HTML to PDF in Command Line

This page describes how to use the Pdfcrowd online API to convert web pages and HTML to PDF from the command line. Refer to HTML to PDF API for general information about the converter.

Below are sample PDFs generated by the API.
sample
JavaScript Chart sample
Invoice
sample
Newsletter sample
Fillable Form

Installation

You can install the application from PyPI 
pip install pdfcrowd

Check out other installation options.

Quick Start

Here are Command Line examples for quickly getting started with the API. See more examples. 

html2pdf -user-name "demo" -api-key "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d" \
    "/path/to/MyLayout.html" > "MyLayout.pdf"
echo -n "<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>" | \
html2pdf -user-name "demo" -api-key "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d" - > "HelloWorld.pdf"

Authentication

The credentials to access the API are your Pdfcrowd username and the API key. You can try out the API without registering using the following demo credentials:

  • Username: demo
  • API key: ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d

To get your personal API credentials, you can start a free API trial or buy the API license.

API Output Preview

To get a quick idea of what the API output will look like, enter a web page or upload an HTML file using the form below. It will generate several API output previews with different conversion settings. You can then choose the one that looks best, and simply copy and paste the auto-generated command line options.

Common Customizations

The API enables conversion of a web page, a local HTML file, or a string containing HTML. Conversion output can be saved to to a local file, a stream object or a variable. See the conversion input section of the documentation for more details.

The table below lists the most common customizations. You can also interactively explore the API in the API Playground.

Page size Change the page size with -page_size or -page_dimensions . Pass -1 to -page_height to get a single page PDF containing the whole document.
Page orientation Change the page orientation to landscape with -orientation.
Page margins Adjust the page margins with -page_margins.
Headers and footers Add headers and footers with -header_html and -footer_html. Set the height with -footer_height and -header_height.
You can learn more in this tutorial.
Zoom Scale the HTML contents with -scale_factor.
Hide or remove elements You can use the following classes in your HTML code to hide or remove elements from the output:
  • pdfcrowd-remove - sets display:none!important on the element
  • pdfcrowd-hide - sets visibility:hidden!important on the element
Learn about other options.
Use @media print You can switch to the print version of the page (if it exists) with -use_print_media.
Force page break You can force a page break with
<div style="page-break-before:always"></div>
Avoid page break You can avoid a page break inside an element with the following CSS
th, td, img { page-break-inside:avoid }
Run custom JavaScript You can use -on_load_javascript or -custom_javascript to alter the HTML contents with a custom JavaScript. In addition to the standard browser APIs, the custom JavaScript code can use helper functions from our JavaScript library .
Custom CSS styling You can alter CSS styling used during conversion with a custom JavaScript or using the pdfcrowd-body CSS class, which is automatically set on the HTML <body> element. You can, for example, set the H1 height to 48px by adding the following line to your CSS:
.pdfcrowd-body h1 { font-size: 48px; }
Add PDF signature You can create PDF containing a digital signature field. Such PDF can be digitally signed in, for example, Adobe Acrobat or Preview. Learn more in Create Digital Signature in PDF .
Fillable PDF form You can create fillable PDF containing interactive fields and buttons. Learn more in Create Fillable PDF Form.
HTML Templates Add data to your HTML template and convert it to PDF. Learn more in HTML Template to PDF.

Troubleshooting

  • Refer to the API Status Codes page if the API returns an error.
  • You can use -debug-log to get detailed info about the conversion, such as load errors, load times, browser console output, etc.
  • Check the FAQ.
  • You can use our JavaScript library to resolve rendering problems, such as missing content or blank pages.
    Just use -custom-javascript with libPdfcrowd.highlightHtmlElements method call to visualize all HTML elements. See the backgrounds example , borders example and helper JavaScript library documentation.
  • Contact us if you need help or are missing a feature.

User Manual

Refer to the HTML to PDF Command Line Reference Manual for a description of all command line options.