How can I turn a Web page into a PDF?

I just got a new iMac, after years of working on Windows XP systems, and a pal was telling me that one of the coolest features of Mac OS X is that you can redirect any printout and turn anything into a PDF. That's awesome because I constantly send Web pages to clients and PDFs will be a lot more reliable than the HTML source. Can you show me how to do this?

Dave's Answer:

Your pal is right that this feature is one of the coolest things about the Mac operating system, something that Windows users can't really imagine and something that, rather to my surprise, most Mac OS X users, whether they've got a MacBook, iMac or even Mac Mini, don't know about either.

The trick is that the way the Mac renders pages you want to print is by converting them into a language called PostScript, which turns out to be the basis for PDFs: Portable Document Format. Since the printer driver (the operating system utility that controls printouts) has to convert whatever you want to print into PostScript anyway, Apple just went ahead and included the ability to save that intermediate PDF document in the OS.

I'll show you how to do this for Apple's Safari Web browser, but it turns out that it's exactly the same in any Mac application that lets you print. Very, very cool.

Load your favorite Web page in Safari, then choose File --> Print...:

Choosing that brings up a complex window with lots of different choices to customize your printout:

What we seek is on the lower left corner: I've highlighted it with a red circle, above. Click on "PDF" and you'll see a new little menu pop up:

Lots of options, I always just use "Save as PDF...". Choose that and you'll get a standard Save File window:

I suggest you rename the file, but you can stick with what it suggests if you don't mind long, funky filenames. :-)

One final point: notice the "Security Options..." button. Click it:

mac safari file print dialog pdf save security

Yes, without even having to leave the printout window, you can set a password for the resultant PDF, to make your clients feel more important and for you to protect potentially sensitive PDF document information (like taxes or banking info).

Hope that helps. Play with this feature in different programs, you'll find that, like me, it's a big part of why Mac OS X is such a pleasant operating system to work with.

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Categorized: Mac OS X Help (Article 8691, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: mac os x, pdf, postscript, printing
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Reader Comments To Date: 12

Kristin said, on January 3, 2009 9:03 AM:

Thank You! Thank you! I just made a PDF of this article using Leopard and it worked just the same.

Jerid Hill said, on January 3, 2009 9:19 AM:

This is a feature that I cannot live without. I've used it for years and take it for granted that it's native on the Mac. I do have to switch to PC from time to time and it's definitely a feature that is needed in Windows. After using this feature for so long, when I'm working on Windows, I'm heavily impaired. ;)

Luis said, on January 4, 2009 4:53 PM:

I wonder how quickly Adobe would sue MS if it added PDF write support? Luckily I use cutepdf when I'm on a PC.

Trevor said, on January 4, 2009 7:56 PM:

shucks. thought you were going to provide some webpage-to-pdf advice for PC users too.

Jan said, on January 5, 2009 10:57 AM:

One more note, just FYI: Firefox on the Mac has issues printing frames. You may get a blank first page with printing that starts on page 2 and/or the web page is just plain incomplete. These issues carry over to the "Save as PDF" feature, but printing from Safari usually fixes this.

Dan Murray said, on January 11, 2009 4:59 PM:

Nice advice. For PC users cutepdf seems to do the job well

Bob Sheairs said, on January 14, 2009 12:16 PM:

If you're on a PC and you have one of the "Professional" versions of Adobe Acrobat installed, you can also print to a PDF, without any third-party software. The print-driver is installed when you install the application, and it just shows up as one of your printer options/icons. Don't forget, also, that along with one of the Pro versions of Acrobat, you can also capture an entire web site by using the "File > Create PDF > From Web Page" option.

Robert said, on January 14, 2009 10:53 PM:

Well, maybe you do have to download third party software, like the frre PDFcreator program, but at least it's on a PC and I won't have to own a Mac. Never again.

kanwaljit said, on January 17, 2009 6:53 PM:

There are a lots of Pdf printer drivers available for windows to do the same. You can print any document into pdf even on linux(I tested it on Ubuntu only). Or open anything in sun's Openoffice.org and click convert to pdf.

Richard said, on January 28, 2009 1:25 PM:

I've been doing this for years on my PC with Win2PDF and PDF995. In fact there are many programs for the PC that will print and even append to pdf, some even allow you to annotate existing pdfs.

Not sure how this is a MAC only thing.

Holly Pechter-Walters said, on April 6, 2011 4:44 PM:

The web site I want to capture is 161 pages long, and the method you explained only turned the first 3 pages to a pdf. Can you suggest a work-around? It's a journal, so every few pages are a separate entry. I can't give you the url because it is not my material, so I can not very well give you rights of ownership. Thanks.

Holly

Alex B said, on February 25, 2013 7:57 AM:

Or you can use this simple online converter: http://kitpdf.com/web_to_pdf/.

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

How can I turn a Web page into a PDF?

Reader Comments To Date: 12

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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