What a downloadable EPK is

A downloadable EPK is a PDF version of a page on your website, which you can email to a venue, attach to a festival application, or hand to someone at a conference. Bandzoogle builds it from a page you have already made, so you write your bio, add your music and photos once, and the PDF follows.

The PDF is a print-ready version of your page, not a screenshot of it. Your text, images, colours and section layout carry over. Anything that only works in a browser — playing a track, watching a video, submitting a form — becomes a link or a still image instead, because paper and PDF readers can't press play.

It helps to think of it the way a band thinks about a live set versus a studio record: same songs, same order, but performed for a different room.

Which pages you can export

You can export any page on your site as a PDF, not just an EPK page. The EPK page template is simply the one designed to fit neatly onto a page or two, so it's the most common starting point.

If you're already on a Lite, Standard or Pro plan, you don't need to buy anything to make a press kit. Building an EPK page and exporting it as a PDF is part of the plan you already have.

While we have a separate 'EPK plan' here at Bandzoogle, these are designed as a one-page site for artists whose main website is elsewhere, or for artists who only want an EPK, not a full website.

Other pages members export regularly:

  • A one-sheet built from a bio, a photo and a quote
  • A tour or shows page, to send to a booking agent
  • A stage plot or tech rider page, to email ahead to a venue
  • A lyrics or liner notes page, to send to a label or a sync contact

Before the 'Export as PDF' option appears:

  • You must be on a paid plan — PDF export isn't available during the free trial.
  • The page's access is set to 'Everybody' — password-protected and members-only pages, or pages with visibility off or ‘hide from search engines’ enabled will not display the option, because the generated PDF gets a public link of its own.
  • Your domain is set up and current — the PDF is built using the domain on your account, so an expired or unpointed domain will stop it generating.

If you're building an EPK from scratch, the 'Electronic Press Kit' page templates come pre-loaded with the features press usually ask for: bio, photo, quote, sample track and video. When you click ‘Edit content’ > Add a page just choose the EPK option there to view all the EPK templates you can choose from.

How to export a page as a PDF

  1. From the 'Edit Content' tab, click the 'Pages' menu
  2. Click the cog icon next to the page you want to export
  3. In 'Page options', click 'Export as PDF'
  4. Adjust the export options — the preview on the right updates as you go, and shows you roughly where each page break will fall and how many pages you'll end up with
  5. Click 'Generate PDF', then choose where to save it

The export options:

  • Page size: set the print size of the PDF, Letter for North America, A4 for most everywhere else.
  • Section padding: set small, medium, or large spacing between features, so you can make the print area longer or shorter.
  • Show site title: Puts your site title or logo at the top of the first page. Turn this off if your first feature is already a big image or wordmark
  • Use theme section colours: Applies your page's background colours to the PDF instead of white. Turn this off for a cleaner, ink-friendly file people will print.
  • Show website address in footer: Prints your page URL at the bottom of every page - this helps anyone you send this to know where to visit you online.
  • Show/hide features: Drops individual features or whole sections from the PDF. You can pick and choose which features will display in your PDF File.

Note: hiding a feature here changes only the PDF. Your live page is untouched, so you can cut the form out of the press kit and still take enquiries on the web.

What to expect when you open the PDF

What you will see:

  • Your words, with their bold, italics and links intact
  • Your images and captions, at the size and position you set
  • Your section colours and background images, if 'Use theme section colours' is on
  • Your section order and column layout — a three-column photo row stays a three-column photo row

What's different:

  • Fonts. The PDF generator uses its own preset print fonts, so your theme's typefaces won't carry over. Sizes, weights and headings still follow your page's hierarchy, so the structure reads the same even though the letterforms don't match.
  • Your header image isn't included. The PDF begins with your site title or logo (if 'Show site title' is on) and then your first feature. If the header image is doing important work — a band shot, a wordmark, an album cover — add it to the page as an 'Image' feature so it has somewhere to land in the export.
  • Site-wide features don't appear. Your navigation menu, the mailing list call-to-action, and the 'My Sites' bar are all part of the site rather than the page, so the PDF leaves them out. Anything you need in the file — a mailing list signup URL, your contact details — should live on the page itself, usually in a 'Text' feature.
  • Page breaks land where they land. The PDF flows onto as many pages as the content needs, and a long section can split across two of them. The preview in the export editor shows you where the breaks will fall before you generate, so you can adjust padding or hide a feature to tidy them up.
  • Empty space appears where columns don't match. On the web, columns reflow to fit the screen. On a fixed page they can't, so a short column beside a tall one leaves a gap.

How each feature translates

Your music: keeps its album art, title, artist and credits, with the full track listing printed below it. Play, pause and buy controls don't come across — instead the tracks and the album link out to a share page where a listener can hear them.

Videos: appear as their thumbnail, with the video's address printed underneath. Clicking the thumbnail opens the video on YouTube or Vimeo, and anyone holding a printed copy can type the address in.

Images, photo galleries and store products: print as they appear on your page, captions included. Each image links through to the full-size version on your website, so a click opens it in a browser.

Store items: Products keep their details, though prices and checkout stay on your site — there's no buying from inside a PDF.

Blog posts: display, with each one linking back to where it lives on your site.

Shows, text and file lists: carry over much as you'd expect: dates, venues and descriptions as text; your writing with its links still clickable; and files listed with their title, description, thumbnail and size, so a venue can see there's a stage plot waiting even if they need your live page to download it.

Contact forms aren't exported: If you want the press to have your email or phone number, add it to the page in a 'Text' feature - that way you decide exactly what's shown.

A few things belong to your site rather than to any one page, so they sit outside the export:

  • your navigation menu
  • your header image
  • the mailing list call-to-action and the My Sites bar

If you need one of them in the file - a band shot at the top, a signup link - add it to the page itself as an 'Image' or 'Text' feature and it'll come through.

Features that don't export

A few features have no printable equivalent, so they're left out of the PDF entirely:

  • Button
  • Forum
  • Poll
  • Tip Jar
  • Video from Facebook or Twitch

This comes up most often when you're exporting a page that wasn't built as a press kit -your home page, a store page, somewhere you've put a Tip Jar or a poll. A purpose-built EPK page rarely contains any of these.

When you open the export options, Bandzoogle tells you which features on that page can't be included, so you'll know before you generate rather than after.

Note: Track links depend on your plan. For the PDF to link to a track, that track needs a web address of its own - a permalink. Permalinks come as part of the same system that lets Lite, Standard and Pro members sell downloads directly from their site. Music on an EPK plan doesn't have them, so there's nothing for the PDF to point at.

Tips for a PDF you're proud to send

Bandzoogle members get the best results when they treat the PDF as its own thing rather than expecting a carbon copy of their web page.

  1. Build a page for the job. Duplicate your press page, strip it back to the essentials, and export that. Press wants a bio, a photo, a track, a quote and a way to reach you - usually on one or two pages.
  2. Put everything the reader needs on the page. Contact details, mailing list URL, streaming links, management contact. If it isn't a feature on the page, it won't be in the file.
  3. Use 'Show/hide features' generously. Store sections, blog feeds and anything else that only makes sense in a browser can come out of the export without touching your live page. Forms are removed for you automatically.
  4. Lead with an image feature. Since the header image doesn't export, a full-width 'Image' feature at the top of the page gives your PDF its cover shot.
  5. Watch the preview for page breaks. If a section splits badly, drop the section padding to small, hide a feature, or move a shorter feature above the one that's splitting.
  6. Decide on colour early. 'Use theme section colours' makes a striking on-screen file. Turning it off gives you white pages that print cleanly and cheaply - worth a second export if people will print it.
  7. Check it before you send it. Open the finished PDF, read it end to end, and print one page if it's going to a venue. It's the version of your site you have the least control over, so it's worth the two minutes.

Common questions

Why doesn't my PDF look exactly like my website? The PDF is built for print and for reading offline, so it uses preset fonts, leaves out site-wide elements like your navigation and header image, and turns interactive features into text, images and links. Your content, colours and section layout carry over; the browser-only parts can't.

Can I change the fonts in the PDF? Not currently — the generator uses its own preset fonts for both headings and body text.

My PDF is three pages and I wanted one. Set 'Section padding' to small, hide any feature you don't strictly need, and consider making a trimmed-down page just for exporting. The preview shows the page count as you adjust.

Can my visitors download the PDF from my site? Yes. Every PDF you generate gets its own URL in the 'Page PDFs' tab of your File Manager, so you can link to it from a Button, a Text feature, a File List, or a Call-to-action Header.

I updated my page — does the PDF update too? No. The PDF is a snapshot of the page at the moment you generated it. Export again after you make changes, and share the new file.

Can I export more than one page into a single PDF? Each export covers one page. If you want several sections in one file, build them onto a single page and export that.

Can I edit the PDF after it's generated? Not within Bandzoogle. Make your changes on the page and re-export — that way your site and your press kit stay in step.

Do I need an EPK plan to make a press kit?

Not if you already have a website with us. At Bandzoogle, 'EPK' means two things here: a page you can build on any website plan, and a plan of its own. Both export to PDF.

The EPK plan is for artists whose main website is somewhere else and who just want a press kit; if you're already on Lite, Standard or Pro, buying one would give you a second, separate site you don't need. A couple of things do work differently between them:

EPK plan

What it is: A one-page website of its own.

Suited for: Artists who already have a website elsewhere and want a press kit to share.

Design: Pick any of the EPK themes and restyle whenever you like - it's your only page.

Its own web address: A domain isn't included, but one can be purchased and pointed to it.

What fits on it: One page, 10 tracks and 25 images.

Selling and mailing list: Neither - no store, digital downloads or mailing list.

Track links in the PDF: Not available.

EPK page

What it is: One page on a Lite, Standard or Pro site - often named /press or /epk.

Suited for: Artists whose press kit sits alongside the rest of their site.

Design: Follows your site's theme, like every other page. You can change the layout of features, and there are prefab layouts built for press kits, but colours and fonts can't be changed for one page on its own.

Its own web address: Not directly. If your site has a second domain, you can redirect it to the page - domain2.com > domain1.com/epk

What fits on it: Your plan's usual page, track and image allowances.

Selling and mailing list: Both - depending on your website plan.

Track links in the PDF: Available.