HTML to PDF in Java

Overview

Convert web pages and HTML documents to PDF with the PDFCrowd Java client. The client handles communication with the API, while conversions run on PDFCrowd's servers.

Installation

Add the Java client to the <dependencies> section of your pom.xml, or see other installation options.

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.pdfcrowd</groupId>
  <artifactId>pdfcrowd</artifactId>
  <version>6.7.0</version>
</dependency>

Quick Start

Update the input URLs and filenames as needed.

import com.pdfcrowd.Pdfcrowd;

class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client =
            new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

        client.setContentViewportWidth("balanced");
        client.convertUrlToFile("https://example.com/", "example.pdf");
    }
}

import com.pdfcrowd.Pdfcrowd;

class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client =
            new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

        client.setContentViewportWidth("balanced");
        client.convertFileToFile("document.html", "document.pdf");
    }
}

Configure a Conversion

Authentication

Pass your PDFCrowd username and API key to HtmlToPdfClient. Find your credentials on the API Keys page.

To load a protected source website, configure its website credentials, cookies, or HTTP headers separately.

Choose an Input

URLs must be reachable from PDFCrowd's servers. For a page on localhost, send its HTML content or upload a file. Referenced assets must also be reachable from PDFCrowd's servers or included in an archive.

Send HTML Content

Convert an HTML string to PDF and save it as report.pdf:

import com.pdfcrowd.Pdfcrowd;

class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client =
            new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

        String html = "<!doctype html>\n" +
            "<html><body><h1>Monthly report</h1></body></html>";

        client.setContentViewportWidth("balanced");
        client.convertStringToFile(html, "report.pdf");
    }
}

Replace html with the output of your template renderer. For relative resource URLs, add a <base href="https://example.com/"> element to the HTML head, or use absolute URLs. PDFCrowd can also combine an HTML template with structured data; see HTML templates.

Include Local Assets

Package the HTML and its local images, CSS, and JavaScript in a .zip, .tar.gz, or .tar.bz2 archive. Preserve the relative paths used by the HTML.

Convert the HTML document inside document.zip and save the PDF as output.pdf:

import com.pdfcrowd.Pdfcrowd;

class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client =
            new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

        client.setContentViewportWidth("balanced");
        client.convertFileToFile("document.zip", "output.pdf");
    }
}

The API automatically converts the first HTML file it finds in the archive. If the archive contains multiple HTML files, use setZipMainFilename() to choose which one to convert.

Add Conversion Settings

Set conversion options on the client before calling a conversion method. For example, client.setPageSize("A4"); selects A4 paper.

Common settings are listed below. See the method reference for all available options, browse Java examples, or try settings in the API Playground.

Handle the Result

Choose an Output

The methods below use URL input; HTML strings and files have corresponding methods.

File-output methods overwrite an existing destination file.

This example converts a web page, receives the result as a byte[] and saves it as example.pdf:

import com.pdfcrowd.Pdfcrowd;
import java.nio.file.Files;
import java.nio.file.Path;

class Example {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client =
            new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

        byte[] result = client.convertUrl(
            "https://example.com/"
        );
        Files.write(Path.of("example.pdf"), result);
    }
}

When serving the PDF from a web application, use Content-Type: application/pdf.

Handle Errors

The client throws a Pdfcrowd.Error exception on conversion or validation errors. This example converts a web page and logs any PDFCrowd error, including its HTTP status and reason code:

import com.pdfcrowd.Pdfcrowd;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;

class Example {
    private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(Example.class.getName());

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client =
            new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

        try {
            client.convertUrlToFile(
                "https://example.com/", "example.pdf"
            );
        } catch (Pdfcrowd.Error error) {
            logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "PDFCrowd conversion failed (status " +
                error.getStatusCode() + ", reason " + error.getReasonCode() + ")", error);
            throw error;
        }
    }
}

Local Java errors, such as a failure to read an input file or write the output, may need separate handling.

Pdfcrowd.Error provides these methods:

Common Status Codes

See all status and reason codes for specific explanations and Limits and Retries for retry behavior.

Read Conversion Information

This information is available after a conversion and describes the client's last conversion.

Limits and Retries

Request rate and concurrency limits depend on your license. Control how quickly your application submits conversions and how many it runs at once. A 429 response concerns request rate; a 430 response concerns requests already in progress. The maximum upload size is 300 MB.

The Java client automatically retries a request once when it receives HTTP 502 or 503. Use setRetryCount() to change that count, or set it to 0 to disable automatic retries. Account for these retries when adding an application-level retry policy.

PDFCrowd stops a conversion that exceeds 60 seconds of processing time. Reason code 323 identifies this HTML conversion timeout. Check for slow resource downloads or long-running JavaScript. Allowing your application to wait longer does not extend the server's processing limit.

Troubleshooting

Inspect a Conversion

This example converts a web page with debug logging enabled and logs the debug log URL when available. Use the input and settings from the conversion you are investigating.

import com.pdfcrowd.Pdfcrowd;
import java.util.logging.Level;
import java.util.logging.Logger;

class Example {
    private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(Example.class.getName());

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client =
            new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

        try {
            client.setDebugLog(true);
            client.convertUrlToFile(
                "https://example.com/", "example.pdf"
            );
        } catch (Pdfcrowd.Error error) {
            logger.log(Level.SEVERE, "PDFCrowd conversion failed (status " +
                error.getStatusCode() + ", reason " + error.getReasonCode() + ")", error);
            throw error;
        } finally {
            String debugLogUrl = client.getDebugLogUrl();
            if (debugLogUrl != null && !debugLogUrl.isEmpty()) {
                logger.info("Debug log: " + debugLogUrl);
            }
        }
    }
}

The debug log includes resource-loading details, timeouts, and browser console messages. You can also find logs in your conversion history. A local or connection failure may occur before a conversion log is available.

Common Problems

For help, contact support and include any available diagnostics, the client version, and enough detail to reproduce the problem.