Create a PDF of an email on an iPhone 6s

Emails sent and received by an attorney are not just a form of communication.  Sometimes, they are themselves evidence.  Thus, attorneys often have a need to turn an email into a document, typically a PDF document.  I am frequently asked if it is possible to create a PDF version of an email on the iPhone or iPad.  I typically use Microsoft Outlook on my computer to do this (printing to a virtual PDF printer), but if you need to do it on an iOS device, it is currently possible to do so … but only if you are using an iPhone 6s (or an iPhone 6s Plus).  The reason for that limitation is that this method requires the use of 3D Touch, which is only available on those new models.  Here is how you do it.

1. Select the print option for the email

The first step is to open the email in question and select the print option.  In my example, I’ve selected an email of the BlawgWorld newsletter from TechnoLawyer.  With my email selected, I next tap the arrow at the bottom of the screen.  This causes a menu to pop up.  Just below Reply and Forward, you will see an option to Print.  Tap Print.

 

2. 3D Touch the preview

After you tap Print you will see a screen with Printer Options.  You can ignore everything on the top half of the screen, including the Print button.  Instead, just pay attention to the bottom of the screen, which shows you a preview of what it would look like if you printed the email.  You can swipe left and right to see how many pages it would be.

Everything I have showed you so far works on all iPhones and iPads, but what you next need to do only currently works on the iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus:  3D Touch on the image of the print preview.  When you first push harder on the screen, you will see the preview pop up.  (I wasn’t able to take a screenshot of this action.)  When the preview pops up, push down even harder.  That will open up the preview image into its own PDF file, which looks like this:

3. Export the PDF file

The final step is to act upon the PDF file that you just created.  Tap the action button at the top right (the box with the arrow pointing up).  That gives you all of the normal options that you see when you are working with a PDF file.  For example, you can email the PDF file, open the PDF file into one of the many apps that can handle PDF files, save the PDF file to your Dropbox, etc.

That’s it.  Now you have a PDF version of your email.

The future

There may currently be ways to turn an email into a PDF file using a third party email app, but I don’t know about it.  [UPDATE:  A comment to this post points out the at the Spark app includes this feature, and I just confirmed this in a test with my Gmail account.]  I tend not to use those apps with my work email because many of the apps require transferring my emails to a third party server, which makes me worried about confidentiality and security.  For now, the above method is the only way to create a PDF version of an email using the built-in Mail app. 

[UPDATE:  A reader emailed me to suggest taking a screenshot while you are looking at an email.  Then you can use any PDF app to convert that image to a PDF file.  I didn’t mention this when I first wrote this post because you will need to stitch together multiple screenshots to make this work, unless it is a really short email, so this is a far from elegant solution.  But it might work in a pinch.]

In the future, we will have more devices with 3D Touch — certainly more iPhones, and perhaps iPads too.  But my hope is that Apple also creates a way to make this procedure work even if you are using an older device that doesn’t have 3D Touch.  Apple will announce the next version of iOS in just a few weeks, at its developer conference called WWDC which takes place June 13 to 17, 2016 in San Francisco.  Perhaps we will see this announced soon, and available when the next iOS update comes out in a few months.  We’ll see.

For now, if you are using a new iPhone that supports 3D Touch, you already have the power to turn an email into a PDF document.

14 thoughts on “Create a PDF of an email on an iPhone 6s”

  1. Thank you for this tip, you have truly made my day! BTW, it works fine on the Microsoft Outlook app.
    Now if you could only solve my two other great peeves since moving from Android:
    1.No timed do not disturb (different than tediously scheduling it; I mean in one easy step, set do not disturb for, say, one hour). I am constantly forgetting to turn my sound back on.
    2.Can’t create a task or event from email (I know there are limited abilities as to calendaring, but nothing like drag and drop as you can in outlook desktop).
    Still, my peeves at my old Android phone were far more serious than learning to deal with these peeves.

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  2. Eloise,
    Just to clarify for others who read your comment, when you say that this tip works fine on the Outlook app on iOS, I think that what you mean is that you can use the iPhone 6s and 3D Touch — not that the Outlook app has a built-in ability to create a PDF document from an email. Unlike the Spark app, I don’t see this feature in the Outlook app.
    As for your two pet peeves, those are not functions that I have ever tried to do in iOS, so I don’t have any suggestions. As for Do Not Disturb, I have mine timed to come on automatically late at night, but I haven’t found a need to manually turn it on during the day, perhaps because my iPhone is set to silent to notifications don’t bother me. (On my Apple Watch, I only get vibrations when I get emails from folks I designate as VIPs.)
    -Jeff

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  3. Correct, I have a 6sPlus and Outlook worked using 3D touch, sorry for the confusion. I just meant to say it’s not only on the iOS email app. I’ll be looking at Spark, maybe it has developed a better ‘create event’ from email, too.
    It’s mostly the phone ringing that interrupts me, I also have very few audible notifications. But if I turn my ringer off for a meeting, it can be hours before I remember it’s off. If all my clothes had pockets I’d leave it on vibrate and be done with it!

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  4. Unfortunately, the preview on my new 6s does not pop to PDFs as it should. Must be a problem with my settings or a software bug. However I will check out the Spark app.

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  5. I’m looking to save my email to PDF and there don’t seem there is a way until I found your article !
    Thank-You Very Much to share your finding !
    I solve my problem now !!!

    Reply
  6. There’s a way with iPhone SEs, that will probably work with iPhone 4/5 and of course with 6 and above. After you select print and it shows the preview below the print options menu pinch to zoom out. Turns it into a PDF and the icon to upload appears in the lower left corner. Thank you! It was your post that pushed me to not give up and poke around more. And you can up load to gdrive, slack. iBook iCloud EVERYWHERE! Thx!!

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  7. Excellent tip. Thank you. Would never have discovered it on my own. Yes, would be nice to have a simple “Print to PDF” capability within the Mail app. Fortuitous, that I have an iPhone 6s.

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