Portable Document Format (PDF) files are everywhere, and they're incredibly useful ways to share documents with others. PDFs are based on the PostScript language, and a big benefit of them compared to something like a Word document is that they have a very fixed layout that stays consistent no matter where you open the file. It's the ideal way to share documents for printing or signing, or if you just want to ensure it will look good on any device.
Creating PDF files is thankfully very easy, so let's take a look at the many ways you can do it.
Converting a Word or Google Docs document to PDF
You can easily save a Word document to PDF using Word itself, Google Docs, and other apps.
Save as PDF in Microsoft Word
- Open the document you want to save as a PDF.
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Click File in the top left corner.
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Select Save As or Save a Copy.
- Browse for the location where you want to save the file.
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Click the dropdown menu that says Word document (.docx) and choose PDF.
- Click Save.
In case you're using an older version of Microsoft Office, you might have to download a small plugin that can be downloaded from FileHippo. If you're using a Mac, the process is mostly identical, though things will look a bit different, as you might expect.
Save as PDF in Google Docs
Google Docs also lets you save files as PDF by using the Print feature. Here's how:
- Open the file you want to save as PDF
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Click the Print button in the Google Docs toolbar.
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In the Destination field, choose Save as PDF. Windows also offers a Microsoft Print to PDF option you can use.
- Click Save.
- Choose a folder to save the file in and click Save.
Save a webpage as a PDF
It's also possible to save a webpage as a PDF file, albeit sacrificing the interactive elements of it. To do this, you can use the print method.
- Navigate to the webpage you want to save.
- Press Ctrl + P on your keyboard.
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Next to Destination or Printer, choose Save as PDF or Microsoft Print to PDF (or similar options).
- Click Save.
There is going to be some loss of usability here, because websites aren't really made for print. One possible solution for this is using a feature called reader mode, available on many browsers, which strips a webpage of some unnecessary elements to make it more readable. Microsoft Edge has a particularly good reader mode (called Immersive Reader), and if you print a page this way, it will look much cleaner (albeit without images). That's the method we used for the image above.
Print to PDF
The ability to print files to PDF is incredibly useful, and it's actually available in a ton of apps, since it's a system level feature. All you have to do is find the Print button in an app and choose Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer, and you're good to go.
You can do this in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Paint, or even the Photos app, if you want to convert an image to PDF. There's almost no limit to where you can use the print-to-PDF feature, though you will have to keep an eye on formatting, as some things may not work that well when converted to PDF this way.
On smartphones, you can also achieve similar results using the Share button in many apps. You'll then see a Print option you can use to "print" content into a PDF file.
Scan a file to PDF
If you're trying to share a physical file as a PDF, there are many apps that let you do this, especially on smartphones. I personally love using Microsoft 365 for this, and you'll want a good phone to get the best image quality, but you can use any phone and choose from a wide range of app options.
How to scan a document to PDF on Android or iOS
- Install Microsoft 365 on Android or iOS.
- Launch the Microsoft 365 app.
- Tap the Create or + (plus) button.
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Choose Scan.
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Point the camera at the document you want to scan and press the capture button.
Alternatively, you can tap the Gallery button to open an existing photo.
- Crop the document if necessary.
- (Optional) Click Add to scan additional documents.
- Click Next to edit the scan with filters.
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Click Next to export the file.
- Select PDF as the file format then choose a location to save the file and click Save.
In this example, we're using Microsoft 365 to scan documents, and the process will be slightly different depending on the app you're using.
Using a physical scanner
If you have a printer and scanner at hand, you can also scan files into PDFs in a more professional way. Most scanners come with dedicated software for scanning, and you can use that to scan documents directly to PDF files.
There are plenty of other scanning apps, though, including the official Windows Scan app on the Microsoft Store, which should work with any scanner. It hasn't been updated in a long time, but it still works and it lets you scan files directly to PDF format. There's also rPDFscan, which is a bit more up-to-date.
Convert a file to PDF and merge PDFs
One last option at your disposal is converting an existing file to PDF using the myriad of online conversion tools available. There's no shortage of options here, but you might want to go with JPGToPDF. Not only can you convert Word documents or images into PDF files, but you can combine multiple files into one. You can even combine preexisting PDF files, too.
- Open JPGtoPDF in your browser. You can switch to different tabs like DOC to PDF or Combine PDF.
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Click Upload files.
- Select the files you want to convert or combine.
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Click the individual Download button on each of the files to download them separately.
- To combine multiple files, reorder them so they're in the order you want them to appear in the final file.
- Click Combined to download the combined PDF file.
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to create a PDF file, whether you're working on your laptop or using your phone to scan a document. It's great to have options, and thankfully PDF files are very much ubiquitous these days, so it's easy to get things going.
Want to make a document others can fill in? We also have a guide on how to make a PDF fillable.