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How to Save a Webpage as a PDF in Safari With Background Colors

Use Safari’s print dialog to save a webpage as a PDF on Mac, and check the preview and available print options before expecting background colors to appear.
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On a Mac, open the page in Safari, choose File > Print, then use the print dialog’s PDF menu and choose Save as PDF. To include background colors, inspect Safari’s print options for a Print backgrounds control. It may not be available in every current version of Safari, so check the preview before saving.

Save a Safari webpage as a PDF on Mac

  1. Open the webpage in Safari.
  2. Choose File > Print.
  3. Review the print preview and Safari-specific options. If the dialog offers Print backgrounds, turn it on, then check whether the preview reflects the page’s background colors.
  4. Open the PDF pop-up menu and choose Save as PDF.
  5. Choose a file name and destination, then save.

The PDF menu is Apple’s documented route for creating a PDF from Mac print settings. The background checkbox is less certain: an older Safari instruction sheet shows one, but current Apple user documentation does not establish that it remains available in every Safari version or specify a universal location. If you do not see it in your print dialog, Safari may not offer a user-facing background-print switch in that version.

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Why background colors may be missing

A webpage’s print appearance depends partly on how the site styles pages for printing. A print preview can therefore differ from the page as it appears in the browser, even when you are able to enable background printing. Review the preview before saving, and open the resulting PDF to confirm the colors and layout you need are present.

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Apple’s WebKit developer documentation describes a shouldPrintBackgrounds preference for web views, with a default of false in the WKPreferences documentation. That is a setting for developers building apps with web views, not proof of a matching switch in Safari’s normal print dialog.

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Save a webpage as a PDF on iPhone or iPad

  1. Open the page in Safari and tap Share.
  2. Choose Markup. Depending on the device layout, you may need to open More to find it.
  3. When finished with the markup screen, choose Save File To and select a destination.

This is Apple’s documented way to save a webpage as a PDF on iPhone or iPad. The steps and labels can vary with the device layout. Apple’s instructions do not promise that every background color or decorative page element will appear in the saved PDF.

When a Web Archive is a better fit

If you need to keep a webpage for later rather than deliver it as a PDF, Safari on Mac can save a Web Archive using File > Save As. A Web Archive can include graphics and links, as long as the target pages remain available. Some websites may prevent items from being saved. The other option, Page Source, saves HTML source only. Neither option creates a PDF.

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Reader themes are not a reliable PDF color workaround

Safari Reader can change the background theme, font, and zoom for supported articles. Apple’s Reader instructions do not say that a selected Reader theme is retained when printing or saving a PDF. Use Reader to make an article more comfortable to read, not as a guaranteed way to put its theme colors into a PDF.

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Or skip the browser setup

If you need a PDF capture through an API instead of Safari’s print dialog, ScreenshotNeo accepts a URL and can return a PDF. Its consent-banner, popup, and chat-widget removal options can be turned off; bot checks, blank pages, failed loads, timeouts, and cache hits are not billed, with the outcome reflected in response headers. Its MCP server provides screenshot tools for AI agents. The Free plan includes 1,000 shots a month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation.

curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.pdf

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