# Make a Word to PDF file smaller

Canonical HTML: [https://pdfpix.com/guides/make-a-word-to-pdf-file-smaller/](https://pdfpix.com/guides/make-a-word-to-pdf-file-smaller/)

A Word document often converts to a PDF larger than the limit in front of you. Two settings inside Word decide most of the size, Compress Pictures and Minimum size, and Compress PDF finishes the job to a figure you type, such as 200 KB, then reads the result back before offering it. The text stays selectable at every step.

## Steps

1. **Compress the pictures in Word.** Select a picture, open Picture Format, choose Compress Pictures, apply to all pictures, and pick the web or email resolution. Save a copy first.
2. **Convert the document.** Open the .docx in Word to PDF, or export from Word with Minimum size under Optimize for. On a Mac, Save As PDF offers Best for electronic distribution, the smaller of its two options.
3. **Check the size.** Look at the PDF in File Explorer or Finder. If it already fits the limit, stop here.
4. **Compress the PDF to the target.** Open it in Compress PDF, type the size limit, and download the checked result.

## Where the size comes from

Text costs almost nothing in a PDF. A hundred pages of prose with embedded fonts weigh a few hundred KB. Pictures cost everything else. A phone photograph pasted into Word arrives at camera resolution, and Word keeps that resolution in the document and passes it to the PDF unless told otherwise. Three photographs can outweigh the whole text.

So the question is never how to compress the Word file. Zipping a .docx saves nothing, because a .docx is already a zip archive. The question is how big the pictures are when they reach the PDF, and Word gives you two places to answer it before any PDF tool sees the file.

## Compress Pictures inside Word

Select any picture and the Picture Format tab appears. Compress Pictures offers a resolution list from print quality down to email quality, an option to apply the choice to every picture in the document, and a box to delete cropped areas. Applying email resolution to all pictures is the single biggest saving available, and it happens before the conversion so nothing downstream can undo it.

Save a copy of the document before doing this. The original pixels are gone once the file is saved, and a document that will also be printed needs them.

## Convert Word to PDF and look at the number

[Word to PDF](https://pdfpix.com/word-to-pdf/) reads the .docx in this browser tab, copies the stored pictures into the PDF as they are, embeds the fonts, and draws every character as text. It reopens the PDF and counts the text before the download appears. The size of the result is the size of the pictures plus a little for the fonts, which is why the Compress Pictures step above comes first.

Word's own export has an Optimize for setting with two values. Standard keeps images as stored. Minimum size downsamples them to screen resolution, uses stronger JPEG compression, and leaves out fonts it considers standard. Minimum size keeps hyperlinks, bookmarks and selectable text; it is not a print route in disguise. The export steps are in [Convert Word to PDF](https://pdfpix.com/guides/convert-word-to-pdf/).

## Word to PDF under 200 KB

Portals for job applications, visa forms and university admissions often cap a file at 200 KB or a similar figure, and a two-page CV with a headshot converted at full resolution sails past it. Do the Word steps above, then open the PDF in [Compress PDF to 200 KB](https://pdfpix.com/compress-pdf/200kb/), which has that target already set.

The compressor recompresses the image streams and rewrites the file structure in this tab. It never rasterises text, so the CV stays searchable, and it reads the result back to check the pages against the original before the download starts. If the target is impossible without destroying the pictures, it says so rather than delivering a blurred page.

## Compress a Word file to PDF at any other size

[Compress PDF](https://pdfpix.com/compress-pdf/) takes any figure in KB or MB. Type the limit the form gave you, not a smaller one, because every step down costs picture quality. A scanned signature page is the usual obstacle: a scan is one big picture, and it shrinks only so far before the signature blurs.

For a document that is still too large, the fix is upstream. Replace a scanned page with a typed one, crop pictures to the part that matters, or move an appendix to a second file. The general method is in [How to reduce PDF file size](https://pdfpix.com/guides/how-to-compress-a-pdf/).

## What not to do

Do not print the document to a PDF printer at low quality. That drops hyperlinks and can turn text into an image, which makes the file larger, not smaller, and unsearchable. Do not screenshot pages. Do not save the .docx as an older .doc format hoping it shrinks; it does not, and the browser converter refuses a .doc anyway.

Every other question about moving between Word and PDF is under [PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint help](https://pdfpix.com/guides/office/).

## Questions and answers

### Why is my PDF bigger than the Word document it came from?

Word stores pictures compressed in its own zip container and can re-encode them larger on export, especially at the Standard setting. Compress the pictures in Word and export with Minimum size.

### Does Minimum size make the text in the PDF blurry?

No. Text in the PDF is vector outlines drawn from embedded fonts at any zoom. Only the pictures are downsampled.

### How small can a Word to PDF file get?

Pure text with common fonts lands in the tens of KB per dozen pages. Every picture adds its own weight, and a scanned page is the largest item you can include.

### Will compressing the PDF remove the hyperlinks from my Word export?

Not with Compress PDF. It rewrites image and content streams and leaves the link annotations in place, then reads the file back to check the pages match.

### Should I zip the PDF to get under a portal limit?

No. PDF streams are already compressed, so a zip saves a few percent and the portal probably refuses zip files anyway.

### Does the browser converter shrink pictures on its own?

No. Word to PDF copies the stored pictures as they are. Shrink them in Word first, or compress the PDF afterwards to the figure the form gave you.

## Related pages

- [Word to PDF](https://pdfpix.com/word-to-pdf/): Turn a Word document into a PDF that opens the same on every device. The file stays in your browser. No upload, no account needed.
- [Compress PDF](https://pdfpix.com/compress-pdf/): Make a PDF smaller without turning its text into a picture. The file stays in your browser. No upload, no account needed.
- [Compress PDF to 200 KB](https://pdfpix.com/compress-pdf/200kb/): Get this PDF under 200 KB because a form will not accept anything larger. The file stays in your browser. No upload, no account needed.
- [Convert Word to PDF](https://pdfpix.com/guides/convert-word-to-pdf/): Save a Word document as a PDF, with its hyperlinks and heading bookmarks intact. Free, in your browser, with Word to PDF.
- [How to reduce PDF file size](https://pdfpix.com/guides/how-to-compress-a-pdf/): Make a PDF smaller and know what got dropped. Free, in your browser, with Compress PDF.
- [PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint help](https://pdfpix.com/guides/office/): Find the right guide for PDFs inside Excel, Word and other software. Every guide on the job, sorted by the problem you have.