Home Guides How to get a conversation out of WhatsApp, what goes wrong on the way, and what it becomes once it is on paper. Written by the person who wrote the software that reads these files.
Export chat is missing Advanced Chat Privacy is almost always the answer. How to confirm it, and what to ask for. The 40,000-message cap Why long chats come out short, and how to export a decade in pieces without buying software. Opening _chat.txt Unzip it, read it, and understand the timestamps, the arrows and the invisible characters. Export on Android ⋮ → More → Export chat → Include media. Plus where the zip actually goes afterwards. Export on iPhone It hides behind the contact's name, not the menu. Attach Media, then Save to Files. Missing photos in an export “Media omitted”, offloaded iCloud files, and the ones that really are gone for good. Exporting a group Same four taps, a bigger file, an admin who can veto it — and other people's privacy. Chat to PDF Three routes, honestly compared — including the free one that needs no service at all. Printing WhatsApp messages Four methods from free-and-instant to bound-and-permanent, with the trade-offs stated. Keeping the messages of someone who died What happens to their account, how long you have, and how to keep the voice notes. How many pages will mine be? Rough numbers by chat length, what inflates a count, and when a chat becomes a set of volumes. Printing at a local shop The spec sheet to hand over, what to check, and why this beats international shipping. Dark-mode chat books It looks like 2am and it costs more to print. The honest trade, and when light wins. Chat books in South Africa Priced in rand, made in Durban, and bindable at a shop down the road. Booklet imposer Saddle-stitch imposition: print duplex, fold the stack, staple once. In your browser. 2-up imposer Cut-stack imposition: two pages a side, one cut, left pile on right pile. Spine calculator Page count and paper to millimetres of spine — plus the full flat cover width. Blank-page inserter Fix recto starts and odd totals by adding the blanks into the file itself. Page reverser For printers that output face-up and hand you the book back-to-front. Signature planner Pages to signatures — counts, ranges and blanks, in sewing order. Case calculator The hand-bound hardcover's full cut list: boards, spine, hinges, cloth. Yardage calculator Cloth cuts to roll metres — books per metre, metres per run. Weight calculator Pages and paper to grams — block, covers, boards itemised. Paper converter gsm ⇄ pounds across all five US basis weights — exactly. Spine text fit Title to spine width — the largest honest point size. Words → pages Word count to book pages — then sheets, spine and weight. Cover builder Front, spine, back images to a flat wraparound at true millimetres. De-imposer Booklet PDFs back to reading order — the exact inverse of the imposer. Spread splitter One guillotine stroke through every page — spreads become singles. Signature splitter One zipped file per signature, named in sewing order. Scan rebuilder Fronts + reversed backs interleaved — the book-scan fix. Folio stamper Page numbers in book convention — outer corners, honest skips. Crop marks & bleed Trim marks and 3 mm bleed, drawn where the blade expects them. Zine imposer Eight pages, one sheet, two folds, one cut, zero staples. Margin inspector Pages rendered with trim and safe-area guides over them. Chat statistics Who writes more, when it wakes, what it says in emoji.