[prima-facie]

> But why save pdfs instead of downloading the webpages?

Ages ago we had this wonderful format called MHTML which allowed you to save an entire webpage (with images and all) as a single file. This was amazing for archiving and I remember saving lots of tutorials in this format.

But the format seems to have fallen out of grace over the years to the point where it became difficult to find a browser that allows opening those old files.

PDF now seems to be the best method of archiving content. Standards like PDF/A implement a subset of the PDF standard which ensures the content will be available for the years to come.

[IndexPointer]

Chrome mobile saves to mhtml if you download a page. Chrome desktop can save to mhtml if you select "webpage, single file". And of course they open the files fine. But it's not compressed, so you'll end up with smaller files if you use pdfs.