HTML to PDF in Node.js

Overview

This document describes how to convert web pages and HTML documents to PDF in Node.js using the Pdfcrowd API. The API is easy to use and the integration takes only a couple of lines of code.

Getting Started

Enter a web page or upload an HTML file to get a PDF preview and auto-generated integration code that you can copy and paste to your application.

Or choose from the examples below and adapt the code to your needs.

You can also interactively explore the API in our API Playground.

Installation

Install the client library from npm

npm install pdfcrowd

Or learn about other installation options.

Authentication

Authentication is needed in order to use the Pdfcrowd API. The credentials used for accessing the API are your Pdfcrowd username and the API key.

You can try out the API without registration using the following demo credentials:

Username: demo
API key: ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d

Or you can start a free trial or purchase the API license to get your personal API credentials.

Examples

Convert a web page to a PDF file

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "http://www.example.com",
    "example.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Convert a web page to a PDF file via custom callbacks

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// use predefined callback for saving to a file
var callbacks = pdfcrowd.saveToFile("example.pdf");

// set custom error callback
callbacks.error = function(errMessage, statusCode) {
    if(statusCode) {
        console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + statusCode + " - " + errMessage);
    } else {
        console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + errMessage);
    }
};

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrl("http://www.example.com", callbacks);

Convert a local HTML file to a PDF file

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertFileToFile(
    "/path/to/MyLayout.html",
    "MyLayout.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Convert a local HTML file to a PDF file via custom callbacks

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// use predefined callback for saving to a file
var callbacks = pdfcrowd.saveToFile("MyLayout.pdf");

// set custom error callback
callbacks.error = function(errMessage, statusCode) {
    if(statusCode) {
        console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + statusCode + " - " + errMessage);
    } else {
        console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + errMessage);
    }
};

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html", callbacks);

Convert a string containing HTML to a PDF file

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new 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",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Convert a string containing HTML to a PDF file via custom callbacks

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// use predefined callback for saving to a file
var callbacks = pdfcrowd.saveToFile("HelloWorld.pdf");

// set custom error callback
callbacks.error = function(errMessage, statusCode) {
    if(statusCode) {
        console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + statusCode + " - " + errMessage);
    } else {
        console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + errMessage);
    }
};

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertString("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>", callbacks);

Get info about the current conversion

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setDebugLog(true);
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertFileToFile(
    "/path/to/MyLayout.html",
    "MyLayout.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
        
        // print URL to the debug log
        console.log("Debug log url: " + client.getDebugLogUrl());
        
        // print the number of available conversion credits in your account
        console.log("Remaining credit count: " + client.getRemainingCreditCount());
        
        // print the number of credits consumed by the conversion
        console.log("Consumed credit count: " + client.getConsumedCreditCount());
        
        // print the unique ID of the conversion
        console.log("Job id: " + client.getJobId());
        
        // print the total number of pages in the output document
        console.log("Page count: " + client.getPageCount());
        
        // print the size of the output in bytes
        console.log("Output size: " + client.getOutputSize());
    });

Advanced Examples

Customize the page size and the orientation

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setPageSize("Letter");
    client.setOrientation("landscape");
    client.setNoMargins(true);
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "http://www.example.com",
    "letter_landscape.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

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

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    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");
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "http://www.example.com",
    "header_footer.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Zoom the HTML document

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setScaleFactor(300);
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "http://www.example.com",
    "zoom_300.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Set PDF metadata

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setAuthor("Pdfcrowd");
    client.setTitle("Hello World");
    client.setSubject("Demo");
    client.setKeywords("Pdfcrowd,demo");
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "http://www.example.com",
    "with_metadata.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Create a Powerpoint like presentation from an HTML document

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setPageLayout("single-page");
    client.setPageMode("full-screen");
    client.setInitialZoomType("fit-page");
    client.setOrientation("landscape");
    client.setNoMargins(true);
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "https://pdfcrowd.com/doc/api/",
    "slide_show.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Convert an HTML document section

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setElementToConvert("#main");
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "https://pdfcrowd.com/doc/api/",
    "html_part.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Inject an HTML code

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    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)");
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "http://www.example.com",
    "html_inject.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

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

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setViewportWidth(992);
    client.setRenderingMode("viewport");
    client.setSmartScalingMode("viewport-fit");
    client.setNoMargins(true);
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "https://getbootstrap.com/",
    "bootstrap.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

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

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");
var stream = require("stream");
var archiver = require("archiver");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// create in-memory write stream
var memStream = new stream.Writable({encoding: "binary"})
memStream.buffer = new Buffer("");
memStream._write = function(chunk, encoding, callback) {
    if(!Buffer.isBuffer(chunk)) {
        chunk = new Buffer(chunk, encoding);
    }
    this.buffer = Buffer.concat([this.buffer, chunk]);
    callback();
};

memStream.on("finish", function() {
    // create input stream
    var inStream = new stream.Readable({encoding: "binary"})
    inStream.push(memStream.buffer);
    inStream.push(null);

    // use predefined callback for saving to a file
    var callbacks = pdfcrowd.saveToFile("HelloFromZip.pdf");

    // set custom error callback
    callbacks.error = function(errMessage, statusCode) {
        if(statusCode) {
            console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + statusCode + " - " + errMessage);
        } else {
            console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + errMessage);
        }
    };

    // run the conversion and write the result into the output stream
    client.convertStream(inStream, callbacks);

});

// create ZIP archive
var archive = archiver("zip");

archive.on("error", function(err) {
    throw err;
});

archive.pipe(memStream);

// add HTML content to the archive
archive.append(`<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>`,
    {name: 'index.html'});

// add required local files to the archive
archive.file("/your-path-to/fonts/OpenSans.ttf", { name: "fonts/OpenSans.ttf" });
archive.file("/your-path-to/images/logo.png", { name: "images/logo.png" });

archive.finalize();

Renderer debugging - highlight HTML elements

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setCustomJavascript("libPdfcrowd.highlightHtmlElements({backgroundColor: 'rgba(255, 191, 0, 0.1)', borderColor:null})");
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "http://www.example.com",
    "highlight_background.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Renderer debugging - borders with spacing around HTML elements

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setCustomJavascript("libPdfcrowd.highlightHtmlElements({borderColor: 'orange', backgroundColor: null, padding: '4px', margin: '4px'})");
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertUrlToFile(
    "http://www.example.com",
    "highlight_borders.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Integration Examples

The API can be easily integrated into your environment. You can have our interactive API Playground autogenerate the integration code for you:

You can also check out complete examples in our pdfcrowd-examples Github repository:

Common Customizations

The API lets you convert a web page, a local HTML file, or a string containing HTML. The result of the conversion can be stored to a local file, to a stream object or to a variable. See the conversion input section for more details.

The best way to start with the API is to choose one of the examples and once you get it working, you can further customize the code. You can find the most common customizations in the table below.

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.
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
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; }`

Template Rendering

The API enables rendering of HTML templates. The template syntax is based on the Jinja template rendering engine.

The most common constructs are:

Data rendering: Invoice: {{ invoice.number }}
For loop: {% for invoice in invoices %} ... {% endfor %}
If statement: {% if invoice.total > 100 %} ... {% endif %}
Data filter: {{ invoice.to.first_name|capitalize }}

The supported input data formats are JSON, XML, CSV and YAML. The data can be uploaded from a file or from a string variable.

Supported template filters: capitalize, center, default, escape, first, forceescape, format, indent, join, last, length, list, lower, replace, reverse, safe, slice, sort, string, striptags, title, trim, truncate, unique, upper, wordcount, wordwrap.

Template Rendering Examples

Create PDF from JSON data

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setDataString(`{
            "name": "World",
            "product": "Pdfcrowd API"
        }`);
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertStringToFile(
    "Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}",
    "output.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Create PDF from XML data

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setDataString(`<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
        <data>
          <name>World</name>
          <product>Pdfcrowd API</product>
        </data>`);
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertStringToFile(
    "Hello {{ data.name }} from {{ data.product }}",
    "output.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Create PDF from YAML data

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setDataString(`name: World
product: Pdfcrowd API`);
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertStringToFile(
    "Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}",
    "output.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Create PDF from CSV data

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// create the API client instance
var client = new pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}");

// configure the conversion
try {
    client.setDataString(`name,product
World,Pdfcrowd API`);
} catch(why) {
    // report the error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// run the conversion and write the result to a file
client.convertStringToFile(
    "Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}",
    "output.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Error Handling

try {
    // call the API 
}
catch(why) {
    // print error
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why);

    // print just error code
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error Code: " + why.getCode());

    // print just error message
    console.error("Pdfcrowd Error Message: " + why.getMessage());

    // or handle the error in your way
}

Troubleshooting

Check API Status Codes in case of the error code is returned.
You can use setDebugLog and getDebugLogUrl to get detailed info about the conversion, such as conversion errors, time, console output.
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.
Take a look at the FAQ section.

API Method Reference

Refer for details to the API Method Reference.