How to Print from Pinterest
by Clare Ivatt
19th July 2021
Table of Contents
I love using Pinterest to collect together ideas and references for all sorts of subjects, and really enjoy getting inspiration for my painting and drawing by making Pinterest boards of other people’s projects and ideas.
Sometimes I am asked how to print pins or boards from Pinterest, and this is not a simple question to answer!
Pinterest is designed as an online tool, and so doesn’t have any built-in printing facilities.
But don’t worry – I’ve put together some tips on how you CAN print Pinterest pins and Pinterest boards from your smartphone or desktop computer.
It’s easier to print from Pinterest on your desktop computer than your smartphone because you can fit a whole Pinterest board on the screen at one time on your desktop, but I’ll explain how you can print from both.
1. Step-by-step Guide to Printing from the Pinterest App on your Smartphone
1.1. How to Print a Pinterest Pin from your Smartphone
There are two ways to print individual pins from Pinterest on your Smartphone – download and then print the pin image, or screenshot the whole screen which is showing the pin, and print that.
Download the Image
This method allows you to just print the pin image – none of the Pinterest text (title and description etc.) around the pin will be saved or printed.
1. Go to your chosen pin in the Pinterest app.
2. Download the pin image and save it to your phone. You can do this by:
a. On an iPhone, click on the three dots on the top right hand corner of the screen, and choose Download image from the menu that appears.
b. On an Android phone, tap and continue to press the image, until a menu pops up. Choose Download image (or Save image), and the image will be saved to your phone.
3. Print the image as you would any other image you have saved to your smartphone – you can use AirPrint on an iPhone, or you can transfer the image file to your desktop computer and print the file from there.
N.B. If using this method on an iPhone you will need to give the Pinterest app access to your photos (in phone settings).
Screenshot the Phone Screen
This method will allow you to print the title and description of the pin as well as the image.
(You won’t need to give the Pinterest app access to your photos in your iPhone settings for this to work).
1. Go to your chosen pin in the Pinterest app.
2. Screen capture the pin and its description by either:
a. On an iPhone, hold down the home button and the power button (top or side depending on model).
OR
b. On an Android phone, hold down the home and volume down buttons at the same time (may vary with model).
3. Print the screen capture in the way that you would normally print images from your smartphone.
1.2. How to Print a Pinterest Board from your Smartphone
1. Go to the top of your chosen board in the Pinterest app.
2. Before printing the board, make sure you are viewing it in Compact view – click on the small switch symbol just above the top right pin on the board, and choose the “Compact” option.
This will re-display the board with smaller images so more fit onto the page at once.
If you prefer, you can also scroll down the board so that the title disappears off the top of the screen and you are left with just the images.
3. Do a screen shot of the top part of the board (instructions as above in the Screenshot the Phone Screen section).
4. In the Pinterest app, scroll down to the next screenful of pins on your board.
5. Do another screenshot of the whole screen.
6. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you reach the bottom of your board.
7. Print out the screenshot images as you would any photo from your camera.
You might need to repeat this a lot of times if it’s a big board, as you won’t fit many pins on your phone screen at the same time, but the Compact view option in Pinterest does help.
2. Step-by-step Guide to Printing from Pinterest on your Desktop or Laptop Computer
2.1 How to Print a Pinterest Pin on your Mac
Using ScreenPrint
1. In your browser, go to Pinterest and click on the pin you want to print so that just that pin and its details are displayed on the screen.
2. If you want to print the whole pin including the description and titles etc, do a screen capture of this window (hold down cmd-shift-4-space and click on the window, cmd-shift-4 will allow you to select a portion of the screen to capture)
3. The image will be saved to your desktop, where you can print it using Preview.
Using Image Download
Alternatively if you just want to print the pin image without the description:
1. In your browser, go to Pinterest and click on the pin you want so that all of its details are displayed on the screen.
2. Right click on the Pin’s image, and select Save Image As…
3. Choose where to save the image on your computer and press save.
4. Open Finder and go to your saved pin image.
5. Double click on the image file name to open Preview, and print from there.
2.2 How to Print a Pinterest Pin on your Windows PC
Using ScreenPrint
1. In your browser, go to Pinterest and click on the pin you want, so that all of its details are displayed on the screen.
2. If you want to print the whole pin including description and titles etc, do a screen capture of this window (using Windows+shift+S keys to save it snip and sketch)
3. The image will now be in your clipboard – click on your notifications to find it and open the snip and sketch app to print the image.
Using Image Download
1. In your browser, go to Pinterest and click on the pin you want so that all of its details are displayed on the screen.
2. Right click on the Pin’s image, and select Save Image As…
3. Choose where to save the image on your computer and press save.
4. Print the image as you would any other image on your computer.
2.3. How to Print a Pinterest Board on your Desktop Computer
2.3.1 Print a Pinterest Board using a Screenshot on a Mac or PC
If you want to print a whole Pinterest board showing the headings for each pin, you can screen capture your browser window.
Only the pins that are visible in your browser will be captured – so you may want to zoom out, or you can scroll down taking multiple screen-captures.
If you want to just see the images without the descriptions, set the Compact view option by clicking on the small switch icon above the top right pin on the board.
2.3.2 Print a Pinterest Board by Downloading the Page on a Mac or PC
Alternatively, if you want to print the images in a particular board but don’t want the title, description etc, you can save the whole web page to your computer and print the individual pin images from there – here’s my step by step guide (Mac first, then PC):
How to Print a Whole Pinterest Board from a Mac
Using Chrome or Firefox:
1. In your browser, go to the Pinterest board you want to print. If you want to just print the images without the descriptions, make sure that you have set the compact view option by clicking on the small switch icon above the top right pin on the board.
2. If you are using chrome, zoom out (using cmd-) so that all of the pins from that board are visible on your screen at the same time – don’t worry if they seem to be tiny – they will be saved bigger!
3. From the menu (or right click in a blank space on the page) choose Save As. Make sure you choose to save it as “Web Page, Complete”.
4. Using Finder, go to the directory where you saved the complete web page, and delete all files except the .jpgs.
5. Select all the .jpgs.
6. Double click to open Preview.
7. From the Preview menu, choose View -> Contact Sheet.
8. Rearrange the .jpgs into the order that you want to print them.
9. Open the print screen using File -> Print from the menu.
10. Change Preview to Layout.
11. Choose no of Pages per sheet – this really means no of images per sheet
12. Play with the orientation (landscape or portrait) and the layout direction to get the images looking how you want.
13. Then either print (or Print to PDF if you want to create a file image instead). Don’t panic if a message appears saying that a large number of pages is being printed – it is just counting the images being printed, not individual pages.
Using Safari:
You will not be able to save the whole page from Safari, so you will need to download each of the images in the board individually by right-clicking on each one. Then you can follow steps 4 to 13 above.
How to Print a Pinterest Board from a PC using Chrome or Firefox:
The first few steps are the same as for a Mac, where you save the whole page from the browser (steps 1 to 5 above, except you use Windows Explorer instead of Finder).
Then follow these steps:
6. When looking at your .jpgs, show them in icon view so you can see which ones you have.
7. With all of the .jpgs selected, right-click and choose Print.
8. Choose the layout that you would like from the right-hand side of the print pop-up screen – scroll down to get the multiple images on one page options.
9. Print to PDF or print to your printer.
As you can see, there are lots of different ways to print pins and boards from Pinterest, whether you’re using a laptop or a smartphone, so you’re sure to find something that will work for you.
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2 Responses
love the steps! very easy and detailed
Thanks Jean – glad you found it easy to follow. 🙂