Google Docs to PDF: margins, links and pages that hold

The download itself is 2 clicks. What goes wrong is everything decided before them, so this page is mostly about the 1 minute in Page setup. Most Docs PDFs end up as part of something bigger (an application, a submission, a portfolio), and that part runs here:

How do I save a Google Doc as a PDF?

1. Open the document in Google Docs in a browser.
2. Check File, Page setup (next section): Pages or Pageless, paper size, margins.
3. Resolve suggestions: open the comment and suggestion panel and accept or reject each one.
4. Choose File, Download, PDF Document (.pdf).
5. Open the PDF and scroll through it: page breaks, tables, the last page.

Google’s help article “Download a copy of a file” (checked on 11 October 2026) gives a second route: File, Print, then Save as PDF next to Destination, then Save. It suggests that route in Chrome for large files. Both use Google’s own export, so links and text survive either way.

What should I set in Page setup first?

Pages, not Pageless. A pageless document scrolls as 1 endless sheet. Google’s help article on pageless format says that in it, headers, footers and watermarks are not visible, and columns, page numbers, headers and footers cannot be added. A PDF has pages, so the download has to cut the text somewhere, and you cannot see where while you edit. Switch to File, Page setup, Pages, then look at where the breaks fall: a heading alone at the bottom of a page, a table split after its first row. Fix those in the document (Insert, Break, Page break), then download.

Paper size. The same dialog has Paper size. A4 is the size in Austria and most of the world; Letter is the US and Canada. A CV for an employer in Vienna on Letter prints with an odd strip at the bottom. Set as default makes it stick for new documents.

Margins. Also in Page setup, in centimetres or inches depending on your settings. A printer cannot print to the very edge, so keep at least about 1 cm if the PDF will go on paper.

Do comments and suggestions end up in the PDF?

Google’s help does not say what the PDF download does with them, so do not leave it to chance. Open the comment panel, accept or reject every suggestion, resolve the comments, then download. A suggestion you meant to accept and did not is the classic way a wrong date reaches a landlord.

If the reviewers’ comments must be in the file on purpose, download the document as Microsoft Word (.docx) instead and convert that in Word for the web, which has Download as PDF with comments; the docx to PDF without Word guide has the steps.

What about fonts and images?

The PDF is written with the fonts the document uses. Open it on a phone once before you send it, especially with a decorative font, so a substitution shows up on your screen and not the recipient’s. Pictures go in at the quality they have in the document; a document with many phone photos gets large, which the next section fixes.

After the download: merge, number, shrink

Each tool runs in your browser on your device; the files are never uploaded. Use one once, turn Wi-Fi off, and it still works.

1. Merge with the other papers. An application wants 1 file: the letter from Docs, a certificate, a scanned ID. Drop them on the merge tool above, set the order with Up and Down and press Merge. Bookmark per file adds an entry per document to the PDF’s side panel, with that document’s own bookmarks under it; links between its pages keep working.
2. Number the pages. A merged file has no shared page numbers. Add page numbers puts them in as real text (1, Page 1, 1 of 12 or Page 1 of 12), and Cover page leaves page 1 without one.
3. Compress for the limit. Compress PDF with a size target keeps the best picture quality that fits; text stays text and stays sharp. Portals cap uploads at a few MB: the US National Visa Center at 4 MB per file, LinkedIn recommends under 2 MB for a CV (checked on 11 October 2026).

If the PDF itself looks wrong (breaks, margins, paper), these tools are not the fix. Go back to Page setup, change it, and download again.

Where this route stops

The export is Google’s, so the document has to be in Google’s cloud to begin with. For a private file you would rather not put there, LibreOffice exports PDFs offline (see the docx guide). Pageless documents cannot carry page numbers or headers, so a submission that needs them has to be in pages format. And getPDF cannot convert a Google Doc itself: there is no Docs or Word to PDF tool here yet. We help once the PDF exists. For the full map of free routes from every kind of source, see create a PDF.