Remove Ads and Clutter When Saving Webpages as PDF

Smart extraction

What gets removed automatically

Every element that clutters your PDF is identified and stripped away. Here is exactly what Pretty PDF removes compared to the browser's default Save as PDF.

Page element	Browser PDF	Pretty PDF
Banner ads & display advertising	Included	Removed
Popup remnants & overlays	Included	Removed
Navigation bars & menus	Included	Removed
Sidebars & widget areas	Included	Removed
Cookie consent banners	Included	Removed
Comment sections	Included	Removed
Social share buttons	Included	Removed
Related article widgets	Included	Removed
Footer navigation & site links	Included	Removed
Newsletter & subscription prompts	Included	Removed
Browser-added URL header	Added by browser	Not added
Browser-added date footer	Added by browser	Not added
Article text, images & tables	Included	Included
Code blocks	Often broken	Properly styled

Under the hood

How smart extraction works

Pretty PDF does not just hide ads with CSS. It fundamentally rebuilds the document using a three-step server-side process.

When you click Generate PDF, your browser extension sends the page HTML to our server. What happens next is very different from pressing Ctrl+P.

Step 1: Content extraction

Our extraction engine analyzes the entire page structure to identify the main content area. It uses a combination of semantic HTML signals, content density analysis, and site-specific patterns to separate the article from everything around it. Navigation elements, advertising containers, sidebar widgets, cookie banners, comment threads, and social sharing buttons are all identified and discarded. What remains is the core content: text, headings, images, tables, code blocks, and lists.

For the eight platforms with dedicated parsers (Notion, GitHub, Medium, Stack Overflow, Dev.to, Substack, Reddit, and Confluence), extraction is even more precise. Each parser understands the exact HTML structure of that platform, so it knows exactly where the content begins and ends.

Step 2: Template styling

Once the content is extracted, your chosen template's CSS is applied from scratch. This is not a print stylesheet layered on top of a website's existing styles. It is a purpose-built document design with professional typography, proper margins, and careful handling of every content element. Fonts are embedded directly in the PDF, so your document looks the same on every device and operating system.

Step 3: PDF rendering

The styled content is rendered into a PDF using WeasyPrint, a professional-grade PDF engine. Unlike browser print, WeasyPrint handles CSS paged media properly: intelligent page breaks that avoid splitting paragraphs mid-sentence, orphan and widow control, consistent image placement, and properly formatted tables that span pages without losing their headers. The result is a document that reads like it was designed in a page layout application, not printed from a browser.

Real results

Before and after: real-world examples

The difference is dramatic on the sites where ads are most aggressive.

News article

A typical news article on a major outlet (BBC, CNN, The Guardian) includes banner ads at the top, interstitial ads between paragraphs, a related-articles carousel, social sharing buttons, a comment section, newsletter signup forms, and a full site footer with dozens of links. Using browser Save as PDF, this produces 10 to 12 pages. Pretty PDF extracts just the headline, byline, article text, and embedded images, resulting in 3 to 4 clean pages. The reading experience goes from chaotic to focused.

Recipe page

Recipe sites are notorious for burying the actual recipe under a lengthy personal narrative, video embeds, multiple ad blocks, jump-to-recipe widgets, and print-this-recipe buttons. A single recipe page often produces 6 to 8 pages in a browser PDF, with the ingredient list and instructions scattered between ads. Pretty PDF extracts the recipe content into a single clean page, sometimes two, with ingredients, instructions, and any relevant images preserved in a readable format.

Blog post

A blog post on a typical WordPress or Ghost site comes with a sticky header, sidebar with author bio and popular posts, popup overlays for email capture, inline affiliate banners, and a comment section that can run longer than the article itself. Browser PDF captures all of it. Pretty PDF strips the page down to the article title, body text, and images, producing a clean document that is roughly one-third the length of the browser version.

Documentation page

Technical documentation on platforms like ReadTheDocs, GitBook, or custom docs sites includes a persistent sidebar with the full table of contents, a header with version selectors and search bars, and footer navigation. In a browser PDF, the sidebar takes up half the page width on every single page, pushing the actual documentation into a narrow column. Pretty PDF removes the navigation sidebar entirely, giving the documentation full page width and cutting the page count significantly.

Capture modes

Three capture modes for any situation

Different pages need different approaches. Choose the mode that fits your content.

1

Article mode

The default mode and the best choice for most pages. Our extraction engine automatically identifies the main content, removes all ads, navigation, and clutter, and generates a clean PDF. Ideal for news articles, blog posts, documentation, tutorials, and any page with a clear primary content area.

2

Full page mode

Captures the entire visible page without content extraction. Use this when you need the complete page layout, including elements that article mode would remove. Useful for dashboards, landing pages, design references, or any situation where you want a faithful representation of the full page.

3

Selection mode

Highlight specific text or content on the page before clicking the extension icon. Only your selection is converted to PDF, properly formatted with your chosen template. Perfect for capturing a single section, a specific answer on a forum, or a few paragraphs from a longer article.

Compatibility

Works on the most ad-heavy sites

Pretty PDF has dedicated parsers for platforms that are especially difficult to print cleanly. Every other site uses our intelligent generic extraction.

Notion GitHub Medium Stack Overflow Dev.to Substack Reddit Confluence

These eight platforms have custom parsers that understand each site's exact HTML structure. Medium articles are extracted with proper formatting for pull quotes and image captions. GitHub issues preserve code blocks, labels, and comment threads in a logical reading order. Stack Overflow answers retain vote counts, code syntax highlighting, and accepted-answer indicators.

For every other website, Pretty PDF's generic extraction engine handles the heavy lifting. It analyzes content density, identifies semantic HTML landmarks, and applies the same ad-removal and clutter-stripping process. Whether you are saving a page from a news outlet, a corporate blog, a government report, or an obscure forum, the extraction engine finds the main content and discards the rest. No configuration needed.

Frequently asked questions

Pretty PDF removes the vast majority of ads automatically — banner ads, interstitial popups, video ad placeholders, sponsored content blocks, and ad-network iframes. Our extraction engine identifies the main content area and discards everything outside it. In rare cases where an ad is embedded directly inside article content (such as a native sponsorship paragraph), it may be included. You can use selection mode to capture only the specific text you want if needed.

Pretty PDF converts whatever HTML your browser can see. If you are logged in and can read the full article, the extension captures that full content. If the page shows a paywall overlay or truncated text, that is what gets captured. Pretty PDF does not bypass paywalls — it works with the content your browser has already loaded.

Ad blockers prevent ads from loading while you browse. Pretty PDF works at the conversion stage — it strips ads, navigation, sidebars, and other clutter when you generate a PDF. The two are complementary. Even with an ad blocker running, browser Save as PDF still includes navigation bars, cookie banners, sidebars, comment sections, and unwanted headers and footers. Pretty PDF removes all of that.

Yes. News sites are among the most ad-heavy pages on the web, and Pretty PDF handles them well. The content extraction engine is particularly effective at isolating the main article from the surrounding advertising, related-article widgets, and newsletter signup prompts that news sites typically include. A 12-page browser PDF from a news article typically becomes 3 to 4 clean pages with Pretty PDF.

If article mode removes content you need — like a sidebar table or an embedded widget — switch to full page mode, which captures everything on the page. You can also use selection mode to highlight exactly the content you want and convert only that. Between the three capture modes, you have full control over what ends up in your PDF.