Whether you need to archive an important receipt, save a contract for your records, or share an email thread with someone who does not have access, converting an email to PDF is the most reliable method. Here is how to do it in every major email client.
Free — 3 PDFs per month. No credit card required.
The built-in method for each major email client.
Gmail is the most common webmail client, and saving an email as PDF is straightforward — though the results are not always clean.
Keyboard shortcut: You can also press Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on Mac) directly from the email view. This skips the three-dot menu and opens the print dialog immediately, though it may capture more of Gmail's interface than the menu method.
Outlook's desktop application has a built-in print-to-PDF option, but the workflow differs depending on your version.
On older versions of Windows without "Microsoft Print to PDF," you can install a third-party PDF printer driver like CutePDF or use the "Save As" menu in Outlook to export as a different format, though direct PDF export is not available without the virtual printer.
Note that Outlook web prints the full browser view, which includes the folder pane, ribbon, and reading pane borders. The email content is there, but surrounded by the Outlook web interface.
Apple Mail produces relatively clean PDFs compared to browser-based methods, though you still get no control over templates, fonts, or branding.
The built-in methods work, but they all share the same frustrations.
Browser print captures the entire page — Gmail's sidebar, promotions tab, Google account bar, and navigation all end up in the PDF alongside the email content you actually wanted.
Outlook desktop's print engine often mangles HTML-rich emails — newsletters, marketing emails, and designed templates lose their column layouts, background colors, and image positioning.
There is no built-in way to export multiple emails as individual PDFs. You have to open each email, print it, save it, and repeat — which is painfully slow for archiving projects or legal discovery.
Every time you print an email, you need to re-configure the same settings — uncheck headers and footers, enable background graphics, set margins. The browser does not reliably remember your preferences between sessions.
HTML emails with images, multi-column layouts, and tables frequently break in print view. Images may not load, columns collapse unpredictably, and table widths overflow the page margins.
Skip the print dialog. Get a professionally styled document in three clicks.
Navigate to the email in Gmail, Outlook web, or any webmail client. Pretty PDF works on any email you can view in Chrome.
The extension automatically detects email content and extracts just the message — stripping the sidebar, navigation, ads, and interface chrome.
Pick from five professional templates — Clean, Minimal, Corporate, Academic, or Dark Mode — and click Generate PDF. Your email is a polished document in seconds.
| Feature | Built-in Print | Pretty PDF |
|---|---|---|
| Steps required | 5-8 steps | 3 clicks |
| Clutter removal | Manual (uncheck headers) | Automatic |
| Templates | None | 5 professional templates |
| Branding | Not available | Custom headers/footers (Pro) |
| Batch export | One at a time | API available (Pro+) |
Free — 3 PDFs per month. No credit card required.
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