How to Convert Excel to PDF (Keep Formatting)

You've spent an hour getting your spreadsheet looking just right. Columns are aligned, the header row has that nice blue background, and the numbers finally make sense. Then you export it to PDF, open the file, and half your data is cut off at the right edge. Or the font changed. Or that chart you embedded is now a blurry smudge in the corner.

Converting Excel to PDF sounds like it should be simple. And honestly, it is — once you know which settings actually matter. The problem is that most people hit "Save As PDF" and hope for the best. That works maybe 60% of the time. The other 40% gives you a PDF that looks like it went through a paper shredder.

This guide covers the methods that actually preserve your formatting, whether you're working in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or a free online tool like OnlyDocs.

Why Excel Files Break When You Convert Them

Before jumping into the how-to, it helps to understand why this goes wrong in the first place.

Excel files are dynamic. Columns resize based on content. Formulas recalculate. Cell widths depend on the font your system has installed. PDFs, on the other hand, are static — they're basically a snapshot of a printed page. When you convert between the two, something has to give.

The most common formatting issues people run into:

Column overflow. Your spreadsheet has 15 columns, but a standard PDF page (8.5" × 11") can only fit about 8-10 of them at a readable font size. The extra columns either get cut off or pushed to a second page, splitting your data in a way that makes no sense.

Font substitution. If the PDF converter doesn't have access to the exact font you used in Excel, it picks the closest match. Sometimes that match is close enough. Other times, your carefully spaced Calibri headers become a jumbled mess in Arial.

Chart and image quality. Embedded charts look fine at screen resolution, but they can get pixelated or resized awkwardly during conversion. Excel renders charts on the fly — a PDF has to flatten them into a fixed image.

Page breaks in the wrong spots. Excel's default page breaks rarely land where you want them. A table that should stay together gets split across two pages, with the header row stranded on page one and the data starting on page two.

Method 1: Convert in Microsoft Excel (Desktop)

If you have Excel installed, this is the most reliable method because you get fine-grained control over page layout before converting.

Step-by-step:

1. Open your spreadsheet in Excel.
2. Go to File → Print (or press Ctrl+P on Windows, Cmd+P on Mac).
3. Before doing anything else, check the print preview on the right side. This is exactly what your PDF will look like.
4. If columns are getting cut off, click Page Setup at the bottom of the print dialog.
5. Under the Page tab, try switching from Portrait to Landscape — this alone fixes most overflow issues for wide spreadsheets.
6. If it still doesn't fit, look for Scaling. Set it to "Fit All Columns on One Page." This scales everything down proportionally. For most spreadsheets, the text stays readable down to about 70% scaling.
7. Under the Margins tab, switch to Narrow margins. This gives you an extra inch of usable space across the page.
8. Click OK, then change the printer to Microsoft Print to PDF (Windows) or choose Save as PDF from the PDF dropdown (Mac).
9. Save the file. Open it and verify.

Pro tips for Excel:

Set your print area first. Select the cells you actually want in the PDF, then go to Page Layout → Print Area → Set Print Area. This prevents Excel from including empty rows and columns that extend your document to 47 pages.

Use Page Break Preview. Under the View tab, switch to Page Break Preview. You'll see blue dashed lines showing where pages break. Drag them to move breaks where you want them. This is the single most useful feature for multi-page spreadsheets, and almost nobody uses it.

Repeat header rows. Go to Page Layout → Print Titles, and set "Rows to repeat at top." If your spreadsheet runs across multiple pages, the header row will appear at the top of every page. Without this, page two is just a grid of numbers with no context.

Method 2: Convert in Google Sheets

Google Sheets handles Excel-to-PDF conversion reasonably well, and it's free. The tradeoff is less control over the output compared to desktop Excel.

1. Open your spreadsheet in Google Sheets (you can upload .xlsx files directly).
2. Go to File → Download → PDF Document (.pdf).
3. A preview dialog opens. Here's where you set:
   • Paper size: Letter (8.5" × 11") or A4 (210mm × 297mm), depending on your audience. A4 is slightly narrower and taller.
   • Orientation: Landscape for wide spreadsheets.
   • Scale: "Fit to width" usually works. "Fit to page" can make text too small on data-heavy sheets.
   • Margins: Normal or Narrow.
   • Formatting: Check "Show gridlines" if you want cell borders visible. Uncheck "Show notes" unless you need them.
4. Click Export.

One thing Google Sheets does well: it embeds the fonts directly in the PDF, so font substitution problems are rare. The downside is that complex conditional formatting sometimes doesn't translate perfectly.

Method 3: Use a Free Online Converter

If you don't have Excel installed and your file is too sensitive (or too annoying) to upload to Google, online converters are the fastest option.

OnlyDocs lets you work with PDFs directly in your browser — editing, merging, annotating, and converting. For spreadsheet-to-PDF conversion, the process is straightforward: upload, adjust settings, and download. Your files are processed in your browser, not on a remote server, which matters if you're working with financial data or anything else you wouldn't want floating around on someone else's infrastructure.

Other online converters exist, but pay attention to what they do with your data. Some free tools upload your file to their servers for processing and keep it for anywhere from a few hours to indefinitely. If you're converting a spreadsheet with client financials, employee salaries, or business projections, that's worth thinking about.

Fixing the Most Common Formatting Problems

Even with the right method, you might hit a few snags. Here's how to handle them:

Wide spreadsheets that won't fit

You have three options, roughly in order of how much they compromise readability:

1. Switch to landscape. Gives you about 40% more horizontal space. Try this first.
2. Scale down. Anything above 65-70% is usually still readable. Below that, you're squinting.
3. Split the spreadsheet. If you have 20+ columns, consider converting it as two separate PDFs — columns A through J on one, K through T on another. Not ideal, but better than unreadable.

Gridlines disappearing

By default, Excel doesn't print gridlines. They're visible on screen but treated as a display-only feature. To include them, go to Page Layout and check "Print" under the Gridlines section. In Google Sheets, check "Show gridlines" in the PDF export dialog.

Colors looking different

Screen colors (RGB) and print colors (CMYK) render differently. Bright neon greens and blues on screen will look duller in a PDF, especially if someone prints it. If color accuracy matters — say, for a branded report — stick to darker, more saturated colors that survive the conversion better.

Charts looking blurry

Excel charts are vector-based on screen but sometimes get rasterized during PDF conversion. To keep them sharp, try copying the chart into a new sheet by itself and converting that separately. You can then insert the chart PDF into your main document using a tool like OnlyDocs' merge feature.

When to Use Excel vs. PDF

This comes up a lot, so let's address it directly.

Send an Excel file when the recipient needs to edit the data, run their own calculations, or filter/sort the information. Excel is a working format — it's meant to be changed.

Send a PDF when the document is final and you don't want anyone modifying it. Invoices, reports, financial summaries, quotes — anything where the numbers need to stay exactly as you sent them. PDFs also look the same on every device and operating system, which you cannot say about Excel files. Open the same .xlsx on Windows, Mac, and a phone, and you'll get three slightly different layouts.

A lot of people convert to PDF as a CYA move, and honestly, that's valid. If you send a quote as an Excel file and the client changes a number before forwarding it to their boss, that's your problem. Send it as a PDF and there's a clear record of what you actually quoted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I convert Excel to PDF without Microsoft Office?

Yes. Google Sheets handles .xlsx files and exports to PDF for free. Online tools like OnlyDocs also let you convert and edit PDFs without installing any software. LibreOffice is another free desktop option that opens Excel files and exports to PDF, though formatting fidelity can vary with complex spreadsheets.

Why does my Excel file look different as a PDF?

The most common reason is column overflow — your spreadsheet is wider than the PDF page. Other causes include font substitution (the PDF renderer doesn't have your exact font), different default margins, and chart rasterization. Using Print Preview before converting catches most of these issues.

How do I convert multiple Excel sheets to one PDF?

In Microsoft Excel, go to File → Print and change the setting from "Print Active Sheets" to "Print Entire Workbook." This creates one PDF with all sheets included. In Google Sheets, you'll need to export each sheet separately and then merge them using a tool like OnlyDocs' PDF merger.

Is it possible to convert PDF back to Excel?

It's possible but imperfect. PDF-to-Excel conversion tries to reconstruct the spreadsheet from the visual layout, and the results depend heavily on how the PDF was created. Simple tables convert fairly well. Complex spreadsheets with merged cells, charts, and conditional formatting will need manual cleanup. Several tools offer this conversion, but always verify the output against the original.

Wrapping Up

Converting Excel to PDF isn't hard — the hard part is getting the output to actually look like what you see on screen. The fix is almost always the same: check your page layout settings before converting. Set the orientation, adjust the scaling, define your print area, and use Print Preview to catch problems before they end up in the final file.

If you're working with PDFs regularly — converting, editing, merging, signing — give OnlyDocs a try. It handles all of that in your browser, for free, without making you create an account first.