After printing, copy the original Excel file and open it once again with Excel. At this point, you should see that color of the original sheet is now gray. Click on a blank column/row to select it and then choose “Paste Values” to insert the formulas. Step 3 Now, in cell A1, choose View > Layout. Choose “Formatting” from the menu. In “Excel Colors” section of Layout window, check “Do not lose formatting”. You will see that Excel color is now gray. If you want to keep this style by default, you can uncheck this. Pale purple is still gray because we unchecked “Do not lose formatting”. Tips not to lose sheet formatting and color of cells in Excel to PDF conversion Step 1 Click on “File” > “Save As” at the top of the screen. Step 2 In the “Path” box make sure to write where you saved the file to. If not, Excel will overwrite an invalid file. If you are going to print the files, in “Print As” box you can click on the “Make print ready for shipping” and save it with a different filename. This option is only available in an online Excel or Excel on iPhone. Step 3 In “Formatting” section of the Ribbon window, you can tick off “Do not lose formatting”, so the colors will not be lost to the printer. Tips to convert Excel to a PDF without losing formatting — Online Step 1 In “File” > “Save As” at the top of the screen, make sure to use the option “Save as PDF”. Now click on the “Export...” button at the top of the screen. Once the PDF is exported, you have to change the File Name from “Excel” to something different (like “Excel.