How to print an email from iPhone or iPad

How to print an email from iPhone: open the message in Mail, tap the reply arrow, choose Print, select an AirPrint printer and tap Print. The Gmail and Outlook apps have Print in their three-dot menus. Without an AirPrint printer, save the email as a PDF from the same sheet and print it elsewhere.

How to print an email from iPhone with the Mail app

iPhone and iPad print through AirPrint, which is built into iOS and into most home and office printers sold in the last decade. Nothing to install; the printer only has to be on the same Wi-Fi network.

1. Open the email in Mail.
2. Tap the reply arrow at the bottom of the screen (on recent versions, the three dots in the top corner) and scroll the sheet to Print.
3. On Print Options, tap Printer and choose yours from the list. The list is empty if no AirPrint printer is on the network.
4. Set the number of copies, a page range if the thread is long, and color or black and white.
5. Tap Print.

Mail prints the message you have open. In a long conversation, open the specific reply you need first; otherwise you get the whole visible thread with every quoted block.

Have the email as a file (EML, MSG, MBOX)? Convert it to PDF in your browser: nothing is uploaded.

Print an email from the Gmail or Outlook app

1. Gmail: open the message, tap the three dots next to the sender name and choose Print. To print the entire conversation, use the three dots at the top of the thread and choose Print all, where available.
2. Outlook for iOS: open the message, tap the three dots in the top corner and choose Print.
3. Both hand off to the same iOS print sheet: pick the printer, pages, copies, then Print.

On iPad everything is in the same place; the iPad Mail app simply shows the reply menu in the toolbar. If you keep hearing "how to print email from iPad" and "from iPhone" as separate questions, the answer is the same AirPrint sheet. Desktop paths, which are easier for large threads, are on print an email from Gmail and print an email from Outlook.

No AirPrint printer? Save the email as a PDF first

If the printer list is empty, you have three options, in order of effort.

The PDF route is also the one to use for a record: the file is text, searchable, and prints at full quality later. The exact taps are on save an email as PDF on iPhone.

Print an .eml or .msg attachment from iPhone

When the thing you need to print is an email someone attached as a file, Mail's preview is unreliable for .eml and does not open .msg at all. SaveMail works in Safari on iPhone and Android for single EML and MSG files.

1. Save the attachment to Files.
2. Open the SaveMail converter in Safari and pick the file.
3. The message renders with its headers, body, inline images and attachment list.
4. Tap Save as PDF. Safari's print sheet opens; choose your AirPrint printer and tap Print, or share the preview to Files for later.

The file is parsed in the browser tab; there is no upload and no account. Attachments inside the message can be downloaded from the list, one by one or as a ZIP, and printed from their own apps. Background on the formats: open an EML file and open an MSG file.

Why the printout is missing things

• No attachments. Print sends the body only. Open each attachment and print it from its own preview.
• Images missing. Remote images that were blocked in Mail do not print; tap Load Remote Content first, if shown.
• Cut-off right edge. Wide HTML newsletters do not reflow; print in landscape from a computer, or save as PDF and scale when printing the PDF.
• Only one message. Mail and Outlook for iOS print the open message; Gmail prints the message or, with Print all, the thread.

For many emails at once, phones are the wrong tool: export the messages as files and work through them on a computer, as described on print an email.

Frequently asked questions