Saving a screenshot of a web page is easy in theory. But what happens when the web page is so chock-full of ads that they’re taking up too much space on the page and annoying you?
Today, we’ll show you how to neatly save a webpage as a PDF with and without ads.
Let’s dive in!
First: How to Save a Webpage as a PDF
The easiest way you’ll find on the internet to save a webpage as a PDF is to simply use your browser’s Print menu. To illustrate, let’s look at how you would do this using Google Chrome.
Here, you’ll open the webpage you would like a screenshot of and click on the three dots in the top-right corner of your browser window. In the menu that opens, you’ll then click Print.
On the dialog box that opens, you’ll then choose your Destination as Save as PDF. You can also choose what pages you want to save and the layout. Once done, you can click on Save. You can also use a largely similar process to do this in most other browsers.
There you go, the webpage is now saved as a PDF on your machine. But there’s a problem; the webpage is saved with ads.
Saving a Webpage as a PDF Without Ads
You know the drill for saving a webpage as a PDF with ads. But if you want to do it without ads, you have two options:
Option #1: Use Microsoft Edge
(It’s only a tad better than Internet Explorer.)
Once you've opened the webpage in Microsoft Edge, click on the Reader option in the address bar. This will then open a version of the webpage with only the content and no ads. From there, select Print and Save as… PDF.
While you can do this in most browsers, you can’t do it in Chrome. Technically, it should have a Reader feature but good luck finding it! Google never released it as an official feature.
(Legends say some people have spent their entire lives searching and came up empty.)
Additionally, not all websites support the Reader mode, regardless of your browser.
Not really feeling the first option? Worry not, we’ve got something else coming!
The Simplest Solution for Saving Webpages as a PDF
If you need to save webpages as a PDF often, just use ScreenshotAPI’s query builder.
Log into your ScreenshotAPI account and choose the Query Builder from the side menu. (It's free!)
You’ll then click on Show Advanced Options.
You’ll then choose PDF from the File type dropdown list and check the Block Ads checkbox below the PDF options section.
At the bottom of the page, you can click Take Screenshot to save the page as a PDF or use the API query to do it programmatically.
To learn more about ScreenshotAPI and how it helps you take programmatic screenshots, archive your social media posts, and more, get started for free today!