If you've been looking to get your DDB books offline on your computer, you've come to the right place. This is a short guide to get the most out of it. (This tutorial assumes you're using Google Chrome as your browser.)

Why?

The DDB site is pure genious in the way it presents the content (like the use of tooltips and cross-references), and I can't wait to see what they come up with in future navigation revamps (both desktop and mobile). But sometimes you might want the books offline on a larger screen. So this is for you, a pretty easy and straight-forward process which generates a half-decent document that you can use offline.

Instructions

1. Open each chapter of the book, and open the Print dialog in the browser (Ctrl+P)
2. In Destination choose Save as PDF
3. Expand More Settings
4. Here you can experiment with the settings to get the results you want. Personally I went with:
   • Paper Size: Letter
   • Pages per Sheet: 1
   • Margins: Custom (0" for top and bottom margins to achieve a "infinite scroll" feel in the PDF reader)
   • Scale: 150 (At 100 I feel the text size is too small)
   • Options, Background Graphics: On 
5. Save each chapter as a PDF, and name it preferably with the chapter name
6. Download a program to merge all PDFs (I prefer PDFSam Basic which is free and open-source, tips below assumes you're using this software)
7. Open PDFSam Basic and choose Merge. Add all PDF documents, and rearrange if needed.
8. Under Merge settings, Bookmarks handling choose Create one entry for each merged document. (This will create a Table of Content in the PDF for easier navigation)
9. When happy with the settings, hit Run in the bottom left.
10. Enjoy your generated PDF book!

A couple of things to note:

• You can most likely change, add, remove bookmarks in your PDF reader of choice. You can do this to expand the bookmarks generated by PDFSam to get a more complete Table of Contents.
• Links will point to DDBs site, and tooltips obviously don't work. Links pointing to a section within the same chapter (Classes for instance), seem to be working locally.
• You can perform text search within your PDF reader of choice, to navigate the document more quickly.
• And most importantly: DO NOT SHARE YOUR PDF WITH ANYONE ELSE, THIS IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!

You can also download books using the mobile app for offline use.

There are no official ways to use books offline on PC though.

Exactly. I've seen people asking about a desktop app, primarily for offline reading. So this is mostly for them (hence my mention of computer and larger screens).

I send them to my kindle using the send to kindle extension as well.

That's awesome! I'm actually in the process of creating an EPUB out of the PHB. I'm aiming for a "professional grade" EPUB, so it's a cumbersome process :-D

If one doesn't own a Kindle i think it's possible to mimick your process by using Calibre to convert web pages and send them to the e-reader.

Really appreciate this.  While I own many of the books in physical form, and almost the entire DnDB library electronically, I do miss the ability to "write in the margins". 

I am an old 1e player and I would often buy two copies of the physical books and modules - one "pristine" for collecting purposes, and another to use as a working copy.  I'd highlight, pencil in notes, etc.   These PDF versions really help me with that.

I must admit, I wish WotC would consider providing electronic compendium in the future.  I own all the PF2e materials in PDF form and enjoy/appreciate the flexibility that provides me as a DM.

This is VERY helpful info!

Been using this technique since this was first posted.

Hey,

Thanks to your post, @fohswe, I have created a bookmarklet to print chapters of the materials to PDF. No fonts resize needed. I use A4 paper with 5mm margins for the best experience on my ebook readers.

javascript:jQuery(".ddb-site-banner, .site-bar, header.main, #mega-menu-target, .ad-container, header.page-header, .secondary-content, .p-article-header, #footer").attr("style", "display: none");jQuery(".primary-content").attr("style", "column-count: 2");jQuery("body").attr("style", "background: none!important");window.print();

If you have Windows you can download the DDB app for Android and download the books to that app.

Yes, but this isn't a hardcopy - which is what the original poster is looking for.  They want to highlight, make notes, etc.

When printing, is there a way to remove the stupid "to top" arrow? No matter how I try to format the margins/etc. I always end up with that arrow covering some of the text. I'd prefer not to remove all formatting just for that, since all the tables/etc. look way worse when I do.

"The DDB site is pure genius in the way it presents the content"... this is sarcasm I'm assuming? The stupid books aren't even searchable and the only way to download them as a PDF is spending hours piecing together a book chapter by chapter. I'm reconsidering my subscription and certainly regret it. 

Quote from TerribleWyrm >>

"The DDB site is pure genius in the way it presents the content"... this is sarcasm I'm assuming? The stupid books aren't even searchable and the only way to download them as a PDF is spending hours piecing together a book chapter by chapter. I'm reconsidering my subscription and certainly regret it. 

 
Not searchable?   There's literally a search box on every page.

There's only a general search box that's not specific to a source. I'd post a screen shot but this primitive 1990's style forum doesn't allow it without 100 intermediate steps. 

Quote from TerribleWyrm >>

There's only a general search box that's not specific to a source. I'd post a screen shot but this primitive 1990's style forum doesn't allow it without 100 intermediate steps.