Convert HTML to PDF online

Automating documents rather than converting one? The HTML to PDF API takes the same input from your application, with headers, footers and page numbers.

Paper, margins and backgrounds

Paper size and orientation set the page box. Margins are applied to every side and are measured in inches, which is the unit Chromium's print engine uses; the millimetre figures are rounded. The paper size chosen here wins over a stylesheet's own @page size rule, so an A4 template can be printed on Letter. Browsers leave out background colours and images when printing unless asked, so backgrounds are on by default: switch them off to get the plain version your browser would print.

Images, fonts and linked files

Pasted HTML has no web address of its own, so relative paths such as images/logo.png have nothing to resolve against. Use absolute https addresses or data URIs for images, stylesheets and fonts. They are fetched from the public internet by our renderer, so a file on your own computer or private network cannot be reached. The renderer has the Noto font families installed; any other font has to be loaded with @font-face from an absolute address, or the text falls back to a similar installed font and the lines may break differently.

Page breaks

Chromium breaks pages where the content runs out of room. Use break-inside: avoid on rows, cards and totals to keep them in one piece, and break-before: page to start a section on a new page. A table's thead repeats at the top of each page it continues onto. The four-page invoice sample shows all three.

If the PDF does not look right

• Content cut off at the right edge: an element has a fixed width wider than the page. Use percentages or max-width.
• A blank or nearly blank PDF: the page draws its content with JavaScript after a delay, or the page address needs a login.
• Missing images: the address is relative, private, or blocks automated visitors.
• Colours missing: backgrounds are switched off, or the stylesheet uses a print media query that hides them.

For a worked template with page numbers, repeated table headers and print CSS, follow the invoice PDF guide.

Limits and privacy

The HTML is sent to Ironfang and printed on our servers in the UK. It is not stored, logged or cached: the PDF is returned in the response and nothing is kept once it has been sent. Scripts in the HTML run, as they would in a browser, with no access to this site. Documents can be up to 256 KB and a render stops after 30 seconds. Each address gets 20 renders an hour, shared with the free screenshot and HTML to image tools. Page addresses must be public http or https pages. PDFs made here carry a small Ironfang Render mark on each page; PDFs from the API, on your own account, carry none.