Quality issue with pdf created from Word 2011

I've tried "save as -> PDF" and all the possible "Print -> PDF" options that exist in Word 2011...I've even tried setting it to high quality when I click on "Print -> Adobe PDF" but I STILL can't seem to get HIGH QUALITY PDF?! This is super frustrating because I have a really nice word document that I need to send as pdf to companies that will sponsor my cycling team, but Word isn't letting me...

How do I print my word 2011 document to a high quality pdf?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks in advance!

Not sure I understand.... are you sending from Word to PDF or are you using Adobe? Anyway, Word has nothing to do with the quality of your PDF. Print to PDF is built into your Mac's operating system. Word or any other WP program uses that built in ability to print to PDF. If the PDF is not printing to high quality, check your printer's settings. If you're using Adobe to print to PDF, check the Adobe settings.

Yes I am trying to print a pdf from Word. I also tried Acrobat X Pro's create from file option but it does not recognize Word files.

The problem is that I cannot access the printer settings. I am using Mac Leopard's built in PDF option, so I don't have an actual PDF printer setup.

What's actually happening to the content? Is it happening to everything images/text or just to certain elements?

How are you viewing the resultant PDF? Are you viewing it at 100% zoom?

The most noticeable problem is the fuzziness of the text. It's small, but it's enough to notice. Yes I am viewing the resultant pdf in Adobe Acrobat X Pro at 100% zoom.

If I make a pdf from the same word document on my Windows machine, and I send my pdf over to my mac, my windows-made pdf does NOT have that problem, it's quality is much better. So it is not a problem with the pdf viewer, it's a problem with the actual printing quality of the pdf.

Update: If I use the Press Quality option when doing print -> PDF -> save to Adobe PDF, on some documents I notice that it is only the first page that gets a lower quality, while the other pages are good quality.

I've just created 2 PDFs from Word running under Lion.

One was created by choosing Save As and PDF as the output format
One was created by choosing Print - As PDF

In both cases (as expected) the output was identical. I didn't change any settings. The text (all Times New Roman) looks crisp and clear at all resolutions.

Are you using a non-standard font?
Which version of word?

The document I am trying to print is on Word 2011 for mac and is not on times new roman. It is, however, a font that comes with Word 2011. When I create a pdf by using the Save as OR the Print PDF, I get the same fuzziness. I even tried changing some paragraphs to times new roman to compare, and they are as fuzzy.

When I try to make a pdf from Word 2011 with a document that has times new roman everywhere except for the title page, the first page turns out fuzzy but the rest of the document comes out crisp.

Is this an issue with the font? Does it mean that all pages containing a non-standard font will render in low quality? Would this explain why only the part of my word document that is entirely typed in times new roman turns out clear but not the title page? How then would I be able to create a crisp pdf with a non-standard font?

indeed I am now convinced this is a font issue. If I take the word document I mentionned with mostly times new roman but with a non-standard font title, and I remove the title so as to have a completely times new roman document, every page turns out crisp on the pdf.

Now the question is, how to make a high quality pdf with non-standard fonts?

Can you give us more information about the font?

I suspect it is a low-quality Truetype font that you are using there ...

The document I'm having trouble with is in Goundy Old Style.

The other document I mentioned (the one in times new roman but with a title) has a title in Minion Pro Med.

There is no way to get a high quality pdf out of these fonts? As I said, if I print (as pdf) the document with the Minion Pro Med on my mac, I get the first page (the one with the Minion Pro Med title) low quality, but the other pages, which are all in Times New Roman are in high quality. However, if I print the pdf with the same document on my windows machine, all pages come out clear.