Chrome and Firefox extensions to save pages of a website or blog in a PDF or EPUB file or in an Ebook digital book.
How many times has it happened that we have not had time to read an interesting article found on the web and, upon returning home, no longer remember which article or a link was to be able to read it, thus losing all interest in recovering that interesting reading that we started pointing. If an article, a series of pages, an in-depth study, or news are worth saving and reading at a later time, it may be a good idea to save the web pages as if they were digital books (in EPUB or MOBI format), so to be able to read them even from the e-book reader or from the Kindle even offline, without internet connection.To save web pages in a digital book you can use some simple web browser extensions, so you can immediately save pages that deserve to be kept as digital books and read them offline at a later time. You can therefore convert sites into digital books, compatible with all e-books on the market e save a web page in EPUB, in MOBI (the compatible format for Kindle), and in Pdf format.
READ ALSO -> Download entire websites to your computer to keep or modify them
Convert site to EPUB
To convert a website into a digital book in EPUB format we can use the extension Save as eBook, available free for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox.
Once installed on the browser, let’s go to the web page to save in EPUB, press the extension icon (in the shape of a book) then choose the item Save Page to save the whole page or enter Save Selection to save only the selected text portion. If we want to create a real book with various web pages open, open them all, press the book-shaped icon, and use the voice Add Page as Character, by clicking on all the sites in the order in which we want them to appear in the book; in the end, we press again on the extension and confirm the creation of the book, so as to obtain an EPUB file in the Download folder with all the web pages we had added as chapters.
Alternatively, we can use the service Dotepub, available as a free extension for Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox but also as a simple bookmarklet (to be added to the address bar).
By installing this extension or clicking on the bookmarklet once on the site to be saved, we will quickly obtain a site conversion, which will be immediately downloaded in EPUB format without images; in the extension settings and before saving the bookmarklet we can also disable the Immersion Mode, so you can also save the images of the site (for those who want to save for example guides or images of the article or page to be saved). In addition to the EPUB format, it allows you to save pages in MOBI format, compatible with Kindles.
To learn more we can also read our guide How to open EPUB files on Windows 10.
Convert site to MOBI (Kindle)
If we have an Amazon Kindle it cannot read EPUB files, but it supports MOBI files, which can be obtained with the dotepub extension (seen in the previous chapter) or by using a dedicated extension such as Push to Kindle, which can be installed as an extension for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
After installing the extension we retrieve the personalized email of the Kindle (to which to send the conversions), we insert the email of the extension among those authorized to send textbooks and, as soon as ready, we go to the site to be converted into a book digital and press on extension; a preview window will open, where you can change the shape and layout before sending. Once sent, we check the Kindle: if the Amazon e-book reader is connected to Wi-Fi, it will automatically download the new book, so that you can calmly read any article, guide, or in-depth analysis of the web.
If instead, we want to keep the EPUB format to download the books we can anyway carry out digital book conversions (including those from web pages) using the Caliber program, available for free download for Windows, Linux, and Mac from the official website.
By installing this program on the computer we will be able to view all the digital books we have created with the extensions seen so far but also convert the books into a particular format (from EPUB to MOBI) and immediately send the books to the connected e-book reader (with automatic conversion to the case of incompatible formats).
READ ALSO: How to transfer web pages to Kindle and read websites
Convert site to PDF
Converting a web page to PDF is probably the simplest procedure of all, as all modern browsers have a virtual printing system that saves the pages in PDF format. On Google Chrome, for example, just go to the page to save, press the buttons CTRL+P on the keyboard, select as the destination Save as PDF and finally press on Save.
Alternatively, we can always use the PDF printer built into Windows 10, which we can call up from any web browser. If we want to follow this path, let’s go to the site to be saved as a PDF digital book, press CTRL + P again (applies to all browsers), select as keyboard Microsoft Print to PDF and finally we press the button Print.
To find out other effective methods to save PDF files on PC and Mac we can read our guides Best virtual printers to create pdf from documents and web pages, free for Windows, and How to print PDF documents on Mac.
Conclusions
Creating your own personal digital books starting from the web pages is really very simple and, whatever the e-book reader used, we can always save our favorite contents in EPUB or MOBI format, which are the most used formats for e-books. If we need PDF files we can rely on integrated virtual printers, while if we have to switch from one format to another, the caliber program is for us.
To discover the methods to read books for free and without limits, we invite you to read our guides Best sites to download free books in Italian (eBook, pdf, epub) e Kindle Unlimited Guide: How to Read Ebooks Without Limits.