Free Python Library for Exporting HTML PDF File

Leading Open Source Python Library that Facilitates Software Developers to Read and Convert HTML & CSS Content into High-Quality PDF Files. Customize Output including Paper Size, Margins, Orientation, & so on.

In the world of modern business and technology, the need for generating PDF documents programmatically has become increasingly prevalent. Whether you want to generate invoices, reports, or any other type of document, Python offers a plethora of libraries to accomplish this task. One such library that has gained popularity for its simplicity and versatility is Python-PDFKit. It is a Python wrapper for the command-line tool 'wkhtmltopdf,' which is a widely used utility for converting HTML and CSS into PDF documents. This library acts as an interface between your Python code and 'wkhtmltopdf,' enabling you to generate PDFs from HTML/CSS content with ease.

Python-PDFKit is an open-source Python library that provides an interface to the WKHTMLTOPDF tool, which is a powerful command-line utility for converting HTML and CSS documents into PDF files. With Python-PDFKit, you can seamlessly integrate PDF generation into your Python applications, making it a valuable tool for a wide range of use cases. The library supports various features for handling PDF generation from HTML, such as conversion of simple webpage, a dynamic web application, or any HTML content, CSS stylesheets support, managing PDF headers and footers, handling table of contents and so on.

Python-PDFKit is a fantastic tool for simplifying PDF generation in Python. It harnesses the power of the WKHTMLTOPDF utility and provides a Pythonic interface for converting HTML and CSS content into high-quality PDF documents. Using the library, users can create invoices, reports, documentation, and much more, all while benefiting from the flexibility and convenience of Python. This library has become a popular choice among developers for its ease of use and robust capabilities, making it an excellent addition to your Python toolkit for working with PDFs.

At A Glance

An overview of Python-PDFKit features.

Features Overview

Web Scrapping
Convert Web Pages
Convert HTML to PDF
Automatic redirects
Customize Output PDF
Unicode support
Customize Paper Size
Languages Detection
Convert Images
Parse Large HTML Files
HTML rendering
HTML Viewer
HTML to PDF

Python-PDFKit

Python-PDFKit supports HTML file format as well as industry-standard formats for export.

Reader

HTML

Writer

TXT, HTML , PDF

Python-PDFKit

Platform Independence

Python-PDFKit is tested with Python 2.6 and higher.

Python 2.6 and higher.

Python-PDFKit

Getting Started with Python-PDFKit

The recommended and easiest way to install Python-PDFKit is using pip. Please use the following command a smooth installation.

Install Python-PDFKit via pip

pip install pdfkit

You can also install it manually; download the latest release files directly from GitHub repository.

HTML to PDF Conversion via Python

The open source Python-PDFKit library makes it easy for software developers to load an existing PDF file and convert it to PDF file inside Python applications. The library excels at converting HTML content into PDFs. Whether you have a simple webpage, a dynamic web application, or any HTML content, you can turn it into a PDF with just a few lines of code. You can include CSS stylesheets to ensure that the PDF document matches the styling of the original HTML content. This feature is invaluable when you need your PDFs to maintain the look and feel of your web pages. The following example shows how software developers can convert an existing HTML file to a PDF using Python API.

How to Convert an HTML File to a PDF using Python API?

import pdfkit

# Define the HTML content
html_content = "Hello, Python-PDFKit!"

# Convert HTML to PDF
pdfkit.from_string(html_content, 'output.pdf')

PDF Customization Options Support

Python-PDFKit has included several important features that gives software developers the power to customize the HTML to PDF conversion process. The library provides fine-grained control over the PDF conversion process. It supports features like customize paper size, margins, orientation, and more. This allows developers to tailor the PDF to their specific requirements. Moreover, you can easily create table of contents for your PDFs using the library. This is particularly useful for longer documents or eBooks. The following example shows how to set custom options when converting HTML to PDF using Python commands.

How to Set Custom Options when Converting HTML to PDF via Python?

import pdfkit

# Define HTML content
html_content = "This is a PDF with custom options"

# Custom options
options = {
    'page-size': 'A4',
    'margin-top': '10mm',
    'margin-right': '10mm',
    'margin-bottom': '10mm',
    'margin-left': '10mm'
# Convert HTML to PDF with custom options
pdfkit.from_string(html_content, 'custom.pdf', options=options)