Word to PDF
BetaConvert .docx files to PDF with a rendering mode that matches your document.
Processed entirely in your browser. No files are sent to any server.
Next steps
Runs entirely in your browser. No uploads. Your files stay private.
How Browser-Based Word to PDF Conversion Works — Two Pipelines, Trade-offs
Word to PDF converts .docx files into PDF entirely in your browser, with no server involvement. The tool ships two conversion pipelines internally and chooses based on the document's features. Both keep the file in tab memory the whole time — nothing is uploaded.
The direct OOXML pipeline parses the .docx ZIP archive (DOCX is XML-in-a-ZIP), reads the OOXML structure with a custom parser, runs deterministic layout, and writes PDF primitives via pdf-lib. This route preserves text as text (selectable, searchable, copy-paste-able), keeps fonts as embedded subsets, and produces a small, vector-clean PDF roughly 50–500 KB for a typical document. It is the preferred path when the document uses standard paragraphs, headings, lists, tables, hyperlinks, and simple images.
The fallback HTML render pipeline uses mammoth (DOCX → semantic HTML), renders the HTML inside an isolated iframe at 816×1056 pixels (US Letter at 96 DPI), captures each page with html2canvas, and embeds the resulting JPEGs into a PDF using pdf-lib. This route activates when the direct pipeline detects unsupported features. The output is a raster PDF — every page is an image, so text is no longer selectable and file size is significantly larger.
The conversion tries to preserve heading levels, paragraph styles, bold/italic/underline runs, ordered and unordered lists, simple tables, inline images (PNG/JPEG embedded as PDF XObjects), and hyperlinks. It also detects title-like centered content via heuristics and applies the appropriate alignment.
Realistic limits: the .doc legacy binary format (Word 97–2003) is not supported — only .docx. Documents with complex floating shapes, equation editor (OMath), embedded charts, footnotes that span pages, multi-column layouts, headers/footers with field codes (PAGE OF NUMPAGES), and SmartArt may render incorrectly or fall back to the raster pipeline. For those documents, the most reliable conversion is still Microsoft Word's built-in Save As PDF or LibreOffice in headless mode.
Image fidelity in the direct pipeline matches the source — embedded images are pulled from the .docx ZIP and re-embedded into the PDF without re-encoding, so quality is preserved. The HTML pipeline rasterizes everything at 96 DPI, which is fine for screen reading but soft when zoomed or printed at full Letter size.
Browser memory is the practical limit. .docx files up to ~30 MB and 200 pages convert comfortably. Documents with hundreds of high-resolution embedded images can pressure the tab's heap during the html2canvas pass; in those cases, the direct pipeline is dramatically lighter and usually succeeds where the raster pipeline fails.
Common Use Cases
01
Resume and CV submission
Convert a Word resume to PDF so layout, fonts, and spacing render identically on every recruiter's machine, regardless of Word version.
02
Client-ready proposals
Send polished PDFs that don't require Microsoft Word to open and don't accidentally show tracked changes or comments.
03
Long-term archival
Convert documents to PDF/A-style stable output that opens reliably for years, even after Word format changes or new template defaults.
04
Print-ready handouts
Generate PDFs that print services accept directly without asking for the source .docx and the fonts used.
Frequently Asked Questions
.docx only — the XML-based format introduced in Word 2007. The legacy binary .doc format (Word 97–2003) is not supported. Convert .doc to .docx in Word or LibreOffice first.
Yes when the direct OOXML pipeline succeeds — text remains as selectable, searchable, copy-paste-able PDF text. The HTML fallback pipeline rasterizes pages to JPEG and loses selectable text; that mode is used only when the direct pipeline detects unsupported features.
No. The .docx is parsed and converted entirely in your browser — mammoth, html2canvas, the custom OOXML parser, and pdf-lib all run in the tab. The file never reaches a server.
Standard tables, ordered/unordered lists, and inline PNG/JPEG images are preserved by the direct pipeline. Complex floating shapes, equation editor content, charts, SmartArt, and multi-column layouts may render imperfectly or trigger the raster fallback.
Currently one file at a time. The direct pipeline is fast (typically under a second per page), so batch conversion is straightforward by repeating the upload for each file.
Standard fonts (Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman) embedded in the .docx are preserved as PDF font subsets via pdf-lib. Exotic fonts that aren't embedded fall back to similar shapes; if pixel-perfect typography is critical, install the fonts in your OS so html2canvas can pick them up, or use desktop Word.
Static headers and footers are typically preserved. Field codes that reference document state at conversion time (PAGE, NUMPAGES, DATE) work in the direct pipeline; complex nested fields and content controls may not.
The direct pipeline detects unsupported features (e.g., math equations, complex floating layouts, certain SmartArt) and routes the document through mammoth + html2canvas to ensure something renders rather than failing. The trade-off is image-only output.
Direct-pipeline output has selectable text and can be annotated with PDF Editor. Raster-pipeline output is image-only — to make it editable or searchable again, run it through PDF OCR.
Visible tracked changes and comment markers in the displayed view are converted as they appear. To export a clean copy, accept all changes and remove all comments in Word before converting.
Step-by-step guide
How to convert Word to PDF
Walk through every step with screenshots, format-specific tips, and the platform-by-platform limits you need to know.
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