Web To PDF: How To Create A Publication With The Print PDF Generator and Publisher Plugin

Ever wanted to convert your blog posts into PDF publications? Looking for an easy and affordable way to keep publishing online while serving the print audience as well?

With nopea.media‘s Print PDF Generator and Publisher WordPress plugin, creating print-ready PDF files from your WordPress blog posts or page content is easy.

In this article, we’ll go through the five steps to converting your web content into a PDF you can send to print, print yourself or distribute online. The process consists of five steps: 1. Set up a publication 2. Create the online articles (or use ones you already have) 3. Adjust PDF settings for the articles 4. Make necessary additions such as a table of contents 5. Review, finalize and send to print!

1. Set Up A Publication with Print PDF Generator and Publisher Plugin

Start by setting up the publication to which you’ll add all the articles and other content of your choice. Go to the Publications menu on your WordPress dashboard and select “Add New”.

• Publications –> click “Add New”

• Add an appropriate title for the publication (like “My Magazine Issue 1 / 2020”)

• From the Publish column on the right, select “Generate PDF” and click either “Save Draft” or “Publish”. By clicking publish, the publication will go online at a predefined URL (such as yourdomain.com/blog/publications/your-publications-name) and you will be able to preview it. The publication won’t automatically appear anywhere else on your site. So don’t hesitate to hit publish even if the publication isn’t ready yet.

2. Create Your Content Online

Create content such as blog posts or pages that you wish to add to your publication.

Create content as you normally would on the WordPress text editor. However, for making the article print-optimized, use the PDF Blocks that come with the Print PDF Generator and Publisher plugin.

Note! You can always use earlier created content as well. If you’re using existing articles to create the publication, drag their contents into suitable PDF blocks.

Have a look at our post on creating a printed article with the Print PDF Generator and Publisher plugin to get a full introduction to all the 15 blocks that come with the plugin. These blocks let you adjust your articles’ settings for a print-appropriate reading experience. You can use as many blocks as you like but can get by with using just a few. Use e.g. PDF columns to split the text into two or three columns and place all other content inside that block.

Click the block active to adjust more settings if needed. For example for the PDF Columns block, you can determine the number of columns. Block settings will appear on the right sidebar of the text editor when the block is active.

3. Adjust PDF Settings And Convert Your Web Page to PDF

To convert web to PDF, go to the Nopea.media menu on your text editor’s top-right corner to select a few options. To automatically generate a PDF from your blog post, select 1) “Generate PDF” 2) The desired PDF quality (“Print” available in subscriptions Pro 2 and Pro 4), and 3) Heading position (on top of or under main image). Also select the layout theme as well as the name of the publication you created in step one (or any other publication you want to add the article to).

Here, you may also adjust settings like margins and featured image size to your PDF layout. See further instructions on determining the PDF settings in “Create A Printed Article With Print PDF Generator And Publisher Plugin”.

4. Organize Articles In Your Publications And Make Additions If Needed

Organizing The Articles And Adding Footers

Once you’ve added posts to a publication, you will see them as a list on your Pulications view (“Publications” –> name of the publication –> “Posts”). Here, you can drag-and-drop the article titles to place them in the right order in your PDF publication. By nesting one article below another will show it right after the above article instead of breaking it to the next page. To modify an article, click on the pencil icon at the end of the article line. To remove an article from the publication click on the x-mark.

In this view, you can also determine footers for the publication. You can add separate footers for odd pages and even pages if you like.

Always save any changes by clicking “Update” (or “Save Draft”).

Adding The Table Of Contents And PDF Files

You also have the option to add pages to the publication you won’t publish online. These include for example a table of contents, a cover page and possibly a separate PDF file such as a full-page ad. Read our article for instructions on how to add a separate PDF file to the publication.

For the table of contents, use the PDF Blocks “Table of content” , “Listing Container” and “Table of content text area” in your WordPress text editor. You won’t need to publish the TOC online, just add to the publication and save as draft.

1. Add a new post in the WordPress text editor (Posts –> Add New)
2. Select the block “Table of content”. Inside that, add the block “Listing Container” and start listing the items and their page number in the right order.
3. If you want to add extra content such as text or images to the TOC page, use the block “Table of content text area” for that purpose.

5. Review, Finalize and Send to Print

Preview your PDF publication by clicking “Preview PDF” on the publications view. If the button is not active, update the publication first by clicking “Update”.

When everything is in order, the PDF will be ready to distribute online or send straight to print!