How to reduce file size produced by Microsoft Print to PDF?

Before I switched to Win10, I used Adobe Acrobat 8 to print to PDF. The PDF printer included with Windows 10 (Microsoft Print to PDF) produces files that are many times larger than those produced by Acrobat. For example, an old-style Word .doc that's 77kB was rendered as a 28kB .pdf by Acrobat, but Microsoft Print to PDF creates a 325kB .pdf! I can't find any settings that can be changed in Microsoft Print to PDF to reduce the size of the PDFs it creates. Are there any tricks to do so?

asked Dec 1, 2016 at 19:56 1,745 6 6 gold badges 21 21 silver badges 37 37 bronze badges Have you checked whether Adobe Acrobat will install under Win10? If so, does this fix the problem? Commented Dec 13, 2016 at 5:01

@milesrf - I have little doubt that Acrobat Standard will install and mount its own PDF printer, and that it will function as on earlier versions of Windows. But that's a separate paid program.

Commented Dec 13, 2016 at 13:37 Unfortunately, MS's PDF printer is not as good as Adobe's. Commented Jan 26, 2017 at 21:36

13 Answers 13

To add on to dsungaro's answer referencing the microsoft article, here are the code additions I made to successfully add resolution options.

*Option: ResOption2 < *Name: "400 x 400" *PrintSchemaNamespace: "http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2015/02/printing/printschemakeywords/microsoftprinttopdf" *SpotDiameter: 100 *DPI: PAIR(400, 400) *TextDPI: PAIR(400, 400) >*Option: ResOption3 < *Name: "300 x 300" *PrintSchemaNamespace: "http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2015/02/printing/printschemakeywords/microsoftprinttopdf" *SpotDiameter: 100 *DPI: PAIR(300, 300) *TextDPI: PAIR(300, 300) >*Option: ResOption4 < *Name: "200 x 200" *PrintSchemaNamespace: "http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2015/02/printing/printschemakeywords/microsoftprinttopdf" *SpotDiameter: 100 *DPI: PAIR(200, 200) *TextDPI: PAIR(200, 200) >

This is added to the .gpd file below the following code

*Option: ResOption1 < *Name: "600 x 600" *PrintSchemaNamespace: "http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2015/02/printing/printschemakeywords/microsoftprinttopdf" *SpotDiameter: 100 *DPI: PAIR(600, 600) *TextDPI: PAIR(600, 600) >

And this is the code added to the pdc file

 400 400  300 300  200 200

right after this code

 600 600
answered Mar 18, 2020 at 16:14 71 1 1 silver badge 1 1 bronze badge

I found that Microsoft Print to PDF will give 300k+ file size, but using "save as pdf" will actually give files around 50k. It only saves the current sheet (for example if you have more than a sheet in a workbook) but you can select otherwise by clicking "options" after doing "save as" and selecting "pdf" in the drop down of file types. All in all, checking the properties of the 2 files in Acrobat, the difference of length might be due to the fonts that Msft embeds while saving or printing. They are different. Saving as PDF yielded True Type fonts being embedded, whereas printing to PDF yielded True Type (CID) fonts. You can check in Properties and select the "Fonts" tab.

answered Nov 18, 2020 at 22:56 61 1 1 silver badge 4 4 bronze badges This is the simplest solution; it works ! (if only I could upvote twice) Commented Oct 4, 2021 at 5:14

I found out that the "Microsoft Print to PDF" printer can be tricked into using a lower resolution than 600x600 DPI. Follow the instructions here, but do not add a paper size, but change the resolution (almost at the end of the two files) from 600x600 to 300x300 or even 150x150. Then the resulting file size is smaller.

An alternative is the Win2PDF printer, where one can set the resolution using the printer settings dialog.

4,718 11 11 gold badges 22 22 silver badges 32 32 bronze badges answered Aug 21, 2019 at 13:59 31 3 3 bronze badges

Try Adobe (Free) Online Word to PDF converter. For me it gives file sizes even smaller than Acrobat 8, and resolution appears good. It even captures embedded hyperlinks! Seems like there must be a catch (maybe limited file size or number of uses or time for free), but as I respond it is great.

answered Oct 7, 2021 at 6:46 61 3 3 bronze badges

As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please edit to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.

Commented Oct 7, 2021 at 7:02

The OP asked "Are there any tricks to reduce size of pdfs made from a word doc?" and complained that he was getting file sizes "many times larger than those produced by Acrobat 8". The answer seems to me to answer the question and solve the complaint with concise clarity. What do you find unclear?

Commented Oct 8, 2021 at 8:16

I'm using the free Foxit PDF Reader which comes with its own PDF Printer.

After you install it, use Word to print your document and select the Foxit PDF Printer.

I've used this method to convert a docx document of 86kb into a pdf of 169kb.
The export to PDF of Word produced a huge file of about 800kb!

Note that the PDF will almost always be larger than the docx file because some fonts need to be embedded into it for it to be fully portable.

answered Feb 10, 2018 at 1:00 129 4 4 bronze badges

No need to compress. Use free cutepdf writer. It's been around for decades and has been updated for Win10. A 2MB pdf file with form data prints with MS PDF printer and becomes 17MB. With cutepdf writer the file size is 650kb.
https://cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp Make sure to install the postscript driver when prompted. This save your text as text in the pdf and not as an image.

answered May 5, 2021 at 11:57 21 1 1 bronze badge

Great advice. From a one page text-only Word doc, Microsoft's output is 507 KB while Cute's is 42 KB with no visible difference.

Commented Feb 22 at 21:14

I have experienced even more extreme size differences. I also do not like the lack of configurability of Microsoft Print to PDF. If it is even possible, it is very very well hidden.

In the context of your solution: you cannot change a setting, you need a more sophisticated virtual printer.

I would recommend https://ninite.com/pdfcreator (Quick installer; Search PDFCreator yourself if you have no reason to trust ninite.com yet.)

It has build-in profiles including ones that shrink file sizes. I used it to solve a similar problem with a ~100 mb file. You can also create your own profile to shrink it even more and then save that profile for later use.

answered Jan 26, 2017 at 21:35 552 1 1 gold badge 7 7 silver badges 16 16 bronze badges

I replaced it with the Open Source (simple and working) pdf printer: https://github.com/stchan/PdfScribe

answered Jun 24, 2021 at 7:28 19 1 1 bronze badge

Big file reduction by just printing from Foxit Reader and using same Microsoft Print to PDF a little strange, but works for me.

Compare file size reduction

Acrobat PDF Reader - Print with Microsoft Print to PDF

Foxit PDF Reader - Print with Microsoft Print to PDF

answered Jul 10, 2021 at 2:18 111 3 3 bronze badges

For me, Shane's instructions above add the resolution options, but selecting any of them does nothing to reduce file size.

For me, none of the free doc to pdf converters comes close (at comparable resolution) to the small pdf file size from Acrobat 8 with Word 2003. If you are willing to reduce resolution substantially, CutePDF with Free PDF Compressor (suggested above) comes closest.

For me, Win10 print to PDF files are huge, and can not manage some images in Word documents.

Another limitation of every free PDF converter that I have tested with Word 2003 (and I have tested many) is that they do not capture hyperlinks. Some people say they do, but I think these people must be fooled by hyperlinks that have the full URL typed in the document (and Acrobat reader which recognizes these URLs).

Unfortunately, though you may have paid for Acrobat 8 'for life' it is difficult or impossible to make work fully (especially as a doc to pdf converter/ printer) under Win 10. And now Adobe wants a monthly payment for a version that works under Win10.