Convert email to PDF — EML, Outlook MSG and whole MBOX mailboxes
The Email to PDF converter turns saved emails into clean, paginated PDFs. Drop in .eml files from Gmail, Apple Mail or Thunderbird, .msg files from Microsoft Outlook, or a whole .mbox mailbox export: every message comes out with a tidy header block — From, Date, To, Cc, Subject and attachments — followed by its formatted body and pictures.
Use it when an email has to become a document: evidence for a dispute or insurance claim, an order confirmation for your accounts, a contract thread for a lawyer, or years of correspondence for an archive. Attachments can be embedded inside the PDF, so the invoice travels with the email that delivered it.
Your mail never leaves your device. Messages are decoded and laid out in your browser, scripts inside emails never run, and remote images — often tracking pixels — stay blocked unless you choose to load them.
How to convert emails to PDF
- Drop your .eml, .msg or .mbox files on the upload area, or press Try a sample email. Each message is listed with its subject, sender and date.
- Click a message to preview it. Tick Load remote images only if you trust the sender.
- Untick messages you don’t need, then choose the page size, margins and whether attachments are embedded in the PDF or only listed.
- Choose One PDF per email, or One PDF, bookmarked for a single file with a bookmark per message.
- Press Download PDF; several PDFs arrive in one ZIP. For Hindi, Chinese or other scripts, Print to PDF keeps every character selectable.
Email to PDF features
Three formats in one tool
MIME emails (.eml and Apple Mail .emlx) are read with postal-mime (MIT-0), Outlook .msg files with msgreader (Apache-2.0) — including compressed RTF bodies — and .mbox mailboxes are split into messages.
Real, selectable text
Each email is laid out by your browser, then every word is placed in the PDF as Noto Sans vector text where it appeared on screen. Links stay clickable.
Attachments inside the PDF
Embedded files keep their original bytes and names. Click a file name in the header block, or open your reader’s attachments panel, to save it again.
Bookmarks for big batches
A combined PDF gets one bookmark per email, with its subject and date, so a long mailbox export stays easy to navigate.
Safe, private rendering
Scripts, event handlers and embedded objects are stripped, the preview runs in a sandboxed frame without script permission, and pictures referenced with cid: are drawn from the message itself.
Which email files can you convert?
Thunderbird folders (Inbox, Sent) are files without an extension: copy one, add .mbox and drop it here.
| File | Where it comes from | How it is read |
|---|---|---|
| .eml | Gmail (⋮ → Download message), Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Outlook on the web | MIME (RFC 5322): quoted-printable and base64 parts, RFC 2047 headers, any character set your browser supports |
| .msg | Outlook for Windows: drag a message to a folder, or File → Save As | Sender, To/Cc/Bcc, sent date, HTML, text or compressed RTF body, attachments and attached emails |
| .mbox | Google Takeout, Thunderbird folders, Apple Mail “Export Mailbox” | Split at each “From ” line, with mboxrd “>From” escaping undone |
| .emlx | Apple Mail’s storage folders | Apple’s byte count and metadata removed, then read as .eml |
What ends up in the PDF
- Header block: the subject as a title, then From, Date in your time zone, To, Cc, Bcc, Reply-To when it differs, and each attachment with its size.
- Body: the HTML version with its layout, colours, tables and pictures, or the plain text with its line breaks. Pages break between lines of text, never through one.
- Attachments: stored as PDF file attachments, shown in the paperclip panel of Adobe Acrobat Reader, Firefox and most desktop readers.
- Document properties: title, author (the sender) and subject, which help document-management systems index the file.
Download PDF or Print to PDF?
Download PDF builds the file with jsPDF and pdf-lib (both MIT). Noto Sans (SIL Open Font Licence) covers the Latin, Greek and Cyrillic alphabets and symbols such as ₹, € and £; runs it can’t typeset — Devanagari, Chinese, Japanese, emoji — are drawn as crisp images in place, so they look right but aren’t searchable.
Print to PDF sends the same document to your browser’s print engine; pick “Save as PDF” in the dialog. Every script stays real text in the email’s own fonts, but there are no embedded attachments or bookmarks.
Tips for legal, tax and archive copies
- Keep the original .eml or .msg next to the PDF: only the original carries the technical headers (Received lines, DKIM signatures) that show where a message came from. Email to TXT with “All headers” gives you a readable copy of them.
- Combine the result with other evidence in Merge PDF, and get files back out later with the PDF Attachment Extractor.
Email to PDF FAQ
How do I convert an email to PDF for free?
Save the email as a file — “Download message” in Gmail gives an .eml, dragging a message out of Outlook gives a .msg — then drop it here and press Download PDF. No sign-up, watermark or limit.
Can I convert a whole MBOX mailbox to PDF at once?
Yes. Drop the .mbox file and choose “One PDF, bookmarked” for a single document with a bookmark per email, or “One PDF per email” for a ZIP of separate files. Long mailboxes are listed headers-first.
Are attachments included in the PDF?
With “Embed the files in the PDF” selected, each attachment is stored inside the PDF unchanged. Open the paperclip panel in Adobe Acrobat Reader or Firefox, or click the file name in the header block, to save it.
Is it safe to open emails from unknown senders here?
Yes. Scripts and event handlers are removed, the preview is sandboxed with scripts switched off, and nothing is sent to a server. Remote images stay blocked unless you allow them, so a tracking pixel can’t report that you opened the message.
Why is some text in my PDF not selectable?
Download PDF embeds Noto Sans, and scripts that need complex shaping, such as Devanagari, or that the font lacks, such as Chinese and emoji, are placed as images. Use Print to PDF → Save as PDF to keep them as text.
Can’t I just print the email from Gmail or Outlook?
For one message, yes: Gmail ⋮ → Print → Save as PDF, or Outlook File → Print → Microsoft Print to PDF. This converter is for saved files, many emails at once, and keeping attachments inside the PDF.