This is because the market for real AirPrint printers is large, and apps that support AirPrint get ‘Save to PDF’ functionality for free. More apps than you might think expose printing features, especially on iOS. However, there are many apps that don’t offer features like this … and this is where print to PDF shines.

Of course, if an app includes PDF export features natively, use those inbuilt features instead of the print to PDF workaround. Pages, Numbers and Keynote include official features to save documents as PDF files, for example. Read on for step-by-step instructions to print to PDF on Mac, iPhone and iPad … There isn’t an obvious button in the interface for it, but the capability is there - if a little hidden. The concept of Print to PDF began on the desktop and macOS exposes the feature relatively prominently. This means Save to PDF is widely available across many iOS apps, and even more Mac apps.

Apps don’t have to support PDF output, they just have to support the normal printing features. You don’t actually print anything, but the idea is that an exact replica of what would have appeared on paper, if you had sent a job to a real printer, is instead stored as a PDF file.Ī big advantage of Print to PDF, or Save to PDF as it is often known, is that it is available in a lot of apps by default. Print to PDF is an easy way to preserve the information and layout of what you are currently viewing, saving a 1:1 digital copy of the documents and websites you use everyday.

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