Using PDFMyURL

Recently, I stumbled upon a web application that has simplified my life significantly. PDFMyURL is a useful tool that converts webpages (or URLs) to downloadable PDF documents. You might wonder why a web application is necessary for this action, as you can simply print any webpage or capture (via Jing or SnagIt) any web content you like. Occasionally, though, when I print a webpage, something strange happens: the printed version doesn’t not always look like the original website. Somehow the formatting gets lost, images don’t print, and because of wonky website construction, a two-page website turns into a 12-page printed document. There are times I want a printed webpage that looks the same as the original. PDFMyURL gives this to me.

PDFMyURL makes the conversion process simple. Insert the URL you wish to have printed as a PDF into a box on PDFMyURL website and press “go.” That’s it. Additionally, you can download a bookmarklet for your browser’s toolbar. Pressing the bookmarklet when you are on a webpage you wish to copy starts the conversion process.

While PDFMyURL is a free service, the free program has limitations. Yes, you can print webpages as PDF files, but your pages will have the corporate watermark on them, and the printing orientation will print landscape. It is easy enough to trick the printer settings so the document will print portrait, but if you are like me, you’ll forget to switch the settings back when you are done. Additionally, you may not wish to have the company’s watermark on your work, especially if your work is part of an annual review packet or your tenure and promotion materials.

PDFMyURL provides an inexpensive pay service that allows you to customize the way your PDF documents print. For $12.50 a year, you have the ability to remove the PDFMyURL logo from the PDF files you create, and you can save personal preferences (orientation, paper size, grayscale or color PDF files, enable/disable URL links). With the paid service, you also have the ability to create Table of Contents of your PDF files and you can print your history of the PDF documents you create.

Below is a sample of a PDF file I created from a ProfHacker post I wrote last week. This post, part of the “Disruptive Student” series here at ProfHacker, needs to go in my annual faculty report. I could print the website, but printing the site as a PDF file makes the document much cleaner and neater. You’ll notice that the PDFMyURL adds the actual URL to the top of each page.

How about you? What are some uses you’ve found for this (or similar) service? Please leave suggestions in comments below.