Print My Blog - Print, PDF, & eBook Converter WordPress Plugin

ePub eBooks with Pro Print require payment.

So, creating PDFs and printing with PMB Pro Print is free, but it's best when used with our Pro PDF Service which is paid.
I have a question about Pro Print
You're in luck, we have an entire user guide that walks you through the first project, then onto customizations, and even through making your own custom designs in HTML, CSS, and Javascript (with a bit of PHP). These FAQs are mostly about Quick Print and Print Buttons.
How do I create a PDF using Quick Print?
Quick Print just puts the content onto a single web page so your browser can print it or create a PDF from it. Because your browser is what creates the PDF, it depends on the browser. Check out the instructions that apply to you:

Google Chrome

https://youtu.be/ngId20fP5I8

Mozilla Firefox

https://youtu.be/ekwg2a1FPV0

Note: Images may be missing from very large PDFs. See the FAQ "My PDFs are missing images" below for help.

If you use Pro Print, you can download the PDF using our Pro Print Service.
How do I remove the headers and footers from printouts?
One option is to upgrade for the Pro Print Service, which adds more professional-looking content to the margins (e.g. page numbers, running headers, and logos).

You probably don't want the site's title, date, and URL appearing in printouts. Here is how to remove it for various browsers:

Google Chrome (for paper and PDF)

https://youtu.be/2Kvun-nhCWk

Mozilla Firefox (paper)

https://youtu.be/vp-wGdS8ugE

Mozilla Firefox (PDF)

https://youtu.be/sU02oSPWj34
How do I create an eBook using Print My Blog?
Creating ePub eBooks requires payment, or you can create ePub eBooks using Quick Print and dotEPUB browser extension

https://youtu.be/M5ZZN3KsqOA

Note: if your printout has many images, dotEpub warns you it will replace them with links.

Once the eBook has been generated, you can read it from your computer (here's instructions on how to read ePubs and MOBI files), or a phone or tablet.
Some images aren't appearing
Print My Blog can work too fast for some webservers, meaning the webservers refuse to load all the content, most noticeably some images.
In order to fix this, you need to tell Print My Blog to slow down. On the configuration page, show options, then scroll
down to show Troubleshooting options, and increase "Post Rendering Wait-Time" (e.g. to 2000 milliseconds, or whatever
value you need to in order to get all the images to load).
My PDFs are missing images
This is usually a problem with browsers, which our Pro PDF Service hasn't experienced. So you may want to try Pro Print with the Pro PDF Service.

If your print-page has hundreds of images, browsers may generate PDFs that are missing images at the end.
To fix this, just retry "Generate the PDF". Each time the browser will fetch more images. Continue re-generating the PDF until the images at the end are included.
The Print Page says "There seems to be an error initializing...", or is stuck on "Loading Content", or I can't filter by categories or terms from the print setup page
This isn't a problem for Pro Print (even when printing using your browser for free.) If you'd rather use Quick Print, keep reading...

A plugin has probably disabled the WP REST API, which Print My Blog uses for loading data.

This is often done by a security plugin.

Don't use "Disable REST API" plugins
"All in One WP Security" has a setting called "Disallow Unuahtorized REST API requests". Disable it.
Wordfence has a setting on their "All Options" page, under "Brute Force Proection", called "Prevent discovery of usernames through ‘/?author=N’ scans, the oEmbed API, and the WordPress REST API". Disable it.
iThemes security has a setting under "WordPress Tweaks" called "REST API". Switch it to "Default Access" if you want to let site visitors print your blog.

If none of the above help identify the issue, please use Print My Blog plugin's Help page or the WordPress.org support forum to report the problem.
Along with that, it can also be helpful to follow the steps in the following video in order to provide more information about the error.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNK39YuuhMM
How do I remove post content from the printout?
There may be text, images, and other stuff that looks great when viewed from a screen, but doesn't make sense to have in the printout. E.g. related posts, share buttons, etc.
To remove them from printouts, add the CSS class "pmb-screen-only".
Alternatively, you can use the shortcodes [pmb_web_only_text]...text, text, text...[/pmb_web_only_text] and [pmb_web_only_blocks]...paragraphs, images, other blocks...[/pmb_web_only_blocks].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxNBkGafH_A

If you're handy at writing CSS, add some additional CSS to your theme that uses the "pmb-print-page" class which is added to the body tag of the print page.

For example, if you want to hide all divs with CSS class "my-video" in printouts, but not on the regular website, add the following CSS to your theme:

.pmb-print-page div.my-video{
display:none;
}

Also, if it's content automatically added by a plugin or theme, please let us know in the support forum, and we can hide that content in the next release of Print My Blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMBxCp7AVPE&feature=youtu.be
How do I make post content only appear in the printout?
Use the shortcodes [pmb_print_only_text]...text, text, text...[/pmb_print_only_text] and [pmb_print_only_blocks]...paragraphs, images, other blocks...[/pmb_print_only_blocks].

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxNBkGafH_A

In Pro Print, the background colors are dictated by your project's design, which might be easily customizable. Go to your project's "Customize Design" step and see what settings are available. You can also switch to a different design on the "Choose Design" step, or add some custom CSS to your design (body{background-color:black;}).*

If you're using Quick Print, the background colors are controlled by your WordPress theme and the browser.

Your theme may use different styles when printed, including setting the background to white in order to conserve ink.

But if not, your browser can also remove background colors.

For Google Chrome: when printing, click on "More Options", then uncheck "Background graphics"
For Firefox: when viewing the print preview, click "Page Setup" then uncheck "Print Background (colors & images)".
For Firefox Extension "Print to PDF": click on "Add-ons", then click "Print to PDF", then "Options", and uncheck "Whether the background colors should be shown"

How do I force a page break before something? (So it's always at the top of a page)
Add the CSS class "pmb-page-break" onto the the element/block you want to be at the top of the page.
How do I avoid a pagebreak inside something?
Add the CSS class "pmb-no-break" onto the element/block. The browser will avoid a pagebreak in that element if possible.
If browsers ignore that, you force the pagebreak to happen just before an element by adding the CSS class "pmb-page-break".
How do I print a draft?
The easiest way to print a draft post is to enable the front-end print buttons, then view the preview of the post, and click the print button you want.

https://youtu.be/LemXhydDEvg
How do I show the print buttons on posts or pages?
Using Print My Blog Settings and Custom Fields
You can add print buttons to all posts and/or pages from the WordPress admin dashboard, under "Print My Blog", click "Settings", then, next to "Show print buttons on:" select the posts and/or pages.
If you don't want to show them on certain posts or pages, add the custom field named "pmb_buttons" to them with the value "hide".
Alternatively, if you only want to show the button on specific posts or pages, add the custom field "pmb_buttons" to those posts or pages with the value "show".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehep6GO5J6c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWD8kDrhWMs

Using a Shortcode in the Post Body
You can add print buttons directly into your posts and pages by using the shortcode [pmb_print_buttons]. You can also supply it with the ID of a different post or page like so: [pmb_print_buttons ID=123].
You can alternatively use the shortcode [pmb_print_page_url] to just get the URL of the print page for more advanced integrations. You can supply it with the ID of a different post, and the format (defaults to "print", but also accepts "pdf" or "ebook"), and whether to add_protocol (i.e. by default, the URL begins with "http://" or "https://", but setting this to 0 will prevent that, in case it was already added), like so: [pmb_print_page_url format=pdf add_protocol=0] will produce the URL of the print page for a PDF but not add the "https://" onto the start of the URL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxNBkGafH_A

In a Widget (e.g. sidebar or footer) using a Shortcode
Alternatively, you can add the print buttons to a widget. In the WordPress admin dashboard, under the "Appearance" menu item, click "Widgets". Add a shortcode widget and add [pmb_print_buttons] like mentioned previously. The print buttons will only appear on single posts (eg not on an archive page).

https://youtu.be/tLI1AAnxi-c

Editing Your Theme's Template Files
If you'd like to add the print buttons somewhere in your theme's template files, add the following PHP code anywhere inside the loop:

<?php echo do_shortcode('[pmb_print_buttons]'); ?>

or

<a href="<?php echo esc_url(do_shortcode('[pmb_print_page_url]')); ?>">View Print-Ready Version of Page</a>

How do I change the color of the print buttons?
The print button's color is determined by your theme. But if you can't change the button colors using your theme's settings, you can change it with some custom CSS.
E.g. this here's how to change the button's text color to black and background color to white:

For Block-Based Themes
1. Go to wp-admin on your website
2. On the left, under "Appreance", click "Editor"
3. On the left, click "Styles"
4. Click the pencil icon that appears ("Edit Styles")
5. On the top-right, beside "Styles", click the three dots
6. Select "Additional CSS"
7. Add the following code:

For Legacy Themes:
1. Go to wp-admin on your website
2. On the left, under "Appearance", click "Customize"
3. On the left, under Additional CSS" add the the following code:

div.pmb-print-this-page a{
color:black;
background-color:white;
}

How do I customize the printouts made with the Print Buttons?
From the Print My Blog Settings page, click "Customize Buttons". From here you can customize:
* whether print buttons appear by default above or below the post content
* which print buttons appear (print, PDF, and eBook)
* the text used on each button (translate them, use an emoji, etc.)

Under each format, you can also click "Show Options". These options affect the printout produced by the button. These
options are the same as when printing out multiple posts simultaneously: you can remove the printout metadata, the post's featured image, etc.

https://youtu.be/uPQ3vqm7A2g
How can I help translate Print My Blog?
Here's a video showing how to use Poedit to submit a translation of Print My Blog

https://youtu.be/HnbCKywA_xo
How can I report security bugs?
You can report security bugs through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team helps validate, triage and handle any security vulnerabilities. Report a security vulnerability.