Notion is great for writing, but its PDF export leaves a lot on the table. Pretty PDF captures your Notion pages — toggles, databases, callouts, and all — and turns them into professionally styled documents with a single click.
Free — 3 PDFs per month. No credit card required.
Notion's native export works, but the results rarely match what you see on screen.
If you have ever tried to export a Notion page as a PDF, you know the process: click the three-dot menu, select Export, choose PDF, wait for the file to generate, then open it and wonder why it looks nothing like your page. Notion's built-in PDF export has several limitations that make it frustrating for anyone who needs professional-looking documents.
First, there is the workflow friction. You have to navigate through the menu each time — there is no shortcut and no way to save your export preferences. Every export starts from scratch. For teams that regularly convert Notion docs to PDFs for clients, stakeholders, or archives, this adds up fast.
Second, Notion offers limited styling options. You can pick between A4 and Letter sizing, but that is about it. There is no choice of template, no custom fonts, no branded headers or footers, and no control over margins or typography. The output looks like a basic document dump, not a designed PDF.
Third, and most importantly, Notion's export doesn't handle all block types well. Toggle blocks are often collapsed in the export, which means all the content hidden inside them simply disappears from the PDF. Code blocks lose their visual distinction. Callout blocks lose their background color and icon treatment. Database views can render awkwardly, with column widths and formatting that don't translate to a static page.
Finally, large pages are slow. If your Notion page has many blocks, embedded images, or database views, the export can take a long time — sometimes failing entirely on complex pages with deeply nested content.
A purpose-built Notion parser that understands every block type.
Pretty PDF includes a dedicated Notion parser that goes far beyond generic webpage conversion. When the Chrome extension detects that you are on a Notion page (notion.so or notion.site), it activates a specialized preprocessing pipeline before the page HTML ever reaches the server.
Here is what happens under the hood:
.notion-page-content container and processes each block type individually. Callouts are converted to styled blockquotes. Code blocks are wrapped in proper <pre><code> elements with language hints. To-do items are rendered with checkbox markers. Bookmarks become clean links. Dividers become horizontal rules.This entire pipeline runs in seconds. Click the Pretty PDF icon, choose a template, and your Notion page is a polished PDF.
Every common Notion block type is parsed, cleaned, and styled for PDF output.
Paragraphs, H1/H2/H3 headings, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, and inline code are all preserved with proper hierarchy and typography in the PDF.
The extension expands every toggle before capture, so all nested content — text, lists, images, even nested toggles — appears fully open in your PDF. Nothing is hidden.
Code blocks are extracted with language hints and wrapped in properly structured pre/code elements. Monospace fonts and background styling keep code readable across all templates.
Table, board, list, and gallery database views are captured as they appear on screen and rendered as clean, properly formatted tables in the final PDF output.
Callouts are converted to styled blockquotes that preserve the icon and message text. The visual emphasis carries through to the PDF, making important notes stand out.
Inline images, cover images, and embedded content are captured at full resolution. Image URLs are resolved so they render correctly in the offline PDF document.
No menu diving, no waiting, no configuration. Just click and go.
Navigate to the Notion page you want to convert in Chrome. It can be a private page you're logged into or a publicly shared page. The extension works with both.
Click the Pretty PDF icon in your toolbar. The extension automatically detects Notion and activates its specialized parser. Pick from Clean, Minimal, Corporate, Academic, or Dark Mode templates.
Click Generate PDF. In seconds, your Notion page is a polished document. Download it directly or save it to your cloud PDF library for later access.
A side-by-side look at what each option delivers.
| Feature | Notion Export | Pretty PDF |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Slow on large pages | Seconds, any page size |
| Templates | One default style | 5 professional templates |
| Toggle handling | Often collapsed | Fully expanded |
| Code styling | Basic formatting | Syntax-styled with monospace fonts |
| Database rendering | Inconsistent layout | Clean table format |
| Callout preservation | Loses styling | Styled blockquotes with icons |
| Custom branding | Not available | Logo, colors, headers & footers |
| Cloud library | Not available | Searchable storage (Pro+) |
One of the most common questions about Notion-to-PDF tools is whether they can access private pages. The answer with Pretty PDF is yes — because of how the extension works.
Pretty PDF's Chrome extension captures the rendered DOM directly from your browser tab. It does not fetch the page from Notion's servers separately. This means it has access to exactly what you see on screen, including any page you are logged into. If you can view a private workspace page, a shared team document, or a page behind Notion's permission system, the extension can capture it.
This approach also means your Notion credentials are never sent to Pretty PDF's servers. The extension reads the page content from your browser, sends only the HTML to the server for PDF generation, and returns the finished document. Your login session stays in your browser where it belongs.
For publicly shared Notion pages — the kind with a notion.site URL that anyone can view — the extension works the same way. Open the page, click the icon, and generate your PDF. You can also use Pretty PDF's URL-based API endpoint to convert public Notion pages programmatically, though the output fidelity is slightly reduced because the server fetch cannot execute JavaScript or expand toggles the way the extension does.
Free tier, no credit card. 3 PDFs per month with all templates included.
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