Getting started
What platforms does StackPress work with?
Substack (including custom domains like yoursite.com), Ghost, Beehiiv, Medium, and any site with an RSS or Atom feed. That covers WordPress, Eleventy, Jekyll, self-hosted blogs, podcast show-note pages, and most personal sites. If the platform exposes its archive via a public feed, StackPress can work with it.
Do I need an account to make a book?
No. You can make your first book with no signup, no credit card, no email. Accounts come into play only if you want to save book history to your dashboard, or upgrade to the Pro tier for the Cover Designer and extra features.
What’s the maximum number of articles per book?
50 articles per book on both Free and Pro tiers. That covers several years of weekly-newsletter archives. If you need more, split the archive into two books or reach out about custom design services.
Can I combine articles from multiple newsletters?
Yes. In Step 1, paste your first URL, then click "Add another source" to include one or more additional publications. Articles from all sources are pooled into a single selectable library with per-source color coding so you can see where each piece came from.
Privacy and content
Where does my content go?
Nowhere that you don’t control. StackPress generates the PDF entirely in your browser. The articles you pick, the layout, the fonts, the final PDF, all of it, are processed client-side. The only thing our server does is fetch the article URLs you paste (so we can scrape them without CORS issues) and proxy images for the PDF renderer.
Can I use this for a newsletter that isn’t mine?
Yes, for personal archiving and offline reading. RSS feeds and public newsletters are published for precisely this kind of use. But respect the author: don’t resell, redistribute, or publish the generated PDFs. StackPress is an archiving and reading tool, not a republishing tool.
What about paid / subscriber-only posts?
Substack paid posts have truncated public content and full content only for paid subscribers. StackPress reads whatever your browser session can see, so if you’re logged in to Substack in another tab, paid posts may come through. If not, they’ll render as excerpts. We don’t bypass paywalls.
Are my book generations logged?
Anonymous counters only. We track total books generated across all users, total articles processed, and unique publications, so we can show stats on the home page. We don’t log who created which book unless you’re signed in and the book is saved to your dashboard history.
Formatting and output
What formats can I export to?
PDF and EPUB. PDF is fully typeset with your chosen cover, fonts, layout, and watermark. EPUB is valid EPUB 3 with an NCX fallback, images embedded as base64, and clean semantic HTML for e-readers and Kindle-via-Send-to-Kindle.
Can I customize fonts?
Yes. Built-in fonts: Helvetica, Times Roman, Courier. Google fonts: Merriweather and Lato (proxied so no network calls from react-pdf). And you can upload your own TTF or OTF files for a fully branded book.
Does it handle images?
Yes. All images from articles are proxied through our server and converted to base64 so the PDF renderer can embed them cleanly. WebP and AVIF are auto-converted to JPEG via canvas (react-pdf doesn’t support those formats natively).
Can I remove subscribe CTAs and repeat footers?
Yes, automatically. StackPress strips Substack’s subscribe widgets, share buttons, and "button-wrapper" CTAs during content extraction. It also detects and removes paragraphs that appear in 3 or more articles of the same book (author bios, "further reading" footers, recurring promos). There’s an opt-out toggle in Book Settings.
Pricing and tiers
Is StackPress free?
Free tier: full 4-step wizard, PDF and EPUB export, basic fonts, single-column layout, a "Made with StackPress" branding page on the last page. This is enough to make a great book with no payment.
What does Pro unlock?
Cover Designer (Step 5) with full-screen live PDF preview, color themes, subtitle and author overrides, image shape controls. Removes the branding page. Adds HTML preview, all custom fonts, two-column layouts per article, separate-PDFs export mode, and EPUB. Pro is $3/month.
Do you offer a free trial?
The Free tier is unlimited. Anyone can make books forever without paying. Pro is for people who want the polish of the Cover Designer and the flexibility of custom fonts and multi-column layouts.
Can I cancel anytime?
Yes. Pro is month-to-month, cancel anytime from your dashboard. No questions asked.
Custom design services
What if I want a completely bespoke book design?
We offer a custom design service where one of our designers builds a bespoke cover, typography system, and layout for your book. Use it for portfolio books, annual reports, gift books for colleagues. Tell us about the project via the Request a Quote button on the home page.
Do you make print-ready files?
Yes, as part of the custom design service. Bleed, trim marks, CMYK profile, full printer specs. We can hand off to Lulu, Blurb, or any POD partner you choose.