Preserve SVG with gradients after PDF export from Word

Question

Whenever I need to create a template for business documents (e. g. concept papers or documentation), I have to place some generic graphics such as the company's logo here and there. Since Microsoft added support for SVG starting with Word 2016, I'm using SVG images in may documents since then without any problem (as long as there is no text inside).

Usually, this works just fine, but now I stumbled across a problem: I placed my company's logo in a Word document. In Word itself, the image is displayed as a vector graphic perfectly fine, but when I export the document to PDF using Word's integrated export function, the logo gets converted to a rastered graphic with poor quality.

I tried several other SVG images in that same document and they all work as intended. But I didn't manage to get my company logo to work correctly. I have several versions of that logo available, but none of them work. It's always the same behavior: In Word, everything works well, but after doing the PDF export, I get a rastered graphic in the PDF file.

I tried to recreate the SVG file from the source files (EPS, PDF) with all the options available in Adobe Illustrator, but I didn't manage to get it working properly. Even though this wouldn't be an option in the end, I tried to print the Word document using several PDF printers (Microsoft's builtin PDF printer, Adobe PDF printer, PDF24 printer). But the results is exactly the same. :-(

It has to be a problem with the image files itself, but I'm running out of ideas now. I converted the files back and forth and also tried some converting tools available online, but nothing changed.

I am using Microsoft Word 2019 (included in an O365 subscription) in the newest version available (2010).

I'm looking forward to your ideas. Thanks for your help! :-)

I narrowed it down to the gradients in the image. As soon as I remove them from the logo, the PDF export works perfectly fine. Unfortunately it's not an option to manipulate my company's logo. :-D Any ideas on how to tweak th file so Word and all the PDF printers out there are able to do the PDF export properly?

Answer 1

Having just been through something similar, I can tell you the behaviour that I found very much depends on three things.

1. Operating system
2. Do you want (SVG) graphics to retain their scalable properties
3. Do you want headings in the navigation pane (in Word) to appear as bookmarks/outline in the resultant PDF?

Note that I found #2 and #3 mutually exclusive - it was a choice of one or the other - I couldn't get both. I had to compromise based on good looking graphics vs ease of navigation within the PDF (i.e. able to click on a bookmark and be taken straight to a section) for long documents with many sub-headings.

I have access to Word (v16.44, 20121301) on Mac (Catalina 10.15.7) and also Word (v2002, 12527.21416) on Windows 10 (v1909, 18363.1256). I also use Visio to export my diagram (a mixture of graphics and text) as a SVG. When viewing the resultant PDF, I use PDF Expert on Mac and Adobe Reader on Windows.

Windows

On Windows, no matter what I tried in Word, I simply couldn't get it to export a PDF with scalable SVG in it. That is, I tried all the combinations from these list of options.

Word PDF Options

All I ever got was ugly looking rasterised graphics and text.

macOS Option 1 - SVG graphics but no bookmarks

The results were a little different on Mac however. If I wanted crisp SVG graphics but no bookmarks, I found I could simply save the document as a PDF via the Print menu.

Word Print Save as PDF

This generated the nicest looking pictures in the PDF that would retain it's quality when zooming in/out - just like SVG graphics are supposed to behave. However, in Word for Mac, using Save as PDF, there is no option to build PDF bookmarks using Word headings and so the resultant PDF didn't have any.

macOS Option 2 - Rasterised SVG graphics but bookmarks present

BUT I found that if I went to File -> Save As... and saved it as a PDF, even though it did not explicitly mention creating bookmarks from Word headings, the resultant PDF had them. It must be something to do with the selected option in the screenshot. Having said that, the graphics and text in the SVG were even poorer than if I had just saved them as PNGs instead.

Word Save As

Note that the other option, Best for printing, produces the same results as the macOS Option 1 option.

Conclusion

In my case, I valued having bookmarks in the PDF over high quality, SVG graphics. So instead, I exported my Visio diagrams as PNG then created the PDF using macOS Option 2. If you're a Windows user, this is probably your best option.

The other gotcha I found was that on some of my SVGs, when I put them in Word, the fonts (in the SVG) did not respect their font size. I have no idea why this is but it irked me enough to give up on using SVGs as per the previous paragraph.

I hope this helps!

Answer 2

I just had the same problem while converting a docx file into a pdf with Word (Mac version). I converted the file under the option "Best for electronic distribution and accessibility" and the svg image was converted into a normal image without scalability. I tried again converting to pdf under the option "Best for printing", and the svg image was retained with scalability in the resultant pdf. So that was a solution, at least using a Mac system.