Many of the apps and features on your iPhone require an Internet connection to work as intended. The Safari browser is one of those apps, which can make it nearly impossible to read an article that you find on a website if you aren’t connected to the Internet.
One way to get around this however, is to save a Web page as a PDF while you have an Internet connection so that you can read it later when that Internet connection is not available. This is a great way to give yourself some reading material before a plane flight, and it involves functionality that is part of iOS 9.3 by default. Our guide below will show you how to save a Web page to the iBooks app on your iPhone so that you can read it later.
Here is how to save a Web page as a PDF in iBooks in iOS 9 –
- Open the Safari Web browser.
- Browse to the page that you wish to save.
- Tap the Share icon at the bottom of the screen.
- Swipe left on the top row, then select the Save PDF to iBooks option.
These steps are repeated with pictures below –
Step 1: Tap the Safari icon.
Step 2: Find the Web page that you want to save as a PDF.
Step 3: Tap the Share icon (the one that looks like a square with an arrow) at the bottom of the screen. If you don’t see the menu, then swipe down on the Web page until it appears.
Step 4: Swipe left on the top row of icons, then tap the Save PDF to iBooks option.
This will open the iBooks app, where you will see an entry for the PDF that you just created. The PDF is saved locally, so you can even view it somewhere that you don’t have an Internet connection, such as a plane.
Note that some elements of the Web page may not save exactly as they appear on your iPhone screen. Additionally, the PDF that is created this way will not have any clickable (or tappable) links.
The Share menu in Safari offers a number of helpful tools for saving and sharing Web pages from your iPhone. For example, learn how to save a Web page to the Notes app if you would prefer that option over the PDF in iBooks.
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