Print to PDF on a Mac: the PDF menu in every print dialog

The PDF menu has been part of the macOS print dialog for as long as there has been a macOS, which is why Mac users rarely need a converter. The one thing people forget is the information the file carries about itself, so that check is right here:

How do I print to PDF on a Mac?

Apple’s macOS User Guide, “Save a document as a PDF on Mac” (checked on 11 October 2026), describes it in 3 moves:

1. Choose File, Print, or press Cmd+P.
2. Click the PDF button, or open the PDF pop-up menu, and choose Save as PDF. It sits at the bottom of the print dialog. (The same menu offers Open in Preview, Save to iCloud Drive and sending by Mail.)
3. Type a name, choose where to save it, and click Save.

Set the paper size first, in the same print dialog: A4 for Austria and most of the world, US Letter for the US and Canada. The PDF keeps whatever size the dialog had.

What do the Title, Author, Subject and Keywords fields do?

They become the PDF’s document properties. Apple’s guide says you can search their contents with Spotlight later, which is handy on your own Mac. On someone else’s computer, they are what any PDF reader shows under Document Properties or Get Info, without opening a single page.

A field may already hold something when the window opens, such as a working title like “Lease draft v7 (old notes)” or your name. Before you send a PDF to a landlord, a client or a portal, look at the 4 fields and clear what should not travel. The file also records which program and system made it; the metadata guide shows what a typical PDF gives away.

Already sent or saved? Drop the PDF on the tool above. It lists what the file says about itself, then removes the properties, the XMP metadata copy and hidden application data, and gives the file a new identifier. The pages stay exactly as they were. Title can be kept if you want the reader’s tab to show it.

How do I make Cmd+P save straight to PDF?

A shortcut turns 4 clicks into 2 key presses. Apple’s guide “Create keyboard shortcuts for apps on Mac” gives the place:

1. Open System Settings, Keyboard, and click Keyboard Shortcuts.
2. Select App Shortcuts and click the Add button.
3. Application: All Applications. Menu title: Save as PDF, typed exactly as the menu shows it.
4. Click the Keyboard shortcut field, press Cmd+P, and click Done.

Now Cmd+P opens the print dialog and a second Cmd+P chooses Save as PDF. If the second press does nothing, compare the menu title with the menu letter by letter; Apple notes that a menu ending in 3 dots must be typed with 3 periods.

Print to PDF or Export as PDF?

The same truth as on Windows: printing makes a faithful copy of the pages, while an app’s own export writes a real document.

Source	Best route on a Mac	Why
Word	File, Save As, File Format: PDF	Bookmarks from headings, tags; see the Word guide
Pages, Numbers, Keynote	File, Export To, PDF	Apple’s own export
Safari	File, Export as PDF	No print dialog; use reader view first for articles, see the web page guide
Google Docs	File, Download, PDF Document	Links stay clickable
Anything else	Cmd+P, PDF, Save as PDF	Works everywhere

Whether links stay clickable in a printed PDF depends on the app. Click 1 in the result before you rely on it.

Is Security Options enough to protect the file?

Security Options in the same window can require a password to open the document, and separate ones to copy from it or print it. For a quick lock that is fine. If you want to choose exactly what a reader may do without the owner password (print, copy text, change, annotate and fill), Protect PDF does it on your device with AES-256 encryption. Either way, send the password by a different channel than the file.

After saving: merge, shrink, clean

Each tool runs in your browser on your device; nothing is uploaded. Use one once, turn Wi-Fi off, and it still works.

1. Merge several PDFs into 1 with Merge PDF: set the order with Up and Down, press Merge.
2. Shrink a photo-heavy PDF for mail with Compress PDF; the Mac compression guide compares it with Preview’s Reduce File Size.
3. Clean the properties with the tool at the top of this page.

What print to PDF cannot do

It cannot add what the app does not print: hidden slides, comments in a side panel, a spreadsheet’s other sheets. It may drop links, and it does not carry headings across as a structure that bookmarks and screen readers can use. And getPDF does not convert documents into PDF at all yet; we help with the file once the Mac has made it. On Windows, the same job is print to PDF on Windows 11; on an iPhone, save a PDF on iPhone.