Convert HTML Page To a PDF Using Open Source Tool [ Linux / OS X / Windows ]
from http://www.cyberciti.biz/open-source/html-to-pdf-freeware-linux-osx-windows-software/
Do you need a simple open source cross-platform command line tool that converts web pages and HTML to a PDF file? Look no further, try wkhtmltopdf.
From the project home page:
Simple shell utility to convert html to pdf using the webkit rendering engine, and qt. Searching the web, I have found several command line tools that allow you to convert a HTML-document to a PDF-document, however they all seem to use their own, and rather incomplete rendering engine, resulting in poor quality. Recently QT 4.4 was released with a WebKit widget (WebKit is the engine of Apples Safari, which is a fork of the KDE KHtml), and making a good tool became very easy.
Software features
- Cross platform.
- Open source.
- Convert any web pages into PDF documents using webkit.
- You can add headers and footers.
- TOC generation.
- Batch mode conversions.
- Can run on Linux server with an XServer (the X11 client libs must be installed).
- Can be directly used by PHP or Python via bindings to libwkhtmltox.
A note about Debian / Ubuntu Linux user
You can install wkhtmltopdf using apt-get command:
$ sudo apt-get install wkhtmltopdf
$ sudo ln -s /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf /usr/local/bin/html2pdf
Sample outputs:
[sudo] password for vivek:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
wkhtmltopdf
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 10 not upgraded.
Need to get 116 kB of archives.
After this operation, 303 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://debian.osuosl.org/debian/ squeeze/main wkhtmltopdf amd64 0.9.9-1 [116 kB]
Fetched 116 kB in 2s (49.4 kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package wkhtmltopdf.
(Reading database ... 274164 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking wkhtmltopdf (from .../wkhtmltopdf_0.9.9-1_amd64.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up wkhtmltopdf (0.9.9-1) ...
Download wkhtmltopdf
Visit this page to grab wkhtmltopdf for Linux / MS-Windows / Apple Mac OS X. You can also use the wget command as follows:
$ wget http://wkhtmltopdf.googlecode.com/files/wkhtmltopdf-0.11.0_rc1-static-amd64.tar.bz2
Sample outputs:
Resolving wkhtmltopdf.googlecode.com... 74.125.135.82, 2404:6800:4001:c01::52
Connecting to wkhtmltopdf.googlecode.com|74.125.135.82|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 11175276 (11M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `wkhtmltopdf-0.11.0_rc1-static-amd64.tar.bz2'
100%[======================================>] 1,11,75,276 480K/s in 23s
2012-10-04 01:21:43 (477 KB/s) - `wkhtmltopdf-0.11.0_rc1-static-amd64.tar.bz2' saved [11175276/11175276]
Install wkhtmltopdf under Linux
Type the following tar command to extract files:
$ tar xvf wkhtmltopdf-0.11.0_rc1-static-amd64.tar.bz2
Sample outputs:
wkhtmltopdf-amd64
Install the same in your private ~/bin/ directory or in /usr/local/bin directory:
$ mv wkhtmltopdf-amd64 ~/bin/
ln -s ~/bin/wkhtmltopdf-amd64 ~/bin/html2pdf
OR
$ sudo mv wkhtmltopdf-amd64 /usr/local/bin/
ln -s /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf-amd64 /usr/local/bin/html2pdf
How do I use wkhtmltopdf?
The syntax is as follows:
html2pdf http://www.cyberciti.biz/path/to/url.html output.pdf
html2pdf http://www.cyberciti.biz/blog/print/url-slut.html output.pdf
html2pdf -option1 -option2 http://www.cyberciti.biz/blog/print/url-slut.html output.pdf
Example: Simple html to pdf file
In this example, convert out bash for loop page to a pdf file:
$ html2pdf http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/bash-for-loop/print/ /tmp/bash.for.loop.pdf
Sample outputs:
Loading pages (1/6)
Counting pages (2/6)
Resolving links (4/6)
Loading headers and footers (5/6)
Printing pages (6/6)
Done
To view generated pdf file click here. Verify pdf file, enter:
$ file /tmp/bash.for.loop.pdf
Sample outputs:
/tmp/bash.for.loop.pdf: PDF document, version 1.4
Use the pdfinfo command to prints the contents of the 'Info' dictionary (plus some other useful information) from a Portable Document Format (PDF) file:
$ pdfinfo /tmp/bash.for.loop.pdf
Sample outputs:
Title: Frequently Asked Questions About Linux / UNIX » Bash For Loop Examples » Print
Creator:
Producer: wkhtmltopdf
CreationDate: Thu Oct 4 01:29:33 2012
Tagged: no
Pages: 4
Encrypted: no
Page size: 595 x 842 pts (A4)
File size: 98792 bytes
Optimized: no
PDF version: 1.4
Grayscale pdf
The following PDF will be generated in grayscale:
$ html2pdf -g http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/bash-for-loop/print/ bash.for.loop.pdf
Set orientation to Landscape or Portrait
Use the following syntax:
$ html2pdf -O Landscape http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/bash-for-loop/print/ bash.for.loop.pdf
Where,
- -O Landscape|Portrait. The default is Portrait.
How do I set page size?
Use the following syntax:
$ html2pdf -S SIZE http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/bash-for-loop/print/ bash.for.loop.pdf
Where,
- -s Size : Set paper size to: A4, Letter, etc. (default A4)
How do I generate table of content?
A table of content can be added to the document by adding a toc the command line option. For example:
$ html2pdf toc http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/bash-for-loop/print/ bash.for.loop.pdf
Sample outputs:
Fig.01: wkhtmltopdf in action
Please note that the table of content is generated based on the H tags in the input documents.
How do I see all available options?
You can see a list of commonly used options, enter:
$ wkhtmltopdf --help
OR see all available options i.e. display more extensive help, detailing less common command switches, run:
$ wkhtmltopdf -H | less
References:
- wkhtmltopdf project home page.
