank pages, but the document grew from 608 pages to 620, so the pagination still changed.