how can I convert eml files to pdf files

rblampain · 05-20-2023, 11:31 AM

I have a directory with hundreds of emails downloaded from my email service provider as eml files and I need them converted as pdf files.
How can I do that programmatically?
Or
Is there a way to use the browser to download a whole directory of emails as pdf files rather than one at a time?

It seems I can use Thunderbird but having Debian 9 as my OS, I have to install a newer OS version to install Thunderbird which I am in the process of doing.
I also had installed Evolution but have not found if there is a way to use it to accomplish that objective.

Thank you for your help.

TB0ne · 05-20-2023, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rblampain

I have a directory with hundreds of emails downloaded from my email service provider as eml files and I need them converted as pdf files.
How can I do that programmatically? Or Is there a way to use the browser to download a whole directory of emails as pdf files rather than one at a time?

It seems I can use Thunderbird but having Debian 9 as my OS, I have to install a newer OS version to install Thunderbird which I am in the process of doing.
I also had installed Evolution but have not found if there is a way to use it to accomplish that objective.

Several ways, including just using Thunderbird to do it:

<Assumes you already have Thunderbird installed and the files are already .eml in Thunderbird>
Right-click on the folders containing EML email messages.
Select the import/export tool and then "Export all Messages in the folder".
In the export options use PDF as the destination type, and the folder to save them.
Click "OK"

Also an open-source utility that may work too:
https://github.com/nickrussler/email-to-pdf-converter

ACRIzona · 06-03-2023, 02:52 PM

The drop-dead simplest is to add a "PDF-printer" to your CUPS printers list.

It prints what-ever to a file.pdf in your where-ever folder !

Aussie mate ! you should know all those old PUPPY tricks !

uteck · 06-03-2023, 05:14 PM

Searching I found Mhonarc to convert eml to html, then you can convert it to PDF.
Should be in most distor repos for install.
https://www.mhonarc.org/MHonArc/doc/...t.html#folders

Michael Uplawski · 06-05-2023, 12:15 AM

I have once programmed a tool for eml2pdf conversions which is even largely configurable. In the meantime, I prefer to use it on the command-line, but a Gtk-GUI is still available.
Screen Shot from this morning.
Each of the mails in each of the selected (and active) eml-fils will result in 1 PDF, mail-attachments can be stored as PDF-attachment or be linked.., etc.

Unfortunately, though, my last programming language (in this life) is Ruby. A Ruby-interpreter must be installed:

https://rubygems.org/gems/cremefraiche

Installation instructions are on the same page.
The usage-message for the command-line version:

Code:

scott@flowers:~$ cremefraiche
 ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
 ┃                Creme Fraiche version 1.1.5                ┃
 ┃                       EML to PDF converter                ┃
 ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

 © 2011 - 2023 Michael Uplawski <michael.uplawski@uplawski.eu>

 Running with Ruby 3.1.2 on x86_64-linux-gnu

 Usage:
▔▔▔▔▔▔
 	user@machine:~$ cremefraiche [eml_file1.eml] <eml_file2.eml ... eml_file(n).eml>

 This produces 1 PDF-file for each individual email found in the given eml-file(s).
 Please see the file 'config' in the program- or gem-folder for some options:
 	/home/michael/.cremefraiche/config

 To create or update a user-version of the configuration-file:
▔▔▔▔▔▔
 	user@machine:~$ ruby cremefraiche user-conf

 Use literally 'user-conf' as argument. This either creates or overwrites a 
 configuration file in a sub-directory '.cremefraiche' of the current user's home-directory


This program is free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License
version 3 or any later version. It is provided as is with no guarantees of any kind.

Blog-Post on LQ

shaunpatterson · 06-14-2023, 01:33 PM

Sorry shaunpatterson, I deleted your info. Not really super helpful for linux users. Didn't want to confuse the thread.

TB0ne · 06-14-2023, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shaunpatterson

To convert EML files to PDF files, you can follow these steps:
Post edited out to provide clarity hopefully

Acrobat hasn't been supported on Linux for more than ten years now. Mentioning Windows utilities that you have to pay for on a Linux forum is fairly pointless. Did you read any of the previous answers that actually DO work on Linux, for free???

jefro · 06-14-2023, 02:10 PM

Open or Libreoffice might be installed to use it to print to pdf.?

TB0ne · 06-14-2023, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefro

Open or Libreoffice might be installed to use it to print to pdf.?

Nope, that isn't an option, since Libreoffice can't open .EML files. The OP has been given several solutions already.

jefro · 06-14-2023, 03:17 PM

Dang, so used to it being able to open almost everything.

jackera · 11-19-2023, 11:24 PM

If you are looking for a solution to convert EML files to PDF format then try linux
By following above steps, you can easily convert EML files to PDF format.

TB0ne · 11-20-2023, 07:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackera

If you are looking for a solution to convert EML files to PDF format then try <MY SPAM SOFTWARE> EML to PDF Converter tool on your system. With this software, you can export EML files to PDF in a few seconds. The software can convert multiple EML files to PDF at once. It preserves 100% data integrity and folder hierarchy during EML to PDF conversion. You can download its free demo version and convert EML files to PDF in a few simple clicks.
1. Run this software on your system.
2. Add EML files into software.
3. Choose PDF as saving options.
4. Browse target location and then press Convert button.
By following above steps, you can easily convert EML files to PDF format.

Spammer and spam reported.

alora01 · 03-19-2024, 01:37 AM

To change a bunch of EML files into PDFs automatically, you can use different tools

Michael Uplawski · 03-19-2024, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alora01

So, to summarize, if you want to do it automatically, think about using Python. If you're looking for a browser-based way, see what options your email service gives you or wait until you can use Thunderbird or something similar.

So, to summarize, think about any full-blown programming language or other tool.

TB0ne · 03-19-2024, 08:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alora01

To change a bunch of EML files into PDFs automatically, you can use different tools and libraries made for this job. One common way is by using Python along with libraries like email.parser to understand EML files and ReportLab to create PDFs. You write a script that goes through each EML file in the folder, reads its content, and then makes a matching PDF file.

If you want to download a whole bunch of emails as PDFs using a browser, it depends on what your email service lets you do. Some services allow you to download many emails at once, or they work with other tools that can do this. If your service doesn't have this option, you might need to use email programs like Thunderbird or Evolution, which are better at handling lots of emails and can export them as PDFs.

Since you're getting ready to install Thunderbird, you could try using it once it's set up because it has an easy way to save emails as PDFs. With Evolution, it's mainly an email program, so it might not have a built-in way to ***VISIT MY SPAM LINK*** convert EML to PDF in bulk at once. But you could check if there are add-ons or extras that can help with this.

So, to summarize, if you want to do it automatically, think about using Python. If you're looking for a browser-based way, see what options your email service gives you or wait until you can use Thunderbird or something similar.

Yet another spammer; reported.