Which apps export tagged PDFs? Word, Google Docs, Pages, Canva, InDesign, LaTeX, and browsers compared

Screen readers and other assistive technology read a PDF through its tag structure, the hidden tree that says which text is a heading, which is a paragraph, which cells are table headers, and what an image means. A PDF without tags is a picture of a document as far as a screen reader is concerned. The single largest cause of untagged PDFs is not bad authoring but the wrong export path, so this guide records, tool by tool, what each application actually writes and which setting controls it. Each row cites the vendor's own documentation, and the whole table was checked on the review date shown above.

The export matrix

Microsoft Office: two good paths and one trap

Microsoft's own guidance for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint on Windows is to run the Accessibility Checker, then choose File > Save As, pick PDF, open Options, and make sure Document structure tags for accessibility is selected. On macOS the equivalent is Save as PDF with Best for electronic distribution and accessibility (uses Microsoft online service), an option that sends the document to Microsoft's service to produce the file. Microsoft notes that PowerPoint for macOS only keeps hyperlinks on objects when that option is used, and that files protected by Information Rights Management or an open password cannot use it in Excel and PowerPoint.

The trap is the print dialog. Printing to a PDF driver, including the built-in Microsoft Print to PDF, produces a visually identical file with no structure at all. WebAIM's conversion guidance makes the same point: use Save As rather than printing. If a colleague's export "lost the headings", the print path is the first thing to check. The Word export guide walks through both platforms step by step.

Google Docs: tagged since December 2024

For years Google Docs downloaded untagged PDFs, which is why so much university guidance still recommends exporting to Word first. That changed with a Google Workspace update announced on December 6, 2024, which added structural and accessibility tagging for paragraphs, headings, hyperlinks, image alt text, and lists to PDFs exported from Docs, with rollout expected to finish by mid-January 2025 for Workspace customers and personal accounts alike. A March 2025 update added tags for tables, equations, and checkboxes. The export still depends on the source: headings must be real heading styles, images need alt text, and the result should be checked. See Google Docs to accessible PDF.

Apple Pages, Numbers, and Keynote

Apple's productivity apps have exported tagged PDF since version 8.2, released September 30, 2019, on both macOS and iOS. The PDF Association tested the update at the time and reported that Export to PDF generates tagged PDF in every case and cannot be switched off. Apple's current support page adds that image, drawing, audio, and video descriptions entered for VoiceOver are exported automatically, and that accessibility tags for large tables must be enabled under Advanced Options during export. As with every tool here, tagging by default does not make the document accessible by default; Apple's own advice is to use headings, header rows and columns, and descriptions.

Canva: PDF Standard, and never flatten

Canva embeds accessibility tags when a design is downloaded as PDF Standard with the Flatten PDF checkbox left unchecked; Canva's help centre states plainly that tagging is not supported for flattened PDFs. Reading order is calculated from position on export, and for anything beyond a simple linear layout Canva recommends arranging layers and selecting "Match reading order to layers" before download. Heading semantics follow the text style chosen (Title becomes an H1, Subtitle an H2, and so on) and can be edited under File > Accessibility. Canva also documents a known issue where browser PDF viewers, macOS Preview, and Safari with VoiceOver may skip content even when the tags look correct in Acrobat. The Canva guide covers the full settings list.

InDesign: tags follow styles and the Articles panel

InDesign includes tag and attribute information in the PDF when Create Tagged PDF is selected in File > Export > Adobe PDF (Print). Adobe's documentation describes an accessibility-first workflow in which paragraph styles are mapped to PDF tags such as headings and paragraphs, and the Articles panel defines a logical content flow independent of the visual layout, with "Use for Tagging Order in Tagged PDF" enabled in the panel menu. Layout-heavy documents are where export goes wrong most often, because untagged frames, decorative elements, and threaded stories all need explicit decisions.

LaTeX: tagging is now in the kernel

The LaTeX Project's tagged PDF work has moved from prototype to supported use. Adding \DocumentMetadata{tagging=on} before \documentclass and compiling with LuaLaTeX on a current LaTeX release produces tagged output, with pdfstandard=ua-2 available for PDF/UA-2 and alt= keys on \includegraphics for image descriptions. Support is tracked per package, and pdfLaTeX has limits for math. The LaTeX guide has the exact incantations and caveats.

Browsers and headless generation

Google announced in July 2020 that starting with Chrome 85, choosing Save as PDF from the print dialog generates a tagged PDF that carries headings, lists, tables, paragraphs, and image descriptions from the page. Puppeteer's PDF options now include a tagged flag that defaults to true, so server-side generation inherits the same behaviour. Firefox documents tagged PDF output in its print pipeline behind a preference. Older engines such as wkhtmltopdf have open, unresolved requests for tagged output. For developers, the HTML to tagged PDF guide compares Chrome, Prince, WeasyPrint, and validation options.

Tagged is the starting line, not the finish

Every path above can produce a file that passes a "tagged PDF" check while still failing people. Common gaps are decorative images tagged as figures with no alternative, visually styled text that was never a heading style, tables whose header row was never marked, a missing document title, and a missing language. Two free checks catch most of them in a minute: open the file in the PDF tag viewer to see the tree the export actually wrote, then run the PDF accessibility checker for machine-detectable failures. Anything that still needs judgement, such as reading order or alt text quality, is listed in the 15-point PDF checklist.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

The statements above rest on the primary sources below. Where a source is a law or standard, the version and date named in the text are the ones checked on the review date. This guide is general information, not legal advice.

1. Microsoft Support: Create accessible PDFs . Windows and macOS export options for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and the rights-management limitation.
2. WebAIM: PDF Accessibility, Converting Documents to PDF . Why Save As rather than Print produces a tagged PDF.
3. Google Workspace Updates, December 6, 2024: improved accessibility tagging in PDFs exported from Google Docs . Paragraphs, headings, hyperlinks, image alt text, and lists; rollout complete by mid-January 2025.
4. Google Workspace Updates, March 2025: additional accessibility tags for tables, equations, and checkboxes
5. PDF Association: Apple tags PDF (November 13, 2019) . Pages, Numbers, and Keynote 8.2 export tagged PDF on macOS and iOS.
6. Apple Support: Export to Word, PDF, or another file format in Pages on Mac . Image descriptions are exported; accessibility tags for large tables are under Advanced Options.
7. Canva Help Center: PDF accessibility features . PDF Standard export, the Flatten PDF caveat, reading order, text semantics, and the browser-viewer known issue.
8. Adobe: Use tags for accessible PDFs in InDesign
9. LaTeX Project: Using LaTeX to produce accessible PDF
10. Chromium Blog, July 29, 2020: Using Chrome to generate more accessible PDFs
11. Puppeteer API: PDFOptions . The `tagged` option, marked experimental, defaults to true.
12. Firefox Source Docs: Tagged PDF Output