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Tableau | Data visualisation | Productivity

Change formats for PDF subscriptions

Set 'unspecified' on your PDF subscriptions and they'll always print crisp at any paper size.

Tim Ngwena •12 August 2020 •1 min read •4 min watch •4.7K

Part ofTableau Server

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Tableau 2020.3 lets you set and later change the page size and orientation of PDF subscriptions
Choosing the 'unspecified' page size produces the highest quality PDF that scales crisply to any paper size when printed
Subscriptions aren't listed in the Explore content section because they're alerts, not content
You find and edit your subscriptions under the Tasks area, in the Subscriptions tab
You can also create and change subscription formats programmatically via the REST API, useful for server admins

0:00In Tableau 2020.3, Tableau have added some

0:05additional functionality to PDF

0:07subscriptions

0:08to allow you to change the format of the

0:11PDF. Let me show you how that works. For

0:13this one,

0:13I'm actually going to go to one of my old

0:15visualizations here of the Barcelona

0:17marathon.

0:18What I want to do is export this as a PDF

0:21subscription. This isn't a good use case

0:23for

0:23a subscription, but it's a nice way to show

0:25you what the PDF subscription can do. I'm

0:28going to hit the subscribe button. You can

0:29just see that it's up here at the top. If

0:31I just bring my cursor up here, you can

0:33just see that this is the option here to

0:35subscribe.

0:36If I hit that, you will now see that I get

0:38the standard interface to change the format

0:41here and go to PDF. Now what you can do is

0:44you can actually change these specific

0:46sizes.

0:47Previously, this wasn't possible. You can

0:50also do this once you've created a

0:52subscription.

0:53I'm going to choose unspecified. It's

0:55actually a pro tip to choose unspecified

0:57because what

0:58this does is it means Tableau creates the

1:00highest quality PDF it possibly can. Then

1:03when you zoom in, it just looks crisp all

1:06the time. When you then go to export it or

1:09print it, well, the PDF tool automatically

1:11scales it down to fit whatever paper size

1:14you're printing on. You don't actually need

1:16to choose a paper size upfront. It's a

1:18little

1:18bit unintuitive, but trust me, it works

1:20really, really well. The quality of the

1:22unspecified

1:23paper sizes is just much better than if you

1:25choose A4 where it pre-renders it to that

1:28specific size. Let's choose unspecified.

1:30Let's go to landscape for this particular

1:32visualization.

1:33I'm going to subscribe myself and I'm going

1:36to set it to pretty much maybe not once a

1:39maybe not every day, maybe let's say weekly

1:41, maybe even monthly. Let's just avoid

1:44getting

1:44spammed on my inbox and maybe in a month's

1:46time, I'll remember that I set this up. Hit

1:49subscribe and now that's done. Now, if I go

1:52back to explore, you're probably wondering,

1:54"Well, where do I check where the

1:56subscription has been set up?" Well, that's

1:58not anywhere

1:59in the content hierarchy. Subscriptions are

2:01actually alert, so they don't typically

2:03turn

2:03up as content and that's what the explore

2:05section is about. It's about content. To

2:08find

2:08your subscription, you must first have

2:10access to the subscriptions that you've

2:12created.

2:13Then if you go to tasks, you can see here

2:15that I've got my extract refreshes and over

2:18here, third option from right, I've got the

2:20option for subscription. Let me just

2:22highlight

2:23that for you as well right there. Now, if I

2:25click on that tab, you'll see that I've

2:28got my name here. I've got the actual

2:30visualization and it's a PDF. Now, if you

2:32want to change

2:33that format, you just hit these three dots

2:35and you can go ahead and change the format

2:37and you specifically get the option to

2:39change the page size and the orientation.

2:42Maybe something

2:42wasn't working in an email or a document

2:44and you want the next one to be correct,

2:46you can

2:46go in here and change that to portrait or

2:49change it back to landscape. Notice if I

2:51change

2:52it to what it was before, this option is

2:54grayed out. If I change it to something new

2:56, then

2:57there's actually something to change. That

2:58's a really nice feature to sort of stop you

3:00doing unnecessary changes as it were, but

3:02that's pretty much the feature in a

3:04nutshell.

3:05The other thing you can do is using the

3:07REST API, you can also set up subscriptions

3:09and

3:09change the format there. That's something

3:11really useful if you're a server admin and

3:13trying to do this in a programmatic way.

3:15Something I highly recommend if you have

3:17that capability

3:18within your team. So that's pretty much it.

3:20If you've enjoyed this video, check out

3:21more

3:22videos on 2020.3 in the playlist. Otherwise

3:25, be sure to let us know what other kind of

3:27content you'd like to see on the channel.

3:29Hit subscribe and stay tuned.

Rollup

Tableau 2020.3 lets you set and later change the page size and orientation of a PDF subscription, and choosing 'unspecified' as the size gives you the best-quality, most flexible output.

Tim exports an existing visualisation as a PDF subscription to show the new format options introduced in this release.

The Breakdown

Create a subscription and open format options 0:14

Hit subscribe on any visualisation to bring up the standard subscription interface, then choose PDF as the format. This is where you now get access to page size and orientation settings that weren't previously available.
Choose 'unspecified' for the best quality 0:54

Selecting 'unspecified' instead of a fixed size like A4 tells Tableau to render the highest quality PDF possible; it then scales down cleanly to whatever paper size you print or export to. It's a bit unintuitive since you're not picking a size, but it consistently produces a crisper result than pre-rendering to a fixed size.
Set orientation and frequency, then subscribe 1:34

Pick landscape or portrait and choose how often you want the subscription delivered (Tim picks weekly or monthly to avoid inbox spam) before hitting subscribe to finish setup.
Find your subscriptions under Tasks, not Explore 1:52

Subscriptions are alerts, not content, so they won't appear in the Explore section. You must first have access to the subscriptions you've created, then go to Tasks and open the Subscriptions tab to see them listed by name and visualisation.
Edit the format after the fact 2:30

From the Subscriptions tab, use the three-dot menu on any subscription to change its page size or orientation after creation — useful if the original PDF didn't render correctly in an email or document. Reverting to the original setting greys out the option, which stops you making unnecessary changes.
Do it programmatically via the REST API 3:05

You can also create subscriptions and change their format through the REST API, which is worth using if you're a server admin managing this at scale.

Worth Knowing

'Unspecified' page size looks unintuitive because you're not picking a size, but it genuinely produces crisper output than a fixed size like A4.
Subscriptions won't show up under Explore because they're classed as alerts rather than content — look under Tasks instead.
If you set the format back to what it already was, the change option greys out, preventing pointless edits.

Use It When

Reach for this when a subscribed PDF isn't printing or displaying correctly and you need to fix its size or orientation after the fact, or when setting up subscriptions you want to print reliably at any paper size.

How this Rollup was made provenance & method

A Rollup is drafted by AI from the video's transcript, then reviewed and edited by Tim. Everything used to produce this one is listed below — the model, the exact prompt, and the source video — so the process is transparent and reproducible.

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Drafting: Claude Sonnet 5 in the cloud, from that transcript.
Prompt: The exact Rollup prompt (v2) — the full system prompt, unedited.
Source video: Watch on YouTube
Drafted: 5 July 2026 at 09:38
Reviewed & edited: 5 July 2026 at 09:41 · by Tim Ngwena

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