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Having a document with numbered headings, when I export it into PDF from Word 2013 all numbering is rendered as bitmaps in the PDF instead of text. This happens regardless if I use the built-in "Export—Create PDF/XPS Document" feature or a PDF printer such as PDFCreator.

The original in Word 2013

Original document showing numbering rendered from vector fonts

The PDF version

Converted versing showing pixelated numbering due to an unwanted conversion into a bitmap

How can this behavior be prevented so that Word exports numbering as text and not as raster images?

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  • Does the same happen with other fonts? And if you use a different PDF reader? Can you select and copy the numbers? (If yes, then the original text is included in the PDF, hence maybe the reader is to blame for rendering it in a weird way.) Did you look at the structure of the generated PDF like, like with PDFXplorer, to see if any bitmap is included to start with? (Often you can also open a PDF file in a text editor. It won't be pretty, but it might allow you to see its structure, and to see if any image is embedded or not.)
    – Arjan
    Commented Nov 8, 2014 at 15:23
  • See also this answer: " [...] a checkbox for "Bitmap text when fonts may not be embedded" [...] suggests to me that some fonts may not be allowed to be embedded (for copyright reasons?)", though it seems that your numbering font is the same as the heading text itself? (Is it?)
    – Arjan
    Commented Nov 8, 2014 at 15:31

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
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The issue is not in converting to PDF, but actually in Word. To fix, click on the number in the list (in the document) causing problems and hit Ctrl+Space.

That resolved the issue for me.

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  • I hit the issue today again and tried what you suggested. It works! Magnificient! Thank you :)
    – Ondrej Tucny
    Commented Dec 19, 2019 at 11:26
  • Thanks a lot! This worked like a charm! :)
    – Abhishek Potnis
    Commented May 12, 2021 at 7:58
  • 4
    Besides that it's really working, could you please explain what this key combinations does?
    – winklerrr
    Commented Aug 25, 2021 at 13:26
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    @winklerrr Ctrl-space removes character-level formatting (fonts, italics/bold, font size, etc.) but leaves paragraph formatting (indents, line spacing, etc.) intact.
    – Bob Brown
    Commented Aug 28, 2022 at 11:08
  • Nice, but the problem runs deep. I have several lines which are 'bitmapped' but some are 'vectorized'. This seems to be caused by special chars like ', " etc. I'm using "LM Roman 10", which is the LaTeX font.
    – user486359
    Commented Mar 21, 2023 at 21:24
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As Allen has already written, Ctrl+Space is the quick and easy answer. Sadly, it doesn't always work. Doug Hill posted this answer in a Microsoft forum. It tells what to do if Ctrl+Space doesn't work, but not how. It's not for the faint of heart. Here's the scoop...

Word documents (and all Office documents) are zip files, at least on Windows. You can rename them and look inside. The styles.xml document that Doug refers to is inside the .docx file.

  • Make a backup copy of the Word document with save as in case the next steps do not go well.
  • Rename to change the extension from .docx to .zip.
  • Double-click to open the zip file. You will see four directories.
  • Open the word directory.
  • Within the word directory, locate the member styles.xml, right-click and copy.
  • On the desktop or some other convenient place, click paste. You now have an external copy to work with.
  • Open external copy of styles.xml with a text editor. I used Notepad++
  • Locate and delete the bit of XML that looks like this:
   <w14:scene3d><w14:camera w14:prst="orthographicFront"/>
   <w14:lightRig w14:rig="threePt" w14:dir="t"><w14:rot w14:lat="0" w14:lon="0"
   w14:rev="0"/></w14:lightRig></w14:scene3d>

The easy way to locate it is to search for "w14:scene3d". (Line wraps may be different. Just get everything between <w14:scene3d> and </w14:scene3d>.)

  • Save the file.
  • Return to the still-open zip file and delete styles.xml by right-clicking and selecting delete.
  • Drag the edited copy of styles.xml into the open word directory of the zip file.
  • Close the zip file.
  • Rename to change the extension from .zip back to .docx.
  • Recreate your PDF file and test.

Environment: I've observed this failure in Word 2016 and Word for Office 365, both on Windows 10. Based on the original post, the problem goes back to Word 2013, and possibly further.

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  • 1
    Thanks for the underlying details regarding the scene3d element. It seems it has been around in OpenXML since Office 2010 at least: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/…
    – Ondrej Tucny
    Commented Aug 28, 2022 at 12:16
  • <w14:scene3d> doesn't exist in my case.
    – user486359
    Commented Mar 21, 2023 at 21:31
  • @KJ Do you have any scene3d element? Did ctrl-space work?
    – Bob Brown
    Commented Mar 22, 2023 at 10:58
  • I couldn't find any, also ctrl-space didn't work. (ctrl-space did something, but the overall result still contained bitmaps). I did another thing that worked: Used the Microsoft Print to PDF. It's not as elegant as the PDF-export, but it works (for now).
    – user486359
    Commented Mar 23, 2023 at 11:11
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    @KJ I'm not sure what else to do other than what you've done, and perhaps post in the Adobe forum.
    – Bob Brown
    Commented Mar 23, 2023 at 12:39
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Word does not control this behavior, this is controlled by the "PDF Printer" that you are using to create your PDF file.

You will need to find a PDF printer that more accurately compiles the PDF in a way that more closely reflects Word.

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  • 1
    The OP wrote they had the same problem with the built-in export to PDF function; but I don't know if that's a built-in PDF printer.
    – Arjan
    Commented Nov 8, 2014 at 15:09
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I had a similar problem...

You need to create a new list type. You find a (German) tutorial here: http://www.kintzelblog.de/9-videotutorial-wie-erstelle-ich-eine-listenformatvorlage/

It is important that you do not define fonts and font size in the create new list type window. Instead, link to the styles (heading 1, heading 2, etc.)

Hope this helps.

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The solution is simple, at least in Word 2016 where I have solved it.

You have to select the title and modify it. In the option Font -> Advanced you have to put the 'Ligatures' in 'None'. After it, you have to update all titles selecting that title and clicking on 'Update title...'.

If you have the ligatures in the first option, then, the Word inserts the number of the title like an 'image'.

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  1. Select the broken heading(s)
  2. Klick on Multilevel-Lists then on New List with multiple levels
  3. Delete all Numbers of your level (blue)
  4. Now select every higher Number (red form pic in 3) and split them with a dot.(in this example) you will get the same as before in the blue circle.
  5. Last step is go to the layout presets right-click the title and update it from selection

And now it works again.... Worked for me

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I went into the each level of heading, starting from the top and working my way down, and reapplied the numbering scheme. Then I told the styles guide to modify the heading to match the selection for each level. The next time I saved to PDF, my headings looked normal. When you do this, also update your TOC so the headings will look normal there also.

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