Here is how you can create a pdf from html/css on the client side (no backend or external libraries involved). We will take advantage of the window.print() and some specific CSS.
Unfortunately, this will not work on mobile browsers (as pointed out in the comments).
Needed styles for the window.print() function:
* {
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: rgb(65, 65, 65);
-webkit-print-color-adjust: exact !important;
color-adjust: exact !important;
print-color-adjust: exact !important;
}
@media print {
@page {
margin-left: 0.8in;
margin-right: 0.8in;
margin-top: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
}
}
#container {
width: 800px;
margin: 0 auto;
}
Of course, you can set other values for font-family, color and #container. Add the rest of the styles for your custom pdf.
Next, we need to trigger the window.print() function which is native to the browser. So add below js in a script tag.
document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => {
let printLink = document.getElementById("print");
let container = document.getElementById("container");
printLink.addEventListener("click", event => {
event.preventDefault();
printLink.style.display = "none";
window.print();
}, false);
container.addEventListener("click", event => {
printLink.style.display = "flex";
}, false);
}, false);
Here is a basic html:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<!-- Add here the styles and script we described up -->
<title>This will be the title of the pdf file</title>
</head>
<body id="container">
<a href="#" id="print">GENERATE PDF!</a>
<h1>Super cool custom pdf</h1>
<p>This pdf is generated from the client side without any external libraries!</p>
</body>
</html>
And... that's it!
Here is how what we did up will work:
Top comments (41)
Kind of a misleading article. This really doesn't have anything to do with generating a PDF - it just tells you how to kick your browser to print the current page. The fact that the print dialog may have an option to "Print to PDF" is entirely separate to anything you are doing here - and will likely be dependent on your browser and system. You'll still have to select 'Print to PDF' manually
But still this is a great article 👍 Keep it up
No, it’s not.
tough crowd
Fixed, modified title. Hopefully it's more clear now.
Would be nice if browsers would have some native api's for pdf generation..
No. It's better this way. There are other ways you can manage "pdfs" while this tool does all of that and much more. i.e. Print as well.
Not everything needs changing. You wrote a good article. Sure had a wrong title, I wont call it misleading personally. Misleading would be when you'd do that knowingly. Just stick to your findings. Don't defend yourself when you find contradicting information proving you wrong. But don't back down either if otherwise.
Happy dev'ing.
Fr. We have Print to PDF in the browser itself. And most modern browsers support it.
Why to use js to toggle print button.
This can be achieved by something like as below
So basically we can assign a new value to css in print selector.
nice one!
Never ever style id's in your css. id's are for js only, classes are good for styling. If for some reason you will need the same functionality in other place it will be better to assign a class for it.
The same goes to
!importantnotation. Usually there is no reason to use it because it's hard to override it.I agree, styling id's is not a good practice. The
!importantis needed in this case forwindow.print()otherwise the browser will not show the pdf as in the html page.I sincerely implore people to do constructive criticism. You only add injury to the salt. The only problem with my dude was that... He is bad at keyword research like you dinosaurs here. Chill. Relax. Get that fixed and if he doesn't do that, go ahead and yell at him for whatever reason. But for God's sake, don't make this toxic for everyone else. I come here for comments more than the articles. Learn much much more that way. If you have nothing good to say, better shut up.
Didn't know this was possible. Thanks for sharing.
Dear Author,
This article falls in the grey area of click bait based on the title of the article. I would suggest to put some effort in writing a well thought out article by researching on the topic.
For others who felt betrayed by the title, here are some pointers
medium.com/@ayusharma.in/generate-...
bannerbear.com/blog/how-to-convert...
You need a backend for that.
I see your points and also I see lack of developer and ui/ux experience in your words. Sure, there will be situations when you need two or more buttons. Modal windows for example.
Well, why? :D Oh yes, because you will copy/paste buttons and style them with ID's.
:hostis interesting but not popular selector, so no, I don't use it everyday, especially when working with frameworks.I did the same thing using puppeteer and end EJS to generate PDF.
Also with pdflib to change the title of the document.
Checkout on gist ->
gist.github.com/donnisnoni/a9fdf25...
You need a backend for that.
OOh, that is very interesting!!!
keep it up
I thought this was going to be about a true HTML to PDF library like the most excellent Flying Saucer which is discussed in this article:
medium.com/javarevisited/html-to-p...
You need a backend for that.