Printing a topic as a PDF

[Discourse]

This guide explains how to print/download any Discourse topic to PDF.

Required user level: All users

Discourse allows you to create a PDF of a topic by using the CTRL+P (CMD/⌘+P on macOS) keyboard shortcut from within a topic.

Using that shortcut will open a new browser window that allows you to save the topic as a PDF:

Note that the appearance of the print dialog may look different in your browser. The example above is taken from Google Chrome.

The shortcut for creating a PDF is given in the Actions section of the keyboard help window.

Last edited by @hugh 2024-07-02T05:13:57Z

Last checked by @hugh 2024-07-02T05:14:01Z

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[xiasummer]

It is very good to output all contents to a pdf file.

While I found it slightly changes the format of the contents when using sub-items.

Like the output of this content

• Level1
  • Level2
  • Level2
    • Level3
    • Level3

But when printing to pdf file, all items will be aligned left like all are level1 items.

Is there anything we can do, like setting something, to printing just as it is in the HTML view?

[nathank (Nathan Kershaw)]

Also, is it possible to only print a single post? I get an error if I try https://meta.discourse.org/t/printing-a-topic-as-a-pdf/160061/1/print

This would be very helpful for Topics which have a valuable OP and a bunch of less valuable replies.

[Arkshine]

@nathank

Also, is it possible to only print a single post

Currently not. Tobias shared that the team might look at it at some point.

@tobiaseigen

I shared the idea of selecting posts to print or export internally. No idea of if or when we will work on this but that something should be done is on our radar.

…
Another related feature request that came up during the webinar yesterday that I found interesting was a bulk action option to select a few posts and export them. That could be incredibly valuable and is maybe a better alternative to adding a print or export button to the post menu or post admin wrench.

Hitting Ctrl-P would always be available to print the whole topic.

[xiasummer]

Well, I have a way to solve this.

I usually make a new post for printing.

Then select multiple posts and write them in a new topic in a logical sequence, and then print this full topic. Then delete the full topic.

Like I want to choose the 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12th post, to form a logical sequence topic, which will be a full story, and then print this selected story.

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Great, This must be the best way!
Printing a topic as a PDF - #19 by nathank

[nathank (Nathan Kershaw)]

This sounds effective but a little destructive. I guess it isn’t too hard to reassemble Topics these days though due to this feature:

@Discourse

Posts moved to an Existing Topic will be appended to the end of the post stream, unless preserve chronological order after merging is checked – in which case all posts will be inserted at their corresponding chronological position.