How To Convert a URL to PDF

Ever found an article, recipe, or set of instructions online and thought, “I’ll need this later”? You could bookmark it, but webpages change or disappear. Saving it as a PDF makes sure you won’t lose it.

There is always a risk that the formatting won’t be quite right, but once you have a PDF, you can convert it to Word, make changes to the formatting and images in the document, and then save it as a PDF again.

How to Save a URL as a PDF in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox

The built-in Print to PDF option is your best friend for this. Here’s how to do it:

1. Open the webpage in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox.
2. Press Ctrl + P (Windows) or Cmd + P (Mac) to bring up the print menu.
3. In the printer selection, choose “Save as PDF.”
4. Adjust settings if needed (layout, margins, etc.).
5. Pick a location, click “Save”, and you’re done!

If you’re a fan of Safari, there is now an “Export as PDF” option under the “File” menu that does just that.

How to Save a URL as a PDF on Mobile (Android & iPhone)

The steps are slightly different on your phone, but still simple:

1. Open the page in Chrome (Android) or Safari (iPhone).
2. Tap the “Share” icon, then look for “Print.”
3. In the printer options, select “Save as PDF” or “Print to PDF.”
4. On an iPhone you can just tap the “Share” icon again after selecting “Print.”
5. Tap “Save,” and choose where to store it.
6. On Android, the PDF usually lands in Downloads. On iPhone, check the Files app under On My iPhone or iCloud Drive.

Saving a Webpage as an HTML File First

If the print formatting isn’t right, try saving the page as HTML first.

1. Right-click anywhere on the page and choose “Save As…” or “Save Page As…”
2. Select “Webpage, Complete” and save it to your computer.
3. Open the saved file in Microsoft Word.
4. Make any formatting tweaks, then Save As a PDF.

This method is handy if you need to edit the content before converting it.

Turning Multiple URLs into PDFs at Once

There is no easy solution for batch converting a bunch of URLs to PDF. wkhtmltopdf is a command line tool that might allow batch URL to PDF conversions, but you would have to be comfortable working with command line tools and possibly Python.

Similarly, some web scrapers are capable of scraping an entire website and saving all pages as PDFs, but this is only useful if all the URLs you are wanting to convert are from the same website.

Saving Multiple Pages Manually Without an Online Converter

If you don’t want to use an extra tool, you can still save multiple pages with some efficiency.

1. Open all the pages you need in separate tabs.
2. Press Ctrl + P (Windows) or Cmd + P (Mac) in each tab.
3. Choose “Save as PDF”, then hit “Save.”

Once done, you can use Smallpdf’s Merge PDF to combine the individual files into a single PDF, even rearranging the pages as necessary. Of course, this method works best if you only have a handful of pages to save, not hundreds or thousands of URLs.

Common Questions About URL to PDF Conversion

How can I convert multiple URLs into separate PDFs?

If it's just a handful of pages, opening each one in a new tab and using the “Save as PDF” option in the print dialog is a quick and easy solution. If you have a long list of URLs you want to convert to PDF, wkhtmltopdf might be a better option, though it does require some technical skill to use.

Can I save a webpage’s links as PDFs too?

Yes, but it depends on how many links you’re dealing with. If you just need a couple of linked pages, you can open them manually and print them as PDFs like normal. If you want to grab every link on a webpage, tools like All Links Downloader could be useful. Just keep in mind that this will download each linked page as HTML, so you would still need to convert to PDF later.

Converting a single URL to PDF is easy enough for anyone to do, and combined with Smallpdf, you can then edit the content, convert the PDF and adjust formatting, or even merge multiple PDFs into a single file.