Convert a HTML Control (Div or Table) to an image using C#

Question

Hi guys,

Is it possible to convert a Html Control to an image in C#?

Is there any C# method where I can pass the Html Control object and return an image of that html control?

Is this possible, any suggestions?

Answer 1

Consider this (untested!) library over at guangmingsoft called htmlsnapshot.

add a reference to the htmlsnap2.dll

There's a sample project there for download.

Here's their sample code, lifted straight from that link:

snap = new CHtmlSnapClass();
snap.Url("www.google.com", "*")
byte[] data = (byte[])snap.GetImageBytes(".jpg");
//byte[] data = (byte[])snap.GetThumbImageBytes(".jpg", 100, 100, 1);


FileStream fs = File.OpenWrite(@"c:\1.jpg");
BinaryWriter br = new BinaryWriter(fs);
br.Write(data);
br.Close();
fs.Close();

Update If you wanted only a particular control, you could write yourself a page whose job is to re-render your target control as the only bits of HTML on the page.

Answer 2

The control you're describing has, as its output, HTML. That's all it does.

Your problem is that you want to turn a snippet of HTML into an image. Rendering HTML is done by a browser - ASP.NET has basically nothing to do with how HTML is rendered by a client.

Most .NET libraries that do this job (turning HTML into images) use IE to power the conversion. Some of those utilities include:

1. Websites Screenshot - http://www.websitesscreenshot.com/
2. The aforementioned htmlsnapshot - http://www.guangmingsoft.net/htmlsnapshot/help.htm
3. Basically any HTML -> PDF library has this functionality, including ABCPdf - http://www.websupergoo.com/abcpdf-1.htm

But the more basic answer to the question is that ASP.NET controls don't render to an image format. You'll have to do an IE screenshot of a page that has only that control (or HTML) on it.

Answer 3

We have used http://iecapt.sourceforge.net/ to convert HTML to image. You can try it out. It is available for FREE.

Answer 4

You need to create a separate page which is to be converted into image and call it in iframe. Then Try following:
http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/generating-asp-net-images-fly
OR
http://www.guangmingsoft.net/wordpress/convert-html-to-image-without-temporary-files-in-c/

Answer 5

I haven't tried it myself, but something I've been meaning to take a look at that may help you is HTMLRenderer.