Wkhtmltopdf, shell utility to convert html to pdf using webkit rendering engine

snowmaker wrote: post #4

beggi wrote: post #3

I used this for a project the other day, but after discovering PhantomJS I feel like it has more traction.

How specifically did you use PhantomJS for PDF generation?

There's an example here: http://code.google.com/p/phantomjs/wiki/QuickStart#Rendering (gives examples of .png and .pdf generation)

Re: Wkhtmltopdf, shell utility to convert html to pdf using webkit rendering engine

#6

Post by qznc » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 10:25 AM UTC

snowmaker wrote: post #4

beggi wrote: post #3

I used this for a project the other day, but after discovering PhantomJS I feel like it has more traction.

How specifically did you use PhantomJS for PDF generation?

PhantomJS has a "render(fileName)" API which supports PDF. Essentially, it is trivial to implement something like Wkhtmltopdf. However, Wkhtmltopdf is a shrinkwrap solution, which does not require you to install nodejs.

Re: Wkhtmltopdf, shell utility to convert html to pdf using webkit rendering engine

#7

Post by imurray » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 10:29 AM UTC

Every time I see a utility like this, I think maybe I could switch to producing some materials in HTML as the primary, or main intermediary, source format. Then I try the utility and realize that that would be silly.

For example, I currently make PDF slides for talks. In theory I'd like to make HTML slides, but would still like the ability to render a PDF for a robust record. However, neither this utility (or PhantomJS, which I just tried) immediately do a good job of converting something like: http://bit-player.org/deck.js/limits-to-growth-Harvard-2012-...

EDIT: also just tried cutycapt, with similar results to wkhtmltopdf (got all slides rather than just visible one, with bad page breaks, and no TeX maths).

Re: Wkhtmltopdf, shell utility to convert html to pdf using webkit rendering engine

#8

Post by pilif » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 10:30 AM UTC

There are two reasons I have with wkhtmltopdf that still have me fall back to my own printing stuff I've done in 2004 in order to create PDFs for our users:

* WebKit's support for printing is a bit behind the times and stuff like "display: table-header-group;" isn't quite supported, so whenever you have to print big lists across multiple pages, you are practically forced to do your own page breaking.

* Due to an issue somewhere between qt and webkit, it's not possible to hyphenate text. Well. It is possible, but it causes the hyphen not to be painted in most cases.

Having not to deal with manual page breaks or being able to hyphenate (and thus do real justification) were the two reasons for me to move off my home-grown solution, but as those two are the things missing in wkhtmltopdf, I'm staying with my own solution.

Aside of that: If you can live with these shortcomings and with the fact that you are for all intents and purposes forced into using their static build (patched qt, kerning issues for everybody trying a build with the same qt patches), then this might be the perfect solution for PDF generation.

It feels great to use CSS with mm measurements and getting exactly what you need. Or creating barcodes by just embedding SVG or being able to use the full capabilities of HTML, CSS and even JS when building your page.

Re: Wkhtmltopdf, shell utility to convert html to pdf using webkit rendering engine

#9

Post by dantiberian » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 10:59 AM UTC

Does anyone know of any other engines like this, either paid or free? We are using this to produce catalogs of 200+ complex pages and it is not handling generating PDFs of this size very well. It will often become unresponsive and create a memory leak.

Re: Wkhtmltopdf, shell utility to convert html to pdf using webkit rendering engine

#10

Post by chrisbroadfoot » Mon, Apr 16, 2012, 11:00 AM UTC

qznc wrote: post #6

snowmaker wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How specifically did you use PhantomJS for PDF generation?

PhantomJS has a "render(fileName)" API which supports PDF. Essentially, it is trivial to implement something like Wkhtmltopdf. However, Wkhtmltopdf is a shrinkwrap solution, which does not require you to install nodejs.

PhantomJS doesn't run on node.js