How to convert html to pdf in c#

Amit Shrivastava

11y74.8k.NET

Hi,
how can i convert html template to pdf file in c# windows application
using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
        {
            using (HtmlTextWriter hw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw))
            {
           using (StreamReader sr= new StreamReader(Server.MapPath("~/EmailTemplate.htm")))
                Document pdfDoc = new Document(PageSize.A2, 10f, 10f, 10f, 0f);
                HTMLWorker htmlparser = new HTMLWorker(pdfDoc);
                PdfWriter.GetInstance(pdfDoc, Response.OutputStream);
                pdfDoc.Open();
                htmlparser.Parse(sr);
                pdfDoc.Add(pdfTable);
                pdfDoc.Close();
                Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
                Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=HTMLExport.pdf");
                Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
                Response.Write(pdfDoc);
                Response.End();
            }
        }

12 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Kimberlee Lowe11y ago
Accepted answer
Hi Amit, you mentioned that you need this task done in C# windows application, but from the provided snippet code I'm guessing you have an ASP.NET application, is this correct?

If you need a solution for a desktop application and if the machine where the application will be ran has MS Office then you could use Word Automation with your C# code.

Note that the above approach is not recommended for server side so in that case you could try out this Word processing component for C#. It has a straightforward API for converting HTML files to PDF files in C#, like the following:

DocumentModel.Load("Document.html").Save(Response, "Document.pdf");

Notice the Save method takes an object (HttpResponse) as a first parameter. This enables you to directly export your PDF files to an ASP.NET client's browser.
Atir Tahir6y ago
You can use GroupDocs.Conversion for .NET in your project.
using (Converter converter = new Converter("sample.html"))
{
    PdfConvertOptions options = new PdfConvertOptions();
    converter.Convert("converted.pdf", options);
}
Done! All you have to do is to add this https://downloads.groupdocs.com/conversion/net reference in your project.
Tony Chen7y ago
I would recommend https://www.iditect.com/tutorial/html-to-pdf/ to convert html to pdf in c#, sample code:
HtmlToPdfConverter converter = new HtmlToPdfConverter();

using (Stream stream = File.OpenRead("sample.html"))
{
    converter.Load(stream);
}

using (var stream = File.OpenWrite("convert.pdf"))
{
    converter.Save(stream);
}
SERGE FLOYD8y ago
I would recommend to check https://zetpdf.com/ library
rajendra singh8y ago
You can use roativa (third party component) please refer below link

http://www.dotnetjalps.com/2015/10/create-pdf-asp-net-mvc-rotativa.html
Pratik Shirse9y ago
Hello Amit Shrivastava,

Refer the below link
https://www.aspsnippets.com/Articles/Export-HTML-DIV-contents-to-PDF-using-iTextSharp-
in-ASPNet.aspx
Ali Jago Seif9y ago
Why you don’t try this code with easyPDF library (http://www.pdfonline.com/html-to-pdf-c%23/)?
Type type = Type.GetTypeFromProgID("easyPDF.Loader.8");
Loader oLoad = (Loader) Activator.CreateInstance(type);
Printer oPrin = (Printer) oLoad.LoadObject("easyPDF.Printer.8");
IEPrintJob oIEPJob = oPrin.IEPrintJob;
IESetting oIESet = oIEPJob.IESetting;
oIESet.PrintBGColor = true;
oIEPJob.PrintOut(Server.MapPath (@".\input.htm"), Server.MapPath(@".\output.pdf"));
Shalini Dixit11y ago
However, converting an html document to PDF file format might prove to be fairly tricky. Manual conversion takes up a lot of time and doesn’t provide much needed functionality. HTML to PDF C# converters in this regard comes across as great help. I have tried http://www.html-to-pdf.net/ and this helped me a lot.
Amit Shrivastava11y ago
Thanks sir
Baraa Momani11y ago

First of all I think you will need to use an sdk to handle saving PDFs as they are not natively supported in .NET. About the PDF itself, the solution for this depends on whether you want the PDF to have full text and font information, or just a snapshot of the web page. By "snapshot" I mean converting the page to images that gets stored in the PDF, where the text is lost and not searchable. In my code, I used leadtools sdk for loading the html files and save them to PDF files that only contain snapshot of the rendered html page.

If you want full text, one way to do it is using a printer driver where your application uses a web browser control to invoke printing, then capture the print job using a printer driver such as leadtools virtual printer that supports capturing print jobs and saving them as PDFs that has all the objects from the original web page
SelectPdf11y ago
Are you looking to use a specific library to perform this task? Or you need suggestions for 3rd party libraries? Are you interested in open source or commercial libraries?

I can recommend a free html to pdf converter: http://selectpdf.com/community-edition/
shi lianghong11y ago
Refer this article:
http://www.e-iceblue.com/Tutorials/Spire.PDF/Spire.PDF-Program-Guide/Convert-HTML-to-PDF-Customize-HTML-to-PDF-Conversion-by-Yourself.html