Dissemination of content can be accomplished only by making it available as PDF. In many organizations these days, it is mandatory to provide print format documents. This is where the wheel gets stuck. You see, the only webpage printing may not suffice especially when the format includes tables of content with a reference of page numbers.
A webpage is a manifold document. It represents the image of the sort of business what a person wants to make through it. PDF is these days the most sought after file format. It provides the website an edge in terms of graphics. Therefore to enable the webpage to add such functionality, it becomes crucial for the developers to convert the html content into pdf. This entire article is based on how to do it. It illustrates methods to accomplish the conversion process using open sourced components.
Three Steps to Convert HTML to PDF
Let us now look into the conversion process. The process of conversion is usually very simple. Essentially it comprises of three steps. All the three steps are primarily script based steps so it becomes necessary to go through each of them carefully. Below mentioned are those three steps.
1. Convert HTML to XHTML
This step involves the translation of an HTML file to an entirely new XHTML format file. Although if the starting point of your conversion process is an XHTML extension, then you not require performing this step. Jtidy is of utmost importance here. It is highly crucial in performing the conversion process. It adds up the missing tags that are closed to furnish a nicely formed XML format document. For the execution of Jtidy, you require to run a tidy.sh script.
2. Convert XHTML to XSL-FO
After the conversion of HTML file to an XHTML file format, it is then transformed into XSL-FO. This language is primarily required for the specification of XML documents print formats. To undertake this process, a style-sheet in XSL format administered with an XSLT transformer is used. The templates defined in this style sheet perform a check to track down the attributes of HTML file and subsequently generates the resultant directives of XSL-FO
3. Convert XSL-FO to PDF
In this step, a formatter is deployed in order to in order to generate a PDF of an XSL-FO document. Apache FOP is efficient in implementing XSL-FO standards and is best suited for generating an output PDF format. The FOP consists of a shell script that used an XSL-FO file as an input and successfully generates a PDF output file format.
Although HTML to PDF conversion through this process is fairly easy, but there are some converters available in the market for different platforms that are capable of converting an HTML file to PDF file in an easy fashion. For instance, html to pdf asp.net converter that can be used for the conversion process if you are working on a .net platform. Similarly converters are available for a various number of other platforms as well.
Conversion of HTML to PDF format is not only important for internal procedure of organizations, but they are also of supreme importance to the web based business operatives. These day’s websites are the most important medium of promoting a business therefore designing a website that appeals to a customer becomes highly necessary. PDF being the most suitable format for graphics, become a highly necessary element here. You can either go for the above mentioned steps to convert a HTML file to PDF format or you can choose to use a converter that presents some extra-ordinary opportunities for everyone.