Export word document with high resolution PNG to PDF

I have a nice high resolution PNG. (Download from Dropbox) When I paste this into a new Word document, it looks good. I can't zoom in more than 500% but at that zoom level all lines are smooth, as expected.

Now I click File > Save as and select PDF from the Dropdown. From Tool > Compress Images (right next to the save button) I select "use document resolution". Then, I hit save.

Expected: The image in the PDF (viewed in Adobe Reader) should have a similar quality as the PNG.

Reality: The Image is much worse than the PNG. Maybe downsampled to 96ppi.

Notes:

• When I am in the save dialog and I go again to Tools > Compress Images, the selected option is reverted to "E-Mail (96 dpi)"
• I tried the same thing on a diffewrent computer with Word 2013, but no luck.
• I tried a different PDF viewer - same image quality
• I tried to encode normal 96 ppi within the PNG and resize the image in word.
• The option "do not compress images in file" is enabled. This option: ()
• This is a reduced problem, so please don't suggest GIMP. My real file has some text in it. Until now I am just reluctant of redoing it all in LaTeX.
• The problem gets worse, when the image is further reduced within word. This points to a resampling going on when the pdf is created.

Additional thing I have tried:

• When I use "Printing (220ppi)" instead of "document resolution" there is no discernible difference. (After all I thought that "document resolution" means that no resampling takes place and the full resolution is used.)
• Exporting to XPS format has the same characteristics.

Question: How can I preserve the image quality when exporting to PDF?

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20 Answers

Any easier solution might be to forego the in-built pdf conversion and use a pdf printer (I use pdfcreator) You'll likely find finer grained control (including DPI settings of the printout - start w/ 600x600 but it supports up to 2400x2400 iirc).

This may be an easier solution as it won't force you to reformat existing docs. It's also free.

As discussed in comments, at some point pdfcreator was engaged in installing some unwanted software along with their package. I believe they have since stopped this practice but to ensure you do not ever have to deal with or think about this I suggest using Ninite to install. Ninite's installer will strip out all the BS (if any) and install silently for you, which is nice. You can also re-run the ninite installer any time to update the software, again without any BS. Just in case.

EDIT - as per ThomasK this printing will not preserve hyperlinks in your output PDF. (I assume they will print, just not be clickable)

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If you are using Windows 10 then you are lucky: you don’t need any third party PDF printer. Windows 10 comes with a PDF printer called Microsoft PDF Printer that you can make use of. I tried and it printed with decent resolution.

If running on Windows 8.1 or below, or requiring more functionality/better quality, JoelAZ’s answer is better. Just pay attention to where you download.

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None of the aforementioned solutions worked for me including enabling the "do not compress images in file" and "select ISO 19005-1 complaint" options. It did not matter if I saved-as a PDF or exported as a PDF.

What DID work for me, was to create the PDF using the MS Office Microsoft Print to PDF printer option.

• Select Print from the File Options menu.
• Select Microsoft Print to PDF from the Printer drop down menu.
• Print. Specify where you want the PDF file to be created.

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I know this is a really old post. But I have a working solution (for me anyway).

I converted the png online to an EMF (enhanced metafile). When I use this in word and export to PDF it keeps full resolution.

Hope this helps some.

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I discovered the trick: when you save as PDF, go to Options (under the PDF) and uncheck ISO19005-1 Compliant Problem solved!

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If you are using the Adobe PDF Printer (i.e. not Word -> Save As PDF), you should be able to change the settings related to Images (such as downsampling or compression). Make sure you turn them off from Word (they should be in Preferences in the ACROBAT tab) and also uncheck Allow PostScript file to override Adobe PDF settings.

You might need to click on Save As in the Adobe settings. This will create a new preset that will be used to create the pdf.

This worked nicely for me.

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I came across this very problem in 2020; Microsoft still has not fixed this issue. Microsoft PDF printer does a better job for image quality than 'Save as PDF', but it's not perfect. Also, for whatever reason, most of the hyperlinks disappear.

What worked in my case was downloading LibreOffice and using LibreOffice Writer's 'Export to PDF', unchecking 'Reduce image resolution', and selecting 'Lossless compression' under Images. The images ended up looking super sharp and it kept my hyperlinks too. Not really sure how a free open source word processor could do such a significantly better job than Microsoft's paid product, but it did.

I've been bothered by this for years, somehow having a PDF file that looks exactly the same as your word file, just the postfix is different, is so hard.

Below are the methods I tried and the problems with each method. Just for your reference and might save some time for others. I am using windows 10, ms word version 2008 build 13127.21064.

I am writing an IEEE paper which I want to have the links to tables, however, on the table caption, it needs to be capitalized: TABLE, but on manuscript text, it needs lowercase: table. So, what I did is cross-reference the table, insert caption name and then manually delete the letters TABLE, just leave the roman numbers I, II, etc. So, when converting to pdf, I do not want TABLE to show up anywhere on my manuscript, also, I do not it to show up after the conversion is done, therefore, if it shows up, it is referred to as "unwanted TABLE"

1. SaveAs_PDF_use it then the word file shows unwanted TABLE.
2. Print_PDFwriter_hyperlinks lost
3. Print_PDFCreator_hyperlinks lost
4. Print_MicrosoftPrintToPDF_hyperlinks lost
5. freepdfconvert.com_unwanted TABLE shows on PDF.
6. Export_CreatePDF_use it then word file shows unwanted TABLE
7. adobe.com_so far the best without any more follow-up actions

Just for completeness (because it hasn't been excluded in the question): with SVG graphics you no longer have to worry about "preserving quality" concerning the resolution. It scales in arbitrary sizes. This only works for graphics consisting of forms, not for photos, though.

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If you have MS Publisher in your office suite, it gives you much greater control over the print quality of published PDFs. Where the best save option in Word is to 'Optimize for: Standard (publishing online and printing)', in Publisher you get standard, high quality, and commercial printing options with a selection of dpi tweaks available. The file size rockets, but the quality is superb!

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The results of exporting using the "Save As" dialogue are different to the results when exporting using File->Export->Create PDF/XPS.

I found that exporting using the latter method is far higher quality by default.

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Try this:

1. Open the Word 2013 document with the images inserted.
2. Click File, Save As, and PDF from the drop-down menu. The Options button is displayed at the bottom of the window.
3. Click Options.
4. On the Options dialog box, select ISO 19005-1 complaint (PDF/A) in the PDF options section.
5. Save the changes.

There are other workarounds over here in this tutorial

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If you have also access to a MAC, then another solution would be to open it in Microsoft Word for MAC (e.g., 2011). Then 'File' -> 'Save As' and select 'Format:' PDF.

This one is the only practical solution for me that worked in the end.

I stumbled over this problem using Word 2010. In my opinion any solution that tries to solve this while creating the PDF will fail. The problem is: as soon as you store your word document word scales the image down - regardless of the options set.

I was able to print (PDFCreator - my prefered printer driver for HR-PDF) a QR-code (png, 1000x1000pixel, final size approx 10mm x 10mm) before saving the document in a good quality. Howerver, the moment I saved in Word, it became visibly unsharp.

For this I think the only solution to work is the one proposed by Zerobinary99 - using a larger format and to scale down. However for practical reasons this is feasible only for small graphics. Word will soon tell you that it does not support your paper size. Further you have to recreate the whole content...

I helped myself by using a .PDF-Editor and inserted the QR code after creation of the .PDF. again. Not a real solution as well....

I learnt: Don't use WORD for this... Most users with a licence for word will have a licence for MS-Publisher as well. I think I did exactly the same thing 2 years ago in Publisher without this problem...

If you are placing images in your document that originate in vector format, you can use SVG files instead of JPG or PNG files - Word 2010 will read them. This may be obvious to most, but it wasn't to me.

The print-to options, including using PDFCreator, brute-force the result, and even if your placed PNG has insane pixel size and looks great in Word, in the PDF it'll still be pixelated and yield a massive PDF size. At least it did with all permutations I tried. Finally I generated a bunch of different formats of vector files and found that Word could work with SVGs. And the resulting PDF looked good, even when using Adobe's Save-as-PDF file-save option - benefit of that to printing was a vastly smaller file size that looked clean.

This won't help you if you're using photos, but if it's just a logo or graphic, this is worth a look.

Word scales the image automatically depending on the paper size, so you need to increase it to increase the PDF's resolution.

• The PNG you want to turn into pdf has a resolution of 1600x1600, so use a paper size that reflects this aspect ratio. Set your paper size to 55.87cm x 55.87cm (biggest Word 2007 supports)

• Import the PNG and stretch it out to the maximum size the page supports.

• Export it to PDF and enjoy your high res pdf :)

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A workaround is to install doPDF. You'll get crisp images, no file degradation, and easy to change dpi and small output files. Another alternative is PrimoPDF which is also a PDF Printer like doPDF, but it may generate huge files, and it does have a problem that the font looks OK on screen but jagged when printed, even with fonts like Arial.

Try this:

By default, MS Word compress images which can reduce the image quality when converting to PDF. You can turn off this setting as follows:

1. In Word, click File, Options.
2. Click Advanced, scroll down to Image Size and Quality.
3. Turn off Discard editing data.
4. Select Do not compress images in file.
5. Select Set default target output to 220 ppi.
6. Save the changes.

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I had been facing the lose of image quality when converting from Word to PDF. I found that in addition to the advanced settings, we need to check the following option:

The standard option must me selected while saving.

Another solution would be edit your pdf with an editor and replace the low-res picture with a high-res version. There are free editors available. There's even one that allows you to edit pdf-files online in your browser if you don't mind the lack of data security.

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