Convert HTML to PDF in .NET [closed]

I want to generate a PDF by passing HTML contents to a function. I have made use of iTextSharp for this but it does not perform well when it encounters tables and the layout just gets messy. Is there a better way?

You can use GemBox.Document for this. Also here you can find a sample code for converting HTML file into a PDF file.

Still no answer to my request for additional information. Please also add if you are using HTMLWorker or XMLWorker.

Can we please reopen this one? Many new products provide this functionality, others are out of date. Without new answers, this can not be easily lined out. For 2022 I would recommend: github.com/hardkoded/puppeteer-sharp#generate-pdf-files Is well established, well maintained, simple to use, built on a solid basis etc.

26 Answers 26

This will need Windows OS.

I have tested with ASP.net Core application and I used .net8.0-windows as target framework in order to use this nuget I also installed webview runtime

Also creator indicated windows desktop runtime as dependency too.

/// 
/// Return raw data as PDF ///
 /// [HttpGet("rawpdfex")] public async Task RawPdf() < var file = Path.GetFullPath("./HtmlSampleFile-SelfContained.html"); var pdf = new HtmlToPdfHost(); var pdfResult = await pdf.PrintToPdfStreamAsync(file, new WebViewPrintSettings < PageRanges = "1-10" >); if (pdfResult == null || !pdfResult.IsSuccess) < Response.StatusCode = 500; return new JsonResult(new < isError = true, message = pdfResult.Message >); > return new FileStreamResult(pdfResult.ResultStream, "application/pdf"); > 

(After trying wkhtmltopdf and suggesting to avoid it)

HtmlRenderer.PdfSharp is a 100% fully C# managed code, easy to use, thread safe and most importantly FREE (New BSD License) solution.

1. Download HtmlRenderer.PdfSharp nuget package.
2. Use Example Method.

public static Byte[] PdfSharpConvert(String html) < Byte[] res = null; using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream()) < var pdf = TheArtOfDev.HtmlRenderer.PdfSharp.PdfGenerator.GeneratePdf(html, PdfSharp.PageSize.A4); pdf.Save(ms); res = ms.ToArray(); >return res; > 

A very Good Alternate Is a Free Version of iTextSharp

Until version 4.1.6 iTextSharp was licensed under the LGPL licence and versions until 4.16 (or there may be also forks) are available as packages and can be freely used. Of course someone can use the continued 5+ paid version.

I tried to integrate wkhtmltopdf solutions on my project and had a bunch of hurdles.

I personally would avoid using wkhtmltopdf - based solutions on Hosted Enterprise applications for the following reasons.

1. First of all wkhtmltopdf is C++ implemented not C#, and you will experience various problems embedding it within your C# code, especially while switching between 32bit and 64bit builds of your project. Had to try several workarounds including conditional project building etc. etc. just to avoid "invalid format exceptions" on different machines.
2. If you manage your own virtual machine its ok. But if your project is running within a constrained environment like (Azure (Actually is impossible withing azure as mentioned by the TuesPenchin author) , Elastic Beanstalk etc) it's a nightmare to configure that environment only for wkhtmltopdf to work.
3. wkhtmltopdf is creating files within your server so you have to manage user permissions and grant "write" access to where wkhtmltopdf is running.
4. Wkhtmltopdf is running as a standalone application, so its not managed by your IIS application pool. So you have to either host it as a service on another machine or you will experience processing spikes and memory consumption within your production server.
5. It uses temp files to generate the pdf, and in cases Like AWS EC2 which has really slow disk i/o it is a big performance problem.
6. The most hated "Unable to load DLL 'wkhtmltox.dll'" error reported by many users.

--- PRE Edit Section ---

For anyone who want to generate pdf from html in simpler applications / environments I leave my old post as suggestion.

or Especially For MVC Web Applications (But I think you may use it in any .net application)

They both utilize the wkhtmtopdf binary for converting html to pdf. Which uses the webkit engine for rendering the pages so it can also parse css style sheets.

They provide easy to use seamless integration with C#.

Rotativa can also generate directly PDFs from any Razor View.

Additionally for real world web applications they also manage thread safety etc.

PdfSharp is good in terms of performance, but it didn't render floats properly for me. Luckily, I could change the markup to use good old tables, PdfSharp handles them well.

We tried HtmlRenderer. It was really quick when not loading any CSS. But when we tried to apply CSS (Bootstrap plus some bespoke), the CSS parsing took a while (which we could probably mitigate), and rendering was completely different to the web page.

BS. This creates an image of the HTML and adds the image into the pdf file. This is not a real PDF at all. Also, PDF is a vector graphics format - you can scroll near infinitely - of course except if the PDF consists of a raster graphic, which is what this library produces.

@Anestis Kivranoglou i have used pdf sharp on my project. But for html design with css, it cannot render the html. Instead it is only creating a blank page

Last Updated: October 2020

This is the list of options for HTML to PDF conversion in .NET that I have put together (some free some paid)

• GemBox.Document
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/GemBox.Document/
  • Free (up to 20 paragraphs)
  • $680 - https://www.gemboxsoftware.com/document/pricelist
  • https://www.gemboxsoftware.com/document/examples/c-sharp-convert-html-to-pdf/307
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/sautinsoft.pdfmetamorphosis/
  • $539 - $1078 - https://www.sautinsoft.com/products/pdf-metamorphosis/order.php
  • https://www.sautinsoft.com/products/pdf-metamorphosis/convert-html-to-pdf-dotnet-csharp.php
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/HtmlRenderer.PdfSharp/1.5.1-beta1
  • BSD-UNSPECIFIED License
  • https://www.puppeteersharp.com/examples/index.html
  • MIT License
  • https://github.com/kblok/puppeteer-sharp
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/EO.Pdf/
  • $799 - https://www.essentialobjects.com/Purchase.aspx?f=3
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/WnvHtmlToPdf_x64/
  • $750 - $1600 - http://www.winnovative-software.com/Buy.aspx
  • demo - http://www.winnovative-software.com/demo/default.aspx
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/IronPdf/
  • $399 - $1599 - https://ironpdf.com/licensing/
  • https://ironpdf.com/examples/using-html-to-create-a-pdf/
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/Spire.PDF/
  • Free (up to 10 pages)
  • $599 - $1799 - https://www.e-iceblue.com/Buy/Spire.PDF.html
  • https://www.e-iceblue.com/Tutorials/Spire.PDF/Spire.PDF-Program-Guide/Convert-HTML-to-PDF-Customize-HTML-to-PDF-Conversion-by-Yourself.html
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/Aspose.Html/
  • $599 - $1797 - https://purchase.aspose.com/pricing/html/net
  • https://docs.aspose.com/html/net/html-to-pdf-conversion/
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/EvoPDF/
  • $450 - $1200 - http://www.evopdf.com/buy.aspx
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/ExpertPdfHtmlToPdf/
  • $550 - $1200 - https://www.html-to-pdf.net/Pricing.aspx
  • https://zetpdf.com
  • $299 - $599 - https://zetpdf.com/pricing/
  • Is not a well know or supported library - ZetPDF - Does anyone know the background of this Product?
  • https://www.pdftron.com/documentation/samples/cs/HTML2PDFTes
  • $4000/year - https://www.pdftron.com/licensing/
  • https://github.com/pruiz/WkHtmlToXSharp
  • Free
  • Concurrent conversion is implemented as processing queue.
  • https://www.nuget.org/packages/Select.HtmlToPdf/
  • Free (up to 5 pages)
  • $499 - $799 - https://selectpdf.com/pricing/
  • https://selectpdf.com/pdf-library-for-net/

  If none of the options above help you you can always search the NuGet packages:
  https://www.nuget.org/packages?q=html+pdf

  4,383 2 2 gold badges 26 26 silver badges 39 39 bronze badges answered Sep 5, 2019 at 17:25 Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez Mauricio Gracia Gutierrez 10.8k 7 7 gold badges 77 77 silver badges 109 109 bronze badges

  have you tested any for performance ? we are looking to improve current conversion times and are exploring other libraries for these performance benefits

  Commented May 14, 2020 at 11:10

  Another wkhtmtopdf based solution that will even work on Azure web services is DinkToPdf fork: github.com/hakanl/DinkToPdf with nuget: nuget.org/packages/Haukcode.DinkToPdf

  Commented Jul 5, 2020 at 8:39 DinkToPdf is free and works in .net core. nuget.org/packages/DinkToPdf Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 17:46 @FritsJ there are plenty of options from the list ;-) Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 15:13

  update this list!! Also, check this solution: github.com/eKoopmans/html2pdf.js#getting-started It got me VERY far down the rabbithole, until .dotnet 6 broke it and I had to start again.

  Commented May 27, 2022 at 21:00

  I highly recommend NReco, seriously. It has the free and paid version, and really worth it. It uses wkhtmtopdf in background, but you just need one assembly. Fantastic.

  var htmlContent = String.Format("Hello world: ", DateTime.Now); var pdfBytes = (new NReco.PdfGenerator.HtmlToPdfConverter()).GeneratePdf(htmlContent); 

  Disclaimer: I'm not the developer, just a fan of the project :)

  answered Apr 23, 2015 at 19:53 Kim Tranjan Kim Tranjan 4,521 3 3 gold badges 40 40 silver badges 39 39 bronze badges

  Looks indeed pretty useful. Worth noting that as of today (05/10/15), it's the most downloaded .Net wrapper for wkhtmtopdf (as a Nuget package).

  Commented Oct 5, 2015 at 16:14 Tried it, unfortunately I couldn't make it work on azure's web pages. Commented Oct 6, 2015 at 19:32

  This library works fine when I run it locally on my machine, but on the hosting server, I am seeing the following error randomly. Pdf gets generated sometimes but sometimes it throws the following error. "Error. An error occurred while processing your request. Cannot generate PDF: (exit code: 1)"

  Commented Jan 26, 2016 at 16:43

  wkhtmtopdf depends on GDI+, or x-server if you're running on Mono/Linux. So this is not useful for server environments.

  Commented Jul 29, 2017 at 0:22 Its good and working as expected but bit quality issue i see in my pdf , can we improve this ? Commented Aug 30, 2017 at 5:41

  Most HTML to PDF converter relies on IE to do the HTML parsing and rendering. This can break when user updates their IE. Here is one that does not rely on IE.

  The code is something like this:

  EO.Pdf.HtmlToPdf.ConvertHtml(htmlText, pdfFileName); 

  Like many other converters, you can pass text, file name, or Url. The result can be saved into a file or a stream.

  7,055 13 13 gold badges 60 60 silver badges 96 96 bronze badges answered Apr 12, 2011 at 13:06 475 5 5 silver badges 2 2 bronze badges it is not useful because you must purchase the library Commented Mar 25, 2013 at 20:06

  d1jhoni1b, how does this make it not useful? If it is a pay-for tool, then it might be said to be expensive, but not useless on that criteria alone.

  Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 16:27

  It's true EO.Pdf doesn't use IE. But it does seem to spawn 32 bit instances of a webkit browser in the background. Check your process list and you will see them as rundll32.exe instances pointing to the EO.PDF dll. So it still is a bit hacky in my opinion.

  Commented Feb 27, 2015 at 22:24 It doesn't support media="print" which is really painful. Commented Jul 2, 2015 at 11:05 Single developer licence for $650. That's costly. Commented Aug 17, 2015 at 9:26

  For all those looking for an working solution in .net 5 and above here you go.

  Here are my working solutions.

  Using wkhtmltopdf :

  1. Download and install wkhtmltopdf latest version from here.
  2. Use the below code.

  public static string HtmlToPdf(string outputFilenamePrefix, string[] urls, string[] options = null, string pdfHtmlToPdfExePath = @"C:\Program Files\wkhtmltopdf\bin\wkhtmltopdf.exe") < string urlsSeparatedBySpaces = string.Empty; try < //Determine inputs if ((urls == null) || (urls.Length == 0)) throw new Exception("No input URLs provided for HtmlToPdf"); else urlsSeparatedBySpaces = String.Join(" ", urls); //Concatenate URLs string outputFilename = outputFilenamePrefix + "_" + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd-hh-mm-ss-fff") + ".PDF"; // assemble destination PDF file name var p = new System.Diagnostics.Process() < StartInfo = < FileName = pdfHtmlToPdfExePath, Arguments = ((options == null) ? "" : string.Join(" ", options)) + " " + urlsSeparatedBySpaces + " " + outputFilename, UseShellExecute = false, // needs to be false in order to redirect output RedirectStandardOutput = true, RedirectStandardError = true, RedirectStandardInput = true, // redirect all 3, as it should be all 3 or none WorkingDirectory = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetEntryAssembly().Location)) >>; p.Start(); // read the output here. var output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd(); var errorOutput = p.StandardError.ReadToEnd(); // . then wait n milliseconds for exit (as after exit, it can't read the output) p.WaitForExit(60000); // read the exit code, close process int returnCode = p.ExitCode; p.Close(); // if 0 or 2, it worked so return path of pdf if ((returnCode == 0) || (returnCode == 2)) return outputFilename; else throw new Exception(errorOutput); > catch (Exception exc) < throw new Exception("Problem generating PDF from HTML, URLs: " + urlsSeparatedBySpaces + ", outputFilename: " + outputFilenamePrefix, exc); >> 

  1. And call the above method as HtmlToPdf("test", new string[] < "https://www.google.com" >, new string[] < "-s A5" >);
  2. If you need to convert HTML string to PDF , the tweak the above method and replace the Arguments to Process StartInfo as $@"/C echo | set /p="""" | """" <((options == null) ? "" : string.Join(" ", options))>- ""C:\Users\xxxx\Desktop\""";

  Drawbacks of this approach:

  1. The latest build of wkhtmltopdf as of posting this answer does not support latest HTML5 and CSS3 . Hence if you try to export any html that as CSS GRID then the output will not be as expected.
  2. You need to handle concurrency issues.

  Using chrome headless :

  1. Download and install latest chrome browser from here.
  2. Use the below code.

  var p = new System.Diagnostics.Process() < StartInfo = < FileName = "C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe", Arguments = @"/C --headless --disable-gpu --run-all-compositor-stages-before-draw --print-to-pdf-no-header --print-to-pdf=""C:/Users/Abdul Rahman/Desktop/test.pdf"" ""C:/Users/Abdul Rahman/Desktop/grid.html""", >>; p.Start(); // . then wait n milliseconds for exit (as after exit, it can't read the output) p.WaitForExit(60000); // read the exit code, close process int returnCode = p.ExitCode; p.Close(); 

  1. This will convert html file to pdf file.
  2. If you need to convert some url to pdf then use the following as Argument to Process StartInfo

  @"/C --headless --disable-gpu --run-all-compositor-stages-before-draw --print-to-pdf-no-header --print-to-pdf=""C:/Users/Abdul Rahman/Desktop/test.pdf"" ""https://www.google.com""",

  Drawbacks of this approach:

  1. This works as expected with latest HTML5 and CSS3 features. Output will be same as you view in browser but when running this via IIS you need to run the AppliactionPool of your application under LocalSystem Identity or you need to provide read / write access to IISUSRS .

  Using Selenium WebDriver :

  1. Install Nuget Packages Selenium.WebDriver and Selenium.WebDriver.ChromeDriver .
  2. Use the below code.

  public async Task ConvertHtmlToPdf(string html) < var directory = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonDocuments), "ApplicationName"); Directory.CreateDirectory(directory); var filePath = Path.Combine(directory, $".html"); await File.WriteAllTextAsync(filePath, html); var driverOptions = new ChromeOptions(); // In headless mode, PDF writing is enabled by default (tested with driver major version 85) driverOptions.AddArgument("headless"); using var driver = new ChromeDriver(driverOptions); driver.Navigate().GoToUrl(filePath); // Output a PDF of the first page in A4 size at 90% scale var printOptions = new Dictionary < < "paperWidth", 210 / 25.4 >, < "paperHeight", 297 / 25.4 >, < "scale", 0.9 >, < "pageRanges", "1" >>; var printOutput = driver.ExecuteChromeCommandWithResult("Page.printToPDF", printOptions) as Dictionary; var pdf = Convert.FromBase64String(printOutput["data"] as string); File.Delete(filePath); return pdf; > 

  Advantage of this method:

  1. This just needs an Nuget installation and works as expected with latest HTML5 and CSS3 features. Output will be same as you view in browser.

  Drawbacks of this approach:

  1. This approach needs latest chrome browser to be installed in the server where the app runs.
  2. If the chrome browser version in server is updated then Selenium.WebDriver.ChromeDriver Nuget package needs to be updated. Else this will throw run time error due to version mismatch.

  The above drawbacks can be overcome if we are running app in docker. All we need to do is to install chrome when building app image using Dockerfile

  With this approach, please make sure to add true in .csproj file as shown below:

   net5.0 latest enable true  

  This will publish the chrome driver when publishing the project.

  Here is the link to my working project repo - HtmlToPdf

  Using window.print() in JavaScript to generate PDF from browser

  If the users are using your app from browser then you can rely on JavaScript and use window.print() and necessary print media css to generate PDF from the browser. For example generating invoice from browser in an inventory app.

  Advantage of this method:

  1. No dependency on any tools.
  2. PDF generated directly from HTML, CSS and JS in browser.
  3. Faster
  4. Supports all the latest CSS properties.

  Drawbacks of this approach:

  1. In SPA like Blazor , we need to do some workaround with iframe to print sections of page.

  I arrived at the above answer after almost spending 2 days with available options and finally implemented Selenium based solution and it's working. Hope this helps you and save your time.