Word to PDF export on Windows - major picture quality loss

Question

Word to PDF export on Windows - major picture quality loss

Anonymous

Hello everyone,

when exporting my word document(s) to PDF the image quality degrades substantially. This is also reflected in file size. I've read through dozens of threads and the only solution (as of now) seems to be using a Mac...

My DOCX

Do not compress images in file is checked
Default resolution: High fidelity

--> both settings were set before adding the images

filesize: 3785 KB

Some of my PDF creation attempts:

Windows + Word - Export (regular): 618 KB
Windows + Word - Export (optimizeForQuality): 618 KB 🤡
Windows + Word - Print: 1686 KB (all links are gone; as expected)
Windows + Word - SaveAs: 618 KB
Windows + Word (Safe Mode) - Export (regular): 618 KB
Windows - PDF24 (custom settings): 1290 KB
Web - (Free) Adobe Service: 1241 KB
Web - (Free) PDF24 Service: 748 KB
Mac + Word: 2792 KB 🥳

How to achieve Mac PDF quality using Windows while keeping all links working? Effectively all Windows users are producing shi*ty PDFs from their Word files (I guess). In most cases the high resolution pictures are absolutely unreadable. 🥲🔫

Regards
Martin

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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5 answers

Answer 1

Placed images are downsampled in both Word for Mac and Word for Windows. As I recollect, Windows downsamples to 200 d.p.i. and Mac to 400 d.p.i. To avoid downsampling altogether, you need to use Acrobat.

To suggest that Word work differently, please choose File>Feedback>Send a Suggestion in Word for Windows or Help>Feedback>Make a Suggestion in macOS. You can post your idea and others can vote on it. Microsoft uses this feedback to prioritize their programming.

Answer 2

Thanks for your answer!

One example is a PNG with a resolution of 3770x934. The Word export performed on a Mac looks good, the one from Windows looks unacceptable (regardsless of the settings I've found/used).

Are these the options you've mentioned?

As far as I know "Standard" is always preselected - so this should not be an issue.

The fact that you (have to) recommend a third-party solution emphasizes that there is a need for improvement on the side of Microsoft. After all, we pay for our subscriptions and, thus, an export function without any downsampling should be available.

Answer 3

You haven't mentioned what effective resolution your images have when placed in Word. The free Word PDF export downsamples images by a different amount depending on whether you choose the Best for electronic distribution or the Best for printing options.

For best results, use Adobe Acrobat and set up a custom jobOptions profile. You can set up a profile that doesn't downsample images at all.

Answer 4

I am pleased that you are satisfied with the quality of the exports. However, this is not the point.

The quality of exports that are created with a Mac are objectively of higher quality. In my opinion, this is a glaring deficiency that needs to be rectified. So far, I have not been able to find a way to create comparably good exports under Windows.

Where possible, I try to use vector graphics - these are exported fine. However, PNGs and JPGs are necessary for some images - the loss of quality is very visible here.

As a researcher, I am dependent on the PDFs I create for publications being of the highest possible quality.

Answer 5

Anonymous

Personally using O365 Bus I occassionally print to MS Print to pdf, when doing so have no issues

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Word to PDF export on Windows - major picture quality loss

5 answers