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How to convert your Foleon Doc to PDF

Joran Bloemen
  • Updated

Foleon is all about creating a responsive content experience for desktop, tablet, and mobile. However, you still might need a PDF version of your Doc for reviewing or archiving purposes. This article shows you the two options for converting your Doc to PDF. 

In this article

How to convert to PDF

In the dashboard, go to the Foleon Doc you would like to convert and click the quick actions menu. Next, select convert to PDF.

⚠️ Foleon is all about creating a responsive content experience for desktop, tablet, and mobile. Generating a static PDF from a responsive Foleon Doc will cause inevitable variations in layout and formatting.

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A pop-up will appear, asking you to select one of two options: Foleon Doc layout, or print layout. We'll dive into the differences between the two below — including a visual comparison.

To confirm your choice, click convert, and we'll send a download link to the email address of your account. The PDF will also be saved in the media library for you to download from there. 

💡 Just so you know, it can take up to 30 minutes for the PDF to arrive in your inbox, depending on the size of your Foleon Doc. We recommend checking your spam if you haven't received the email.

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Two options: what's the difference?

As you can see in the convert to PDF pop-up, you have two options for your PDF export:

    • Foleon Doc layout — Generate a PDF that is optimized for digital devices. The PDF closely resembles the original Foleon Doc and displays in landscape orientation. Consider this option if your audience needs a PDF alternative.
    • Print layout — Generate a print-optimized PDF of your Foleon Doc in portrait orientation — including interactive elements. Consider this option if you need a hard copy or wish to archive your Doc.

We've created the image below so you can see the main visual differences between the two. We discuss the differences in detail further on in this article.

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Foleon Doc layout

This version closely resembles the layout of your Doc, stitched together with page breaks for each page of your Foleon Doc.

Each page of your Foleon Doc is exported as a page in the PDF, independent of its length. That makes this version the recommended option for audiences that are used to reading PDFs.

Because this version is image-based — generating a screenshot — we don't support any interactiveness. A big benefit of this version is that the size of the PDF stays small, making it easier for you to convert a large Foleon Doc. 

Print layout

This version can primarily be used for printing, supporting the review process, and taking notes. It's optimized for the A4 portrait format, ensuring content blocks remain intact across page breaks.

Additionally, this PDF version incorporates interactive elements, presenting clickable external links and QR codes for Vimeo and YouTube videos. This functionality makes it an excellent choice for local storage, serving as a convenient (digital) archive.

Third-party embeds compatibility

It's possible you've used the embed element in your Foleon Doc to insert an external page into your Foleon Doc. If this is the case, the content of your embedded content will not automatically be displayed in the PDF export of your Doc.

To support the most popular embeds in Foleon, we've allowlisted a selection of third-party URLs. By allowlisting, a screenshot of the embed is included in the PDF version of your Foleon Doc. 

The URLs of the following platforms are allowlisted:

  • Soundcloud
  • Flourish Studio
  • Infogram
  • Tableau
  • Plotly
  • Typeform
  • Outgrow
  • Google Maps
  • Spotify
  • LucidChart
  • Datawrapper
  • SurveyMonkey
  • TwentyThree

Limitations

Although we at Foleon support converting to PDF, we don't recommend it as a high-quality alternative for your interactive Docs. As we understand that PDFs might still be part of your content strategy, you can design your Docs in such a way as to optimize for converting to PDF. Keep this in mind:

  • Avoid column scroll (we recommend this for all Foleon Docs)
  • Set blocks to full-width
  • Don't use too many overlays, because we place them at the end of your Doc
  • Try to avoid embeds, or make sure they are whitelisted

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