Email to PDF, with the attachments
How to save an email as a PDF with its attachments — and why Print-to-PDF loses them
Printing an email to PDF is easy and free, and it is usually the right answer for one message. It is also why so many filed emails have a PDF and no attachment. This guide is the whole picture: what each free method produces, what it drops, and how to keep everything together.
The free ways, honestly — what each gives you and what it loses
These are methods, not products, and each of them is fine for what it is. The point is to know exactly what is in the file at the end.
Print → Save as PDF from your mail app
Apple Mail, Outlook, Thunderbird and Windows Mail all do this from the Print dialog. You get the message body with a header block (usually From, Subject, Date, To).
You get: the message as a page. Lost: the attachments — they are listed by name at most, not included; long recipient lists are often cropped; inline images sometimes print, sometimes don't.
Gmail's print view
Open the message, choose Print, and save as PDF from the browser's print dialog. Good header detail — Gmail prints From, To, Date and Subject cleanly.
You get: a tidy page of the conversation. Lost: the attachments again; Gmail shows their names and icons, and the PDF contains neither.
Drag the email out to the desktop (Mac)
Drag a message from Apple Mail to the desktop and you get an .eml file. Preview will not open it; Mail will, which takes you back to Print → Save as PDF.
You get: the original message file — worth keeping. Lost: nothing yet, but it is not a PDF and it needs a mail app to read.
"Export as PDF"
Apple Mail's File → Export as PDF is the Print route with fewer clicks and the same result.
You get: the body and a header block. Lost: the attachments.
Screenshot
Quick, and sometimes all a colleague wants.
You get: a picture of the screen. Lost: the header block is usually cropped, nothing is searchable, and the attachments are elsewhere.
Forward it to yourself (or the requester)
Tempting for a bundle: forward the lot to one address.
You get: copies, in a mailbox. Lost: the original header block is rewritten as a forward; it is not a file, and it has now travelled through a mail server.
A free online converter
Upload the message file, download a PDF.
You get: a PDF, one file at a time. Lost: the file left your computer to become one — for the correspondence people most often need to file, that is the wrong trade.
Whichever route: keep the attachments next to the PDF, and name them so they match
If you use any of the free methods, save each attachment into the same folder as its PDF and give both the same prefix — the date and a few words of the subject work well: 2026-03-14 contract — email.pdf, 2026-03-14 contract — signed.pdf. It is dull, and it is the difference between a folder someone can use and a folder they have to reconstruct. For one or two emails it takes a minute.
What you get, next to the free ways
The same facts as a table. The free columns describe the method as it typically behaves; your mail app may differ in detail.
| What you need | Print to PDF from your mail app | Screenshot | Forward it to yourself | Free online converter | Foldavo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The attachments, kept with the email | printed separately or not at all | lost | still separate files | one file at a time; uploaded | embedded inside the same PDF, listed in the PDF's attachment panel; never opened or executed |
| Sender, recipient, subject, date, the header block | partly | usually cropped | rewritten as a forward | varies | preserved as the email carried them |
| A folder of emails in one go | one at a time | one at a time | one at a time | one at a time | a folder of them, in one go |
| Your file never leaves your computer | yes | yes | no (it goes to a mail server) | no — you upload it | yes |
| No mail app needed to open it | yes | yes | no | yes | an ordinary PDF — no mail app needed to open it |
| Works with saved .eml and .msg files | only if your mail app opens them | n/a | n/a | some formats | both |
Where Foldavo fits
Foldavo writes one PDF per email with the attachments embedded inside it — the message on the page, the header block at the top, the files in the attachment panel — done on your own machine, with nothing uploaded. The free trial converts one real email completely, so you can compare its PDF with the free method on the same message before deciding anything. A licence is £59, one-time, and does whole folders. Checkout by Lemon Squeezy.
Being straight with you: For one email with no attachments, the free way is fine, and you should use it. The problem this guide is about is a folder of them, and the attachments. Attachments are embedded inside the same PDF and listed in the PDF's attachment panel — they are never opened or executed. Inline JPEG and PNG images are drawn on the page as well; every other attachment stays the file it was, one click away inside the PDF. Text in Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean scripts is rendered; Thai, Indic scripts and emoji are shown as a question mark.