Render HTML to an image

Question

Is there a way to render html to image like PNG? I know that it is possible with canvas but I would like to render standard html element like div for example.

Answer 1

You can't do this 100% accurately with JavaScript alone.

There's a Qt Webkit tool out there, and a python version. If you want to do it yourself, I've had success with Cocoa:

[self startTraverse:pagesArray performBlock:^(int collectionIndex, int pageIndex) {

    NSString *locale = [self selectedLocale];

    NSRect offscreenRect = NSMakeRect(0.0, 0.0, webView.frame.size.width, webView.frame.size.height);
    NSBitmapImageRep* offscreenRep = nil;      

    offscreenRep = [[NSBitmapImageRep alloc] initWithBitmapDataPlanes:nil
                                             pixelsWide:offscreenRect.size.width
                                             pixelsHigh:offscreenRect.size.height
                                             bitsPerSample:8
                                             samplesPerPixel:4
                                             hasAlpha:YES
                                             isPlanar:NO
                                             colorSpaceName:NSCalibratedRGBColorSpace
                                             bitmapFormat:0
                                             bytesPerRow:(4 * offscreenRect.size.width)
                                             bitsPerPixel:32];

    [NSGraphicsContext saveGraphicsState];

    NSGraphicsContext *bitmapContext = [NSGraphicsContext graphicsContextWithBitmapImageRep:offscreenRep];
    [NSGraphicsContext setCurrentContext:bitmapContext];
    [webView displayRectIgnoringOpacity:offscreenRect inContext:bitmapContext];
    [NSGraphicsContext restoreGraphicsState];

    // Create a small + large thumbs
    NSImage *smallThumbImage = [[NSImage alloc] initWithSize:thumbSizeSmall];  
    NSImage *largeThumbImage = [[NSImage alloc] initWithSize:thumbSizeLarge];

    [smallThumbImage lockFocus];
    [[NSGraphicsContext currentContext] setImageInterpolation:NSImageInterpolationHigh];  
    [offscreenRep drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, thumbSizeSmall.width, thumbSizeSmall.height)];  
    NSBitmapImageRep *smallThumbOutput = [[NSBitmapImageRep alloc] initWithFocusedViewRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, thumbSizeSmall.width, thumbSizeSmall.height)];  
    [smallThumbImage unlockFocus];  

    [largeThumbImage lockFocus];  
    [[NSGraphicsContext currentContext] setImageInterpolation:NSImageInterpolationHigh];  
    [offscreenRep drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, thumbSizeLarge.width, thumbSizeLarge.height)];  
    NSBitmapImageRep *largeThumbOutput = [[NSBitmapImageRep alloc] initWithFocusedViewRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, thumbSizeLarge.width, thumbSizeLarge.height)];  
    [largeThumbImage unlockFocus];  

    // Write out small
    NSString *writePathSmall = [issueProvider.imageDestinationPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"/%@-collection-%03d-page-%03d_small.png", locale, collectionIndex, pageIndex]];
    NSData *dataSmall = [smallThumbOutput representationUsingType:NSPNGFileType properties: nil];
    [dataSmall writeToFile:writePathSmall atomically: NO];

    // Write out lage
    NSString *writePathLarge = [issueProvider.imageDestinationPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"/%@-collection-%03d-page-%03d_large.png", locale, collectionIndex, pageIndex]];
    NSData *dataLarge = [largeThumbOutput representationUsingType:NSPNGFileType properties: nil];
    [dataLarge writeToFile:writePathLarge atomically: NO];
}];

Hope this helps!