PDF or DOCX — the question is who edits the file next

Ship PDF when

• The document is final. You signed it. The client signs it.
• You want consistent rendering on every machine — no font drift, no Word version drift, no print-driver surprises.
• The recipient should comment, not change. PDF supports comments and annotations without modifying the source.
• You want an audit trail — a PDF is a snapshot.

Ship DOCX when

• The recipient needs to edit. Track Changes is in Word, not in PDF.
• The recipient is going to drop your content into their corporate template.
• You're collaborating on a shared draft and the comment trail matters.
• The recipient is the legal team. Lawyers redline in Word.

What both flows give you here

• Same Markdown source.
• Same theme — colors, font choice, type scale.
• Same templates — proposal, report, resume, etc.
• Same fields — cover meta, footer text, page numbers.

What's different in the DOCX

• Inline body images render as text placeholders. Use PDF if your document depends on images in the body.
• The header logo is text-only. The cover page still renders with full layout.
• Cover-page styling is simpler — DOCX is for editors, the cover is metadata, not art direction.

Related

• Markdown to DOCX
• Markdown to PDF