user4864: I have a single bitcoin address with all my savings on it. I want to make a paper backup for precaution (as if my hard drive somehow exploded) with that specific address. Is that possible?
Keep in mind that I want a physical backup but at the same time I want to be able to manage the wallet from bitcoin-qt.

user548: You can create the backup of the wallet as normally, then use for example bzip2 to compress it. Then you use base64 to make the data printable, then just copy it in openoffice for example to print it (Not to small. Default size should be good). Later you can use OCR software to scan the text again.

user208: Right now, that's not supported. You can try (see user2194702's answer), but if you don't know the exact workings of the wallet, you're very likely to shoot yourself in the foot.
For example, Bitcoin-Qt will send change to a new address every time you create a transaction, and in general does not follow the "balance per address" concept but a "balance per wallet". This improves the privacy of the system (for you, but also for others), but complicates backups. In particular, you cannot backup a wallet by just making a backup of a single key.
HD Wallets (hierarchical deterministic wallets, see BIP32) are intended to overcome this problem, by making sure you can backup a wallet by only making a backup of a single seed that is used to derive all keys. This is planned to be implemented in Bitcoin-Qt, but not yet available.

4864: <p>I have a single bitcoin address with all my <em>savings</em> on it. I want to make a paper backup for precaution (as if my hard drive somehow exploded) with that specific address. Is that possible?</p>

<p><em>Keep in mind that I want a <strong>physical backup</strong> but at the same time I want to be <strong>able to manage the wallet</strong> from bitcoin-qt.</em></p>
 548: <p>You can create the backup of the wallet as normally, then use for example bzip2 to compress it. Then you use base64 to make the data printable, then just copy it in openoffice for example to print it (Not to small. Default size should be good). Later you can use OCR software to scan the text again.</p>
 208: <p>Right now, that's not supported. You can try (see user2194702's answer), but if you don't know the exact workings of the wallet, you're very likely to shoot yourself in the foot.</p>

<p>For example, Bitcoin-Qt will send <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Change" rel="nofollow">change</a> to a new address every time you create a transaction, and in general does not follow the "balance per address" concept but a "balance per wallet". This improves the privacy of the system (for you, but also for others), but complicates backups. In particular, you cannot backup a wallet by just making a backup of a single key.</p>

<p>HD Wallets (hierarchical deterministic wallets, see <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0032" rel="nofollow">BIP32</a>) are intended to overcome this problem, by making sure you can backup a wallet by only making a backup of a single seed that is used to derive all keys. This is planned to be implemented in Bitcoin-Qt, but not yet available.</p>
