---
title: "How to save an email as a PDF (Gmail, Outlook, Mail)"
description: "Save any email as a PDF in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail, on a computer or phone. Plus a better way to keep marketing emails you want again."
source: https://savepad.app/blog/save-email-as-pdf
---
[Blog](https://savepad.app/blog) · 20 December 2023

# How to save an email as a PDF (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail)

Save any email as a PDF in Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail, on a computer or phone. Plus a better way to keep marketing emails you want again.

*A marketing email saved in Savepad, with its sender, subject and preheader pulled out beside it*

**TLDR**

- Every mail app can do it through **Print**, then **Save as PDF**. Apple Mail also has **File → Export as PDF**.
- On a phone, use **Print**, then share the preview to Files.
- A PDF is a fine receipt. It’s a bad swipe file: the links die, the layout squashes, and you can’t search 300 of them by sender.

## Gmail, on a computer

1. Open the email.
2. Click the **printer icon** at the top right of the message (it says *Print all*).
3. In the print window, set **Destination** to **Save as PDF**.
4. Click **Save**.

For one message in a long thread, click the **three dots** next to that message and pick **Print** instead.

## Outlook

**Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows:** open the email, click the **three dots** (*More actions*), pick **Print**, then **Print** again, and choose **Save as PDF** (or **Microsoft Print to PDF**) as the printer.

**Classic Outlook for Windows:** open the email, go to **File → Print**, pick **Microsoft Print to PDF** as the printer, and click **Print**. It asks where to save.

**Outlook for Mac:** **File → Print**, then the **PDF** dropdown at the bottom left, then **Save as PDF**.

## Apple Mail

1. Open the email.
2. **File → Export as PDF…**
3. Pick a folder and save.

That’s the cleanest of the lot, no print dialog involved.

## On an iPhone or Android

**iPhone (Mail or Gmail app):** open the email, tap the **reply arrow** (Mail) or the **three dots** (Gmail), and pick **Print**. On the preview, tap the **share icon** and choose **Save to Files**.

**Android (Gmail app):** open the email, tap the **three dots**, pick **Print**, and set the printer to **Save as PDF**.

## When a PDF is the wrong answer

If you’re saving a receipt, a contract or a flight confirmation, stop here. A PDF is perfect.

If you’re saving marketing emails because they’re good (the welcome series, the cart reminder, the launch email), a folder of PDFs gets useless fast:

- **The layout breaks.** Print styles squash a 600px email into A4 with the images in odd places.
- **Links stop mattering.** You can’t click through to see where the CTA went.
- **You can’t search by what matters.** Sender, subject line, preheader, the tool it was sent with. File names like `Print - Gmail.pdf` don’t help.

For those, forward them somewhere built for emails. In Savepad you get your own address: forward the email (or add `+welcome` to file it into a folder), and it’s saved as the email itself, with the sender, subject, preheader and sending tool pulled out and the tracking pixels stripped. Every word is searchable.

That’s how you build an [email swipe file](https://savepad.app/blog/email-swipe-file). If you want somewhere to start filling it, the [welcome email examples](https://savepad.app/blog/welcome-email-examples) are a good first folder, and you can check how your own subject line reads with the [subject line preview](https://savepad.app/free-tools/subject-line-preview).

[Join the waitlist](https://savepad.app/#waitlist)

## Read these next

- [Welcome email examples that don't read like a robot wrote them: What good welcome emails do in the first 60 seconds after signup, the patterns worth copying, and a few that got it right.](https://savepad.app/blog/welcome-email-examples)
- [How to keep an email swipe file (and why one email isn't enough): Sign up, forward, keep the order. How to build an email swipe file that saves whole onboarding and lifecycle sequences, not just nice-looking one-offs.](https://savepad.app/blog/email-swipe-file)
- [How to organize screenshots on a Mac (and get them off your desktop): Move screenshots out of your desktop, name them sensibly, sort the backlog, and make them searchable by what's in them. Settings, shortcuts and two Terminal lines.](https://savepad.app/blog/organize-screenshots-mac)