Print My Blog is wordpress plugin was a good option when I researched how to convert a blog into book format. It’s free and works well, although configuration options are limited.
If you want to print a copy of your entire blog post collection into PDF format only, then this is ideal. The two missing features for me are the ability to choose which blog posts to use (which has since been added as a new feature if you choose a category to print – see comments below), and an optional table of contents at the start of the document.
As an idea, a blog with 314 published posts including images generated a 108.6MB pdf with 1225 pages in it.
Installation
Follow the usual steps for installing and activating a new wordpress plugin. Search for ‘Print My Blog’.
Configuration
Look under Tools -> Print My Blog and use the ‘Show Options’ link to configure the settings for your pdf.
For my pdf I chose to print Posts only and display the Title, Published Date and Content.
You can modify the page layout to display according to how much extra space you want on your pages.
Press Prepare Print-Page to generate your PDF
PDF Generation
You will see the number of pages being populated.
When the PDF has been created you will see this screen over a preview of your generated PDF file.
Use the Print button and you will have the option to choose where to save your PDF file.
Conclusion
This is a really simple plugin to use and worked very well for the blogs I tested it with. If you want more options then Anthologize may be a better option for you.
Thanks for the review and giving folks a tutorial on how to use Print My Blog.
I’ve thought about those features you’re talking about too- choosing posts, and adding a table of contents.
Mind if I pick your brain regarding the first one?
Do you want to just pick a post or two and then print them in the default order? Or do you want to select posts, order them, and save your selection for future use like with Anthologize?
All the best!
Hi Michael, thanks for the comment.
For choosing posts I think the ability to select one or more categories of posts would be a super addition. On my test blog there were some very different topics for posts and it would be useful to be able to select just those, and print them in default order. That feature would enable a user to add a special category to specifically filter whatever blog posts they wanted.
Ahh ok great. Thanks so much for the feedback.
You’re in luck- I actually added that feature since you did your review!
(Currently I’m thinking of allowing you to just specify specific posts, which would be useful when you just want to print a single post to share with someone etc).
Table of contents on the other hand- that’s still on my to-do list.
That’s great! I’ll update the review to note that change.
This plug in looked great but Word Press themselves wish to charge you well over £200 to enable you to install it as a plug in on the WP application?
I have just sent them an email querying this explaining its a private , for own use blog of our travels with about 5 followers. Not for profit, business etc.
Not holding my breath for a helpful or favourable response (from WP)
If you’re using wordpress.com for your blog then they will charge you for any plugin isn’t a default one? All these plugins would be aimed at people with self-hosted blogs – in that case the plugin is free to use. It would cost less to have a self-hosted blog than to install a plugin at £200!
Thanks for reply Sheila
Yes, WP have confirmed I would be charged about £240.
Think I need to rethink my blogging requirements on expiry of my contract with WP
Regards
Gordon