Sometimes you need to rush for a meeting or presentation when reading an interesting article on a website. Browsers offers an easy option to bookmark or favorite the page and sync across your devices to read it later. However, what if you want to read the page offline later while traveling in your flight? Here are the options for you to save the webpage offline. If you are looking for finding the previously visited webpages from cache when they are not available, check our separate article on how to do that in Google Chrome.
Reading Webpages Offline
Since you may be using Chrome, Edge, Firefox or any other browser, the process of saving webpage for offline read depends on the browser you use. Here we will list down options for different browsers and you can choose the one suitable for your need.
1. Download Webpage in HTML Format
The best option is to download the entire webpage to your computer which should work on all the browsers. Simply press “Control + S” in Windows and “Command “ S” in macOS and choose the location on your computer to save the webpage. This will create two files:
- HTML file – double click on this HTML file to open with the default browser.
- A folder – containing all the files required for the webpage to work.
Both HTML and folder will be named from the title of the webpage which you will see on the browser’s title bar.
Note that you can also download the entire website with complete structure locally on your Mac using apps like SiteSucker.
2. Save Webpage in PDF Format
Though downloading HTML file works on all the browser, as mentioned it will have HTML file as well as a corresponding folder containing files. If you want to keep the entire webpage as a single PDF file, then there is also an in-built option available for you.
- Press “Control + P” in Windows or “Command + P” in macOS to open print dialog box.
- Select the “Destination” as “Save as PDF” and click on “Save” button.
- Choose the location on your computer and save the file.
3. Pocket – Read It Later
Pocket is a freemium service that allows you to save pages for offline reading later. You need to register for an account and access the saved webpages across your devices by logging in to your account. In addition, you can also get content curation based on your interest from pocket. If you are using Firefox, you can see a small “Save to Pocket” icon showing next to address bar of the browser. Since Mozilla is the owner of pocket service, they simply integrate it on their Firefox browser.
Good part is that “Save to Pocket” extensions are available for all popular browsers like Chrome, Edge and Mac Safari. In addition, you can use the iOS and Android apps to synchronize webpages offline from all your devices in one single place.
Note: Since Microsoft Edge is based on the same Chromium backend used by Google Chrome browser, you can use all extensions from Chrome Web Store in Edge also.
4. Kiwix
It is a non-profit, free and open source service that compress and offers online websites as offline ZIM files. You can download these ZIM files and link to Kiwix desktop/mobile apps and browser extensions. This helps to browse the linked website content offline without internet connectivity. You can use the entire Wikipedia and other educational material offline. Though you can only read the content offered by Kiwix, there are huge library of content you can get from their library. The apps are available for Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android and you can download the browser extensions for popular browsers like Chrome, Edge and Firefox.
Note that this app can consume large storage space depending upon the library file you download. For example, the entire Wikipedia file will need more than 90GB size. Therefore, make sure you have sufficient storage space on your device to use this app.
5. Evernote Web Clipper
If you love Evernote for notes taking, then this extension is for you. It allows you to save webpages to Evernote account for offline reading. You can use the entire page or a screenshot to integrate with your notes easily. It is also possible to highlight text and annotate content on the saved webpages.
Evernote Web Clipper extension is available for Chrome, Edge and Firefox.
6. SingleFile
As explained above in method 1, saving the webpage content as a HTML file will create an addition folder containing all backend files. This will create problems like some images not loading properly when you open the HTML file. SingleFile browser extension, as the name indicates allows you to save the entire webpage as a single HTML file without any additional folders. This is super useful when you want to share the webpage as a single file. You can simply click on the extension icon to download the entire page for offline reading with all images.
SingleFile extension is available for Chrome, Edge and Firefox.
7. EpubPress – Read the web offline
This extension allows you to create an eBook by collecting multiple webpages. You can read the collection offline later without internet connection. EpubPress extension is available for Chrome and Firefox.
8. Instapaper
Instapaper offers iOS and Android apps allowing you to save webpages for reading them later. You need an account to save webpages including videos and sync across all your devices. There is also an official Instapaper Save app for Mac and a third-party app called Storyvoid for Windows. Alternatively, you can login to Instapaper website and view all your saved webpages. You can also use the browser extensions on Chrome and Firefox to save webpages to your Instapaper account for reading them later.
Final Words
We hope one of the above listed services or apps helped you to save webpages for offline reading. You can use the default save as HTML or PDF option in browsers for reading webpages offline once in a while. However, if you frequently want to read the pages later then using browser extensions or services like Pocket is the best choice.
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