How to Convert an .eml File to PDF

The quickest way: open the file in this browser-based viewer and choose Download PDF. It parses the email on your own device, renders it as it was sent, and hands it to your browser's print engine so you get a PDF with real, selectable text. Nothing is uploaded.

If you'd rather use software you already have, every other route is below — along with the one thing that separates a good PDF from a bad one.

The thing worth getting right

There are two ways to end up with a PDF of an email, and they produce very different files.

Printing to PDF keeps the text as text. The result is searchable, you can copy from it, screen readers can read it, and long messages paginate properly. File sizes stay small.

Screenshotting, or using a converter that rasterizes the page, produces an image wrapped in a PDF. You can't search it, you can't select from it, it's larger, and it degrades when zoomed. Several browser-based converters do this because it's easier to implement.

If the PDF is going into a case file, a client record, or anything someone might need to search later, this distinction matters more than convenience does. Everything recommended below produces text-based output.

Method 1: In your browser (no install)

1. Open the .eml viewer
2. Drag the file in, or choose it from your device
3. Check the message rendered the way you expect
4. Choose Download PDF
5. In the print dialog that appears, set the destination to Save as PDF, then save

The extra click at step 5 is what buys you selectable text rather than a screenshot.

Works on Windows, macOS, iPhone, and Android — anywhere with a modern browser. Because the parsing happens locally, this is also the route to use for anything confidential.

Method 2: Outlook

1. Double-click the .eml file to open it in Outlook
2. File → Print
3. Set the printer to Microsoft Print to PDF
4. Print, then choose where to save

Outlook's Save As → PDF option, where present, does the same thing. Note that Outlook prints the message as it displays it, so if you have remote images blocked, they'll be absent from the PDF too.

Method 3: Thunderbird

1. Open the .eml file in Thunderbird
2. File → Print
3. Choose Save to PDF as the destination

Thunderbird gives you more control over what's included — headers, attachment list — through its print preview, which is useful if you need a specific layout for a record.

Method 4: Apple Mail (macOS)

1. Double-click the .eml to open it in Mail
2. File → Print
3. In the print dialog, click the PDF dropdown at the bottom left
4. Save as PDF

Be aware Mail may file the message into your mailbox when it opens it, which you may not want if you're handling something that should stay separate.

Converting several at once

For a handful, the browser viewer handles multiple files in one session — open them all, then save each in turn.

For hundreds, you want automation rather than clicking. Thunderbird with the ImportExportTools NG add-on can process a directory. On the command line, mhonarc or a short script using Python's built-in email module will parse a folder of .eml files and render them; pair it with wkhtmltopdf or a headless browser for the PDF step. That's a developer task, but it's a well-trodden one.

Be sceptical of bulk online converters. Uploading a folder of emails to a third-party service is a disclosure decision, not just a technical one.

What to check in the finished PDF

Headers are present. From, To, Date, and Subject should all appear. A PDF of an email body with no headers is much weaker as a record.

Attachments are accounted for. Printing to PDF captures the message, not the files attached to it. Save those separately — a good viewer lists them as downloads — and note them in your filename or folder structure.

Remote images. If the email pulled images from a server and you blocked them, they won't be in the PDF. If you need the visual record complete, load them before printing — but know that loading a remote image in a marketing or phishing email typically tells the sender you opened it.

Text is selectable. Try to select a line in the finished PDF. If you can't, you got a screenshot, and it's worth redoing.

A note on confidentiality

Most .eml files people need to convert are not newsletters. They're invoices, contracts, disputes, HR matters, medical correspondence, legal holds.

Every online converter that asks you to upload a file is asking you to hand that document to a third party. Some delete promptly; some don't say; some reserve rights in their terms that people don't read. For anything covered by an NDA, privilege, HIPAA, or GDPR, that upload may itself be the problem — regardless of whether anything bad happens afterwards.

Tools that run in your browser sidestep it: the file is read by your own machine and never transmitted. That's how this one works.

Common questions

Can I convert .eml to PDF for free? Yes — every method here is free. Printing to PDF is built into Windows, macOS, and every major browser.

Will the PDF include attachments? No. The PDF captures the message; attachments must be saved separately. Some tools list them on the PDF so the record is complete.

Can I do this on my phone? Yes. Open the file in a browser viewer and use your phone's share or print function to save as PDF.

Does converting change the email? It creates a copy in a different format. Keep the original .eml — it holds the routing headers that a PDF can't fully preserve, and that's the part that carries evidential weight.

What about .msg files? Same print-to-PDF approach, but you'll need Outlook to open them. Here's the difference between the formats.

Why is my PDF blank? The email probably has only an HTML body and whatever opened it displayed the plain-text part instead. Open it in a proper viewer and try again.

Convert your .eml to PDF now — free, in your browser, nothing uploaded.