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What am I not seeing? The RTD features page says:

PDF Generation

When you build your project on RTD, we automatically build a PDF of your project’s documentation. We also build them for every version that you upload, so we can host the PDFs of your latest documentation, as well as your latest stable releases as well.

But how do you find the PDF version? A websearch finds this 2012 blog post where the writer says:

Here, for example, is the url to Django-Tastypie’s PDF docs:

http://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/django-tastypie/latest/django-tastypie.pdf

You can replace django-tastypie with the slug for any Read the Docs project.

However, RTD doesn't permit users to browse the website's directory tree via the URL: http://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/[project slug]/, get's me 403 FORBIDDEN! At least for project CookieCutter.

Peter Mortensen
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xtian
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  • readthedocs does not support pdf download for mkdocs projects; that's a lot of projects. – rfay Oct 05 '19 at 20:48

2 Answers2

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For security reasons, many websites do not allow you to browse directory listings on the web server; hence the 403.

Anyway, I guess you were looking for these:

Typically, it should not be necessary to construct this URL yourself. There is a link in the navigation bar of RtD. You just have to know where to find it.

RtD screenshot, panel collapsed

Notice the 'Read the Docs' label at the bottom left of the page (together with the version indicator). Click it and a panel will open.

RtD screenshot, panel expanded

In the panel, you can select the desired version. The 'PDF' link navigates to the PDF file. The build system of RtD should automatically keep this file up to date with the documentation source.

Note: for PDF and EPUB generation to be available, the RtD project:

Ruud Helderman
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    [how to download the docs as PDF](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52130181/how-to-download-the-docs-as-pdf) link is broken. – Tejas Shetty Oct 02 '19 at 12:51
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    this site https://krotov.readthedocs.io/en/stable/01_overview.html also doesn't have PDF option. But I don't think so it is because " some websites that host their own copy of RtD" , since it is an open-source project. So why do you think it does not have a PDf version? – Tejas Shetty Oct 02 '19 at 13:05
  • How to get the panel in local build? I dont see this option locally. – Sushivam Jun 20 '22 at 04:11
  • PDF/EPUB support depends on the project, not on the version of RtD (my earlier assumption). I fixed the last paragraph of my answer; hope it's correct now. – Ruud Helderman Nov 25 '22 at 20:47
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I find the Read the Docs label that opens a panel with a pdf link preferable. However, if that isn't present, an alternative is doing a web search for it.

e.g., search for
readthedocs cookiecutter pdf
and the first result I see (as of 8 July 2020) is a link to the pdf: https://readthedocs.org/projects/cookiecutter/downloads/pdf/latest/

As of 8 Jul 2020, the cookiecutter readthedocs does indeed have expandable panel with the pdf link. However, when I look at the readthedocs for pipenv, there is no ReadTheDocs clickable to open a panel. But if I search Google for
readthedocs pipenv pdf
the first result is a link to the pdf: https://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/pipenv/latest/pipenv.pdf

Rob Bednark
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