You do not always need the entire page. Sometimes it is a single recipe buried in a blog post, a code snippet halfway down a tutorial, a quote from a long article, or a set of instructions surrounded by ads and sidebars. Selection mode lets you highlight just the parts you need and generate a clean PDF of exactly that content — nothing more, nothing less.
Free — 3 PDFs per month. No credit card required.
Saving an entire webpage as a PDF when you only need one section is wasteful and frustrating. You end up with a 12-page document when all you wanted was a single recipe, a paragraph of instructions, or a code example. The content you care about is buried between cookie banners, related article links, comment sections, and advertisements.
A typical webpage generates a 5-15 page PDF filled with navigation menus, sidebars, footers, ad blocks, and comment threads. The paragraph or recipe you actually need might be on page 3, surrounded by content you will never read again. Larger files are harder to share, slower to load, and waste storage space.
After saving a full-page PDF, you have to scroll through it to find the content you originally wanted. If you are saving multiple references for a project, this problem compounds. Ten full-page PDFs become a chore to navigate, while ten focused selections are immediately useful.
The browser's Ctrl+P dialog does not let you print only your highlighted text. You get the entire page or nothing. Some browsers offer a "Selection only" print option, but it strips all formatting, producing plain text without headings, code highlighting, or images. Pretty PDF's selection mode captures the formatted HTML of your selection and renders it with professional styling.
Copying selected text and pasting it into a document is the common workaround, but it loses code block formatting, table structure, image positioning, and consistent styling. You spend more time reformatting the pasted content than you saved by not printing the full page.
Three steps to a focused, clean PDF of just your selected content. The entire process takes under 30 seconds.
Click and drag to select the content you want to save. You can highlight a single paragraph, multiple sections, a code block, a table, or any combination of content. The browser's native text selection works across headings, lists, images, and other elements. Select as much or as little as you need.
Click the Pretty PDF Printer icon in your Chrome toolbar. The extension detects that you have text selected on the page and activates selection mode automatically. You will see your conversion options including template and page size. Choose the styling that fits your content.
Click Generate. The extension captures the HTML of your selected content, preserving all formatting, structure, and images within the selection. The server applies your chosen template and renders a focused PDF containing only what you highlighted. The result downloads automatically — a clean document with just the content you need.
Selection mode works with all types of web content. The extension captures the underlying HTML elements within your selection, preserving structure and formatting across different content types.
Select one paragraph or twenty. Headings, body text, bold, italic, links, and other inline formatting are all captured and styled in the PDF according to your chosen template.
Code blocks within your selection are preserved with their monospace formatting and structure. Whether it is a single function or a multi-file code example, the code renders cleanly in the PDF with proper indentation and line breaks.
Select a table and the full structure is captured — rows, columns, headers, and cell content. The PDF renders the table with proper borders and alignment, maintaining readability even for complex data tables.
Ordered and unordered lists maintain their structure, numbering, and nesting levels. Select a set of instructions, a bullet-point summary, or a nested outline and it renders with proper indentation in the PDF.
Images that fall within your selection boundaries are included in the PDF. The server resolves image URLs and embeds them at full resolution, so diagrams, screenshots, and photos appear in the final document alongside your selected text.
Blockquotes are captured with their distinctive styling. Whether you are saving a quote from an article, a cited passage, or a highlighted callout, the quote formatting is preserved and styled by your chosen template.
Selection mode shines when you need just a specific part of a page. Here are the most common scenarios where saving a selection beats saving the full page.
Recipe pages are notorious for burying the actual recipe under paragraphs of backstory, pop-up ads, and affiliate links. Select just the ingredients list and instructions to get a clean, one-page PDF you can use in the kitchen.
Documentation pages and tutorials often contain dozens of code examples. Select the specific function, configuration block, or API example you need and save it as a focused reference PDF with proper code formatting preserved.
Researching an article or book review? Select the specific quote or passage you want to reference. The PDF preserves the text with its original formatting, giving you a clean citation you can file or share.
Tutorial pages mix step-by-step instructions with explanations, screenshots, and tangential content. Select just the numbered steps or the specific section you need to follow, and save a compact PDF you can keep open while you work.
Product pages are packed with reviews, recommendations, upsells, and unrelated content. Select the specifications table, the product description, or the comparison chart and save just that section as a focused reference PDF.
Both modes have their place. Selection mode is best when you need specific content; full page mode is best when you need a complete reference. Here is how they compare.
| Selection Mode | Full Page Mode | |
|---|---|---|
| Content captured | Only highlighted text and elements | Entire page content |
| PDF size | Smaller, typically 1-2 pages | Larger, can be 5-15+ pages |
| Focus | Exactly what you need, nothing extra | Complete document for archival |
| Best for | Recipes, code snippets, quotes, instructions | Articles, documentation, full references |
| Clutter | None — only your selection is included | Cleaned by Smart Content Extraction |
| Templates | All 5 templates available | All 5 templates available |
Use selection mode when you know exactly which part of a page you want. Use full page mode when you want a complete, archival copy of the entire article or document. Both modes run through the same content extraction and PDF generation pipeline, so quality and styling are identical.
All five Pretty PDF templates work with selections just as they do with full pages. Whether you are saving a code snippet, a recipe, a quote, or a product comparison table, you can choose the template that fits your content best.
The Clean template is a great default for most selections — minimal styling that puts your content front and center. Corporate works well for professional references and product specifications. Academic is ideal for research quotes and citations with its serif typography. Minimal provides the lightest touch for when you want the content to speak for itself. And Dark is designed for code snippets and technical content with a dark background that is easy on the eyes.
Your selected template is applied to the extracted selection, producing a focused, professionally styled PDF that looks intentional rather than like a printout of a webpage fragment.
Highlight text, click the extension, and get a focused PDF of just your selection. Clean, formatted, and ready to use.