Scribd Preview to PDF

One-click PDF export for Scribd pages you can already access.

No scrolling. No copied tokens. No OCR service. Open a document, click the extension, and follow the live progress.

Download the latest release · Report a bug

• One-click export - Start from the extension popup.
• Official Scribd pages - Supports both /document/... and legacy /doc/... URLs.
• Embedded previews - Detects Scribd previews inside other websites, including scribdvdownloader.com.
• No manual scrolling - Reads Scribd's complete built-in page manifest directly.
• Background rendering - A hidden extension document keeps working after the popup closes.
• Global progress - Reopen the popup at any time to see rendered pages, selectable-text pages, failures, assembly, and save status.
• Deduplicated document queue - Add other previews while one PDF is rendering; documents run one at a time and the same document cannot be queued twice.
• Concurrent downloads - Six workers fetch pages with bounded retries.
• Sprite reconstruction - Reassembles Scribd's clipped page-image sprites at their correct positions.
• Selectable text when available - Preserves Scribd's own Unicode text layer without external OCR.
• Exact page order and dimensions - Uses the source manifest rather than guessing from scroll position.
• Local processing - Page reconstruction and PDF assembly happen in your browser.

• Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge with Manifest V3 extension support
• A Scribd document or preview that is accessible in your current browser session
• Enough memory for the final PDF; very large image-heavy books can require substantial RAM

1. Open Releases.
2. Download scribd-preview-to-pdf-extension-v1.4.1.zip.
3. Extract the ZIP to a permanent folder. Do not load the ZIP itself.
4. Open chrome://extensions in Chrome or edge://extensions in Edge.
5. Enable Developer mode.
6. Click Load unpacked and select the extracted scribd-preview-to-pdf folder.
7. Pin Scribd Preview to PDF to the browser toolbar.

git clone https://github.com/ergs0204/scribd-pdf-downloader.git

Then load the cloned folder as an unpacked extension. No build step or package installation is required.

1. Open one of these:
   • https://www.scribd.com/document/<id>/<title>
   • https://www.scribd.com/doc/<id>/<title>
   • scribdvdownloader.com after it opens the document preview
   • Any other website containing a Scribd preview frame
2. Wait until the document page or preview is visible.
3. Click the extension icon.
4. Click Download all pages as PDF.
5. Close or reopen the popup whenever you like. Rendering continues in the hidden extension document.
6. To add another document, open its Scribd page and click Add this document to queue. Queued documents render in order.
7. When each assembly finishes, choose where to save the PDF.

No page-by-page scrolling is required.

The popup also reports how many pages contain Scribd-provided selectable text.

1. Document detection - Finds an official Scribd /doc/ or /document/ page, or an /embeds/.../content frame.
2. Manifest parsing - Reads each docManager.addPage(...) entry. This exposes every authorized page without scrolling.
3. Session token refresh - Uses Scribd's CSRF and document-token endpoints in your existing browser session.
4. Concurrent page loading - Fetches JSONP page descriptions and their authorized assets with retries.
5. Page reconstruction - Draws each clipped image sprite into its correct page coordinates.
6. Built-in text preservation - Reads Scribd's positioned text_layer when present and writes an invisible Unicode mapping into the PDF for selection and copying.
7. Local PDF assembly - Creates the final PDF in a hidden extension document and hands it to the browser download manager.

The extension does not create a headless Scribd session, scrape your cookies, upload documents to another service, or run OCR.

Scribd documents are not all stored the same way:

If Scribd does not provide text for a scanned page, this extension does not invent it. Use a separate OCR tool afterward if you personally need searchable scans.

No analytics, advertising SDK, external API, or telemetry is included.

• Only pages authorized by Scribd for the active browser session can be requested.
• Signed asset tokens expire; start each export from a live document page.
• Very large documents are assembled in browser memory and may exceed available RAM.
• Scribd's custom fonts and unusual vertical or mathematical layouts may render differently from the source.
• Selectable text quality depends entirely on Scribd's built-in text order and Unicode data.
• Site changes can break manifest or token parsing; open an issue with non-sensitive reproduction details if that happens.

• Confirm the URL starts with https://www.scribd.com/doc/ or https://www.scribd.com/document/.
• On scribdvdownloader.com or another third-party site, wait until the embedded Scribd preview appears.
• Reload the page after installing or updating the extension.
• Confirm the installed extension version matches the latest release.

That is fine. Rendering continues in the hidden extension document. Click the extension icon again to restore the current global progress.

• Keep the Scribd tab open.
• Confirm the document is still accessible in the current session.
• Reload the page and begin a new export so the extension receives a fresh signed token.

That page is probably image-only. Selectable text is added only when Scribd supplies a built-in text_layer; this project intentionally does not run OCR.

The extension is plain Manifest V3 JavaScript with no build system and no runtime dependencies.

scribd-preview-to-pdf/
├── manifest.json       Extension metadata and permissions
├── popup.*             Start button and persistent global progress
├── content.js          Official-page/embed manifest and token reader
├── background.js       Job state, offscreen renderer, and downloads
├── builder.*           Page reconstruction and PDF/text-layer writer
└── README.md

After editing, reload the unpacked extension from chrome://extensions and test both an official document URL and an embedded preview.

This started as a small personal utility, so rough edges are expected. Focused bug reports and small pull requests are welcome. Never include Scribd cookies, CSRF tokens, signed asset URLs, or copyrighted page data in an issue.

If this quick personal tool saves you time, you can buy me a coffee. Support is appreciated but never required.

Released under the MIT License.

This software is provided for personal and educational use. It is a convenience tool for exporting material that Scribd already makes available to your current browser session. It does not grant access to restricted pages, remove DRM, or confer permission to reproduce or distribute documents. You are solely responsible for using it lawfully and respecting authors, publishers, copyright, and platform terms.