Convert HTML to PDF in .NET

Question

I want to generate a PDF by passing HTML contents to a function. I have made use of iTextSharp for this but it does not perform well when it encounters tables and the layout

Answer 1

Best Tool i have found and used for generating PDF of javascript and styles rendered views or html pages is phantomJS.

Download the .exe file with the rasterize.js function found in root of exe of example folder and put inside solution.

It Even allows you to download the file in any code without opening that file also it also allows to download the file when the styles and specially jquery are applied.

Following code generate PDF File :

public ActionResult DownloadHighChartHtml()
{
    string serverPath = Server.MapPath("~/phantomjs/");
    string filename = DateTime.Now.ToString("ddMMyyyy_hhmmss") + ".pdf";
    string Url = "http://wwwabc.com";

    new Thread(new ParameterizedThreadStart(x =>
    {
        ExecuteCommand(string.Format("cd {0} & E: & phantomjs rasterize.js {1} {2} \"A4\"", serverPath, Url, filename));
                           //E: is the drive for server.mappath
    })).Start();

    var filePath = Path.Combine(Server.MapPath("~/phantomjs/"), filename);

    var stream = new MemoryStream();
    byte[] bytes = DoWhile(filePath);

    Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
    Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=Image.pdf");
    Response.OutputStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
    Response.End();
    return RedirectToAction("HighChart");
}



private void ExecuteCommand(string Command)
{
    try
    {
        ProcessStartInfo ProcessInfo;
        Process Process;

        ProcessInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd.exe", "/K " + Command);

        ProcessInfo.CreateNoWindow = true;
        ProcessInfo.UseShellExecute = false;

        Process = Process.Start(ProcessInfo);
    }
    catch { }
}


private byte[] DoWhile(string filePath)
{
    byte[] bytes = new byte[0];
    bool fail = true;

    while (fail)
    {
        try
        {
            using (FileStream file = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
            {
                bytes = new byte[file.Length];
                file.Read(bytes, 0, (int)file.Length);
            }

            fail = false;
        }
        catch
        {
            Thread.Sleep(1000);
        }
    }

    System.IO.File.Delete(filePath);
    return bytes;
}