HTML to PDF in Python

This page describes how to use the Pdfcrowd online API to convert web pages and HTML to PDF in Python. The API is user-friendly and can be integrated into your application with just a few lines of code. Refer to HTML to PDF API for general information about the converter.

Below are sample PDFs generated by the API.

Installation

You can install the client library from PyPI

pip install pdfcrowd

Check out other installation options.

Quick Start

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

import pdfcrowd
import sys

try:
    # create the API client instance
    client = pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient('demo', 'ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d')

    # run the conversion and write the result to a file
    client.convertUrlToFile('http://www.example.com', 'example.pdf')
    
except pdfcrowd.Error as why:
    sys.stderr.write('Pdfcrowd Error: {}\n'.format(why))
    raise

import pdfcrowd
import sys

try:
    # create the API client instance
    client = pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient('demo', 'ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d')

    # run the conversion and write the result to a file
    client.convertFileToFile('/path/to/MyLayout.html', 'MyLayout.pdf')
    
except pdfcrowd.Error as why:
    sys.stderr.write('Pdfcrowd Error: {}\n'.format(why))
    raise

import pdfcrowd
import sys

try:
    # create the API client instance
    client = pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient('demo', 'ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d')

    # run the conversion and write the result to a file
    client.convertStringToFile('<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>', 'HelloWorld.pdf')
    
except pdfcrowd.Error as why:
    sys.stderr.write('Pdfcrowd Error: {}\n'.format(why))
    raise

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 API integration code into your Python application.

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 setPageSize or setPageDimensions . Pass -1 to setPageHeight to get a single page PDF containing the whole document.
Page orientation	Change the page orientation to landscape with setOrientation.
Page margins	Adjust the page margins with setPageMargins.
Headers and footers	Add headers and footers with setHeaderHtml and setFooterHtml. Set the height with setFooterHeight and setHeaderHeight. You can learn more in this tutorial.
Zoom	Scale the HTML contents with setScaleFactor.
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 setUsePrintMedia.
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 setOnLoadJavascript or setCustomJavascript 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.

Error Handling

It is recommended that you implement error handling to catch errors that the API may return, see the example code below. A list of status codes and their description can be found here.

try: 
    # call the API 
except pdfcrowd.Error as why: 
    # print the error
    sys.stderr.write('Pdfcrowd Error: {}\n'.format(why))

    # print the error code
    sys.stderr.write('Pdfcrowd Error Code: {}\n'.format(why.getCode()))

    # print the error message
    sys.stderr.write('Pdfcrowd Error Message: {}\n'.format(why.getMessage()))

Troubleshooting

Refer to the API Status Codes page if the API returns an error.
You can use setDebugLog and getDebugLogUrl 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 setCustomJavascript 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.

API Method Reference

Refer to the HTML to PDF Python Reference for a description of all API methods.