Generate pdf from HTML in div using Javascript
JavascriptJspdfJavascript Problem Overview
I have the following html code:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<p>don't print this to pdf</p>
<div id="pdf">
<p><font size="3" color="red">print this to pdf</font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
All I want to do is to print to pdf whatever is found in the div with an id of "pdf". This must be done using JavaScript. The "pdf" document should then be automatically downloaded with a filename of "foobar.pdf"
I've been using jspdf to do this, but the only function it has is "text" which accepts only string values. I want to submit HTML to jspdf, not text.
Javascript Solutions
Solution 1 - Javascript
jsPDF is able to use plugins. In order to enable it to print HTML, you have to include certain plugins and therefore have to do the following:
- Go to https://github.com/MrRio/jsPDF and download the latest Version.
- Include the following Scripts in your project:
- jspdf.js
- jspdf.plugin.from_html.js
- jspdf.plugin.split_text_to_size.js
- jspdf.plugin.standard_fonts_metrics.js
If you want to ignore certain elements, you have to mark them with an ID, which you can then ignore in a special element handler of jsPDF. Therefore your HTML should look like this:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>
<p id="ignorePDF">don't print this to pdf</p>
<div>
<p><font size="3" color="red">print this to pdf</font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Then you use the following JavaScript code to open the created PDF in a PopUp:
var doc = new jsPDF();
var elementHandler = {
'#ignorePDF': function (element, renderer) {
return true;
}
};
var source = window.document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0];
doc.fromHTML(
source,
15,
15,
{
'width': 180,'elementHandlers': elementHandler
});
doc.output("dataurlnewwindow");
For me this created a nice and tidy PDF that only included the line 'print this to pdf'.
Please note that the special element handlers only deal with IDs in the current version, which is also stated in a GitHub Issue. It states:
> Because the matching is done against every element in the node tree, my desire was to make it as fast as possible. In that case, it meant "Only element IDs are matched" The element IDs are still done in jQuery style "#id", but it does not mean that all jQuery selectors are supported.
Therefore replacing '#ignorePDF' with class selectors like '.ignorePDF' did not work for me. Instead you will have to add the same handler for each and every element, which you want to ignore like:
var elementHandler = {
'#ignoreElement': function (element, renderer) {
return true;
},
'#anotherIdToBeIgnored': function (element, renderer) {
return true;
}
};
From the examples it is also stated that it is possible to select tags like 'a' or 'li'. That might be a little bit to unrestrictive for the most usecases though:
> We support special element handlers. Register them with jQuery-style > ID selector for either ID or node name. ("#iAmID", "div", "span" etc.) > There is no support for any other type of selectors (class, of > compound) at this time.
One very important thing to add is that you lose all your style information (CSS). Luckily jsPDF is able to nicely format h1, h2, h3 etc., which was enough for my purposes. Additionally it will only print text within text nodes, which means that it will not print the values of textareas and the like. Example:
<body>
<ul>
<!-- This is printed as the element contains a textnode -->
<li>Print me!</li>
</ul>
<div>
<!-- This is not printed because jsPDF doesn't deal with the value attribute -->
<input type="textarea" value="Please print me, too!">
</div>
</body>
Solution 2 - Javascript
This is the simple solution. This works for me. You can use the javascript print concept and simple save this as pdf.
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title></title>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.3/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$("#btnPrint").live("click", function () {
var divContents = $("#dvContainer").html();
var printWindow = window.open('', '', 'height=400,width=800');
printWindow.document.write('<html><head><title>DIV Contents</title>');
printWindow.document.write('</head><body >');
printWindow.document.write(divContents);
printWindow.document.write('</body></html>');
printWindow.document.close();
printWindow.print();
});
</script>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1">
<div id="dvContainer">
This content needs to be printed.
</div>
<input type="button" value="Print Div Contents" id="btnPrint" />
</form>
</body>
</html>
Solution 3 - Javascript
- No depenencies, pure JS
- To add CSS or images - do not use relative URLs, use full URLs
http://...domain.../path.cssor so. It creates separate HTML document and it has no context of main thing. - you can also embed images as base64
This served me for years now:
export default function printDiv({divId, title}) {
let mywindow = window.open('', 'PRINT', 'height=650,width=900,top=100,left=150');
mywindow.document.write(`<html><head><title>${title}</title>`);
mywindow.document.write('</head><body >');
mywindow.document.write(document.getElementById(divId).innerHTML);
mywindow.document.write('</body></html>');
mywindow.document.close(); // necessary for IE >= 10
mywindow.focus(); // necessary for IE >= 10*/
mywindow.print();
mywindow.close();
return true;
}
Of course this will open print dialog and user will have to know she/he can select print to pdf option, to get pdf. There may be printer be pre-selected and if user confirms may get this document actually printed. To avoid such situation and to provide PDF without any extras, you need to make PDF file. Probably on the server side. You could have tiny html page with invoice only and convert it to PDF file with headless chrome. It's super easy with puppeteer. No need to install/config chrome, just install npm package puppeteer (managed by chrome team) and run it. Keep in mind this will actually launch real chrome just w/o GUI, so you need to have some RAM & CPU for this. Most servers will be fine with low enough traffic. Here is code sample but this must run on the BACKEND. Nodejs. Also it's slow call, it's resources intensive call. You should run it NOT on api call but e.g. after invoice was created - create pdf for it and store, if pdf was not generated yet, just show message to try again in couple minutes.
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://your-domain.com/path-to-invoice', {
waitUntil: 'networkidle2',
});
await page.pdf({ path: 'invoice-file-path.pdf', format: 'a4' });
await browser.close();
})();
Learn more here: https://pptr.dev/
Solution 4 - Javascript
if you need to downloadable pdf of a specific page just add button like this
<h4 onclick="window.print();"> Print </h4>
use window.print() to print your all page not just a div
Solution 5 - Javascript
You can use autoPrint() and set output to 'dataurlnewwindow' like this:
function printPDF() {
var printDoc = new jsPDF();
printDoc.fromHTML($('#pdf').get(0), 10, 10, {'width': 180});
printDoc.autoPrint();
printDoc.output("dataurlnewwindow"); // this opens a new popup, after this the PDF opens the print window view but there are browser inconsistencies with how this is handled
}
Solution 6 - Javascript
As mentioned, you should use jsPDF and html2canvas. I've also found a function inside issues of jsPDF which splits automatically your pdf into multiple pages (sources)
function makePDF() {
var quotes = document.getElementById('container-fluid');
html2canvas(quotes, {
onrendered: function(canvas) {
//! MAKE YOUR PDF
var pdf = new jsPDF('p', 'pt', 'letter');
for (var i = 0; i <= quotes.clientHeight/980; i++) {
//! This is all just html2canvas stuff
var srcImg = canvas;
var sX = 0;
var sY = 980*i; // start 980 pixels down for every new page
var sWidth = 900;
var sHeight = 980;
var dX = 0;
var dY = 0;
var dWidth = 900;
var dHeight = 980;
window.onePageCanvas = document.createElement("canvas");
onePageCanvas.setAttribute('width', 900);
onePageCanvas.setAttribute('height', 980);
var ctx = onePageCanvas.getContext('2d');
// details on this usage of this function:
// https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Canvas_API/Tutorial/Using_images#Slicing
ctx.drawImage(srcImg,sX,sY,sWidth,sHeight,dX,dY,dWidth,dHeight);
// document.body.appendChild(canvas);
var canvasDataURL = onePageCanvas.toDataURL("image/png", 1.0);
var width = onePageCanvas.width;
var height = onePageCanvas.clientHeight;
//! If we're on anything other than the first page,
// add another page
if (i > 0) {
pdf.addPage(612, 791); //8.5" x 11" in pts (in*72)
}
//! now we declare that we're working on that page
pdf.setPage(i+1);
//! now we add content to that page!
pdf.addImage(canvasDataURL, 'PNG', 20, 40, (width*.62), (height*.62));
}
//! after the for loop is finished running, we save the pdf.
pdf.save('test.pdf');
}
});
}
Solution 7 - Javascript
i use https://github.com/mrrio/jspdf">jspdf</a> and https://github.com/niklasvh/html2canvas">html2canvas</a> for css rendering and i export content of specific div as this is my code
$(document).ready(function () {
let btn=$('#c-oreder-preview');
btn.text('download');
btn.on('click',()=> {
$('#c-invoice').modal('show');
setTimeout(function () {
html2canvas(document.querySelector("#c-print")).then(canvas => {
//$("#previewBeforeDownload").html(canvas);
var imgData = canvas.toDataURL("image/jpeg",1);
var pdf = new jsPDF("p", "mm", "a4");
var pageWidth = pdf.internal.pageSize.getWidth();
var pageHeight = pdf.internal.pageSize.getHeight();
var imageWidth = canvas.width;
var imageHeight = canvas.height;
var ratio = imageWidth/imageHeight >= pageWidth/pageHeight ? pageWidth/imageWidth : pageHeight/imageHeight;
//pdf = new jsPDF(this.state.orientation, undefined, format);
pdf.addImage(imgData, 'JPEG', 0, 0, imageWidth * ratio, imageHeight * ratio);
pdf.save("invoice.pdf");
//$("#previewBeforeDownload").hide();
$('#c-invoice').modal('hide');
});
},500);
});
});
Solution 8 - Javascript
One way is to use window.print() function. Which does not require any library
Pros
1.No external library require.
2.We can print only selected parts of body also.
3.No css conflicts and js issues.
4.Core html/js functionality
---Simply add below code
CSS to
@media print {
body * {
visibility: hidden; // part to hide at the time of print
-webkit-print-color-adjust: exact !important; // not necessary use
if colors not visible
}
#printBtn {
visibility: hidden !important; // To hide
}
#page-wrapper * {
visibility: visible; // Print only required part
text-align: left;
-webkit-print-color-adjust: exact !important;
}
}
JS code - Call bewlow function on btn click
$scope.printWindow = function () {
window.print()
}
Note: Use !important in every css object
Example -
.legend {
background: #9DD2E2 !important;
}
Solution 9 - Javascript
Use pdfMake.js and this Gist.
(I found the Gist here along with a link to the package html-to-pdfmake, which I end up not using for now.)
After npm install pdfmake and saving the Gist in htmlToPdf.js I use it like this:
const pdfMakeX = require('pdfmake/build/pdfmake.js');
const pdfFontsX = require('pdfmake-unicode/dist/pdfmake-unicode.js');
pdfMakeX.vfs = pdfFontsX.pdfMake.vfs;
import * as pdfMake from 'pdfmake/build/pdfmake';
import htmlToPdf from './htmlToPdf.js';
var docDef = htmlToPdf(`<b>Sample</b>`);
pdfMake.createPdf({content:docDef}).download('sample.pdf');
Remarks:
-
My use case is to create the relevant html from a markdown document (with markdown-it) and subsequently generating the pdf, and uploading its binary content (which I can get with
pdfMake'sgetBuffer()function), all from the browser. The generated pdf turns out to be nicer for this kind of html than with other solutions I have tried. -
I am dissatisfied with the results I got from
jsPDF.fromHTML()suggested in the accepted answer, as that solution gets easily confused by special characters in my HTML that apparently are interpreted as a sort of markup and totally mess up the resulting PDF. -
Using canvas based solutions (like the deprecated
jsPDF.from_html()function, not to be confused with the one from the accepted answer) is not an option for me since I want the text in the generated PDF to be pasteable, whereas canvas based solutions generate bitmap based PDFs. -
Direct markdown to pdf converters like md-to-pdf are server side only and would not work for me.
-
Using the printing functionality of the browser would not work for me as I do not want to display the generated PDF but upload its binary content.
Solution 10 - Javascript
I was able to get jsPDF to print dynamically created tables from a div.
$(document).ready(function() {
$("#pdfDiv").click(function() {
var pdf = new jsPDF('p','pt','letter');
var specialElementHandlers = {
'#rentalListCan': function (element, renderer) {
return true;
}
};
pdf.addHTML($('#rentalListCan').first(), function() {
pdf.save("caravan.pdf");
});
});
});
Works great with Chrome and Firefox... formatting is all blown up in IE.
I also included these:
<script src="js/jspdf.js"></script>
<script src="js/jspdf.plugin.from_html.js"></script>
<script src="js/jspdf.plugin.addhtml.js"></script>
<script src="//mrrio.github.io/jsPDF/dist/jspdf.debug.js"></script>
<script src="http://html2canvas.hertzen.com/build/html2canvas.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./libs/FileSaver.js/FileSaver.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./libs/Blob.js/Blob.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./libs/deflate.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="./libs/adler32cs.js/adler32cs.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jspdf.plugin.addimage.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jspdf.plugin.sillysvgrenderer.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jspdf.plugin.split_text_to_size.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="js/jspdf.plugin.standard_fonts_metrics.js"></script>
Solution 11 - Javascript
If you want to export a table, you can take a look at this export sample provided by the Shield UI Grid widget.
It is done by extending the configuration like this:
...
exportOptions: {
proxy: "/filesaver/save",
pdf: {
fileName: "shieldui-export",
author: "John Smith",
dataSource: {
data: gridData
},
readDataSource: true,
header: {
cells: [
{ field: "id", title: "ID", width: 50 },
{ field: "name", title: "Person Name", width: 100 },
{ field: "company", title: "Company Name", width: 100 },
{ field: "email", title: "Email Address" }
]
}
}
}
...
Solution 12 - Javascript
This example works great.
<button onclick="genPDF()">Generate PDF</button>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jspdf/1.5.3/jspdf.min.js"></script>
<script>
function genPDF() {
var doc = new jsPDF();
doc.text(20, 20, 'Hello world!');
doc.text(20, 30, 'This is client-side Javascript, pumping out a PDF.');
doc.addPage();
doc.text(20, 20, 'Do you like that?');
doc.save('Test.pdf');
}
</script>
Solution 13 - Javascript
Dissatisfied with the rendering of html2canvas and lack of modern CSS3/JS and print specific CSS support of the pdfMake's Webkit engine...
Here's a theoretical solution, it's headless and can render pages faithfully, supports page breaks, margins, different page sizes and can be automated. You can even render WebGl to PDF.
- Chrome has a devtools protocol... which has a printtoPDF function
- Excerpt: https://gitlab.com/-/snippets/new
- Official 20k-SLOC spec: https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/devtools-protocol/blob/master/json/browser_protocol.json
- You can use node and https://github.com/GoogleChrome/chrome-launcher to run chrome headless... wait for it to render.
- Profit
printToPDF command you'd run on chrome_devtools protocol:
printToPDF({
printBackground: false,
pageWidth: 8.5,
pageHeight: 11,
transferMode: "ReturnAsStream" // or ReturnAsBase64
})
Solution 14 - Javascript
To capture div as PDF you can use https://grabz.it solution. It's got a JavaScript API which is easy and flexible and will allow you to capture the contents of a single HTML element such as a div or a span
In order to implement it you will need to first get an app key and secret and download the (free) SDK.
And now an example.
Let's say you have the HTML:
<div id="features">
<h4>Acme Camera</h4>
<label>Price</label>$399<br />
<label>Rating</label>4.5 out of 5
</div>
<p>Cras ut velit sed purus porttitor aliquam. Nulla tristique magna ac libero tempor, ac vestibulum felisvulput ate. Nam ut velit eget
risus porttitor tristique at ac diam. Sed nisi risus, rutrum a metus suscipit, euismod tristique nulla. Etiam venenatis rutrum risus at
blandit. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Suspendisse potenti. Phasellus eget vehicula felis.</p>
To capture what is under the features id you will need to:
//add the sdk
<script type="text/javascript" src="grabzit.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
//login with your key and secret.
GrabzIt("KEY", "SECRET").ConvertURL("http://www.example.com/my-page.html",
{"target": "#features", "format": "pdf"}).Create();
</script>
Please note the target: #feature. #feature is you CSS selector, like in the previous example. Now, when the page is loaded an image screenshot will now be created in the same location as the script tag, which will contain all of the contents of the features div and nothing else.
The are other configuration and customization you can do to the div-screenshot mechanism, please check them out here
Solution 15 - Javascript
any one try this
(function () {
var
form = $('.form'),
cache_width = form.width(),
a4 = [595.28, 841.89]; // for a4 size paper width and height
$('#create_pdf').on('click', function () {
$('body').scrollTop(0);
createPDF();
});
//create pdf
function createPDF() {
getCanvas().then(function (canvas) {
var
img = canvas.toDataURL("image/png"),
doc = new jsPDF({
unit: 'px',
format: 'a4'
});
doc.addImage(img, 'JPEG', 20, 20);
doc.save('Bhavdip-html-to-pdf.pdf');
form.width(cache_width);
});
}
// create canvas object
function getCanvas() {
form.width((a4[0] * 1.33333) - 80).css('max-width', 'none');
return html2canvas(form, {
imageTimeout: 2000,
removeContainer: true
});
}
}());