Share this page 

Convert HTML to PDF using iTextTag(s): IO Open Source


iText

Using iText HTMLWorker, you can produce PDF version of an HTML document. The document must be simple. Many things like FORM elements or external images are not supported.

Done with iText 5.4.1. 

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.StringReader;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.PageSize;
import com.itextpdf.text.html.simpleparser.HTMLWorker; // deprecated
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

public class HtmlToPDF1 {
  // itextpdf-5.4.1.jar  http://sourceforge.net/projects/itext/files/iText/
  public static void main(String ... args ) {
    try {
      Document document = new Document(PageSize.LETTER);
      PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream("c://temp//testpdf1.pdf"));
      document.open();
      document.addAuthor("Real Gagnon");
      document.addCreator("Real's HowTo");
      document.addSubject("Thanks for your support");
      document.addCreationDate();
      document.addTitle("Please read this");

      HTMLWorker htmlWorker = new HTMLWorker(document);
      String str = "<html><head></head><body>"+
        "<a href='http://www.rgagnon.com/howto.html'><b>Real's HowTo</b></a>" +
        "<h1>Show your support</h1>" +
        "<p>It DOES cost a lot to produce this site - in ISP storage and transfer fees, " +
        "in personal hardware and software costs to set up test environments, and above all," +
        "the huge amounts of time it takes for one person to design and write the actual content." +
        "<p>If you feel that effort has been useful to you, perhaps you will consider giving something back?" +
        "<p>Donate using PayPalŪ to real@rgagnon.com." +
        "<p>Contributions via PayPal are accepted in any amount " +
        "<P><br><table border='1'><tr><td>Java HowTo<tr>" +
        "<td bgcolor='red'>Javascript HowTo<tr><td>Powerbuilder HowTo</table>" +
        "</body></html>";
      htmlWorker.parse(new StringReader(str));
      document.close();
      System.out.println("Done");
      }
    catch (Exception e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}
As you can see, the validity of the parsed HTML (using HTMLWorker) is very relax. Closing tags are not required : <BR> is ok (<BR/> is not mandatory).

HTMLWorker is ok with older iText version but the recommended approach with new iText (HTMLWorker is now deprecated) is to use the XMLWorker. XMLWorker is stricter since you must send XHTML document to it. 

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.StringReader;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.PageSize;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;
import com.itextpdf.tool.xml.XMLWorkerHelper;
public class HtmlToPDF2 {

	  // itextpdf-5.4.1.jar  http://sourceforge.net/projects/itext/files/iText/
	  // xmlworker-5.4.1.jar http://sourceforge.net/projects/xmlworker/files/
	  public static void main(String ... args ) {
		    try {
		      Document document = new Document(PageSize.LETTER);
		      PdfWriter pdfWriter = PdfWriter.getInstance
		           (document, new FileOutputStream("c://temp//testpdf.pdf"));
		      document.open();
		      document.addAuthor("Real Gagnon");
		      document.addCreator("Real's HowTo");
		      document.addSubject("Thanks for your support");
		      document.addCreationDate();
		      document.addTitle("Please read this");

		      XMLWorkerHelper worker = XMLWorkerHelper.getInstance();

		      String str = "<html><head></head><body>"+
		        "<a href='http://www.rgagnon.com/howto.html'><b>Real's HowTo</b></a>" +
		        "<h1>Show your support</h1>" +
		        "<p>It DOES cost a lot to produce this site - in ISP storage and transfer fees, " +
		        "in personal hardware and software costs to set up test environments, and above all," +
		        "the huge amounts of time it takes for one person to design and write the actual content.</p>" +
		        "<p>If you feel that effort has been useful to you, perhaps you will consider giving something back?</p>" +
		        "<p>Donate using PayPalŪ to real@rgagnon.com.</p>" +
		        "<p>Contributions via PayPal are accepted in any amount</p>" +
		        "<P><br/><table border='1'><tr><td>Java HowTo</td></tr><tr>" +
		        "<td style='background-color:red;'>Javascript HowTo</td></tr>" +
		        "<tr><td>Powerbuilder HowTo</td></tr></table></p>" +
		        "</body></html>";
		      worker.parseXHtml(pdfWriter, document, new StringReader(str));
		      document.close();
		      System.out.println("Done.");
		      }
		    catch (Exception e) {
		      e.printStackTrace();
		    }
		  }

}
Note :
To get the color on a table cell, you need to use a style because the bgcolor attribute is not supported. By default, FORM elements are not rendered. Review this document to see what is supported : http://demo.itextsupport.com/xmlworker/doc.html

See also Convert HTML to PDF using YAHP