HTML to PDF / Ruby Examples

This page contains various examples of using the HTML to PDF API in Ruby. The examples are complete and fully functional. Read more about how to convert HTML to PDF in Ruby.

Basic examples
Advanced examples
Template rendering examples
Rails examples

Basic examples

Webpage to PDF file

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Specify the mapping of HTML content width to the PDF page width.
    # To fine-tune the layout, you can specify an exact viewport width, such as '960px'.
    client.setContentViewportWidth("balanced")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "example.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Webpage to in-memory PDF

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Run the conversion and store the result in the `pdf` variable.
    pdf = client.convertUrl("http://www.example.com")

    # at this point the "pdf" variable contains PDF raw data and
    # can be sent in an HTTP response, saved to a file, etc.

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Webpage to PDF stream

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Create an output stream for the conversion result
    output_stream = open("example.pdf", "wb")

    # run the conversion and write the result to the output stream.
    client.convertUrlToStream("http://www.example.com", output_stream)

    # Close the output stream.
    output_stream.close()

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

HTML file to PDF file

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Specify the mapping of HTML content width to the PDF page width.
    # To fine-tune the layout, you can specify an exact viewport width, such as '960px'.
    client.setContentViewportWidth("balanced")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertFileToFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html", "MyLayout.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

HTML file to in-memory PDF

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Run the conversion and store the result in the `pdf` variable.
    pdf = client.convertFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html")

    # at this point the "pdf" variable contains PDF raw data and
    # can be sent in an HTTP response, saved to a file, etc.

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

HTML file to PDF stream

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Create an output stream for the conversion result
    output_stream = open("MyLayout.pdf", "wb")

    # run the conversion and write the result to the output stream.
    client.convertFileToStream("/path/to/MyLayout.html", output_stream)

    # Close the output stream.
    output_stream.close()

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

HTML string to PDF file

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Specify the mapping of HTML content width to the PDF page width.
    # To fine-tune the layout, you can specify an exact viewport width, such as '960px'.
    client.setContentViewportWidth("balanced")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertStringToFile("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>", "HelloWorld.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

HTML string to in-memory PDF

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Run the conversion and store the result in the `pdf` variable.
    pdf = client.convertString("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>")

    # at this point the "pdf" variable contains PDF raw data and
    # can be sent in an HTTP response, saved to a file, etc.

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

HTML string to PDF stream

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Create an output stream for the conversion result
    output_stream = open("HelloWorld.pdf", "wb")

    # run the conversion and write the result to the output stream.
    client.convertStringToStream("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>", output_stream)

    # Close the output stream.
    output_stream.close()

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Get info about the current conversion

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Specify the mapping of HTML content width to the PDF page width.
    # To fine-tune the layout, you can specify an exact viewport width, such as '960px'.
    client.setDebugLog(true)

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertFileToFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html", "MyLayout.pdf")
    
    # print URL pointing to the debug log for this request.
    puts "Debug log url: #{client.getDebugLogUrl()}"
    
    # print number of conversion credits remaining in your account.
    puts "Remaining credit count: #{client.getRemainingCreditCount()}"
    
    # print number of credits consumed for this conversion.
    puts "Consumed credit count: #{client.getConsumedCreditCount()}"
    
    # print unique identifier assigned to this conversion job.
    puts "Job id: #{client.getJobId()}"
    
    # print total number of pages in the output document.
    puts "Page count: #{client.getPageCount()}"
    
    # print size of the output data in bytes.
    puts "Output size: #{client.getOutputSize()}"

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Advanced examples

Customize the page size and the orientation

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setPageSize("Letter")
    client.setOrientation("landscape")
    client.setNoMargins(true)

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "letter_landscape.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Put the source URL in the header and the page number in the footer

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setHeaderHeight("15mm")
    client.setFooterHeight("10mm")
    client.setHeaderHtml("<a class='pdfcrowd-source-url' data-pdfcrowd-placement='href-and-content'></a>")
    client.setFooterHtml("<center><span class='pdfcrowd-page-number'></span></center>")
    client.setMarginTop("0")
    client.setMarginBottom("0")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "header_footer.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Create fillable PDF form

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setEnablePdfForms(true)

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertStringToFile("<html><body>Enter name:<input type=text></body></html>", "form.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Zoom the HTML document

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setScaleFactor(300)

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "zoom_300.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Set PDF metadata

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setAuthor("Pdfcrowd")
    client.setTitle("Hello World")
    client.setSubject("Demo")
    client.setKeywords("Pdfcrowd,demo")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "with_metadata.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Create a Powerpoint like presentation from an HTML document

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setPageLayout("single-page")
    client.setPageMode("full-screen")
    client.setInitialZoomType("fit-page")
    client.setOrientation("landscape")
    client.setNoMargins(true)

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("https://pdfcrowd.com/api/", "slide_show.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Convert an HTML document section

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setElementToConvert("#main")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("https://pdfcrowd.com/api/", "html_part.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Inject an HTML code

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setCustomJavascript("el=document.createElement('h2'); el.textContent='Hello from Pdfcrowd API'; el.style.color='red'; el_before=document.getElementsByTagName('h1')[0]; el_before.parentNode.insertBefore(el, el_before.nextSibling)")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "html_inject.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Convert a responsive web page as it appears on a large device

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setContentViewportWidth("large")
    client.setNoMargins(true)

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("https://getbootstrap.com/", "bootstrap.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Create an in-memory archive (ZIP) and convert it

require "pdfcrowd"
require "zip"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Create a ZIP archive.
    in_stream = Zip::OutputStream.write_buffer do |zip_io|
        # Add HTML content to the archive.
        zip_io.put_next_entry("index.html")
        zip_io.write "<html>
            <head>
                <style>
                 @font-face
                 {
                     font-family: 'OpenSans';
                     src: url(fonts/OpenSans.ttf) format('truetype');
                 }
        
                 h1
                 {
                     font-family: OpenSans;
                 }
                </style>
            </head>
            <body>
                <h1>Hello World</h1>
                <img src='images/logo.png'>
            </body>
        </html>"

        # Add required local files to the archive.
        zip_io.put_next_entry("fonts/OpenSans.ttf")
        File.open("/your-path-to/fonts/OpenSans.ttf", "rb") do |in_file|
            zip_io.write in_file.read
        end
        zip_io.put_next_entry("images/logo.png")
        File.open("/your-path-to/images/logo.png", "rb") do |in_file|
            zip_io.write in_file.read
        end
    end

    in_stream.rewind

    # Create an output stream for the conversion result
    output_stream = open("HelloFromZip.pdf", "wb")

    # run the conversion and write the result to the output stream.
    client.convertStreamToStream(in_stream, output_stream)

    # Close the output stream.
    output_stream.close()

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Renderer debugging - highlight HTML elements

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setCustomJavascript("libPdfcrowd.highlightHtmlElements({backgroundColor: 'rgba(255, 191, 0, 0.1)', borderColor:null})")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "highlight_background.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Renderer debugging - borders with spacing around HTML elements

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setCustomJavascript("libPdfcrowd.highlightHtmlElements({borderColor: 'orange', backgroundColor: null, padding: '4px', margin: '4px'})")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "highlight_borders.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Template rendering examples

Create PDF from JSON data

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setDataString('{
            "name": "World",
            "product": "Pdfcrowd API"
        }')

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}", "output.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Create PDF from XML data

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setDataString('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
        <data>
          <name>World</name>
          <product>Pdfcrowd API</product>
        </data>')

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ data.name }} from {{ data.product }}", "output.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Create PDF from YAML data

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setDataString("name: World
product: Pdfcrowd API")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}", "output.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Create PDF from CSV data

require "pdfcrowd"

begin
    # Create an API client instance.
    client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

    # Configure the conversion.
    client.setDataString("name,product
World,Pdfcrowd API")

    # Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
    client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}", "output.pdf")

rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
    STDERR.puts "PDFCrowd Error: #{why}"
    raise
end

Rails examples

Webpage to PDF in Rails

require "pdfcrowd"

class DemoController < ApplicationController
    def convert
        # The recommended method is POST.
        # may be restricted by ":via => :post" in your routes.rb
        if ! request.post?
            return render text: "POST is allowed only", status: 400
        end

        begin
            # Create an API client instance.
            client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

            # Run the conversion and store the result in the `pdf` variable.
            pdf = client.convertUrl("http://www.example.com")

            # Send the result and set HTTP response headers.
            send_data pdf,
                      :type => "application/pdf",
                      :disposition => "attachment; filename*=UTF-8''#{ERB::Util.url_encode('example.pdf')}"
        rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
            # Send the error in the HTTP response.
            render plain: why, status: why.getCode()
        end
    end
end

HTML file to PDF in Rails

require "pdfcrowd"

class DemoController < ApplicationController
    def convert
        # The recommended method is POST.
        # may be restricted by ":via => :post" in your routes.rb
        if ! request.post?
            return render text: "POST is allowed only", status: 400
        end

        begin
            # Create an API client instance.
            client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

            # Run the conversion and store the result in the `pdf` variable.
            pdf = client.convertFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html")

            # Send the result and set HTTP response headers.
            send_data pdf,
                      :type => "application/pdf",
                      :disposition => "attachment; filename*=UTF-8''#{ERB::Util.url_encode('MyLayout.pdf')}"
        rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
            # Send the error in the HTTP response.
            render plain: why, status: why.getCode()
        end
    end
end

HTML string to PDF in Rails

require "pdfcrowd"

class DemoController < ApplicationController
    def convert
        # The recommended method is POST.
        # may be restricted by ":via => :post" in your routes.rb
        if ! request.post?
            return render text: "POST is allowed only", status: 400
        end

        begin
            # Create an API client instance.
            client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "demo")

            # Run the conversion and store the result in the `pdf` variable.
            pdf = client.convertString("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>")

            # Send the result and set HTTP response headers.
            send_data pdf,
                      :type => "application/pdf",
                      :disposition => "attachment; filename*=UTF-8''#{ERB::Util.url_encode('HelloWorld.pdf')}"
        rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why
            # Send the error in the HTTP response.
            render plain: why, status: why.getCode()
        end
    end
end