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What is the difference of "print to PDF" and "save as PDF"?

Anonymous
2024-07-12T10:10:09+00:00

I am using Word 2019 on a Win10 machine. I recently ran into a problem where a site only allowed me to upload documents with a max size of 1 MB. My word files when "PRINTED TO PDF" are larger than 1,09 MB even a one page document with just a blank table is already larger than 1 MB; my actual 2 Page document is around 540KB. After hours of playing with the document and searching for a solution, I finally came to the possibility of "SAVING AS PDF". Now my file is less than 500 KB.

So my question is, what is the difference of "print as PDF" and "save as PDF"?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Jay Freedman 207.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-07-12T12:12:55+00:00

    Print to PDF outputs to the default browser only if you've set the browser to be the default for opening PDF files as well as HTML files. That isn't a typical setup -- most people use a PDF reader.

    The real difference between Print to PDF and Save As is that they use different code. The Save As, when you select PDF as the file type, uses a converter that's part of Office. The Print to PDF probably uses the "Microsoft Print to PDF" printer driver, since that comes with Office, but there are others that you can install such as Foxit or Snagit that do a better job. Do an Internet search for "PDF printer driver" to see what's available.

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  1. Jay Freedman 207.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2024-07-13T01:51:07+00:00

    Your assumption that Save As and Print to PDF "would be using the same driver" is incorrect. In fact, the Save As function does not use a "driver" at all; it uses code that's part of Word's program.

    As for the printing function, look at the folder

    C:\Windows\System32\CatRoot{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}

    and you'll find a series of files whose names start with Microsoft-Windows-Printing-PrintToPDF. These aren't the actual driver (they're security catalog files) but there are no equivalents for the Save As function.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-07-12T17:22:58+00:00

    Since office is Microsoft than both Save as and Print to would be using the same driver and should actually be the same size. I do not need to open or read the file as I can see the file size in Explorer; but I do use Adobe Reader, which has not affect on the file size.

    I am writing (not to use the word save or print) in both cases to a PDF file which is in both cases being saved in the same folder (my MS Word documents directory) with the same file name with the only variation of a suffixed numeral. "PRINT TO PDF" is 1,09 MB and the SAVE as PDF 297 MB. The exact same Word document!

    WHY?

    Isnt that what print to PDF is for, to upload it or send it somewhere; so it should be small.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-07-12T10:52:52+00:00

    Print to pdf outputs to your default web browser were you can do with it as you wish, I usually print that page to save in a clients folder and if needed send as an attachment.

    Whereas save as pdf saves that doc as a pdf type file - I have never had a need to saveas pdf

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