Convert email to PDF, automatically

Why save emails as PDF

Some emails are documents. An order confirmation that is your only receipt. A booking that lists the terms you agreed to. A supplier's quote written in the body rather than attached. A customer's written approval. Bookkeepers, auditors and archive folders all want these as PDFs, not as messages in somebody's mailbox.

The usual method is to open each one, print, choose "Save as PDF", rename the file and drag it into a folder. It works for one email. It does not work for every receipt that arrives at receipts@ over a year.

How automatic email to PDF works

In MXcatch, each alias has actions that run on every incoming email. The actions that store or send the message — Save to S3, Save to Dropbox, Save to Google Drive, Forward and Discord — have an Also save as option. Tick PDF and each email is rendered to a PDF and delivered along with the original.

The PDF contains a header block with From, To, Date and Subject, followed by the body exactly as it displays in the MXcatch inbox. HTML emails keep their layout. Rendering happens in a headless browser on MXcatch's servers; remote images are fetched once and embedded, so the PDF looks like the email did, and scripts in the email never run.

Where the PDF ends up

Your own S3-compatible bucket

With Save to S3, the PDF is written next to the raw message, filed by date:

receipts/2026/11/14/20413/message.eml
receipts/2026/11/14/20413/message.pdf
receipts/2026/11/14/20413/attachments/invoice-8812.pdf

Dropbox or Google Drive

With Save to Dropbox or Save to Google Drive, each email gets its own folder named 2026-11-14 Your order has shipped (20413) containing message.eml, the PDF and any attachments.

Forwarded as a PDF attachment

With a Forward action, the PDF is added to the forwarded email as an attachment. Point receipts@ at your accountant's address and every receipt arrives with a ready-to-file PDF, even when the original was just an HTML email.

Posted to Discord

The Discord action can attach the PDF to the post, so the full message is one click away from the channel.

Setting it up

1. Add your domain and point its MX records at MXcatch — per-provider instructions.
2. Create an alias such as receipts@, and use it wherever you buy things or receive confirmations. Or forward existing emails to it.
3. Add an action via Domains → your domain → the alias → + Add action, and pick where the PDFs should go.
4. Tick PDF under Also save as, save, and send a test email.

Saving a single email as PDF

Not every PDF needs a rule. Every message in the MXcatch inbox has a Download menu with PDF, JPG, HTML, Text and Original (.eml). The PDF download uses the same rendering as the automatic version.

Other formats

PDF is the right choice for filing and printing. If you want a picture of the email to post or preview, use email to JPG. For a file that opens in any browser and keeps links clickable, see email to HTML. For text you can search, index or feed into another tool, see email to text. You can tick several formats on one action.