wkhtmltopdf – Generating PDF and Images
wkhtmltopdf is amazing open source (LGPLv3) command line tool wkhtmltopdf to render HTML to PDF and various image formats using the Qt WebKit rendering engine. These run entirely “headless” and do not require any service.
There is also a C library, if you’re into that kind of thing.
How to use wkhtmltopdf ?
- Download a precompiled binary or build from source
- Create your HTML document that you want to convert into a PDF (or image)
- Run your HTML document through the tool.
For example, if I really like the treatment LiferayUI has done to their logo today and want to capture it forever as a PDF:wkhtmltopdf https://liferayui.com liferayui.pdf
Global Options:
--collate Collate when printing multiple copies
(default)
--no-collate Do not collate when printing multiple
copies
--cookie-jar <path> Read and write cookies from and to the
supplied cookie jar file
--copies <number> Number of copies to print into the pdf
file (default 1)
-d, --dpi <dpi> Change the dpi explicitly (this has no
effect on X11 based systems)
-H, --extended-help Display more extensive help, detailing
less common command switches
-g, --grayscale PDF will be generated in grayscale
-h, --help Display help
--htmldoc Output program html help
--image-dpi <integer> When embedding images scale them down to
this dpi (default 600)
--image-quality <integer> When jpeg compressing images use this
quality (default 94)
--license Output license information and exit
-l, --lowquality Generates lower quality pdf/ps. Useful to
shrink the result document space
--manpage Output program man page
-B, --margin-bottom <unitreal> Set the page bottom margin
-L, --margin-left <unitreal> Set the page left margin (default 10mm)
-R, --margin-right <unitreal> Set the page right margin (default 10mm)
-T, --margin-top <unitreal> Set the page top margin
-O, --orientation <orientation> Set orientation to Landscape or Portrait
(default Portrait)
--page-height <unitreal> Page height
-s, --page-size <Size> Set paper size to: A4, Letter, etc.
(default A4)
--page-width <unitreal> Page width
--no-pdf-compression Do not use lossless compression on pdf
objects
-q, --quiet Be less verbose
--read-args-from-stdin Read command line arguments from stdin
--readme Output program readme
--title <text> The title of the generated pdf file (The
title of the first document is used if not
specified)
-V, --version Output version information and exit
Additional options
That’s amazing, I’ve always wanted to turn LiferayUI homepage into a PDF, but I want a table of contents as well.
There are lot’s of command line options. You can check out the auto-generated wkhtmltopdf options.
You can also add custom Header and Footer in PDF using page option.
wkhtmltopdf --header-html header.html https://liferayui.com liferayui.pdf