Convert PPT to PDF

To convert PPT to PDF, open the deck in PowerPoint and choose File, Save As or Export, PDF; Keynote, Google Slides and LibreOffice Impress have the same export. PDF Viewer on this site does not convert PPTX files; it opens the exported PDF so you can review, annotate and sign it in your browser. The choices that matter are slides versus handouts, notes, and hidden slides, all covered below.

Which PPT to PDF method for which case

Online converters do PPT to PDF as well; the deck is uploaded, which is fine for a public talk and a bad idea for a board presentation.

Main method: Save As PDF in PowerPoint

1. Finish editing and run File, Info, Check for Issues, Inspect Document to remove speaker notes, comments and author data you do not want to ship.
2. Choose File, Save As (Windows) or File, Export (Mac) and pick PDF.
3. Click Options (Windows). Range: All, Current slide, or a slide range. Publish what: Slides, Handouts, Notes pages or Outline view. Tick Include hidden slides only if you want them.
4. Choose Standard for on-screen quality or Minimum size for email, then Save.

For a handout with room to write, use File, Print instead: set the printer to Microsoft Print to PDF (or Save as PDF on Mac), Print Layout to Handouts 3 Slides, and print. Keynote: File, Export To, PDF, pick image quality Good, Better or Best, and tick Include presenter notes if needed. Google Slides: File, Download, PDF Document; for notes, File, Print preview, 1 slide with notes, Download as PDF.

What changes between the deck and the PDF

• Animations and transitions. Each slide is exported in its final state; build steps collapse into one picture. Duplicate the slide per step if the sequence matters.
• Video and audio. Replaced by a still frame or nothing.
• Fonts. PowerPoint embeds what it can; a brand font without embedding rights is substituted. Check headings on the PDF, not in PowerPoint.
• Hidden slides. Skipped unless you tick Include hidden slides; check the page count.
• Slide size. A 16:9 deck becomes a landscape PDF page of the same ratio, which prints with white bands on letter paper.
• Links. Save As PDF keeps hyperlinks and internal slide links; printing to a PDF printer does not.

Keep the PPTX. Getting slides back out of a PDF is a lossy job; see PDF to PPT.

Fonts, picture quality and file size settings

Three settings decide whether the PDF looks like the deck and how big it is.

• Embed fonts. File, Options, Save, Embed fonts in the file (Windows). PowerPoint then embeds the fonts it is allowed to; a font marked non-embeddable by its license is substituted in the PDF, so check headings on the output. On Mac, the export embeds automatically where permitted.
• Picture resolution. File, Options, Advanced, Image Size and Quality: Default resolution 220 ppi is right for projection, 330 for print, 150 for email. Do not discard editing data if you may need the originals later.
• Compress Pictures. Picture Format, Compress Pictures, Apply to all, and delete cropped areas. Run this before exporting; it often halves a photo-heavy deck.
• Save As quality. Standard keeps the resolution above; Minimum size downsamples images again. If the file is still large, see compress PDF.

Keynote exposes the same choice as Good, Better, Best in its export dialog; Google Slides offers no image settings, so compress pictures before uploading them.

Check the result

Open the PDF in the online PDF viewer and compare the thumbnail count with the slide count, minus hidden slides. Switch to dark mode if the deck has a dark theme to see it the way the audience will. Press Ctrl+F for a word on a slide to confirm text was exported as text. Reviewers can annotate the slides right here, and you can delete a slide you forgot to hide; nothing is uploaded.

Frequently asked questions