Save an email or a whole thread as a PDF, attachments included

The whole job in 3 parts

Parts 1 and 2 happen in your mail program. Part 3 is the merge tool here:

Gmail: 1 message or the whole conversation

Gmail on a computer has 2 print controls, and they do different things:

1. Open the conversation.
2. For the whole thread, use Print all, the printer icon at the top right of the conversation. Every message in the thread goes into the print view.
3. For 1 message, open the 3-dot menu next to that message’s reply arrow and choose Print.
4. In the print window, set the destination or printer to Save as PDF (Chrome, Edge, Mac) or Microsoft Print to PDF (Windows), then save.

Google’s “Print Gmail messages” help page names Print all for the whole conversation (checked on 11 October 2026). If Print is greyed out, the sender may have used Gmail’s confidential mode, which blocks printing; the same help page says so.

Outlook: the new app, the web and classic

Microsoft’s support article on saving an Outlook message as a PDF gives these paths (checked on 11 October 2026):

New Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web

1. Open the message.
2. Choose More actions (the 3 dots), then Print, then Print again.
3. Set the printer to Microsoft Print to PDF (Windows) or Save as PDF (in the browser), choose a folder and a name, and save.

The same article notes that new Outlook does not offer PDF as a Save as file type, which is why the route goes through Print.

Classic Outlook for Windows

1. Open the message.
2. Choose File, then Print.
3. Pick Microsoft Print to PDF as the printer and print.

Outlook prints the message you have open. A long reply chain usually comes along as quoted text inside the latest message, but how much of it depends on how each person replied, so check the PDF before you rely on it. If Microsoft Print to PDF is missing, it can be turned back on in Windows Features; creating a PDF covers the print route on every system.

Apple Mail on a Mac

Apple’s Mail User Guide puts it in the menu bar: select the message, then choose File, then Export as PDF (checked on 11 October 2026). Other Mac apps reach PDF through the PDF menu in the print dialog.

Attachments: they never ride along

This is where most saved threads fall short. The PDF shows the message, and at most the attachment’s name; the invoice or the photo itself is not in it. To keep them together:

1. Download each attachment from the message.
2. Make each one a PDF. A PDF attachment is ready. Photos and screenshots go through JPG to PDF, which also takes PNG, HEIC and WebP and leaves a photo’s GPS position out of the PDF. A Word file needs Word’s own Save as PDF, since getPDF has no Word to PDF converter yet.
3. Merge. Drop the email PDF first, then the attachments, into Merge PDF above. Put them in order with the Up and Down arrows; the files are joined as listed. Leave Bookmark per file on and each part gets an entry in the PDF’s bookmarks, so the reader can jump to “invoice.pdf” directly. If an attachment is digitally signed, the merge says that the signature no longer checks out in the new file; keep the signed original next to it.
4. Name it so it explains itself, for example 2026-10-deposit-dispute-thread-and-receipts.pdf.

If the result is too big to send on, the email size guide gets it under the limit.

For disputes and records: what to send, what to hide

A printed thread shows senders, recipients, dates and times on every message. That is usually what a landlord, an insurer or a marketplace asks for when they want “the emails”.

Before you send it on, look for what the other side should not see: your bank details in a signature, a colleague’s phone number, an address quoted further down. Mark those with Redact PDF, which takes the text under each box out of the file rather than drawing over it. If the file goes by email, Protect PDF adds a password; send the password another way, by phone or message. All 3 tools run on your device. A thread full of addresses and account numbers is exactly the kind of file worth keeping off someone else’s server, and nothing here is uploaded: merge once, turn Wi-Fi off, and the next merge still works.

The honest part: a PDF of an email is a copy, not proof

A printed email is a readable copy. It does not prove the message was sent as shown, because anyone can edit text before printing. For most everyday disputes nobody asks for more. When it matters (a court case, a fraud claim), the original message and its full headers carry the technical trail: the servers it passed through, the times, the checks the sender’s domain passed.

In Gmail, open the message’s 3-dot menu and choose Show original. The page that opens shows the raw message with its headers and offers Download Original, which saves a .eml file. Keep that file next to the PDF and leave the email in your mailbox. We explain the formats; what a court accepts is a question for a lawyer.

What getPDF does not do here

There is no email importer: getPDF cannot open a .eml or .msg file, sign in to your mailbox, or save a thread for you. There is also no web page to PDF converter yet. The mail program does the printing because only it can read your mail; getPDF does the jobs after that, on your device. For other ways to make a PDF from scratch, see the guide to creating PDFs.