PDF, Word or image: choosing the right format
PDF, Word and image files each have a job. Picking the right one makes documents easier to edit, print, share and archive.
What each format is for
| Format | Best for | Weak point |
|---|---|---|
| Sharing and printing exactly as designed | Hard to edit | |
| Word (DOCX) | Writing and editing | Looks different on other devices |
| JPG | Photos and quick page previews | Text can't be selected |
| PNG | Screenshots and sharp graphics | Larger files |
| TXT | Plain text in any app | No formatting |
Scanned PDFs and OCR
A scanned PDF is a set of photos of pages. To get editable text from it you need OCR (optical character recognition), which reads the letters in the images. Without OCR, converting a scan to Word gives an empty document.
Sharing documents safely
- Send PDFs when the other person only needs to read or print.
- Remove hidden comments and tracked changes before converting Word to PDF.
- Use a password for sensitive PDFs and send it separately.
- Prefer tools that work offline for confidential files.