Save as PDF WordPress Plugin

Overview

The plugin adds a "Save as PDF" button to your WordPress website, enabling your site visitors to save a webpage as a PDF or send it via email with just one click. This provides the option to read your content offline or share it easily with others. Whether it's articles, posts, or product pages, "Save as PDF" ensures your website's content is accessible in a widely used format.

License

By default, the plugin operates in demo mode, which, while fully functional, adds a watermark and PDFCrowd branding to the content.

To remove the demo watermark and PDFCrowd branding, you can purchase an API license. Activate the license by entering your PDFCrowd username and API key in the plugin settings under the License tab.

A PDFCrowd API license is versatile, allowing use across multiple WordPress websites for our plugins. Additionally, the API license grants direct access to the PDFCrowd API for a broader range of applications.

Getting Started

Once activated, the "Save as PDF" button will automatically appear on all eligible content according to your settings. Users can click this button to save the current page as a PDF file.

To manually add the "Save as PDF" button to specific pages or posts, you can use either shortcode or PHP function.

The plugin offers various customization options accessible through the WordPress admin panel. You can change the PDF generation settings and button appearance. For more detailed customization, please refer to Customization, and to the Option reference.

Shortcode

You can add the button using either a plain or block shortcode.

• [save_as_pdf_pdfcrowd] saves the entire webpage as PDF.
• [block_save_as_pdf_pdfcrowd] saves only the enclosed code block as PDF. To style the block, include CSS rules within the shortcode.

The examples below demonstrate how to use the shortcodes and override the default settings configured in the plugin.

<h3>Save the print version of the page</h3>

The button is placed in the middle
[save_as_pdf_pdfcrowd \
    use_print_media=1 \
    output_name='inline.pdf' \
    button_text='Save print version to PDF']
of this sentence.


<h3>Save the screen version of the page</h3>

[save_as_pdf_pdfcrowd \
    use_print_media=0 \
    output_name='browser.pdf' \
    button_text='Save screen version to PDF']


<h3>Save only a code block</h3>

[block_save_as_pdf_pdfcrowd \
    output_name='just_div.pdf' \
    button_text='Download just this section as PDF' \
    page_size='letter' \
    button_background_color='green' \
    button_alignment='left']
<style>
 .invoice {
     font-size: 150%;
 }
</style>
<div class="invoice">
 Save only this div and its descendants.
</div>
[/block_save_as_pdf_pdfcrowd]


<h3>Convert any web page</h3>

[save_as_pdf_pdfcrowd \
    url='https://wikipedia.org' \
    output_name='wikipedia.pdf' \
    button_text='Save Wikipedia as PDF']

PHP Function

You can add the conversion button directly within your PHP code using the following helper function:

create_save_as_pdf_pdfcrowd_button($options = array())

Here, the $options argument is an array that contains settings to override the plugin's default configuration. For example:

echo create_save_as_pdf_pdfcrowd_button(array(
         'page_size' => 'Letter',
         'button_text' => 'Save as Letter'
));

Server-initiated Conversion

For scenarios where you need to initiate a conversion synchronously - perhaps in response to an event other than a button click - the plugin provides a PHP function.

pdfcrowd_save_as_pdf($options = array())

In this case, the $options argument is an array of conversion settings that are independent of the plugin's default settings. This array must at least include your PDFCrowd username and API key. For example:

<?php
    $output = pdfcrowd_save_as_pdf(array(
        'username' => '',
        'api_key' => '',
        'page_size' => 'Letter',
        'url' => 'https://www.example.com/'
    ));
    if(!is_wp_error($output)) {
        echo $output;
    }
?>

Customization

The table below highlights the most common customizations you might find useful. Refer to the Option Reference for a detailed description of all available options. For an interactive experience, explore these options in the API Playground. You can also test out different PDF layouts in our PDF Layout Preview tool.

For additional customization options and Troubleshooting, please visit the FAQ section of our website where you can find answers and help related to frequent queries and common issues.

Troubleshooting

If the default plugin output does not meet your requirements, consider adjusting the following settings individually. You may need to activate the "Expert Settings" option to access some of these features.

• Mode > Conversion Mode: Try switching it to either "Upload" or "Content".
• Print Resolution > Content Viewport Width: Experiment with different widths to see which yields the best result.
• Print Resolution > Content Fit Mode: Different fit modes can significantly alter the PDF's page layout.
• Print Resolution > Content Viewport Height: Increase this value, for example, to 50000, to see if it improves the output.

Other troubleshooting steps:

• If you are receiving an error, refer to the API Status Codes for more information.
• Use Debug Log to obtain detailed information about the conversion process, including load errors, load times, browser console output, etc.
• Consult the FAQ for answers to common questions.
• Contact us if you need assistance or if there is a feature you are missing.

Option Reference

Refer to the Save as PDF WordPress Plugin Reference for a description of all options.