PDF and archivingGuide
7 min read
How to save several tabs as one PDF in Chrome
Chrome prints one tab at a time, so the built-in route is to save each tab as a PDF and combine the files in Preview or Adobe's free merge tool. An extension can do both steps in one. Here are the three routes and what each one gives you.
Chrome's print dialog saves the page in front of you, one tab at a time, so the built-in way is two steps: save each tab as its own PDF, then combine the PDFs with a second tool, such as Preview on a Mac or Adobe's free online merge. It costs nothing. If you do it often, an extension can do both steps for you. Below are the built-in route, two extensions whose store listings say they write one PDF from several tabs, and Page Scanner's way, which captures the selected tabs into one document with a bookmark per tab.
The options at a glance
| Print, then merge | All Tabs to PDF Saver | Print All Open Tabs | Page Scanner | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steps | one save per tab, then a merge | one click, then a merge from its Dashboard | one click | select the tabs, one click |
| Which tabs | the ones you print | all tabs in the window, or ones you pick | "all your open browser tabs" | the tabs you select, two to ten |
| One PDF | after the merge | ✓ | ✓ "a single, combined PDF" | ✓ |
| How each page is drawn | the site's print layout | printed through Chrome's DevTools Protocol | as it is on screen | |
| Text you can select | ✓ | ✓ "fully searchable" | ✓ | |
| A bookmark per tab | ✗ | ✓ "bookmark table of contents" | ✓ | |
| Each tab's address on its pages | ✓ with the stamp on | |||
| Crop, mark up, redact first | ✗ | ✓ in the editor |
✓ yes, ✗ no. An empty cell is one the product's own pages do not answer.
1. Chrome's print dialog, then a merge
Save each tab. In each tab, press Cmd+P on a Mac or Ctrl+P on Windows and Linux, set the
destination to Save as PDF, and save. Give the files names that sort in the order you
want, such as 01-intro.pdf, 02-setup.pdf.
Combine them on a Mac with Preview. Apple's steps: open the PDFs in Preview, choose View > Thumbnails in each, and "drag the thumbnails you want to add from the sidebar of one PDF to the sidebar of the other PDF." To add a whole file, "drag the PDF icon from the Finder to the sidebar of an open document." Then save.
Or combine them with Adobe's free online tool. Adobe's Merge PDF page takes up to 100 files, each up to 500 pages, into one PDF "of up to 1,500 pages". Select the files, reorder them, click Merge files and download. It is free and needs no sign-in, but the files go to Adobe: in its words, "your file will be securely handled by Adobe servers and deleted unless you sign in to save it."
What you get is the print layout of each page, which the site's print stylesheet decides. Navigation often disappears, columns change and the page is cut into sheets wherever the paper ends. For articles that is often fine. For a page whose layout matters, it is a different document; how to save a web page as a PDF goes through why.
Verdict: free and built in, and fine for three or four articles. The merge step is where the time goes.
2. An extension that saves every tab
Two extensions in the Chrome Web Store describe saving several tabs into one PDF in their own listings.
All Tabs to PDF Saver says it will "save the current page or all tabs in the current window in one shot", printing each page in the background through Chrome's DevTools Protocol into "true vector PDFs" that are "fully searchable and copy-paste friendly". It saves a PDF per tab and then merges from its Dashboard: "reorder pages, optional separator sheets, built-in bookmark table of contents". Its listing says your page content "stays in your browser", and that the method "may display an automated software control banner".
Print All Open Tabs offers "a single, combined PDF of all your tabs or separate PDFs for each one", with customizable file names. Its listing does not say how each page is captured.
Neither listing names a price. Both turn a whole window of tabs into PDFs in one click, which the print-then-merge route does not.
Verdict: the quickest way to turn a whole window into one file, if their output suits you. Read each listing's description for what it keeps.
3. Page Scanner: select the tabs, scan once
Page Scanner captures each page as it looks on screen, at its full height, and with several tabs selected it puts them into one capture.
- Select the tabs the way Chrome selects tabs:
Cmd-click each tab's strip (Ctrl-click on Windows and Linux), orShift-click to take a run of them. Put them in the order you want first; the capture follows tab order. - Click the Page Scanner icon. The popup says how many tabs are selected, and the scan button says how many it will take: Scan 3 tabs for three.
- Wait for the count. The tabs are captured one after another, and the badge counts them:
1/3,2/3,3/3. A tab Chrome has unloaded to save memory is loaded again first. - Export from the editor. It opens on one sheet with every tab, top to bottom, each under a band with its page title. Crop, mark up or redact across all of them, then export.
In a PDF each tab gets pages of its own and a bookmark named after it, with that page's headings under it. With the stamp on, each tab's pages carry that tab's own address, as a link. The text is selectable, the artwork is vector, and the whole file can be made a PDF/A-2b for archiving. An image export is the whole sheet in one picture.
The limits, from the product's own list:
- Two to ten tabs, from one window.
- A tab that fails fails the scan. Every tab is checked before any is captured, so a
chrome://page in the selection is refused at once, naming the tab. A tab the debugger cannot attach to, one with DevTools open for instance, fails too; there is no raster fallback for several tabs. Nothing is saved, because a file that looks whole with a page missing is worse than none. - One scan's time per tab, since they are captured in turn.
- Pick an element is not offered with several tabs, and the page width you choose applies to all of them.
- An image export carries one stamp, the first tab's address; only a PDF stamps each tab with its own.
- Scan it again is not offered on such a capture. Select the tabs again instead.
- Chrome shows its "started debugging this browser" bar while it runs; here is why.
Captures, marks and files stay on your computer; the extension sends anonymous counts of which features are used, and the settings have a switch for that.
Verdict: the one to use when the tabs should look like they did on screen and the file should be navigable by tab.
Which should you use?
Use print and merge if you save several tabs once in a while and the print layout is fine.
Use an all-tabs extension if you want a whole window in one file with a single click and do not need to edit it first.
Use Page Scanner if the pages should look as they do on screen, you want a bookmark and an address per tab, or you need to crop or redact before the file goes anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
Can I change the order of the tabs in the PDF? In Page Scanner the order is tab order, so drag the tabs into place before you select them. Preview and Adobe's merge tool let you reorder as you combine.
Why is the text small on A4? A wide page scaled onto a sheet shrinks everything with it. Page Scanner can lay the page out at a sheet's width before the capture; see why the PDF defaults to A4.
Can the command line do several tabs into one file? No. An agent's scan takes one tab, and
page-scanner scan --urls writes one file per page. Selecting tabs is how one file is made.
Where this comes from
- Google Chrome Help, Print from Chrome.
- Apple, Combine PDFs in Preview on Mac.
- Adobe, Merge PDF.
- Chrome Web Store listings: All Tabs to PDF Saver and Print All Open Tabs.
- Page Scanner: Capture several tabs into one file, the FAQ and A list of pages.