html-pdf

What is html-pdf?

The html-pdf npm package allows you to convert HTML content into PDF documents. It is useful for generating PDFs from web pages, HTML strings, or even local HTML files. The package provides a simple API to customize the PDF output, including options for page size, margins, headers, footers, and more.

What are html-pdf's main functionalities?

Convert HTML String to PDF

This feature allows you to convert an HTML string directly into a PDF file. The code sample demonstrates how to create a simple PDF from an HTML string and save it to a file.

const pdf = require('html-pdf');
const html = '<h1>Hello, World!</h1>';
pdf.create(html).toFile('./output.pdf', function(err, res) {
  if (err) return console.log(err);
  console.log(res); // { filename: '/path/to/output.pdf' }
});

Convert HTML File to PDF

This feature allows you to convert an HTML file into a PDF. The code sample demonstrates how to read an HTML file from the filesystem and convert it into a PDF file.

const pdf = require('html-pdf');
const fs = require('fs');
const html = fs.readFileSync('./template.html', 'utf8');
pdf.create(html).toFile('./output.pdf', function(err, res) {
  if (err) return console.log(err);
  console.log(res); // { filename: '/path/to/output.pdf' }
});

Custom PDF Options

This feature allows you to customize the PDF output by specifying options such as page format, orientation, and margins. The code sample demonstrates how to create a PDF with custom options.

const pdf = require('html-pdf');
const html = '<h1>Hello, World!</h1>';
const options = { format: 'Letter', orientation: 'portrait', border: '1in' };
pdf.create(html, options).toFile('./output.pdf', function(err, res) {
  if (err) return console.log(err);
  console.log(res); // { filename: '/path/to/output.pdf' }
});

Add Headers and Footers

This feature allows you to add headers and footers to the PDF. The code sample demonstrates how to include custom header and footer content in the PDF output.

const pdf = require('html-pdf');
const html = '<h1>Hello, World!</h1>';
const options = {
  header: { height: '45mm', contents: '<div style="text-align: center;">Author: John Doe</div>' },
  footer: { height: '28mm', contents: '<span style="color: #444;">{{page}}</span>/<span>{{pages}}</span>' }
};
pdf.create(html, options).toFile('./output.pdf', function(err, res) {
  if (err) return console.log(err);
  console.log(res); // { filename: '/path/to/output.pdf' }
});

Other packages similar to html-pdf

puppeteer

Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control Chrome or Chromium over the DevTools Protocol. It can be used to generate PDFs from web pages. Compared to html-pdf, Puppeteer offers more control over the browser environment and can handle more complex rendering tasks.

pdfkit

PDFKit is a JavaScript library for generating PDFs programmatically. Unlike html-pdf, which converts HTML to PDF, PDFKit allows you to create PDFs from scratch using JavaScript. It provides a rich API for drawing text, images, and shapes directly into the PDF.

wkhtmltopdf

wkhtmltopdf is a command-line tool to render HTML into PDF using Webkit. It can be used in Node.js applications via various wrappers. Compared to html-pdf, wkhtmltopdf is a standalone tool that can be integrated into different environments and offers extensive customization options.

README

node-html-pdf

a HTML to PDF converter that wraps phantomjs

Example Business Card
-> and its Source file

Example Receipt

var fs = require('fs');
var pdf = require('./lib');
var html = fs.readFileSync('./test/businesscard.html', 'utf8')
pdf.create(html, { width: '50mm', height: '90mm'}, function(err, buffer) {
  if (err) return console.log(err);
  fs.writeFile('businesscard.pdf', buffer);
});

API

Currently there is only one function

var pdf = require('html-pdf');
var callback = function(err, buffer){}
pdf.create(htmlString, options, callback)

Options

script: Absolute path to a custom phantomjs script, use the file in lib/scripts as example
timeout: Timeout that will cancel phantomjs, milliseconds as Integer, default: 10000
filename: The file path of the file that will be written. If you want to save the file permanently, you have to pass this option.
directory: The directory path of the file that will be written. default: '/tmp'

The full options object gets converted to JSON and will get passed to the phantomjs script as third argument.
There are more options concerning the paperSize, header & footer options inside the phantomjs script.

documentations for more available options will follow soon :)