How do I print to PDF on a Mac?

Open the document, press Command + P, click the PDF button in the bottom-left corner of the dialog, name the file and click Save. If you prefer, click the arrow beside the PDF button and choose Save as PDF, as in Apple's steps .

Is there a keyboard shortcut for Print to PDF?

Command + P opens the Print dialog. Apple's pages name no separate shortcut for Save as PDF, so the next step is a click on the PDF button or its pop-up menu.

Why is there no Print to PDF option?

Apple's steps do not mention turning anything on, and its page describes the PDF button as part of the Print dialog. If an app has no Print command, we could not confirm how it behaves. Check its File menu for Export or Save As.

How do I print only some pages to PDF?

Apple's Preview page lists a Selection option for printing chosen thumbnails. Apple does not say whether it applies when you save as PDF, so check the page count of the result.

Can I password protect the PDF?

Yes, in the Print dialog. Click Security Options, and Apple says you can require passwords for opening, copying and printing. Our guide to password protecting a PDF covers Preview's route too.

How do I save a Word document as a PDF on a Mac?

Microsoft's page says to choose File > Save As, type a name, choose PDF in File Format, then select Export. It also says to give the PDF a different name from the Word file. The page applies to Word for Microsoft 365, 2024 and 2021 for Mac.

How do I save a web page as a PDF on a Mac?

Open the Print dialog from the browser and use the PDF button. Apple's Safari page, read from an archive of 12 January 2026, says the same. Apple's Safari page on File > Save As names Web Archive and Page Source and does not name PDF.

How much does it cost?

The Print dialog is built into your Mac, and Apple says no PDF software is required. We did not read a price for Word or Chrome. Loop is $49 once for one person, with a 14-day trial, only if you want to send the PDF as a tracked link.

Where do the prices and facts on this page come from?

From Apple's macOS 27 guide pages on saving a document as a PDF , printing documents , printing PDFs in Preview and saving a webpage in Safari ; Microsoft's page on saving or converting to PDF on a Mac ; Google's page on printing from Chrome ; and Cloudflare's pricing page . We read all of them on 2 November 2026, except Apple's Safari print page, which we read from an archived capture of 12 January 2026 . Loop's facts come from our own app's code. Apple's pages print no updated date, Google's page prints none, and Microsoft's page carries 14 April 2026. Cloudflare's was updated 30 October 2026. We did not click through Apple's steps on a Mac, so they are Apple's, not ours. We could not confirm what the saved PDF keeps (searchable text, links, fonts, page size or file size), whether the Selection option carries into Save as PDF, what the Print dialog does with a PDF that already needs a password, the current Safari menu for printing a page, a plain Chrome step for Save as PDF, the steps for Excel or PowerPoint, the order of the items in the PDF pop-up menu, or a price for Word or Chrome. We could not confirm whether tax is included in the one price given, Loop's $49.

How to Print to PDF on Mac in Any App That Prints

Quick Answer

The Print dialog is built into macOS. Apple says you can save any document as a PDF from any app that supports printing, with no PDF software required. Press Command + P, click the PDF button in the bottom-left corner of the dialog, name the document and click Save.

Tool	Job	Cost, one person
Print dialog	Any printing app to PDF	Built into macOS
Word Save As	Word file to PDF	Needs Word, price unchecked
Chrome Print	Plain step not confirmed	Price not checked
Preview Print	Print a PDF on paper	Built into macOS

This page is about saving a document as a PDF file. If you mean putting a PDF onto paper, go to Printing a PDF on Paper below. The steps are Apple's guide for macOS 27, read on 2 November 2026.

Steps

These are the steps on Apple's page on saving a document as a PDF.

On your Mac, open the document you want to save as a PDF.
Choose File > Print, or press Command + P, the shortcut Apple gives for Print.
Click the PDF button, or click the arrow beside it to open the PDF pop-up menu, then choose Save as PDF.
Enter a name and choose a location for the PDF file, then click Save.

Apple says clicking the PDF button saves the document as a PDF by default. To change that default, click the arrow, click Edit Menu, then choose a different default action.

Apple says the saved PDF looks exactly as it would when printed, and that it can be shared, opened in Preview, and viewed on other devices such as an iPhone or iPad. Apple's pages say nothing about whether the text stays searchable, whether links keep working, or how big the file is, so we cannot say.

Apple's page lists what else the PDF pop-up menu can do. It does not give the order of the items.

Send in Mail attaches the PDF to a new Mail message.
Save to iCloud Drive stores it in iCloud so you can reach it on your other devices.
Save as PostScript saves a PostScript Level 2 file (ASCII format) that can be viewed and edited in other apps.
Save to Web Receipts is Apple's tip for receipts from online purchases. The PDF goes into the Web Receipts folder in your Documents folder.

All four are on Apple's page. For a PDF that is too big to send, see our guide to compressing a PDF.

Security Options

In the same dialog, Apple says to click Security Options to protect the document with a password. You can require passwords for opening the document, copying from the document, and printing the document, per Apple's page. Our guide to password protecting a PDF covers the Preview route as well.

We could not confirm what the Print dialog does with a PDF that already needs a password, so we say nothing about it.

Word

Word has its own route. Microsoft's page, Save or convert to PDF on your Mac, covers Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac, Word 2024 for Mac and Word 2021 for Mac. It says to:

On the File menu, select Save As. You can also select the Save icon in the ribbon.
In the Save As box, type a name for the file.
In the File Format box, select PDF.
Select Export.

Microsoft says to give the PDF a different name from the original document. That way you keep a Word document you can still edit and a PDF you can share. If you keep the same name, Microsoft says the document is converted to a PDF and you cannot change it back without specialized software or a third-party add-in.

The same page says that to email a PDF copy from Word, you choose File > Share > Send PDF. Microsoft's page does not cover Excel or PowerPoint, and we did not read their pages, so these steps are for Word only.

Web Pages

A web page goes through the same Print dialog. Apple's Safari page on this, read from an archived capture of 12 January 2026, says to choose File > Print in Safari, then click PDF at the bottom of the dialog and choose what you want to do with the PDF. On 2 November 2026 that address redirects to the start of the Safari guide, so we could not confirm the page for the current Safari. Apple's general Print documents page is the current one.

File > Save As in Safari is a different job. Apple's page on saving a webpage names Format > Web Archive and Format > Page Source, and does not name PDF.

For Chrome, Google's page on printing from Chrome says to click File > Print or press Command + P on a Mac, and in the window that appears, select the destination. On that page the words Save as PDF appear only in the Google Drive steps, under saving with Drive for desktop and uploading with the Drive website. We could not confirm a plain Chrome step that picks Save as PDF as the destination.

Printing a PDF on Paper

Some people who search for this mean printing a PDF onto paper. That is a different job, and Apple's Preview page on printing PDFs covers it. To print only some pages, Apple says to choose View > Thumbnails, Command-click the thumbnails of the pages you want, then choose File > Print. The print options include Selection for printing only the selected thumbnails.

No printer? Apple says that even without one, you can save a document as a PDF, using the steps above.

Next Steps

Once the PDF exists, the next job is usually one of these:

Several files to join: how to combine PDFs on a Mac.
A file too big for email: how to compress a PDF.
A signature needed: how to sign a PDF on a Mac.
Ready to send: how to send a PDF by email.

Loop

Loop is not a PDF maker. It does not print to PDF, shrink a PDF or lock one. It is for the step after the PDF is saved: sending the finished file as a link instead of an attachment. Loop is a Mac app that turns a PDF into your own link, which you paste into your email. If you share a Word or Pages file instead, Loop makes pages from it for the reader to view.

Drop the PDF on the Loop icon in the menu bar, or choose File > New Link….
Link Copied. Loop copies the link, ready to paste.
Paste it into your email. You write and send the email yourself.

A page in your name. The reader opens the PDF in their browser, with no app and no account.
View only, if you want. Turn off Allow Downloads and the reader can only read the PDF in the browser.
A Mac notification. Your Mac shows a notification when a visitor first opens the link, and when that visitor first downloads it. That is once per reader's browser per link, and only while Loop is running. Settings has a switch for each kind of notification. In Loop's list, a link with one reader shows how far they got, such as "Read 3 of 8 Pages", which is the furthest page reached, not the pages read. With several readers it usually shows the average time instead.

Our guide to creating a link for a PDF has the full steps.

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Limits

Loop is not the right tool for most PDFs. Here is what it does not do:

It does not print to PDF, shrink a PDF or lock one. Use the Print dialog and Preview for that.
The link password does not encrypt the file. The password guards the link page. If you allow downloads, the reader gets the original PDF.
It may not open a PDF that needs a password. Loop's reader code has no password prompt, and we have not tested it.
It does not send the email. It copies the link and you paste it into your mail program.
It does not work from an iPhone or Windows. The sender needs a Mac running macOS 14 or later.
It does not alert you by email or phone. Alerts are Mac notifications while Loop is running.
It needs a Cloudflare account. Setup signs in to Cloudflare once.

We do not promise a maximum file size.

Cost

The Print dialog is built into your Mac, and Apple says no PDF software is required. We did not read a price for Word or for Chrome, so those cells say so. Loop is $49 once for one person.

Loop's files are stored in your own Cloudflare account, free up to 10 GB. Cloudflare's free tier also caps operations at 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B requests a month. Past those limits, Cloudflare bills you. Cloudflare's pricing page, updated 30 October 2026, lists $0.015 per GB-month with no data-transfer charge for downloads. Cloudflare may also ask for a card when you switch storage on.

If you only want a PDF on your own Mac, none of this applies. If you do send one as a link, Loop's trial runs 14 days from the first time you open it, needs no payment to start, and puts a small "Shared with Loop" badge on what the person receiving the PDF sees until you buy a licence.