Name¶

wkhtmltopdf - html to pdf converter

Synopsis¶

wkhtmltopdf [GLOBAL OPTION]... [OBJECT]... <output file>

Document objects¶

wkhtmltopdf is able to put several objects into the output file, an object is either a single webpage, a cover webpage or a table of content. The objects are put into the output document in the order they are specified on the command line, options can be specified on a per object basis or in the global options area. Options from the Global Options section can only be placed in the global options area A page objects puts the content of a singe webpage into the output document.
(page)? <input url/file name> [PAGE OPTION]... Options for the page object can be placed in the global options and the page options areas. The applicable options can be found in the Page Options and Headers And Footer Options sections. A cover objects puts the content of a singe webpage into the output document, the page does not appear in the table of content, and does not have headers and footers.
cover <input url/file name> [PAGE OPTION]... All options that can be specified for a page object can also be specified for a cover. A table of content object inserts a table of content into the output document.
toc [TOC OPTION]... All options that can be specified for a page object can also be specified for a toc, further more the options from the TOC Options section can also be applied. The table of content is generated via XSLT which means that it can be styled to look however you want it to look. To get an aide of how to do this you can dump the default xslt document by supplying the --dump-default-toc-xsl, and the outline it works on by supplying --dump-outline, see the Outline Options section.

Description¶

Converts one or more HTML pages into a PDF document, not using wkhtmltopdf patched qt.

Global Options¶

--collate

Collate when printing multiple copies

--no-collate

Do not collate when printing multiple copies

--cookie-jar <path>

Read and write cookies from and to the supplied cookie jar file

--copies <number>

Number of copies to print into the pdf file

-d, --dpi <dpi>

Change the dpi explicitly (this has no effect on X11 based systems)

-H, --extended-help

Display more extensive help, detailing less common command switches

-g, --grayscale

PDF will be generated in grayscale

-h, --help

Display help

--htmldoc

Output program html help

-l, --lowquality

Generates lower quality pdf/ps. Useful to shrink the result document space

--manpage

Output program man page

-B, --margin-bottom <unitreal>

Set the page bottom margin

-L, --margin-left <unitreal>

Set the page left margin

-R, --margin-right <unitreal>

Set the page right margin

-T, --margin-top <unitreal>

Set the page top margin

-O, --orientation <orientation>

Set orientation to Landscape or Portrait

--output-format <format>

Specify an output format to use pdf or ps, instead of looking at the extension of the output filename

--page-height <unitreal>

Page height

-s, --page-size <Size>

Set paper size to: A4, Letter, etc.

--page-width <unitreal>

Page width

-q, --quiet

Be less verbose

--read-args-from-stdin

Read command line arguments from stdin

--readme

Output program readme

--title <text>

The title of the generated pdf file (The title of the first document is used if not specified)

-V, --version

Output version information an exit

 

 

Page Options¶

--allow <path>

Allow the file or files from the specified folder to be loaded (repeatable)

--background

Do print background

--no-background

Do not print background

--cache-dir <path>

Web cache directory

--checkbox-checked-svg <path>

Use this SVG file when rendering checked checkboxes

--checkbox-svg <path>

Use this SVG file when rendering unchecked checkboxes

--cookie <name> <value>

Set an additional cookie (repeatable)

--custom-header <name> <value>

Set an additional HTTP header (repeatable)

--custom-header-propagation

Add HTTP headers specified by --custom-header for each resource request.

--no-custom-header-propagation

Do not add HTTP headers specified by --custom-header for each resource request.

--debug-javascript

Show javascript debugging output

--no-debug-javascript

Do not show javascript debugging output

--encoding <encoding>

Set the default text encoding, for input

--images

Do load or print images

--no-images

Do not load or print images

-n, --disable-javascript

Do not allow web pages to run javascript

--enable-javascript

Do allow web pages to run javascript

--javascript-delay <msec>

Wait some milliseconds for javascript finish

--load-error-handling <handler>

Specify how to handle pages that fail to load: abort, ignore or skip

--load-media-error-handling <handler>

Specify how to handle media files that fail to load: abort, ignore or skip

--disable-local-file-access

Do not allowed conversion of a local file to read in other local files, unless explicitly allowed with --allow

--enable-local-file-access

Allowed conversion of a local file to read in other local files.

--minimum-font-size <int>

Minimum font size

--page-offset <offset>

Set the starting page number

--password <password>

HTTP Authentication password

--disable-plugins

Disable installed plugins

--enable-plugins

Enable installed plugins (plugins will likely not work)

--post <name> <value>

Add an additional post field (repeatable)

--post-file <name> <path>

Post an additional file (repeatable)

-p, --proxy <proxy>

Use a proxy

--radiobutton-checked-svg <path>

Use this SVG file when rendering checked radiobuttons

--radiobutton-svg <path>

Use this SVG file when rendering unchecked radiobuttons

--run-script <js>

Run this additional javascript after the page is done loading (repeatable)

--stop-slow-scripts

Stop slow running javascripts

--no-stop-slow-scripts

Do not Stop slow running javascripts

--user-style-sheet <url>

Specify a user style sheet, to load with every page

--username <username>

HTTP Authentication username

--window-status <windowStatus>

Wait until window.status is equal to this string before rendering page

--zoom <float>

Use this zoom factor

 

 

Specifying A Proxy¶

By default proxy information will be read from the environment variables: proxy, all_proxy and http_proxy, proxy options can also by specified with the -p switch
<type> := "http://" | "socks5://"
<serif> := <username> (":" <password>)? "@"
<proxy> := "None" | <type>? <string>? <host> (":" <port>)? Here are some examples (In case you are unfamiliar with the BNF):
http://user:password@myproxyserver:8080
socks5://myproxyserver
None

Reduced Functionality¶

This version of wkhtmltopdf has been compiled against a version of QT without the wkhtmltopdf patches. Therefore some features are missing, if you need these features please use the static version. Currently the list of features only supported with patch QT includes:
* Printing more then one HTML document into a PDF file.
* Running without an X11 server.
* Adding a document outline to the PDF file.
* Adding headers and footers to the PDF file.
* Generating a table of contents.
* Adding links in the generated PDF file.
* Printing using the screen media-type.
* Disabling the smart shrink feature of webkit.

Page sizes¶

The default page size of the rendered document is A4, but using this --page-size optionthis can be changed to almost anything else, such as: A3, Letter and Legal. For a full list of supported pages sizes please see <http://doc.trolltech.com/4.6/qprinter.html#PageSize-enum>. For a more fine grained control over the page size the --page-height and --page-width options may be used

Reading arguments from stdin¶

If you need to convert a lot of pages in a batch, and you feel that wkhtmltopdf is a bit to slow to start up, then you should try --read-args-from-stdin, When --read-args-from-stdin each line of input sent to wkhtmltopdf on stdin will act as a separate invocation of wkhtmltopdf, with the arguments specified on the given line combined with the arguments given to wkhtmltopdf For example one could do the following:
echo "http://doc.trolltech.com/4.5/qapplication.html qapplication.pdf" >> cmds
echo "cover google.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qt_(toolkit) qt.pdf" >> cmds
wkhtmltopdf --read-args-from-stdin --book < cmds

Page Breaking¶

The current page breaking algorithm of WebKit leaves much to be desired. Basically webkit will render everything into one long page, and then cut it up into pages. This means that if you have two columns of text where one is vertically shifted by half a line. Then webkit will cut a line into to pieces display the top half on one page. And the bottom half on another page. It will also break image in two and so on. If you are using the patched version of QT you can use the CSS page-break-inside property to remedy this somewhat. There is no easy solution to this problem, until this is solved try organizing your HTML documents such that it contains many lines on which pages can be cut cleanly. See also: <http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/issues/detail?id=9>, <http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/issues/detail?id=33> and <http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/issues/detail?id=57>.

Contact¶

If you experience bugs or want to request new features please visit <http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/issues/list>, if you have any problems or comments please feel free to contact me: see <http://www.madalgo.au.dk/~jakobt/#about>

Authors¶

Written by Jan Habermann, Christian Sciberras and Jakob Truelsen. Patches by Mehdi Abbad, Lyes Amazouz, Pascal Bach, Emmanuel Bouthenot, Benoit Garret and Mário Silva.