Sadly, this PDF is usually not altogether satisfactory! To start with, it will have the headers and footers which are automatically added when you print something from a webpage. By choosing to print to PDF rather than a printer, a PDF will be generated. The simplest way a user can generate a PDF is via their browser. Therefore, as CSS itself has specifications for printed materials, surely we should be able to use it? I have an overview of this specification in my article “ Designing For Print With CSS”, and CSS is used by many book publishers for all of their print output. Therefore, a good place to start would be to consider if it is possible to use that HTML and CSS to generate a PDF version.ĬSS does have a specification which deals with CSS for print, and this is the Paged Media module. You want to format that in a nice way for download and printing. You might be creating packing slips once again, the information is already held within the system.

In the case of an invoice, the user might be able to view the information online, then click to download a PDF for their records. Our web application is likely to be already creating an HTML document using the information that will be added to our PDF. If you have a favorite tool or any experiences of your own to share, please add them to the comments below. It isn’t a comprehensive list of tools, but instead I am aiming to demonstrate the different approaches.

In this article, I’ll explore ways in which we can generate a PDF directly from a web application on the fly. In the case of applications (such as e-commerce stores), those PDFs have to be created using dynamic data, and be available immediately to the user. Many web applications have the requirement of giving the user the ability to download something in PDF format. In this article, Rachel Andrew takes a look at the tools that are available and shares her recommendations to help you find the tool that works best for you. There is a wide variety of choices when it comes to creating a PDF from a web application.

Javascript pdf creator