HtmlToPdf

This gem will generate pdf of the action's html requested as pdf.

Supports Rails 7.x and Rails 8.x (latest).

Installation

Install and setup wkhtmltopdf. Please refer https://wkhtmltopdf.org for more details.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'htmlToPdf'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install htmlToPdf

Usage

write following code inside Application Controller

before_action :html_to_pdf

in views:

<%= link_to 'download', your_action_path(:format => 'pdf') %>

customizing pdf downloads:

you can customize pdf like you can give the name and layout for the pdf.to customize pdf use this following example:

<%= link_to 'download', your_action_path(:format => 'pdf',:pdf_options => {title: 'pdf_name', layout: 'layout_name'}) %>

this will generate the pdf of your_action named pdf_name.pdf with layout layout_name.

one can call any action as pdf and he get the pdf file of that action's html.

customizing page padding and wkhtmltopdf options:

<%= link_to 'download', your_action_path(:format => 'pdf', :pdf_options => {
  title: 'pdf_name',
  layout: 'layout_name',
  padding: '10mm',
  wkhtmltopdf_options: {
    orientation: 'Landscape',
    page_size: 'A4',
    margin_top: '15mm',
    grayscale: true
  }
}) %>

padding is a shorthand that sets all four margins at once. wkhtmltopdf_options accepts any option the wkhtmltopdf CLI supports (underscores or dashes both work, e.g. margin_top, page_size, orientation, dpi, zoom, encoding, javascript_delay, disable_smart_shrinking, ...) — see https://wkhtmltopdf.org for the full list. Boolean-style flags (e.g. grayscale: true) are passed as bare flags; anything else is passed as --flag value.

Security note: pdf_options is read from the request's query params and forwarded verbatim as CLI flags to wkhtmltopdf. If your_action_path is publicly reachable, anyone can pass arbitrary wkhtmltopdf flags to it. Only expose the pdf format on actions where that's acceptable, or filter pdf_options yourself before it reaches html_to_pdf (e.g. in a before_action that runs earlier).

Configuration

Set gem-wide defaults in an initializer (e.g. config/initializers/html_to_pdf.rb):

HtmlToPdf.configure do |config|
  # Path to the wkhtmltopdf binary. Defaults to "wkhtmltopdf" (resolved via $PATH).
  # Useful when it's installed via the wkhtmltopdf-binary gem or a custom location.
  config.wkhtmltopdf_path = Wkhtmltopdf.path # or an absolute path string

  # Layout used when pdf_options[:layout] isn't given. Defaults to "application".
  config.default_layout = "pdf"

  # wkhtmltopdf options applied to every PDF, merged under any per-request
  # padding/wkhtmltopdf_options. Defaults to {}.
  config.default_options = { dpi: 300, margin_top: "10mm" }

  # Directory temporary .html/.pdf files are written to. Defaults to Rails.root/tmp.
  config.tmp_dir = Rails.root.join("tmp", "pdfs")
end

Make sure you have configured your asset_host in application's Rails environment, otherwise assets might not be loaded properly.

config.action_controller.asset_host = "YOUR_ASSETS_HOST"