If you would like to save the contents of a webpage then there are a few ways to achieve this. A couple of these ways I described in my alternative ways of bookmarking post. A handy way to archive the contents of a webpage can be to convert them to pdf within your browser. Today I shall cover three such tools.

CutePdf Writer

Cutepdf Writer is a rather clever application. It installs itself as a printer that can print from any application. To convert a webpage into pdf you install this program and then within your browser print the webpage. When cutepdf is installed you will have a new selection among your printers – cutepdf writer funnily enough. This sends the page to the application which converts it and presents you with a save dialog. I can’t think of a better way of handling the html conversion to pdf on your computer and the resulting pdf files look good.

PDFDownload by Nitro

An alternate for Firefox only is the PDFDownload add on by nitro. This handles pdf’s within your browser in many ways. You can specify how you wish pdf’s to be viewed, in your browser or external app. The ability to convert pdf’s is handled by the website www.pdfdownload.org. This means that you select save webpage as pdf in the file menu and the page is read from pdfdownload’s server and then sent you to download or via email. This works well but there may be a couple of downsides… the servers may be down (or you are not currentley connected to the web) or you may wish to print from a website you are logged into which obviously won’t work. This may be the choice for you if you don’t mind adding it as a Firefox extension and aren’t bothered by it’s slight limitations.

PDFDownload Extension

HTM2PDF Bookmarklet

A bookmarklet is a bookmark that provides a function. It is more than an url but is stored in the same way in your browser as a bookmark. The website HTM2PDF.co.uk provides you with a box to enter a webpage url in. It converts the webpage into pdf and displays a screenshot with a download link. This in itself is a nice website to know about. The handy bookmarklet on the site makes it even better as whilst surfing a site you wish to be converted you can simply click the bookmarklet and your converted webpage screenshot and download link are produced. This will of course work in any browser as it operates the same as a bookmark. Handy Dandy.

How do you handle pdf conversion? Please let me know in the comments.

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