electron-pdf
A command line tool to generate PDF from URL, HTML or Markdown files with electron.
I have a blog post explain why PDF Generation On The Web
Production ready? See it in action for the Myanmar Election!
Install
npm install electron-pdf -g
For gnu/linux installations without a graphical environment:
$ sudo apt-get install xvfb # or equivalent $ export DISPLAY=':99.0'$ Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1024x768x24 > /dev/null 2>&1 &$ electron-pdf ...
There is also an example docker machine here.
Node Usage
Electron PDF can be used inside of an application, or more commonly as the engine for a pdf rendering service. For instance, to handle http requests using Express. The following snipppets show you how you can get started.
The application must run in an Electron process
In package.json
"start": "DEBUG=electronpdf:* electron index.js","watch": "DEBUG=electronpdf:* nodemon --exec electron index.js"
You can use the same instance
var ElectronPDF = var express = var bodyParser = var app = app var exporter = exporterexporterstart
And handle multiple export job instances
app
Using an in memory Buffer
If you set the inMemory
setting to true, you must also set closeWindow=true
or you will get a segmentation fault anytime the window is closed before the buffer
is sent on the response. You then need to invoke job.destroy
to close the window.
Sample Code:
const jobOptions = inMemory: true closeWindow: false exporter
Events
The API is designed to emit noteworthy events rather than use callbacks. Full documentation of all events is a work in progress.
Command Line Usage
For Ad-hoc conversions, Electron PDF comes with support for a CLI.
To generate a PDF from a HTML file
$ electron-pdf index.html ~/Desktop/index.pdf
To generate a PDF from a Markdown file
$ electron-pdf index.md ~/Desktop/index.pdf
To generate a PDF from a Markdown file with custom CSS (defaults to Github markdown style)
$ electron-pdf index.html ~/Desktop/index.pdf -c my-awesome-css.css
To generate a PDF from a URL
$ electron-pdf https://fraserxu.me ~/Desktop/fraserxu.pdf
Rendering Options
Electron PDF gives you complete control of how the BrowserWindow should be configured, and when the window contents should be captured.
To specify browser options
The BrowserWindow supports many options which you
may define by passing a JSON Object to the --browserConfig
option.
Some common use cases may include:
height
andwidth
- electron-pdf calculates the browser height and width based off of the dimensions of PDF page size multiplied by the HTML standard of 96 pixels/inch. So only set these values if you need to override this behaviorshow
- to display the browser window during generation
$ electron-pdf https://fraserxu.me ~/Desktop/fraserxu.pdf --browserConfig '{"show":true}'
To generate a PDF after the an async task in the HTML
electron-pdf ./index.html ~/Desktop/README.pdf -e
In your application, at the point which the view is ready for rendering
documentbody
Observing your own event
If the page you are rending is under your control, and you wish to modify the behavior of the rendering process you can use a CustomEvent and an observer that will be triggered after the view is ready but before it is captured.
your-page.html
documentbody
your-exporter.js
As an example, suppose you wanted to change the orientation of the PDF
job
All Available Options
Electron PDF exposes the printToPDF settings (i.e. pageSize, orientation, margins, etc.) available from the Electron API. See the following options for usage.
A command line tool to generate PDF from URL, HTML or Markdown files
Options
--help Show this help
--version Current version of package
-i | --input String - The path to the HTML file or url
-o | --output String - The path of the output PDF
--browserConfig String - A valid JSON String that will be parsed into the options passed to electron.BrowserWindow
-c | --css String - The path to custom CSS
-b | --printBackground Boolean - Whether to print CSS backgrounds.
false - default
-s | --printSelectionOnly Boolean - Whether to print selection only
false - default
-p | --pageSize String - Can be A3, A4, A5, Legal, Letter, Tabloid or an Object containing height and width in microns
"A4" - default
-l | --landscape Boolean - true for landscape, false for portrait.
false - default
-m | --marginsType Integer - Specify the type of margins to use
0 - default
1 - none
2 - minimum
-d | --disableCache Disable HTTP caching
-w | --outputWait Integer – Time to wait (in MS) between page load and PDF creation. If used in conjunction with -e this will override the default timeout of 10 seconds
-e | --waitForJSEvent String - The name of the event to wait before PDF creation
'view-ready' - default
Usage
$ electron-pdf <input> <output>
$ electron-pdf <input> <output> -l
Examples
$ electron-pdf http://fraserxu.me ~/Desktop/fraserxu.pdf
$ electron-pdf ./index.html ~/Desktop/index.pdf
$ electron-pdf ./README.md ~/Desktop/README.pdf -l
$ electron-pdf ./README.md ~/Desktop/README.pdf -l -c my-awesome-css.css
Inspired by electron-mocha
Other Formats
Want to use the same options, but export to PNG or snapshot the rendered HTML? Just set the output filename to end in .png or .html instead!
Examples
$ electron-pdf http://fraserxu.me ~/Desktop/fraserxu.pdf
$ electron-pdf http://fraserxu.me ~/Desktop/fraserxu.html
$ electron-pdf http://fraserxu.me ~/Desktop/fraserxu.png
Extensions
If you need powerpoint support, pdf-powerpoint picks up where Electron PDF leaves off by converting each page in the PDF to a PNG and placing them on individual slides.
License
MIT