CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html> <html class="writer-html5" lang="en" data-content_root="./"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8" /> <meta name="readthedocs-addons-api-version" content="1"><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /> <meta property="og:title" content="Offline formats (PDF, ePub, HTML)" /> <meta property="og:type" content="website" /> <meta property="og:url" content="https://docs.readthedocs.com/platform/stable/downloadable-documentation.html" /> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Read the Docs Documentation" /> <meta property="og:description" content="This page will provide an overview of a core Read the Docs feature: building docs in multiple formats. Read the Docs supports the following formats by default: PDF, ePub, Zipped HTML. This means that every commit that you push will automatically update your offline formats as well as your documen..." /> <meta property="og:image" content="https://docs.readthedocs.com/platform/stable/_images/offline-formats.jpg" /> <meta property="og:image:alt" content="Read the Docs Documentation" /> <meta name="description" content="This page will provide an overview of a core Read the Docs feature: building docs in multiple formats. Read the Docs supports the following formats by default: PDF, ePub, Zipped HTML. This means that every commit that you push will automatically update your offline formats as well as your documen..." /> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> <title>Offline formats (PDF, ePub, HTML) — Read the Docs user documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/pygments.css?v=b86133f3" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/css/theme.css?v=e59714d7" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/copybutton.css?v=76b2166b" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/sphinx-design.min.css?v=95c83b7e" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/css/custom.css?v=da32ccdd" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="_static/css/sphinx_prompt_css.css?v=351d85e3" /> <link rel="canonical" href="https://docs.readthedocs.com/platform/stable/downloadable-documentation.html" /> <script src="_static/jquery.js?v=5d32c60e"></script> <script src="_static/_sphinx_javascript_frameworks_compat.js?v=2cd50e6c"></script> <script src="_static/documentation_options.js?v=ef5a3e6d"></script> <script src="_static/doctools.js?v=9bcbadda"></script> <script src="_static/sphinx_highlight.js?v=dc90522c"></script> <script src="_static/clipboard.min.js?v=a7894cd8"></script> <script src="_static/copybutton.js?v=f281be69"></script> <script src="_static/design-tabs.js?v=f930bc37"></script> <script src="_static/js/expand_tabs.js?v=1e151f68"></script> <script src="_static/js/theme.js"></script> <script src="_static/js/versions.js"></script> <link rel="index" title="Index" href="genindex.html" /> <link rel="search" title="Search" href="search.html" /> <link rel="next" title="Visual diff" href="visual-diff.html" /> <link rel="prev" title="robots.txt support" href="reference/robots.html" /> <script defer data-domain="docs.readthedocs.io" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script> <script async type="text/javascript" src="/_/static/javascript/readthedocs-addons.js"></script><meta name="readthedocs-project-slug" content="docs" /><meta name="readthedocs-version-slug" content="stable" /><meta name="readthedocs-resolver-filename" content="/downloadable-documentation.html" /><meta name="readthedocs-http-status" content="200" /></head> <body class="wy-body-for-nav"> <div class="wy-grid-for-nav"> <nav data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-side"> <div class="wy-side-scroll"> <div class="wy-side-nav-search" > <a href="index.html"> <img src="_static/logo.svg" class="logo" alt="Logo"/> </a> <div class="switch-menus"> <div class="version-switch"></div> <div class="language-switch"></div> </div> <div role="search"> <form id="rtd-search-form" class="wy-form" action="search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" placeholder="Search docs" aria-label="Search docs" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> </div> </div><div class="wy-menu wy-menu-vertical" data-spy="affix" role="navigation" aria-label="Navigation menu"> <p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Getting started</span></p> <ul> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="tutorial/index.html">Tutorial</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="intro/add-project.html">Adding a documentation project</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="intro/doctools.html">Popular documentation tools</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="examples.html">Example projects</a></li> </ul> <p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Project setup and configuration</span></p> <ul> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="config-file/index.html">Configuration file overview</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="config-file/v2.html">Configuration file reference</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="addons.html">Read the Docs Addons</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="intro/accounts.html">Account authentication methods</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="automation-rules.html">Automation rules</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/reproducible-builds.html">How to create reproducible builds</a></li> </ul> <p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Build process</span></p> <ul> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="builds.html">Build process overview</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="build-customization.html">Build process customization</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="reference/git-integration.html">Git integration (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket)</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="pull-requests.html">Pull request previews</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="build-notifications.html">Build failure notifications</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="environment-variables.html">Environment variable overview</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="reference/environment-variables.html">Environment variable reference</a></li> </ul> <p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Hosting documentation</span></p> <ul> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="versions.html">Versions</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="subprojects.html">Subprojects</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="localization.html">Localization and Internationalization</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="versioning-schemes.html">URL versioning schemes</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="custom-domains.html">Custom domains</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="doc-notifications.html">Documentation notifications</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="canonical-urls.html">Canonical URLs</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="reference/cdn.html">Content Delivery Network (CDN) and caching</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="reference/sitemaps.html">Sitemap support</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="reference/404-not-found.html"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">404</span> <span class="pre">Not</span> <span class="pre">Found</span></code> pages</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="reference/robots.html"><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">robots.txt</span></code> support</a></li> </ul> <p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Reading documentation</span></p> <ul class="current"> <li class="toctree-l1 current"><a class="current reference internal" href="#">Offline formats (PDF, ePub, HTML)</a><ul> <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#use-cases">Use cases</a></li> <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#accessing-offline-formats">Accessing offline formats</a></li> <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#examples">Examples</a></li> <li class="toctree-l2"><a class="reference internal" href="#continue-learning">Continue learning</a></li> </ul> </li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="visual-diff.html">Visual diff</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="link-previews.html">Link previews</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/embedding-content.html">How to embed content from your documentation</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="server-side-search/index.html">Server side search</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="server-side-search/syntax.html">Search query syntax</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="flyout-menu.html">Flyout menu</a></li> </ul> <p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Maintaining projects</span></p> <ul> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="user-defined-redirects.html">Redirects</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="traffic-analytics.html">Traffic analytics</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="search-analytics.html">Search analytics</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="security-log.html">Security logs</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="badges.html">Status badges</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="explanation/documentation-structure.html">How to structure your documentation</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/best-practice/links.html">Best practices for linking to your documentation</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="security-implications.html">Security considerations for documentation pages</a></li> </ul> <p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Business features</span></p> <ul> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="commercial/index.html">Business hosting</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="commercial/organizations.html">Organizations</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="commercial/single-sign-on.html">Single Sign-On (SSO)</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="commercial/sharing.html">Sharing private documentation</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="commercial/subscriptions.html">How to manage your subscription</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="commercial/privacy-level.html">Privacy levels</a></li> </ul> <p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">How-to guides</span></p> <ul> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/setup/index.html">Project setup and configuration</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/build/index.html">Build process</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/maintenance/index.html">Upgrading and maintaining projects</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/content/index.html">Content, themes and SEO</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/access/index.html">Security and access</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/management/index.html">Account management</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/best-practice/index.html">Best practice</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="guides/troubleshooting/index.html">Troubleshooting problems</a></li> </ul> <p class="caption" role="heading"><span class="caption-text">Reference</span></p> <ul> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="api/index.html">Public REST API</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="faq.html">Frequently asked questions</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="changelog.html">Changelog</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference internal" href="about/index.html">About Read the Docs</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference external" href="https://dev.readthedocs.io">Developer Documentation</a></li> <li class="toctree-l1"><a class="reference external" href="https://about.readthedocs.com">Read the Docs website</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </nav> <section data-toggle="wy-nav-shift" class="wy-nav-content-wrap"><nav class="wy-nav-top" aria-label="Mobile navigation menu" > <i data-toggle="wy-nav-top" class="fa fa-bars"></i> <a href="index.html">Read the Docs user documentation</a> </nav> <div class="wy-nav-content"> <div class="rst-content"> <div role="navigation" aria-label="Page navigation"> <ul class="wy-breadcrumbs"> <li><a href="index.html" class="icon icon-home" aria-label="Home"></a></li> <li class="breadcrumb-item active">Offline formats (PDF, ePub, HTML)</li> <li class="wy-breadcrumbs-aside"> <a href="https://github.com/readthedocs/readthedocs.org/blob/main/docs/user/downloadable-documentation.rst" class="fa fa-github"> Edit on GitHub</a> </li> </ul> <hr/> </div> <div role="main" class="document" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article"> <div itemprop="articleBody"> <section id="offline-formats-pdf-epub-html"> <h1>Offline formats (PDF, ePub, HTML)<a class="headerlink" href="#offline-formats-pdf-epub-html" title="Link to this heading"></a></h1> <p>This page will provide an overview of a core Read the Docs feature: building docs in multiple formats.</p> <p>Read the Docs supports the following formats by default:</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p>PDF</p></li> <li><p>ePub</p></li> <li><p>Zipped HTML</p></li> </ul> <p>This means that every commit that you push will automatically update your offline formats as well as your documentation website.</p> <section id="use-cases"> <h2>Use cases<a class="headerlink" href="#use-cases" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2> <p>This functionality is great for anyone who needs documentation when they aren’t connected to the internet. Users who are about to get on a plane can grab a single file and have the entire documentation during their trip. Many academic and scientific projects benefit from these additional formats.</p> <p>PDF versions are also helpful to automatically <strong>create printable versions of your documentation</strong>. The source of your documentation will be structured to support both online and offline formats. This means that a documentation project displayed as a website can be downloaded as a PDF, ready to be printed as a report or a book.</p> <p>Offline formats also support having the entire documentation in a single file. Your entire documentation can now be delivered as an email attachment, uploaded to an eReader, or accessed and searched locally without online latency. This makes your documentation project <strong>easy to redistribute or archive</strong>.</p> </section> <section id="accessing-offline-formats"> <h2>Accessing offline formats<a class="headerlink" href="#accessing-offline-formats" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2> <p>You can download offline formats in the <span class="guilabel">Project dashboard</span> > <span class="guilabel">Downloads</span>:</p> <a class="reference internal image-reference" href="_images/offline-formats.jpg"><img alt="_images/offline-formats.jpg" src="_images/offline-formats.jpg" style="width: 75%;" /> </a> <p>When you are browsing a documentation project, they can also be accessed directly from the <a class="reference internal" href="flyout-menu.html"><span class="doc">Flyout menu</span></a>.</p> </section> <section id="examples"> <h2>Examples<a class="headerlink" href="#examples" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2> <p>If you want to see an example, you can download the Read the Docs documentation in the following formats:</p> <blockquote> <div><ul class="simple"> <li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://docs.readthedocs.io/_/downloads/en/latest/pdf/">PDF</a></p></li> <li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://docs.readthedocs.io/_/downloads/en/latest/epub/">ePub</a></p></li> <li><p><a class="reference external" href="https://docs.readthedocs.io/_/downloads/en/latest/htmlzip/">Zipped HTML</a></p></li> </ul> </div></blockquote> </section> <section id="continue-learning"> <h2>Continue learning<a class="headerlink" href="#continue-learning" title="Link to this heading"></a></h2> <p>Downloadable documentation formats are built by your documentation framework. They are then published by Read the Docs and included in your <a class="reference internal" href="glossary.html#term-flyout-menu"><span class="xref std std-term">Flyout menu</span></a>. Therefore, it’s your framework that decides exactly how each output is built and which formats are supported:</p> <dl class="simple"> <dt>Sphinx</dt><dd><p>All output formats are built mostly lossless from the documentation source, meaning that your documentation source (reStructuredText or Markdown/MyST) is built from scratch for each output format.</p> </dd> <dt>MkDocs and Docsify + more</dt><dd><p>The common case for most documentation frameworks is that several alternative extensions exist supporting various output formats. Most of the extensions export the HTML outputs as another format (for instance PDF) through a conversion process.</p> </dd> </dl> <p>Because Sphinx supports the generation of offline formats through an official process, we are also able to support it officially. Other alternatives can also work, provided that you identify which extension you want to use and configure the environment for it to run. <strong>Other formats aren’t natively supported by Read the Docs, but support is coming soon.</strong></p> <div class="admonition seealso"> <p class="admonition-title">See also</p> <p>Other pages in our documentation are relevant to this feature, and might be a useful next step.</p> <ul class="simple"> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="guides/enable-offline-formats.html"><span class="doc">How to enable offline formats</span></a> - Guide to enabling and disabling this feature.</p></li> <li><p><a class="reference internal" href="config-file/v2.html#formats"><span class="std std-ref">formats</span></a> - Configuration file options for offline formats.</p></li> </ul> </div> </section> </section> </div> </div> <footer><div class="rst-footer-buttons" role="navigation" aria-label="Footer"> <a href="reference/robots.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-left" title="robots.txt support" accesskey="p" rel="prev"><span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-left" aria-hidden="true"></span> Previous</a> <a href="visual-diff.html" class="btn btn-neutral float-right" title="Visual diff" accesskey="n" rel="next">Next <span class="fa fa-arrow-circle-right" aria-hidden="true"></span></a> </div> <hr/> <div role="contentinfo"> <p>© Copyright Read the Docs, Inc & contributors.</p> </div> Built with <a href="https://www.sphinx-doc.org/">Sphinx</a> using a <a href="https://github.com/readthedocs/sphinx_rtd_theme">theme</a> provided by <a href="https://readthedocs.org">Read the Docs</a>. </footer> </div> </div> </section> </div> <script> jQuery(function () { SphinxRtdTheme.Navigation.enable(true); }); </script> </body> </html>