Remove Whitespace and Borders from Visio PDFs for Publication-Ready Figures

2 minute read

If you’re just starting out in research and trying to generate high-quality figures for your paper, I want you to know—I’ve been exactly where you are. Early in my PhD, I struggled to create satisfactory visuals using Microsoft Visio. The figures looked fine on-screen, but once I exported them to PDF for LaTeX, they either had too much whitespace or an ugly black border.

This post is a guide for you—and the version of me from a few years ago—on how to export clean, high-quality vector graphics from Visio for research publications.

Why Vector Graphics Matter in Research

You’ve probably noticed that images can be split into two main types:

Raster graphics like JPEG or PNG, which are pixel-based
Vector graphics, which are resolution-independent and scale perfectly at any zoom level

For research manuscripts, vector graphics are always preferred. Formats like PDF, SVG, or EPS preserve detail and clarity.

When I began writing my first PhD paper, I decided to export all figures in PDF format for three reasons:

PDF files open easily on any machine without needing extra software
LaTeX handles PDF images natively
The quality remains crisp no matter how much you zoom in

But… exporting PDFs from Visio introduced two major issues:

Extra white space around the figure
An unwanted black border

After several frustrating attempts, I finally figured it out.

✅ Fixing the White Space and Borders in Visio PDF Export

Here’s the exact step-by-step solution that works reliably.

1. Remove Extra Space Around the Figure

You want the drawing area to hug your content closely:

Go to Design → Size → Fit to Drawing This ensures there’s no unnecessary padding around your diagram.

2. Eliminate White Borders

This part is a little hidden. You’ll need to enable Developer Tools:

Go to Options → Customize Ribbon
Check Developer to add it to your menu
Click Developer → Show ShapeSheet
Under Print Properties, set:
- PageLeftMargin, PageRightMargin, PageTopMargin, PageBottomMargin to 0**
Go back to Design → Size → Fit to Drawing Now your drawing will tightly fit the content, with no awkward white border.

3. Export Without the Black Border

Another sneaky setting:

Go to Export → PDF → Options
Uncheck the option:
Document structure tags for accessibility
Choose:
Current page only and do not include background Save the file.

🧪 Sample LaTeX Code to Add the Figure

Here’s the code I used to insert the cleaned-up Visio figure into my LaTeX manuscript:

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics{graphic.pdf}
    \caption{Your figure caption} 
    \label{fig:graphic}
\end{figure}

Done. Your figure will now look professional—clean, crisp, and borderless.

Final Thoughts

I searched for this solution longer than I’d like to admit. So if you’re struggling with exporting publication-ready figures from Visio, I hope this helps you save time and frustration.

👋 About Me

Hi, I’m Shuvangkar Das, a power systems researcher with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Clarkson University. I work at the intersection of power electronics, DER, IBR, and AI — building greener, smarter, and more stable grids. Currently, I’m a Research Engineer at EPRI (though everything I share here reflects my personal experience, not my employer’s views).

Over the years, I’ve worked on real-world projects involving large scale EMT simulation and firmware development for grid-forming and grid following inverter and reinforcement learning (RL). I also publish technical content and share hands-on insights with the goal of making complex ideas accessible to engineers and researchers.

📺 Subscribe to my YouTube channel, where I share tutorials, code walk-throughs, and research productivity tips.