The file format you choose before printing can quietly change how your document looks on paper — especially formatting, fonts, and spacing. Here's a practical breakdown of why, and what to actually do about it.
PDF — the safest choice for anything formatted
A PDF locks in exactly how a document looks, regardless of what software or printer opens it — that's the entire point of the format, by design: it embeds the actual font shapes and exact layout coordinates into the file itself, rather than describing "use this font name and let whatever's available render it." If you've carefully laid out a resume, a report with specific fonts, or anything with precise spacing, export it to PDF before printing. What you see is genuinely what you get.
Word and Excel — convenient, but font-dependent
Word and Excel files print fine, but they rely on the fonts installed on whatever system converts them. If you used an unusual or downloaded font, it may get silently substituted for a similar-looking system font on the printing side, which can shift line breaks, table widths, and spacing in ways that are easy to miss until the printout is already in hand. If the exact look matters, convert to PDF first — this closes that gap completely, since the substitution problem is specifically a Word/Excel-format issue, not a PDF one.
Images — simple, but check the orientation
Photos and scanned images print reliably since there's no layout to reflow — there's no font or spacing to get wrong. Do double-check orientation before sending, though: a photo taken sideways on your phone can print sideways too if the option isn't set correctly, since the image itself has no "this way up" instruction embedded the way some document formats do.
Our recommendation
For anything where formatting matters — resumes, forms, official documents — export to PDF first. For quick photos or simple images, sending the original file works fine, and Printryx's own upload flow handles both formats directly — see the live demo for how page counts and pricing are read straight from the file.
How to actually convert to PDF from your phone
Both Word and Excel's own mobile apps have a built-in "Export as PDF" or "Save as PDF" option in the share/export menu — you don't need a separate converter app installed. On an iPhone, most apps' native share sheet also includes a "Print" option that, instead of actually printing, opens a PDF preview you can save directly — a quick, no-app workaround worth knowing even outside the printing context.
One more reason PDF is safer for sensitive documents
Beyond layout, a PDF is also the format least likely to carry hidden editable content along with it — a Word document can sometimes retain tracked-changes history or comments that aren't visible at first glance but are technically still in the file. Exporting to PDF before sending something sensitive to print is a small extra layer of "what you see is genuinely all that's there."