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WPBeginner» Blog» Plugins» How to Add a PDF Download for Posts in WordPress

How to Add a PDF Download for Posts in WordPress

Last updated on June 17th, 2016 by Editorial Staff
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How to Add a PDF Download for Posts in WordPress

Do you want to add a PDF download for your WordPress posts? Recently one of our readers asked if there was an easy way to turn WordPress posts into PDF. In this article, we will show you how to add a PDF download for posts in WordPress.

Adding PDF download option for WordPress posts

Why Add a PDF Download Option for Posts in WordPress?

PDF allows you to share documents among different devices and operating systems.

It ensures that the contents of document are printed in the same way on different platforms. This makes PDF files ideal for printing documents.

A PDF download option with your posts allow users to save your content on their computers and print it when they want.

Some types of content are printed more frequently like recipes, music sheets, mathematical equations, etc.

You can also use the PDF download to create content upgrades for your posts to grow your email list.

Having said that, let’s see how you can add a PDF download for WordPress posts.

Adding PDF Download Option for WordPress Posts

First thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Advanced PDF plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » WP Advanced PDF page to configure the plugin settings.

Advanced PDF settings

First you need to select where you want to display the PDF download option. Front-end (your website’s public area) or in the admin dashboard.

Under the availability section, you can select whether you want downloads to be available for everyone or just registered users.

Next, click on the General tab to expand it. There you can select post types, file name formats, and other general settings.

Under the button positioning section, you can select the button alignment and placement. You can use the default button that comes with the plugin, or you can upload your own button image.

Body, Header, and Footer sections allow you to fine tune these sections of your PDF downloads. You can add custom text, choose fonts, add custom CSS, etc.

WP Advanced PDF also comes with watermarking feature. This allows you to add watermark on your PDF files to protect them from unauthorized distribution.

This plugin offers a comprehensive set of options. The default options would work for most websites, but you can review them and adjust them as needed.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your plugin settings.

You can now visit any single post on your website, and you will see a PDF download icon. Clicking on it will start the PDF download.

PDF Download

We hope this article helped you add a PDF download option for posts in WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison of the 5 best WordPress membership plugins.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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21 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Džangir Kolar says:
    Sep 13, 2020 at 4:26 am

    Is it possible to have this plugin enabled just for one post?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 15, 2020 at 11:58 am

      You would want to reach out to the plugin’s support for the current options available

      Reply
  2. Michael says:
    Aug 10, 2018 at 10:08 am

    Your plug-in wrecked the css for 50% or more of my site and didn’t show any pdf button anywhere.

    Reply
  3. Ted says:
    May 10, 2018 at 10:45 am

    Hi, its printing only the title for a custom post, any ideas? Thanks in advance.

    Reply
  4. Soumik Sadman Anwar says:
    Nov 16, 2017 at 7:27 am

    Hi, I would like to use it for growing email list for my website in a way like website visitors will have to provide their name and email address to download a post in pdf.

    The download option would be attached to the subscription box (like “Download” in CTA instead of “Subscribe”).

    Is there any way of doing it?

    Reply
  5. George says:
    Sep 6, 2017 at 3:41 am

    Hello, thank you for this article.
    Is it work only for English language ? I tried it for Russian, Georgian and get “?” instead of letters. Can I fix it somehow ?
    Thank you

    Reply
  6. Ray says:
    Jun 14, 2017 at 6:36 pm

    this plug-in only seems to want to send the PDF through email, it doesn’t actually offer to let the users download the content to their computer ?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 15, 2017 at 12:13 am

      Hi Ray,

      It does offer users to download PDF to their computers. Please review plugin settings.

      Reply
  7. Ellen says:
    Nov 4, 2016 at 12:26 pm

    Great article. I’m looking for a plugin that allows users to add a pdf generated from a web page to a portfolio/cart/book as they go through the website and then print just one file at the end. Do you know how this could be done or if there is a plugin that does what I need?

    thanks

    Reply
  8. Katarina says:
    Oct 14, 2016 at 6:31 pm

    Can you please share how to do this for blogger? :)
    Please, please!
    Kat

    Reply
  9. Noor Nisa says:
    Jul 23, 2016 at 11:15 am

    Thanks for your support WP beginner. It’s really a helpful article for me. But I don’t want “Download PDF” button on every post. I’d like to choose some posts, on which I would like to help peoples with PDF.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 24, 2016 at 3:59 pm

      Please try one of the plugins from our list of 9 Best PDF Plugins for WordPress.

      Reply
  10. Anam says:
    Jun 21, 2016 at 11:49 am

    This feature (WP advanced PDF settings) is not available in my dashboard. What can i do?
    how can i link my facebook page to my wordpress website?

    Reply
  11. Nergis Parikh says:
    Jun 17, 2016 at 12:45 pm

    Thanks for this post. Is there a way to get someone to either give their email or to share on FB, Twitter etc before they are allowed to download a pdf version?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 17, 2016 at 8:17 pm

      Yes it is possible. Please see our guide on how to add content upgrades in WordPress and grow your mailing list.

      Reply
  12. ali says:
    Jun 17, 2016 at 11:36 am

    unfortunately this plugin does not support RTL languages such as persian or arabic.
    I dont know what should I do :(

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 17, 2016 at 8:33 pm

      You can open a support thread on plugin’s support thread.

      Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 18, 2016 at 8:02 pm

      The plugin authors released a new version of the plugin with RTL support. You can select the RTL option from the body section on plugin’s settings page. Additionally, you can click on the Advanced tab to upload your own font to be used with the PDF. You can collaborate with plugin authors and help them troubleshoot any issues you may come across.

      Reply
  13. Rodwell Smith says:
    Jun 17, 2016 at 11:23 am

    Eureka!

    Thank you! This article is wonderfully filled with wonder! And not a moment too soon either. Each time I needed the solution I did a quick search but had to do some other type workaround.

    Hate to be short, but this “how to” I do right away.

    Reply
  14. Viraj Maheshwari says:
    Jun 17, 2016 at 8:03 am

    Kindly Check properly before reposting old articles. This plugin has not been updated for last two years shows warning in wordpress repository. So please verify correct plugin updates and repost or provide link of latest stable plugin

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jun 17, 2016 at 8:40 pm

      Plugin mentioned in the article was updated just a month ago. You probably got a cached version of the old article.

      Reply

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