I formatted an entire book directly in Microsoft Word and need to send it to a printer as a PDF. Unfortunately, every conversion method changes something. Printing to PDF keeps the fonts 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've tried Word's built-in options, Adobe Acrobat, Foxit, and CuteWriter, and someone with IT experience also tested the file on another computer. How can I preserve the original page size, fonts, formatting, and page count?
4 Answers
Start by checking the document’s actual page size in Word, then make sure the PDF printer is using that same size rather than defaulting to A4. The printer settings need to match the manuscript, whether that’s Letter or a custom size. It’s also best to export directly from Word instead of routing the file through a separate PDF printer.
For a book-length project, a dedicated writing and typesetting program may be more reliable than Word. Tools designed for long manuscripts can manage page sizes, fonts, sections, and PDF export more predictably. For the immediate problem, though, I’d first make a copy of the document, confirm the page size and margins, embed every required font, and export a short test section before processing the whole book.
Uploading the document to an online editor and downloading it as a PDF can sometimes remove the blank-page problem, but it may introduce new pagination changes. A different word processor such as LibreOffice may handle the export more consistently, although you should carefully compare the result with the original before sending it to print.
The font changes are probably causing the layout to reflow. If the fonts aren’t embedded, the PDF software may substitute a similar font, and even a small difference in width can change line breaks, page breaks, and the total number of pages. Enable font embedding in Word and verify that the fonts are licensed and available on the computer creating the PDF. The bold style may be using a separate font file that isn’t being embedded correctly.
I enabled font embedding, and the main font now looks correct, but the bold text is still being replaced with a narrower-looking version.
I tried setting it to Letter and exporting directly from Word, but it still switches to A4 and adds two blank pages.