You may already have this printer driver installed, in which case the following screen displays on the Add Printer dialog box asking which version of the driver you want to use.
To select the PDF printer driver, select “Microsoft” in the list on the left and then “Microsoft Print To PDF” in the list on the right. Select “FILE: (Print to File)” from the drop-down list to the right of that option and click “Next”. Then, make sure the “Use an existing port” option is selected (it’s the default). The Printers & Scanners screen also contains a list of all the printers and scanners available on your system and you can set any one device as the default and remove any of the devices. Then, click the “The printer that I want isn’t listed” link that displays on that screen as Windows tries to search for devices. NOTE: You can also access this dialog box by opening PC Settings and clicking Devices > Printers & Scanners > Add a printer or scanner. On the Add Printer dialog box, click the “Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings” option and click “Next”. Click the “The printer that I want isn’t listed” link near the bottom of the dialog box. You don’t need to wait for the search to finish. The Add a device dialog box displays and a search for devices begins.
Then, select “Install Printer” from the “Printer” drop-down list.
To install the Microsoft Print to PDF printer driver, open the Print Pictures dialog box as we discussed in the previous section (if it’s not already open). If the Microsoft Print to PDF option is not available in the Printer drop-down list on the Print Pictures dialog box, you can easily add it.
How to Activate the Microsoft Print to PDF Option in Windows 10 You’re done! The PDF file is created in the selected folder and you can open it in the default PDF viewer in Windows, or in any other PDF reader you have installed. Enter a file name for the PDF file in the “File name” edit box and click “Save”. The same directory where the images are stored is selected as the default location, but you can change that. Navigate to the location where you want to save the PDF file. The Save Print Output As dialog box displays. Enabling or disabling the Fit picture to frame option affects all the images you’re adding to the PDF file. If you noticed earlier that the sides of your images seem to be cut off, click the “Fit picture to frame” check box so there is no check mark in the box. You are returned to the Print Pictures dialog box.
Again, click “OK” to accept your changes or click “Cancel” if you don’t want to save the changes you made or you didn’t make any changes. NOTE: If you’re using Windows 7, the Printer Properties link opens the doPDF Properties dialog box displays, allowing you to change the page Orientation (as well as other settings). Click “OK” to accept the change or click “Cancel” if you don’t want to save the change or you didn’t change the orientation.
On the Microsoft Print to PDF Document Properties dialog box, you can select whether you want to the document to be “Landscape” or “Portrait” from the “Orientation” drop-down list. You can access properties for your printer from here by clicking the “Printer Properties” link. If you also know you will be printing the PDF file on your own printer most of the time, leave the “Only show options that are compatible with my printer” option selected to get the best results. On the Print Settings dialog box, you can choose to sharpen the images for printing, if you know the PDF file will be printed. We’ll show you how to fix that a bit later in this article. NOTE: The images may look cut off, but don’t worry. Click the “Options” link in the lower-right corner of the dialog box to access additional options for the PDF file. Use the right and left arrow button below the image to scroll through the images that will be added to the PDF file. Then, continue with the process from here. If you don’t see that option in the list, see the next section for information on activating it. Select “Microsoft Print to PDF” from the “Printer” drop-down list.