How to add a print button to WordPress

There are five ways to put a print button on a WordPress site, and they differ mainly in how much of your future they cost. A Custom HTML block takes thirty seconds but has to be pasted into every post. A theme filter takes fifteen minutes and then never needs touching again. Pick by how many posts you have.

Route 1: install a plugin

1. Open the plugin installerIn wp-admin go to Plugins → Add New.
2. Search and installSearch for a print or print-friendly plugin, click Install Now, then Activate. The PrintxPDF WordPress plugin adds Print, PDF and Email buttons and needs no API key on the free tier.
3. Choose placementIn the plugin settings pick top, bottom or both, and inline or floating. Bottom-of-article is the safest default: a floating button competes with cookie banners and chat widgets on mobile.
4. Limit it to the right post typesTurn the button off on the home page, archives and search results. It belongs on single posts, pages and any custom post type that people actually print.
5. Check the outputOpen a post, click the button and read what comes out. If the plugin only calls the browser print dialog, you still need a print stylesheet, see writing a print stylesheet.

Route 2: a Custom HTML block, no plugin

In the block editor, add a Custom HTML block wherever you want the button and paste this. It is a plain anchor, so it works in every theme, needs no JavaScript to be clickable, and cannot break your site.

<!-- Printer-friendly link. Works with JavaScript disabled. -->
<a class="pxp-print"
   href="https://printxpdf.com/print?url="
   onclick="this.href='https://printxpdf.com/print?url='+encodeURIComponent(location.href)"
   target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#9113; Print / PDF</a>

<style>
.pxp-print{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:.5rem;padding:10px 18px;
  font:700 14px/1 system-ui,sans-serif;text-decoration:none;border:2px solid currentColor;
  border-radius:6px;color:inherit}
@media print{.pxp-print{display:none !important}}
</style>

Route 3: a shortcode you can drop anywhere

A shortcode gives you [print_button] in any editor, widget or page builder, and one place to change the markup later. Put this in a child theme’s functions.php or, better, in a small site-specific plugin so it survives a theme change too.

<?php
// wp-content/plugins/site-print-button/site-print-button.php

function pxp_print_button( $atts ) {
    $a = shortcode_atts( array( 'label' => 'Print / PDF' ), $atts, 'print_button' );

    $target = 'https://printxpdf.com/print?url=' . rawurlencode( get_permalink() );

    return sprintf(
        '<a class="pxp-print" href="%s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">%s</a>',
        esc_url( $target ),
        esc_html( $a['label'] )
    );
}
add_shortcode( 'print_button', 'pxp_print_button' );

Use it as [print_button] or [print_button label="Print this recipe"]. Three details matter: shortcode_atts gives you a default label, rawurlencode keeps query strings and non-ASCII characters in the permalink intact, and esc_url plus esc_html are not optional, a shortcode that echoes unescaped attributes is a cross-site scripting hole.

Route 4: put it on every post automatically

Rather than editing templates, append the shortcode with a filter. The three guards below matter: without them the button also appears in excerpts, RSS feeds, related-post widgets and anywhere else the theme runs the loop.

add_filter( 'the_content', function ( $content ) {
    if ( ! is_singular( array( 'post', 'page' ) ) ) {
        return $content;   // not a single view
    }
    if ( ! in_the_loop() || ! is_main_query() ) {
        return $content;   // a widget or a related-posts loop
    }

    return $content . do_shortcode( '[print_button]' );
} );

Block themes and the Site Editor

On a block theme, the template route lives in Appearance → Editor → Templates → Single. Add a Shortcode block or a Custom HTML block into the template near the post content, then save. It applies to every post using that template and it is stored in the database rather than in theme files, so it survives updates.

WooCommerce is a different problem

Order confirmations, invoices and packing slips are the pages customers most want to print, and they are the ones a URL-based cleaner cannot help with, because they sit behind a login and an order key. A tool fetching that URL gets the login screen.

• On order and account pages, use window.print() and a real print stylesheet. That prints what the logged-in browser can already see.
• Hook the button onto woocommerce_order_details_after_order_table for the thank-you and order-detail views.
• For the product page, woocommerce_single_product_summary at priority 35 puts it under the add-to-cart area.
• For proper invoices and packing slips, use a dedicated invoicing plugin. It generates a real PDF server-side with your tax details on it, which is what accountants and customs forms need.
• Hide the button, the cart widget, the menu and the upsell blocks in @media print or the invoice arrives with a "You may also like" carousel on it.

add_action( 'woocommerce_order_details_after_order_table', function () {
    printf(
        '<button type="button" class="pxp-print button" onclick="window.print()">%s</button>',
        esc_html__( 'Print this order', 'my-theme' )
    );
} );

Which one should you pick

If you have fewer than twenty posts, use the Custom HTML block and stop reading. If you publish regularly, spend the fifteen minutes on the shortcode and the filter: it is roughly thirty lines of code, it lives outside the theme, and it means every post you write from now on has the button without you thinking about it. If you would rather not touch PHP at all, a plugin is a perfectly respectable answer.

Whichever route you take, the button is only half the job. A button that opens a print dialog full of navigation and sidebars is worse than no button, because now the reader blames you rather than the browser. Pair it with a print stylesheet, and run the printer-friendly checklist once across your main templates. If you are not on WordPress, the same anchor works everywhere, see adding a print button to any website or generate one on the button builder.

Frequently asked questions