How to Save Webpage as PDF from Mac in Safari
Need to save a webpage as a PDF file on a Mac? Safari on the Mac makes saving webpages as a PDF very easy. Exporting a webpage in PDF format is useful for many purposes, whether you want to access an offline version of a webpage or article, to transmit information on a webpage as PDF format like a health record, call record, bill, or statement, for records keeping purposes, to send to someone else or a print shop, and so much more.
This tutorial will show you how to easily save a webpage as a PDF file using the Safari web browser on a Mac.
Note if you’re using an iPhone or iPad, you can save webpages as PDF on iPhone or iPad with these instructions instead.
How to Save Webpages as PDF on Mac with Safari
- Open Safari on the Mac, then navigate to the webpage you want to save as a PDF file
- Pull down the “File” menu in Safari
- Choose “Export as PDF” from the File menu
- Set the file name and choose a file destination and choose “Save” to save the webpage as a PDF
The PDF file of the saved webpage will be wherever you saved the file to, whether that was your user Documents folder, the Desktop, Downloads folder, or elsewhere.
The resulting webpage PDF can be used just like any other PDF file, you can email it, share it, upload it, or whatever else just like any other PDF document.
If for some reason this doesn’t work for you, or if you’re using a different web browser on a Mac that doesn’t support the direct ‘Export as PDF’ option, you can still easily save a webpage as a PDF by simply using Print to PDF on the Mac, which is available on every Mac OS release. If you find yourself using that feature often enough you can even set a “Save as PDF” keyboard shortcut for use on the Mac to be able to quickly perform that function.
Obviously this covers saving a webpage as a PDF file on Mac OS with Safari, but iPhone and iPad can save webpages as PDF too using an equally simple and direct feature.
The Print-to-PDF keyboard shortcut tip you published a few years ago is the first thing I add when setting up a new Mac. I use it all the time.
Hello, on Safari I set the webpage to “reader view” when available. Then I hit Cmd+P, save as PDF. That way I have a clean pdf, without any extra information such as links.
With the added bonus that when using ‘reader view’, the resulting PDF is identical whether you use the print dialog or ‘export to pdf’ from the menu to create it.
The export as PDF option is very useful, glad this is there for saving a webpage as PDF rather than having to rely on Print PDF or screenshots.
Thanks for sharing.
I consistently find “export to PDF” to be sloppy in that text is broken at page boundaries. I always use Print>>Save as PDF. Much better results.
I think it’s best, as someone already pointed out, to use ‘reader view’ if available before creating the PDF either via the export to PDF command in the menu or from the print dialog.
Great tip and you’re absolutely right, if you’re saving an article and want to strip it down to the bare essentials of content before creating a PDF or printing it, using Reader View first is excellent.
We actually wrote about that a while back specifically for printing articles without ads and other page clutter that can waste ink, but it certainly applies to PDF as well!
https://osxdaily.com/2017/08/02/print-webpage-article-without-ads-mac-safari/
Printing to PDF also works in any browser or indeed any App that supports printing. (and it works the same way in every instance)