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How to Convert Emails (EML & MSG) to PDF

You need to keep an email as a permanent record - for a legal matter, an expense claim, an HR file, or just a clean archive. But an .eml or .msg file only opens in a mail client, looks different on every device, and is awkward to store or share. Converting it to PDF turns the message into a fixed, portable document that opens anywhere and prints exactly the same every time.

Here is how to do it in seconds, what gets preserved, and how to keep the contents private.

EML vs MSG - what is the difference?

  • EML is the open, standard format for a single email. Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Windows Mail and most clients can save or export messages as .eml.
  • MSG is Microsoft Outlook's proprietary single-message format. It holds the same thing - one email with headers, body and attachments - but in a format only Outlook fully understands.

Both share the same problem: they are tied to a mail application. A PDF is not.

Why convert an email to PDF?

  • Long-term archiving - PDFs are a stable, universal format you can store for years.
  • Evidence and records - a PDF preserves the From, To, Date and Subject exactly as sent.
  • Easy sharing - send one clean file instead of asking someone to install Outlook.
  • Printing - a PDF prints identically on any printer.

What gets preserved in the PDF?

The converter renders the full message as a document: the headers (From, To, Date, Subject) appear at the top, followed by the body with its formatting intact. HTML emails keep their layout; plain-text emails stay clean and readable. The result reads like the email you received, frozen as a page.

Convert your email in 3 steps

Pick the converter for your file type:

  1. Open the converter for your file type (links above).
  2. Upload your email - drag and drop or browse. Files up to 250 MB are supported.
  3. Download the PDF - it is ready in a few seconds.

No Outlook, no mail client, no sign-up.

A note on links and remote content

Emails - especially HTML ones - often contain tracking pixels and remote images designed to report back when a message is opened. A good email-to-PDF conversion renders the message without quietly fetching that remote content, so turning an email into a PDF does not "phone home" to a sender's tracking server. Your archive stays a static snapshot.

Is it private to convert emails online?

Emails routinely contain sensitive details - names, contracts, account numbers, personal conversations. With PrivConvert, they are never stored:

  • Each conversion runs in an isolated, in-memory process - nothing is written to disk
  • Your email is deleted from memory the instant your download is ready
  • All transfers are encrypted with HTTPS
  • No account, no tracking, no file storage

For the full story, see our why PrivConvert and security pages.

Email converters:
EML to PDF MSG to PDF