Staple

A Chrome extension that binds a week (or any range) of Substack essays into one print-ready PDF, an EPUB for your e-reader, or a single self-contained HTML file. It uses your own Substack sign-in, so it includes free posts plus any paid posts you subscribe to; paywalled posts you can't read are shown as "preview only" and left out by default.

Install

Install Staple from the Chrome Web Store: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/staple/hakeoeghnpkdejinkkbopcmonhigpmdf

Or load it unpacked (developer mode)

1. Open chrome://extensions and turn on Developer mode (top right).
2. Click Load unpacked and choose this Staple folder.
3. Pin Staple from the puzzle-piece menu and click its icon to open it.

Be signed in to substack.com in the same Chrome profile if you want Import my subscriptions and paid posts to work.

Use

1. Publications — import your subscriptions, or add any Substack by URL (name.substack.com or a custom domain like theorybrief.com). Custom domains ask for permission to read that site the first time. The list is saved; Refresh subscriptions picks up new ones.
   • Groups: All ticks everything; + New group starts from nothing ticked — tick the publications, name it, save. Picking a group later ticks exactly its members; change the ticks and you can update the group or save a new one. Selected only filters the list to what's ticked.
2. Which posts — date range (defaults to the last 7 days) and a minimum length (default 400 words). Podcasts, threads and short notes are skipped.
3. Posts — tick what you want. Paid posts are checked for access.
4. Make PDF / EPUB / HTML — pick image size (full width, 75%, 50%, 25% or none; smaller sizes also download smaller files) and a typeface (Charter, Palatino, Baskerville, Iowan Old Style, Georgia or a sans serif), then:
   • PDF opens the book and the print dialog. Choose Save as PDF; under More settings, untick Headers and footers.
   • EPUB downloads a .epub (cover, contents, one chapter per post, images embedded) for Apple Books, Kobo, Calibre or Send to Kindle.
   • HTML downloads one .html file with the stylesheet inlined and images embedded — opens in any browser, offline, and prints like the PDF.

How it works

• lib/substack.js — calls Substack's undocumented JSON API with your cookies: /api/v1/subscriptions/page_v2 (cursor-paginated), {pub}/api/v1/archive, and substack.com/api/v1/posts/by-id/{id} for bodies. A post counts as "preview only" when its body has under 80% of its listed word count.
• lib/clean.js — strips subscribe/share widgets, turns tweets, videos and embedded posts into static equivalents, and namespaces footnote ids.
• book.html / book.css — cover, contents, one article per chapter, print typography (@page size, page numbers). Image scale resizes via Substack's CDN (w_ parameter) and caps display width.
• lib/epub-export.js, lib/epub.js, lib/zip.js, epub.css — EPUB 3 (with NCX fallback) built in the browser: images downloaded and embedded, a cover drawn on a canvas, zipped with CompressionStream.
• lib/html-export.js, lib/images.js — standalone HTML export and the image downloader shared with EPUB.
• lib/notice.js — the "Substack is rate-limiting — resuming in N s" banner.
• app.html / app.js — the picker UI. Settings, publications and groups live in chrome.storage.local.
• lib/config.js — SUPPORT_URL, the Buy Me a Coffee link shown in the app footer and for a minute on the finished book page (hidden while empty).

Known limits

• The Substack API is unofficial and may change.
• Substack rate-limits bursts; requests are throttled to 3 at a time with retry/backoff, but importing 100+ publications will be slow.
• PDF goes through Chrome's print dialog (one extra click).
• EPUBs are checked for well-formed XHTML and a consistent manifest, but not yet run through epubcheck.

Website

docs/ is the public website (home, support, privacy policy), published with GitHub Pages at https://victorshammas.com/staple/. See docs/README.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Publishing

store/ holds the Chrome Web Store kit: the upload zip, screenshots, promo tiles, listing and privacy-form text, a privacy policy, and a Notes announcement draft. Start with store/SUBMISSION.md. Rebuild the zip after code changes (the command leaves out store/ and this README):

zip -r -X store/staple-1.0.0.zip manifest.json background.js app.html app.css app.js \
  book.html book.css book.js epub.css icons lib -x "*.DS_Store"