Why does WordPress PDF conversion take several seconds?
Conversion can take several seconds because the plugin has to prepare the page, load the page or submitted page content, wait for required scripts, load images, CSS, and fonts, render the page, and return the generated file.
Check for slow resources first
Enable the Debug Log option and run a test conversion. If the log shows slow or failed image, CSS, script, or font requests, fix those resources before changing unrelated settings.
Use the simplest conversion mode that works
If the page is public and does not depend on what the visitor changed before
clicking the button, keep the
Conversion Mode option
set to URL.
Use Upload, Content, or Development only when the page actually needs
that mode. These modes solve important access and visitor-view problems, but
they can add work compared with a public URL conversion.
Remove unnecessary waiting
If you increased the JavaScript Delay option, keep it as low as possible. A large fixed delay is added to every conversion.
When the page has a reliable element that appears only after the content is ready, use the Wait For Element option instead of a large fixed delay.
Disable what the output does not need
Use these options only when the resulting output is still correct:
- Disable JavaScript can speed up pages that do not need JavaScript for the converted content.
- Disable Image Loading can help for text-only output.
- Disable Remote Fonts can avoid font download delays, but text may use fallback fonts.
Be careful with timeout workarounds
The Max Loading Time option can stop the converter from waiting too long for page resources. Use it only when slow page loading cannot be fixed directly, because it may finish the conversion before all resources are ready.
If you hoped caching would make it faster
The plugin does not reuse previously generated files by default. For details, see: Does the Save as PDF WordPress plugin cache generated PDFs?.