Ebook Submission Guide > Creating a PDF Version
A PDF version is optional. PDF is best for preserving complex formatting and pictures. Instruction manuals and children's books can benefit from the PDF format. If you want your users to be able to print out your ebook or specific pages, a PDF is by far the best option. Also, if you expect your readers to view your ebook on a PC or Mac computer, it can be easier to read a PDF version on a computer than an EPUB file. EPUB is ideal for smaller screens and tablets where PDF documents can be hard to read on a small screen.
Note that PDF can handle all of the formatting we said to remove for an ebook. So if you do have exotic formatting that your title needs, you should export to the PDF before you remove it for use with Calibre.
To create the PDF version:
- If your book has line numbers or is double or triple spaced as is sometimes used for submitting manuscripts to agents or print publishers, please remove those and restore single spacing. Formatting for PDF output is beyond the scope of this document.
- You can save directly to PDF from Word 2010 and later. (Word 2007 can also save to PDF, but only after adding the PDF/XPS pack which was available for free from Microsoft, but seems to have been taken down). Select File from the Ribbon, then select "Save & Send" on the left (Word 2010) or "Export" (Word 2013 and later), then select "Create PDF/XPS Document", and press the "Create PDF/XPS." Save the file with a name that is clear to you. It won't be seen by anyone else. Regardless of what you provide, readers will see it as "<title>-by-<author>.pdf", where <title> is replaced with the book title and <author> with your name.
- Note: If internal links are missing in the resulting PDF, in the "Publish as PDF or XPS" window, select Options and "Create bookmarks using" and try both options (Headings and Word bookmarks) to see if this solves the problem.
- If you are still using Word 2003 or earlier, the only way to create a PDF is with a standalone PDF converter. If you don't already have Adobe Acrobat, you can download a free PDF converter here.