What Confluence's Built-In PDF Export Can't Do

Short answer: The built-in export handles single pages and, for space admins, whole-space PDFs styled with custom HTML and CSS. It can't let non-admins export a page tree, offer more than one layout per space, apply the title page, header and footer to single-page exports, or add a text watermark. Space exports also leave out blog posts and comments.

Confluence Cloud's built-in PDF export does more than many people assume. It also has real limits that show up as soon as you export regularly, for several audiences, or as someone who isn't a space admin. This post sets out both sides, based on Atlassian's own documentation, so you can tell when you have outgrown it.

What the Built-In Export Does

Single page: any page exports from ••• → Export → Export to PDF.
Space export: space admins can export a space to one PDF from Space settings → General → Export space, with all the content they can view or a chosen set of pages.
Customization: site and space admins can edit the HTML for a title page, header and footer, and the CSS in a PDF stylesheet. Page numbers can be added with CSS.
Table of contents: space exports include a generated table of contents after the title page.

Atlassian's guides on exporting a space and customizing PDF exports cover the steps. If you export the occasional page for yourself, this is all you need.

Multi-Page Export Is a Space Admin Task

Exporting more than one page goes through Export space, which needs space admin access. A regular editor who wants a PDF of a page and its children can't do it from the page. They either export each page on its own and end up with a pile of separate files, or ask a space admin to run a space export.

Customizing the Output Means Writing HTML and CSS

There are no toggles for a cover page, a header or page numbers. You write HTML for the title page, header and footer, and CSS for the rest. Atlassian notes that it does not support the custom code itself, so if a stylesheet breaks, fixing it is on you. Some CSS features also have gaps; for example, Atlassian lists page numbers in the table of contents and dotted leaders among the things that don't appear in the exported PDF.

That is workable for a team with someone comfortable in CSS. For most teams, it means the export never gets customized.

Customizations Don't Apply to Single-Page Exports

Layout customizations (title page, header and footer) only apply to space exports. A single page exported from the page menu gets the PDF stylesheet but not your title page, header or footer. Atlassian's suggested workaround is to export that page through the space export instead.

One Layout per Space, No Choice at Export Time

Customizations are set per space. There is no way to keep several formats, such as a client deliverable, an internal draft and a compliance archive, and let people choose one when they export. Producing a different look means an admin edits the space's HTML and CSS, then edits it back.

No Text Watermark Setting for PDFs

There is no option to stamp every page of a PDF with "DRAFT" or "CONFIDENTIAL". Confluence Enterprise does offer watermarks, but they are image or user ID watermarks applied to images in a space, not a text label across each page of an export.

Some Content Is Left Out

Space exports to PDF don't include blog posts or comments. Wide tables can also be cut off, because table rows can't break across the page width; Atlassian's workarounds include shrinking images, restructuring the table or printing in landscape from the browser.

When You've Outgrown Native Export

You have probably outgrown the built-in export when one of these is true:

People who aren't space admins need to export a page tree or a set of pages
You need more than one format, for example client, internal and compliance versions
You want a cover page, header, footer and watermark without maintaining HTML and CSS
Single-page exports need the same branding as multi-page ones

PDF Exporter for Confluence covers those cases. Anyone who can view a page can tick pages in a page tree and export them as one merged PDF or a ZIP of separate PDFs. Admins build templates with toggles rather than code (cover designs, header and footer, page numbers, text watermarks, table of contents up to three levels, PDF bookmarks), and users pick a template from a dropdown at export time. It runs on Atlassian Forge.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of both approaches, see How to Export Confluence to PDF. To set up formats your team can reuse, see How to Create Custom PDF Templates in Confluence.

Getting Started

Install PDF Exporter for Confluence from the Atlassian Marketplace. The full documentation covers every setting.

Questions? Reach out via our support portal.