How to save a web page to PDF

Many users in the process of searching for information on the Internet may need to save a site page in PDF. In other words, you need to download the site page in PDF in order to have a separate file with the contents of the web page on your computer.

The page of the visited site may contain the necessary data that you need to have at hand at any time. One way to avoid losing important information is to save the contents of a website page as a PDF.

There are several ways to save the necessary information from websites on the Internet:

• With a browser bookmark.
• Copying a URL and then saving it in a text document.
• Take a screenshot of the page by saving the image as a graphic file.
• Using an online service for delayed reading, such as Pocket .
• Save to PC as HTML file and additional data folder.
• Using a virtual printer in PDF format.

All of these methods have their advantages and disadvantages when used in different situations.

Once you have bookmarked the desired web page in your browser, you can easily open the site again. But, this method will cause difficulties when your browser already has a lot of bookmarks. You will need some time to search.

In the case of saving a link in a text document or in a note-taking program, it is likely that after a while you will forget where and what you saved.

On the service for delayed reading, you can read the contents of the site page at a convenient time for you. But for this, as in the previous methods, you must have a permanent Internet connection to communicate with the online resource.

Keep in mind that web pages on the Internet and even entire sites are deleted, so you can no longer find the information you need.

If you save a snapshot of a web page as a graphic format file, it is not always convenient to see some of the fine details in such an image.

When working on a computer, users have the ability to save the necessary information found on the website in HTML formats (including the HTML archive format) and PDF. In this case, a local file will appear on your PC, which you can use without the Internet on any device.

The most suitable and common method is to save the site page to PDF. A PDF file is a universal document format created by Adobe Systems that displays the same on any device.

This method uses the print function performed using a virtual printer installed in the browser, in the Windows operating system or on a specialized online service. This is a different kind of printer that is used in addition to the usual physical printer connected to a computer.

In this article, you will find instructions on how to save a page from the web to PDF in several ways. We will tell you how to save a browser page to PDF using different methods:

• using the system virtual printer;
• using a virtual printer from a third-party developer;
• using a virtual printer built into the browser;
• using a browser extension;
• how to save a web page to PDF online:
• saving to PDF on an Android phone.

How to Save Entire Browser Page in Windows 10 and Windows 11

Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating systems have a built-in tool called Microsoft Cloud Print. With it, you can save a web page opened in a browser as a PDF, or use this application in other programs that have a print function.

This method works according to the following principle:

1. The user opens the desired web page in any browser, which must be saved on the computer as a separate file.
2. Printing is selected in the browser settings.
3. Among the installed printers, you must select the Microsoft Virtual Printer.
4. After setting the print options, the print function starts to save the site page as a PDF.

Do the following:

1. Enter the browser settings by clicking on the appropriate button located on the top panel.
2. In the menu that opens, click on the “Print …” item.

The print function is called in the same way in all popular browsers using the keyboard shortcut “Ctrl” + “P”.

3. The print settings window will open in your browser. All characteristics required to print a web page are displayed here.
4. In the “Printer” option, select “Microsoft Print to PDF”.

If necessary, specify other parameters: how many conditional sheets of paper to print, layout, print colors, and in additional settings – paper size, number of pages (all pages or only individual pages – in this case, these are parts of one web page, divided into several sheets of one document), margins, select the scale.

The image below shows the properties of the print function in the Google Chrome browser. Other browsers have similar settings with a slight difference in interface.

5. Click on the “Print” button.
6. In the Save Print Result window, select a location for storing the document, name the file, and the default file type is PDF document (*.pdf).
7. Click on the “Save” button.

As a result, a PDF file will appear on your computer, which you can open with an application that supports viewing this type of file.

Saving a site’s webpage with PDFCreator

Users on other operating systems – Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, who do not have such a system tool, can install a free virtual printer on their computer, such as PDFCreator, to save web pages or other documents to PDF.

You will need to install the appropriate software on your PC first in order to use the third-party virtual printer features.

The principle of operation is identical, as in the case of using the built-in Windows component:

1. Open the desired website in your browser.
2. Press the “Ctrl” + “P” keys.
3. In the “Printer” parameter, specify “PDFCrerator”.
4. Click on the “Print” button.
5. In the program window, select the appropriate profile.
6. PDF is selected by default, and you can also select PDF/A (long-term storage), high quality, or high compression. If necessary, change the file name, directory, enter metadata for the resulting file.
7. Click on the “Save” button.

How to save a page to PDF in Chrome

In addition to the system method with a virtual printer or third-party software, the user can save the page to PDF in Chrome with a built-in tool. The browser has its own built-in virtual printer, which is suitable for these purposes.

Go through the steps:

1. Log in to the site’s web page.
2. Press the “Ctrl” + “P” keys.
3. Select “Save as PDF” in the print options.
4. Change other settings if necessary, and then click the Save button.
5. In the “Save” window, open the save location folder, name the file. In the “File type:” field, “Adobe Acrobat Document” (PDF format) is selected.

How to save a page to PDF in Yandex Browser

Yandex Browser is based on Chromium, so it uses a built-in virtual printer, like in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Vivaldi, and so on.

Do the following:

1. Click the “Yandex Browser Settings” button.
2. Select “Advanced” from the context menu.
3. In the submenu that opens, click on “Print”.
4. In the “Printer” field, you will need to specify “Save as PDF”.
5. After completing the selection of other options, click on the “Save” button.
6. In the Explorer window, confirm saving the file to your computer.

How to save a page to PDF in Firefox

In a similar way, Mozilla Firefox saves a web page to a PDF file.

Go through the following:

1. In the open site window in the Mozilla Firefox browser, click on the “Open application menu” button.
2. In the context menu that opens, click on the “Print …” item.
3. In the print properties, in the “Receive” option, set “Save to PDF”.
4. If necessary, change the print settings.
5. Click on the “Save” button.
6. In the “Save as” window, in the “File type:” field, the format is selected – PDF.
7. Click on the “Save” button to get the finished file on your computer.

Saving a website page using the Save as PDF extension

Before the built-in virtual printer appeared in popular browsers, users installed extensions (add-ons) in Internet browsers that solved these problems. Now there is not much point in using such extensions, amateurs can try them as an alternative.

The Save as PDF extension from the online service Pdfcrowd.com is available for browsers based on Chrome and Firefox.

This extension is easy to use:

1. After installation in the browser, the Save as PDF extension icon will appear on the extensions panel.
2. Click the extension icon on the site’s web page.
3. After some time, during which the page is saved on the Pdfcrowd service (you do not see this process), the browser will prompt you to save the finished PDF file to your computer with a generated name.

How to save a website page to PDF online on Print Friendly

Print Friendly & PDF is a free online service where you can save a website page in an easy-to-read form. You can keep the site page unchanged or remove unnecessary and unnecessary from it: ad blocks, links, interface elements, and so on.

Perform the following procedure:

1. Use the Print Friendly browser extension, bookmarklet or copy the link to the page and paste it on the online service: https://www.printfriendly.com/ .
2. Click on the “Preview” button.
3. The site page prepared for saving will open in the window.
4. Using the mouse cursor, you can delete unnecessary text or other elements (they are highlighted in yellow).
5. To save the file to your computer, click on the PDF button.

How to save a page to PDF on Android

Users using phones running the Android operating system can save web pages as a PDF file, similar to how it is done on a PC.

Go through a few steps:

1. Go to the site page.
2. Click on the Chrome browser settings button (three dots).
3. Select “Share…” from the context menu.
4. In the next window, click on the “Print” button (scroll the panel).
5. Click on the arrow next to the “Virtual Printer” option.
6. Select “Save as PDF”.
7. In the default folder window for uploading files, click the “Save” button.

Article Conclusions

To save the necessary information from the Internet, users use various methods. One of the most common options is to save web pages as a PDF file that can be viewed on any device. In this case, various tools will come to the aid of the user: a virtual printer on a computer or in a browser, a browser extension or an online service.