A client prints your pricing page and ends up with the menu, the cookie banner, three ads and your footer spread over four sheets. PrintFriendly fixes this with one line of code: the visitor gets a clean version they can print or download as a PDF. It is useful, it is free, and there are two things to know before installing it.
What PrintFriendly actually does
PrintFriendly is an online service, running since 2009, that turns a web page into a readable document. When the visitor clicks the button, a preview window opens: the menu, sidebars and banners are gone, leaving only the content. They can remove a paragraph or an image with one click, shrink the text, then print, download a PDF or email the page.
The technical appeal comes down to one thing: the service detects your page's content area on its own. You have no print stylesheet to write or maintain. The resulting PDF keeps links clickable and supports Letter as well as A4 paper.
Sites where it is worth it
A print button only matters if your pages actually get printed. Among our clients, it is always the same cases:
- Pricing tables and service lists, which a client compares on paper before deciding.
- Clinics and practices: intake forms, pre-op instructions, directions.
- Restaurants and caterers, whose menus go to the kitchen or the dining room.
- Real estate: a listing sheet taken along to a showing.
- Recipes, guides and procedures followed with your hands busy.
Conversely, on a five-page brochure site nobody prints, the button adds a network request and an interface element for nothing. Better to skip it.
Installing it on WordPress
The plugin is called “Print, PDF & Email by PrintFriendly.” As of September 6, 2026, version 5.5.12 dates from August 13, 2026, is tested up to WordPress 7.1 and requires WordPress 4.9 at minimum. Its WordPress.org rating is 3.8 out of 5 across 237 reviews.
- Plugins → Add New, search for “PrintFriendly,” install and activate.
- Settings → Print Friendly & PDF: choose where the button appears (posts, pages, categories) and its position.
- Uncheck what you do not need. Many sites only need the PDF: email and print clutter the interface without being used.
- Add a header and footer with your logo, address and phone number. This is the step everyone skips, and the only one that pays off.
- Test on a real page, not the home page: flaws show up on a long article.
Installing it on a non-WordPress site
PrintFriendly provides a JavaScript button that works on any page, including over HTTPS and on password-protected sites. On a Next.js or Shopify site, you paste the script into your template and place the button wherever you want. A JavaScript-free variant exists, useful if your security policy restricts third-party scripts.
The two things to know before installing
1. The free version shows ads
The plugin is free and complete, funded by advertising. The ads do not appear on your site: they show in the preview window, between the click and the print, and never reach the paper. It is discreet, but it is a third party speaking to your visitor in the middle of your funnel. If that bothers you, the Pro version removes them—check current pricing on the vendor's site, it changes.
2. Your pages pass through an external server
To build the preview, page content is sent to PrintFriendly's servers, located outside Quebec. On a brochure site this is inconsequential: those pages are already public. But if the button ends up on a client area, a patient record or a named quote, you are disclosing personal information to a third party outside Quebec—which Law 25 governs and which must appear in your privacy policy.
In practice the rule is simple: button on public pages, never behind a login.
The in-house alternative, in ten lines of CSS
If you want neither an external service nor ads, a print stylesheet does most of the job:
@media print {
header, nav, footer, aside,
.cookie-banner, .cta, .share { display: none; }
body { background: #fff; color: #000; font-size: 12pt; }
a[href^="http"]::after { content: " (" attr(href) ")"; font-size: 9pt; }
img { max-width: 100%; page-break-inside: avoid; }
}Nothing leaves your server, no ads, no dependency. What you lose: the editable preview and PDF generation. The visitor has to use their browser's “Save as PDF” function, which most people know how to do.
What about SEO?
No direct effect. Google does not rank a page higher because it has a print button, and the generated PDF is not indexed—it is produced on demand and has no fixed URL. The effect lies elsewhere: a visitor who leaves with your document keeps your name, phone number and address in front of them, sometimes for weeks. That is a conversion gain, not a ranking gain, and it should be measured as such.
In short
PrintFriendly is a good tool for a specific need. Install it if your pages really get printed—pricing, menus, forms, listings—and take the five minutes needed to put your logo and contact details in the document header. Keep it away from authenticated pages. And if your need is simply “make it print cleanly,” the CSS block above is enough.