Download or Print the Gantt Chart

You can print the Gantt chart and sheet data and save it as a PDF. Click below for a walkthrough on how to export and print the Gantt chart.

Your plan can be printed in two ways:

• Print Current View - Download a PDF of the gantt as it appears on screen.
• Customize Print Options - Choose your rows, timeframe, scaling and much more.

To get started click the Print icon on the Gantt ribbon bar and choose one of the options:

The sections below explain the two print modes in more detail.

Print Current View

To create a PDF of your Gantt exactly as it appears on screen, select Print Current View. It works like a snapshot of your current Gantt view, so before printing you can adjust the layout in the Gantt tab by reordering columns, resizing them, scrolling to the area you want, or zooming out to include more tasks.

When the view looks right, click Print Current View and we'll generate a PDF that matches what’s visible in your browser. The download may take a few seconds to begin. The PDF includes the project name and download date at the top, and shows only your plan view, not the toolbar or other navigation elements. Here’s one example:

Browser requirements - We recommend using Chrome or Edge. The Print Current View option isn't currently available in Safari or Firefox. 

Customize Print Options

This option lets you the columns, timeframe, scaling and more. It will always output a single-page PDF which matches the size of your gantt chart, you can use the scale options to choose how much you want to "zoom in" and you can use your computers print-settings window to split across multiple pages if you want to sprint across multiple pages.

Here is a zoomed-in example of a multi-year project plan printed to PDF:

You have a lot of control over the final output:

• Title - The title of your printout, this will match your project name by default.

• Columns - When printing, you can choose to print every column, only the task names, or only the columns you currently have activated on the Gantt.

• Rows - You can select the rows you would like to include.

• Timeframe - You can select the date range you'd like to print. Arrow will point to the left or right if any tasks start or finish outside your chosen dates.

• Scale - Change the horizontal scaling of the gantt. Lower settings (day and week) will be easier to read but make the page wider, they're good for smaller plans. Higher settings (month and quarter) fit more on screen at once but you may need to zoom in to see the detail, great for multi-year projects. Here are examples of a project with the different scale settings: Day, Week, Month, Quarter.

Display options:

• Display Gantt grid lines - The Gantt grid lines will appear when this box is checked.

• Highlight today's date - Today's date will be highlighted on the printout.

• Summary tasks only - If this box is checked, you will only see the Summary Tasks and not the sub-tasks.

• Print collapsed tasks - If this box is checked, collapsed Summary Tasks will display on the printout.

• Hide Gantt - Similar to the project view, you can choose to hide the Gantt completely, so only the data graph appears.

Printing a Large Plan Over Multiple Pages

If you want to have a large plan printed at scale with multiple 8.5 x 11 pages, you need to use Adobe Acrobat’s “Poster” size option and scaling settings or another PDF tool that supports the ability to print out a large image as multiple pages. Since Adobe Acrobat is the most commonly used PDF tool, we have offered the following recommended settings to generate a large plan on a common paper size.

These are the recommended Adobe Acrobat Settings for an 8.5 x 11” paper output:

• Under “Page Size & Handling” Select:
  • Select the “Poster” options
  • Change “Tile Scale” to 133%
  • Change “Overlap” to .2 inches
• Orientation: Landscape
• Page Setup: 8.5 x 11”

As you adjust the settings, you will see in the preview window a dark grey shading with dotted page outlines over the plan. Adjusting Tile Scale and Overlap changes this view. In the image below, you can see that this large plan will print over 12 pages.

Example settings:

Then click “Print.” Depending on the length of your plan, your printer will generate the pages with overlap areas, so you can join these pages together to generate a large plan.

This is just one commonly used format used as an example for a very large plan. Smaller plans may output with a smaller number of pages. You can also adjust the timeline or additional Print Popup settings before you generate the PDF to just capture a portion of the plan. Here are some additional settings and options you can adjust to customize your plan.

You can always email us at support@projectmanager.com with any questions you have.