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PDF export
Short answer: the PDF is written from the screenshot, so it looks like the screen: one long page or Letter, Legal and A4, page breaks placed on empty rows so no line is ever cut, links clickable, all free; Pro adds the page's own text as an invisible searchable layer.
The PDF starts from the screenshot, not from the page's print stylesheet, so it looks like the page did on screen. From there you choose the shape: one long page, or Letter, Legal and A4 with page breaks that fall between lines. Links stay clickable, the address and date can be stamped on, and with Pro the words of the page travel inside the file so it can be searched.
What you can export
- One long page. The whole capture as a single PDF page, the way the page really is.
- US Letter, Legal or A4, portrait or landscape, with margins that suit printing.
- Smart page breaks. A break is placed on an empty row of pixels, so a line of text, a table row or a picture is never cut in two. Free.
- Clickable links. Every link on the page is a link in the PDF, at the same spot.
- URL and date stamp, optional, in five styles including a Mac or Windows browser frame.
- Searchable text.Pro The page's own words, exact in any script, as an invisible layer any reader can select, search and copy. Not OCR.
- Evidence band.Pro Address, exact time with time zone and a SHA-256 checksum, on the pages and in the file's metadata. Evidence mode.
- PDF files opened in Chrome are captured whole, every page in one image, and can go out again as image or PDF.
How it is different from Print to PDF
Chrome's Print dialog re-lays the page out for paper with the site's print stylesheet: columns move, backgrounds vanish, lines are cut between pages, and anything that scrolls inside a panel is printed only as far as it was scrolled. FullPage Capture photographs the page as you see it, then writes the PDF from the picture, so none of that happens. The one thing Print to PDF does better without paying is selectable text; Pro closes that gap with the text layer. The save a webpage as PDF page has the side-by-side table, and the guide explains the print settings that help before you install anything.
Where the settings are
Right-click the extension icon and open Options. Under PDF paper choose Full image or a paper size and orientation, and turn the URL and date stamp on or off; the smart page breaks and clickable links are on by default. The result tab's PDF button uses those settings; Evidence mode has its own switch. The help center lists every option.
Pro
Searchable text and the evidence band are part of Pro: Try Pro: $0 for 7 days, then $19 a year, 48-hour money-back guarantee, cancel any time in your account. Everything else on this page is free. See Pro.
Questions
Is PDF export free?
Yes. One long page or Letter, Legal and A4, smart page breaks, clickable links and the URL and date stamp are all free, with no watermark. The searchable text layer is part of Pro.
How do the page breaks avoid cutting text?
The exporter looks at the picture itself for rows of pixels where nothing is drawn and places each page break on the nearest such row, so a line of text, a table row or an image is never split across two pages. It works on any page, in any language, because it does not depend on the page telling it where breaks are allowed.
How is the PDF searchable? Is it OCR?
No. With Pro, the words the page really contained are written into the PDF as an invisible text layer, at the position they were captured from, over the picture. Nothing is recognised or guessed, so the text is exact in every script, Latin, Cyrillic, CJK and emoji included, and any PDF reader can select, search and copy it.
Do links work in the PDF?
Yes. Every link on the page is placed in the PDF at the same spot, in the long page and in the paper sizes, and a reader can click it.
Can I capture a PDF that is already open in Chrome?
Yes. A PDF opened in Chrome's viewer is rendered by the extension itself and captured whole, every page fit to the width of the tab, in one image; from there it can go out as an image or as a new PDF. A password-protected file cannot be captured.
How large can the PDF be?
As long as the page. The long-page option is limited only by Chrome's canvas (28,800 pixels a side); a longer capture is split into numbered parts, each of which exports on its own. Paper sizes have no such limit, because each page is drawn separately.
Can I stamp the address and date?
Yes, from the options: the URL and the capture time on the PDF, in one of five styles including Mac and Windows browser frames. In Evidence mode the stamp becomes a band with the exact time, time zone and a SHA-256 checksum. Evidence mode
Export this page as a PDF. Free, no account, nothing is uploaded.
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