Why do my fonts look different in the PDF than they did in Word?

Because most online converters do not embed the fonts your document uses. The original DOCX references a font by name (e.g. "Garamond Premier Pro"); when the cloud converter renders, that exact font is not installed on the server, so a substitute is used (Times, Liberation Serif, whatever the server has). The substitute has different metrics — different character widths, different x-height, different kerning pairs — so the lines wrap in different places, the page count changes, and the visual feel of the document drifts. ScoutMyTool embeds the fonts your DOCX references when they are available in the browser-side font catalogue, or in your operating system fonts. The PDF then renders with the same fonts in any reader, regardless of what fonts the reader has installed.

What about the embedded images — do they stay sharp?

Yes. Embedded images are extracted from the DOCX and re-embedded in the PDF at their original resolution and encoding (JPEG stays JPEG, PNG stays PNG, transparency-bearing PNGs keep their alpha channel). No re-compression is applied by default. Two opt-in compression presets are available for size reduction: Medium (downsample to 150 dpi, re-JPEG at 90% quality) and Aggressive (downsample to 96 dpi, re-JPEG at 75%) — useful when emailing under a size cap, but off by default to keep "preserve quality" the headline behaviour.

Will tracked changes and comments appear in the PDF?

Configurable. Default: accepted track changes are merged into the PDF (i.e. the PDF shows the post-acceptance text), pending track changes are NOT shown (the original text is shown), and comments are dropped. Toggle "Include comments" to render comments as PDF annotations in the right margin. Toggle "Show track changes" to render insertions / deletions inline with redline styling. The right setting depends on the audience: for a clean reading copy use the default; for a redline review use both toggles on.

Are headers, footers, and footnotes preserved?

Yes. Document headers and footers (the running content set in Word's Header & Footer editor) are rendered into the PDF page area at the same positions. Footnotes are rendered at the bottom of the page they reference; endnotes are collected and rendered at the end of the document or each section per Word's document settings. Page numbers in headers / footers are recomputed based on the PDF's actual page count after layout — which usually equals Word's page count, but can occasionally differ by one page if Word and the renderer break paragraphs differently at the very end of the document.

Is my DOCX uploaded to your servers?

No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser. DOCX is a zip of XML documents (OOXML format); the tool unzips, parses the document XML, applies the styles and layout rules from styles.xml, and renders each page to PDF via pdf-lib. Verify in DevTools Network — zero outbound requests during conversion. Important for sensitive documents (legal contracts, draft policy, internal memos) that should not be uploaded to a third-party converter.

Does the PDF preserve heading styles, lists, and the table of contents?

Yes. Heading styles (Heading 1, 2, 3, ...) become PDF outline bookmarks at the same hierarchy, so the PDF reader's sidebar shows the document structure. Numbered and bulleted lists render with the same numbering scheme. Generated tables of contents are rendered with each entry as a clickable hyperlink to the corresponding heading — so the PDF TOC functions exactly like Word's clickable navigation, just within the PDF reader.

How big can the DOCX be?

No hard cap — conversion runs client-side. The dominant cost is rendering: a 50-page text-heavy document converts in 5–10 seconds on a modern laptop; a 200-page document with many embedded images takes 30–60 seconds. There is no per-file upload cap because nothing is uploaded; the constraint is your device's available RAM, which on any modern laptop is plenty for any DOCX you are likely to be working with.

Word to PDF online free — preserve fonts and images (2026)

7 min read

Word to PDF online free — preserve fonts and images

By ScoutMyTool Editorial Team · Last updated: 2026-05-20

After working with hundreds of users on document-prep workflows, the regression that comes up most often after converting Word to PDF is "the PDF looks slightly off". The text is all there, the images are there, but the rhythm is wrong — lines wrap differently, pages break in unexpected places, the elegant Garamond from Word becomes a generic Times in the PDF. Almost always the cause is the same: the converter did not embed the document's fonts. Below is the workflow that produces a PDF that looks exactly like the Word document, every time, in every reader.

Step-by-step: convert DOCX to PDF without drift

The ScoutMyTool tool lives at scoutmytool.com/pdf/docx-to-pdf. Runs client-side — no upload, no signup, no quota.

Drop your DOCX. One file at a time, or several for batch mode. Files load into a sandboxed memory buffer; nothing is uploaded.
Review the font report. The tool scans the DOCX and shows every font referenced by the document, with a green check for fonts it can embed and an amber warning for fonts where it will need to substitute. If you see warnings, install the missing font in your OS (Mac: Font Book; Windows: drag .ttf to Fonts folder), then re-drop the file.
Set image-quality mode. Default "Preserve original" — no re-compression of embedded images. Switch to Medium or Aggressive only when output file size matters (email cap, upload cap); see Compress PDF for the size equation.
Pick track-changes / comments mode. Default: accepted edits merged, pending edits collapsed to original, comments dropped. Toggles available for "Show pending changes inline" and "Include comments".
Click Convert. The tool parses the DOCX XML, applies styles and layout rules, renders pages to PDF via pdf-lib, embeds fonts and images, and writes the outline (bookmarks) from heading styles. Progress shown live with current page / total.
Open the output and compare to Word. The line breaks, page breaks, and overall pagination should match Word's. If they do not — usually a sign that a font substituted silently — install the missing font and re-convert.
If track changes need to be preserved. A second pass with "Show pending changes inline" produces a redline PDF showing every pending insertion and deletion with strike-through and underline styling.
If the DOCX is older .doc format. The tool accepts both .docx and legacy .doc, but legacy .doc has less-reliable metadata and may produce font warnings on files that .docx would convert cleanly. Save As .docx in Word first when possible.

How ScoutMyTool compares to Smallpdf, iLovePDF and PDF2Go

All four offer Word-to-PDF conversion. The differences come down to font fidelity, image preservation, and whether the document leaves your device.

Feature	ScoutMyTool	Smallpdf	iLovePDF	PDF2Go
Free unlimited	Yes	2 per day on free	1 file per task on free	Yes, up to 100 MB
No signup	Yes	Required after 2 tasks	Required for >50 MB	Yes
Embeds source-document fonts	Yes	Limited (substitution)	Limited (substitution)	No (substitution)
Preserves image resolution by default	Yes (no re-compression)	Re-compresses	Re-compresses	Re-compresses
Track-changes / comments toggle	Yes	Limited	Yes	No
Heading outline / clickable TOC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Limited
Files leave your device	No (client-side)	Yes (uploaded)	Yes (uploaded)	Yes (uploaded)

Why font embedding is the whole game

The PDF specification has had font embedding since version 1.0 in 1993 — the PDF Reference (ISO 32000-1) defines five font object types (§9.6 — §9.10) including Type 0, Type 1, Type 3, TrueType, and CIDFont, each with a stream that physically embeds the font program in the PDF¹. A PDF with embedded fonts renders identically in every reader because the reader does not need to find the font; it is in the file. A PDF without embedded fonts asks the reader to find the font on the local system, and falls back to a substitute if it cannot — which is the moment "the PDF looks slightly off" begins.

ISO 19005 (PDF/A — the archival subset of PDF) requires every font to be embedded², for exactly this reason: a 20-year-from-now reader cannot be assumed to have any specific font installed, so the file must carry its fonts inside itself or it cannot be reliably displayed. For Word-to-PDF conversions where the document will be archived or distributed widely, embedding is not optional — it is the difference between a robust PDF and a fragile one.

Related PDF tools on ScoutMyTool

Word to PDF — the tool this guide is about.
PDF to Word — the reverse conversion.
PDF to Word guide — broader article on extracting editable content from a PDF.
Excel to PDF — for spreadsheet conversion.
PowerPoint to PDF — for slide conversion.
Merge PDF — combine the document with other PDFs.
PDF/A conversion — when the output needs to be archival-grade with mandatory embedded fonts.

Frequently asked questions

Why do my fonts look different in the PDF than they did in Word?: Because most online converters do not embed the fonts your document uses. The original DOCX references a font by name (e.g. "Garamond Premier Pro"); when the cloud converter renders, that exact font is not installed on the server, so a substitute is used (Times, Liberation Serif, whatever the server has). The substitute has different metrics — different character widths, different x-height, different kerning pairs — so the lines wrap in different places, the page count changes, and the visual feel of the document drifts. ScoutMyTool embeds the fonts your DOCX references when they are available in the browser-side font catalogue, or in your operating system fonts. The PDF then renders with the same fonts in any reader, regardless of what fonts the reader has installed.
What about the embedded images — do they stay sharp?: Yes. Embedded images are extracted from the DOCX and re-embedded in the PDF at their original resolution and encoding (JPEG stays JPEG, PNG stays PNG, transparency-bearing PNGs keep their alpha channel). No re-compression is applied by default. Two opt-in compression presets are available for size reduction: Medium (downsample to 150 dpi, re-JPEG at 90% quality) and Aggressive (downsample to 96 dpi, re-JPEG at 75%) — useful when emailing under a size cap, but off by default to keep "preserve quality" the headline behaviour.
Will tracked changes and comments appear in the PDF?: Configurable. Default: accepted track changes are merged into the PDF (i.e. the PDF shows the post-acceptance text), pending track changes are NOT shown (the original text is shown), and comments are dropped. Toggle "Include comments" to render comments as PDF annotations in the right margin. Toggle "Show track changes" to render insertions / deletions inline with redline styling. The right setting depends on the audience: for a clean reading copy use the default; for a redline review use both toggles on.
Are headers, footers, and footnotes preserved?: Yes. Document headers and footers (the running content set in Word's Header & Footer editor) are rendered into the PDF page area at the same positions. Footnotes are rendered at the bottom of the page they reference; endnotes are collected and rendered at the end of the document or each section per Word's document settings. Page numbers in headers / footers are recomputed based on the PDF's actual page count after layout — which usually equals Word's page count, but can occasionally differ by one page if Word and the renderer break paragraphs differently at the very end of the document.
Is my DOCX uploaded to your servers?: No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser. DOCX is a zip of XML documents (OOXML format); the tool unzips, parses the document XML, applies the styles and layout rules from styles.xml, and renders each page to PDF via pdf-lib. Verify in DevTools Network — zero outbound requests during conversion. Important for sensitive documents (legal contracts, draft policy, internal memos) that should not be uploaded to a third-party converter.
Does the PDF preserve heading styles, lists, and the table of contents?: Yes. Heading styles (Heading 1, 2, 3, ...) become PDF outline bookmarks at the same hierarchy, so the PDF reader's sidebar shows the document structure. Numbered and bulleted lists render with the same numbering scheme. Generated tables of contents are rendered with each entry as a clickable hyperlink to the corresponding heading — so the PDF TOC functions exactly like Word's clickable navigation, just within the PDF reader.
How big can the DOCX be?: No hard cap — conversion runs client-side. The dominant cost is rendering: a 50-page text-heavy document converts in 5–10 seconds on a modern laptop; a 200-page document with many embedded images takes 30–60 seconds. There is no per-file upload cap because nothing is uploaded; the constraint is your device's available RAM, which on any modern laptop is plenty for any DOCX you are likely to be working with.

Convert your DOCX now — fonts and images preserved

Embed source fonts, preserve image resolution by default, keep heading outline and clickable TOC intact. Runs entirely in your browser — your document never leaves your device.

Open the free Word-to-PDF tool at scoutmytool.com/pdf/docx-to-pdf →