HTML2PDF Conversion

Question

We're developing software for both Linux and Windows that requires CVS files to be generated into PDF reports. I've written a program in C to turn the CVS files into HTML files (td, tr etc.) and am then converting the HTML into PS using html2ps and then ps2pdf under Linux.

However as mentioned above we're also developing for Windows and while I'm aware that html2ps and ps2pdf are available under Windows they have a few dependencies which are going to cause headaches for our clients (namely Perl and Ghostscript). Are there any native Windows console applications that will convert HTML into PDF that can be distributed as single executable files with no major dependencies?

Answer 1

I've used Aspose which has both .NET and Java libraries to use for PDF conversion. I think it's great to use, but there's definitely a cost involved.

Since you're looking for something open source, I might suggest iText. I hear it's good, but haven't used it myself.

Answer 2

PDFLib could be bundled with a native application written by yourselves to create PDFs. It's a great library - used to be free but it looks you have to pay for it these days.

Another option, but it doesn't exactly fit your non-dependency requirement, is iTextSharp.

Answer 3

I had lots of luck with HTMLDOC. It is open source and available on many platforms and has a commercial version if you want to pay for it.

Answer 4

I've used ExpertPDF's Html2Pdf converter component. Easy to make .NET app to convert.

Answer 5

I've used Prince XML with Java and it is extremely powerful and easy to use, but it's also commercial.

Answer 6

Check Pisa (or XHTML2PDF). Its completely written in python so should work on Windows and Unix. The license is GPL but commerical license is also available.

Answer 7

We've used Apache FOP in the past to convert XML docs to PDF. perhaps not quite what you are looking for but It might be an option?