Save a large Word file as a PDF (without losing data)

Hi Gary,
Thanks for your detailed reply.
But basically, it makes no difference to me: even if my file is under 100 MB, using the Adobe feature results in a higher compression rate than if I save the Word document directly as a PDF. That doesn't make sense to me, since Adobe is supposed to save the file with little to no loss of quality.

Did you select the High Fidelity and Do Not Compress settings after you imported the images or before? I believe the impact the image when it is inserted and changing it after the fact won’t affect previously inserted images. 

Hi, ​@lifebylinda, first off Microsoft does dreadful things to image in Word, PP, anything you put images into. A lot of that is compressing images that already have compression on them (aka jpg).

Now, 100 MB means you have an amazingly large document, OR you have a whole bunch of images. I’m going to guess images. A lot of folks take images and plop them into a document without considering the actual size actually needed. 

Now, I do not know the nature of your images or how they were taken, but there are three factors that govern the Storage Size (measured in megabytes) or image quality (measured in ppi (Pixels Per Inch), and ppi bounces off number of pixels in width and height.

Let me start with the last one: if you have an image that is 4000 pixels wide (ignoring height for now) and reduce that to 2000 pixels (half the width), the Storage Size will drop 75%. That’s a lot. This is because half of the height and half of the width is 1/4th the size.

Next: necessary ppi. If you’re printing to a book, the standard resolution is 300 ppi. That means that it takes 300 pixels in width (again, ignoring the height for now), to print a 1” (one inch) wide image. If you have an image that is 4000 pixels wide, the image must be resized BEFORE you bring it into your word document. Changing the size in Word does not remove the extra pixels. You need some kind of image manipulation application for this such as Photoshop.

But, let say you’re planning this PDF to be the final stage and for it to be printed out on desktop computers or read read on laptops or desktop computers. Generally, the resolution should be around 140–180 ppi. So, that same image you set for 300 pixels wide would end up “about” two inches in width at this point. Much larger than you need and if you resized it before placing it in Word, it’s storage size would be between 24% – 30% the Storage Size of the 300 ppi image.

Since I do not know you, I do not know if this is stuff you learned years ago or all new. But if you have any questions, feel free to ask.