VueHTML2PDF Documentation

Package Github:

https://github.com/kempsteven/vue-html2pdf

Please see the demo site and demo github for easier understanding of the usage of the package.

Demo Site:

https://vue-html2pdf-demo.netlify.com/

Demo Github:

https://github.com/kempsteven/vue-html2pdf-demo

vue-html2pdf

vue-html2pdf converts any vue component or element into PDF, vue-html2pdf is basically a vue wrapper only and uses html2pdf.js behind the scenes.

Table of contents

• Getting started
  • NPM
• Migrating from 1.7.x to 1.8.x (and so on).
  • Events
• Usage
  • Using in Nuxt.js
• Props
• Events
  • Sample Use Case of @beforeDownload
• Slot
• Page Break
• Guide
• Browser

Getting started

NPM

Install vue-html2pdf and its dependencies using NPM with npm i vue-html2pdf

Migrating from 1.7.x to 1.8.x (and so on)

There are a few change in version 1.7x to 1.8.x and so on.

Events

1.7.x	1.8.x (and so on)	Description
@hasStartedDownload	@startPagination	The event "hasStartedDownload" is now changed to "startPagination".
-	@hasPaginated	The event "hasPaginated" is an event triggered after pagination process is done.
-	@beforeDownload	The event "beforeDownload" is an event triggered before the PDF generation and downloading. The event arguments contains an object { html2pdf, options, pdfContent }, which can be used to have full control of html2pdf.js like e.g.(Add page count on each PDF page, Full control of jsPDF to design page, etc.), you will have to set the props :enable-download, :preview-modal to false so it will not generate the PDF.
@hasGenerated	@hasDownloaded	The event "hasGenerated" is now changed to "hasDownloaded".

Usage

import VueHtml2pdf from 'vue-html2pdf'

export default {
    methods: {
        /*
            Generate Report using refs and calling the
            refs function generatePdf()
        */
        generateReport () {
            this.$refs.html2Pdf.generatePdf()
        }
    },

    components: {
        VueHtml2pdf
    }
}

To use it in the template

<template>
   <div>
     <vue-html2pdf
        :show-layout="false"
        :float-layout="true"
        :enable-download="true"
        :preview-modal="true"
        :paginate-elements-by-height="1400"
        filename="hee hee"
        :pdf-quality="2"
        :manual-pagination="false"
        pdf-format="a4"
        pdf-orientation="landscape"
        pdf-content-width="800px"

        @progress="onProgress($event)"
        @hasStartedGeneration="hasStartedGeneration()"
        @hasGenerated="hasGenerated($event)"
        ref="html2Pdf"
    >
        <section slot="pdf-content">
            <!-- PDF Content Here -->
        </section>
    </vue-html2pdf>
   </div>
</template>

Using in Nuxtjs

// plugins/vue-html2pdf.js
import Vue from 'vue'
import VueHtml2pdf from 'vue-html2pdf'
Vue.use(VueHtml2pdf)

// nuxt.config.js
plugins: [
    { src: '@/plugins/vue-html2pdf', mode: 'client' }
],

<!-- on-component-usage.vue -->
<!-- you should add <client-only> tag -->
<!-- more info for client-only tag: https://nuxtjs.org/api/components-client-only/ -->
...
<client-only>
    <vue-html2pdf>
        <section slot="pdf-content">
        </section>
    </vue-html2pdf>
</client-only>
...

Props

This props can seen in the Usage Part

Props	Options	Description
show-layout	true, false	Shows the pdf-content slot, using this you can see what contents will be converted to PDF.
float-layout	true, false	Enabled by default. If the props is set to false The props show-layout will be overridden. The layout will not float and the layout will ALWAYS show.
enable-download	true, false	Enabled by default. When enabled the pdf will be downloaded and vise-versa.
preview-modal	true, false	Once you generate the pdf, PDF will be previewed on a modal, PDF will not be downloaded.
paginate-elements-by-height	Any Number	The number inputed will be used to paginate elements, the number will be in px units only.
manual-pagination	true, false	When enabled, the package will NOT automatically paginate the elements. Instead the pagination process will rely on the elements with a class "html2pdf__page-break" to know where to page break, which is automatically done by html2pdf.js
filename	Any String	The number inputed will be used to paginate elements, the number will be in px units only.
pdf-quality	0 - 2 (Can have decimal)	2 is the highest quality and 0.1 is the lowest quality, 0 will make the PDF disappear.
pdf-format	a0, a1, a2, a3, a4, letter, legal, a5, a6, a7, a8, a9, a10	This are the PDF formats (Paper Sizes)
pdf-orientation	portrait, landscape	This are the PDF orientation
pdf-content-width	Any css sizes (e.g. "800px", "65vw", "70%")	This is the PDF's content width
html-to-pdf-options	html-to-pdf-options details here	This prop gives a way to configure the whole html2pdf.js options

html-to-pdf-options

Name	Type	Default	Description
margin	number or array	0	PDF margin (in jsPDF units). Can be a single number, [vMargin, hMargin], or [top, left, bottom, right].
filename	string	'file.pdf'	The default filename of the exported PDF.
image	object	{type: 'jpeg', quality: 0.95}	The image type and quality used to generate the PDF. See Image type and quality.
enableLinks	boolean	false	If enabled, PDF hyperlinks are automatically added ontop of all anchor tags.
html2canvas	object	{ }	Configuration options sent directly to html2canvas (see here for usage).
jsPDF	object	{ }	Configuration options sent directly to jsPDF (see here for usage).

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you have set a value to this prop, the props below will be overridden:

'filename', 'pdf-quality', 'pdf-format', 'pdf-orientation'

Any value inputed to those props above will have no effect.

Sample Value of html-to-pdf-options

htmlToPdfOptions: {
    margin: 0,

    filename: `hehehe.pdf`,

    image: {
        type: 'jpeg', 
        quality: 0.98
    },

    enableLinks: false,

    html2canvas: {
        scale: 1,
        useCORS: true
    },

    jsPDF: {
        unit: 'in',
        format: 'a4',
        orientation: 'portrait'
    }
}

Events

This events can seen in the Usage Part

Events	Description
@progress	This will return the progress of the PDF Generation. The event argument contains the progress of the PDF generation process.
@startPagination	This will be triggered on start of pagination process.
@hasPaginated	This will be triggered after the pagination process.
@beforeDownload	This will be triggered before the PDF generation and download. The event arguments contains an object { html2pdf, options, pdfContent }, which can be used to have full control of html2pdf.js like e.g.(Add page count on each PDF page, Full control of jsPDF to design page, etc.), you will have to set the props :enable-download, :preview-modal to false so it will not generate the PDF.
@hasDownloaded	This will be triggered after downloading the PDF. The event arguments contains the Blob File of the generated PDF. This will NOT be trigerred if the props enable-download AND preview-modal is set to false.

Sample Use Case of @beforeDownload

This is a sample Use case of @beforeDownload event.

As you can see the event arguments contains a { html2pdf, options, pdfContent } destructured object. The arguments can used to have full control of the html2pdf.js process. See the Docs here

Below is a sample code to add a page number at the lower right on each PDF pages using the jsPDF package integrated in html2pdf.js.

NOTE that you will have to set the props enable-download and preview-modal to false so it will not generate any pdf. You will have to handle the downloading yourself.

Please refer to the html2pdf Docs to know the full details of the usage of html2pdf.js

<vue-html2pdf
    :show-layout="false"
    :float-layout="true"
    :enable-download="false"
    :preview-modal="false"
    filename="hehehe"
    :paginate-elements-by-height="1100"
    :pdf-quality="2"
    pdf-format="a4"
    pdf-orientation="portrait"
    pdf-content-width="800px"
    :manual-pagination="false"

    @progress="onProgress($event)"
    @startPagination="startPagination()"
    @hasPaginated="hasPaginated()"
    @beforeDownload="beforeDownload($event)"
    @hasDownloaded="hasDownloaded($event)"
    ref="html2Pdf"
>
    <pdf-content slot="pdf-content" />
</vue-html2pdf>

<script>
import VueHtml2pdf from 'vue-html2pdf'

export default {
    components: {
    VueHtml2pdf
    },

    methods: {
        async beforeDownload ({ html2pdf, options, pdfContent }) {
            await html2pdf().set(options).from(pdfContent).toPdf().get('pdf').then((pdf) => {
                const totalPages = pdf.internal.getNumberOfPages()
                for (let i = 1; i <= totalPages; i++) {
                    pdf.setPage(i)
                    pdf.setFontSize(10)
                    pdf.setTextColor(150)
                    pdf.text('Page ' + i + ' of ' + totalPages, (pdf.internal.pageSize.getWidth() * 0.88), (pdf.internal.pageSize.getHeight() - 0.3))
                } 
            }).save()
        }
    }
}

Slot

This slot can seen in the Usage Part

Slot	Description
pdf-content	Use this slot to insert your component or element that will be converted to PDF

Page Break

By adding an element with a class of html2pdf__page-break will add page break after that element.

Usage: This can still be used with the automatic pagination of the package or when the prop manual-pagination is enabled

Sample Usage:

<section slot="pdf-content">

    <section class="pdf-item">
        <h4>
            Title
        </h4>

        <span>
            Value
        </span>
    </section>

    <!--
        After this element below, the page will break and any elements after
        <div class="html2pdf__page-break"/> will go to the next page.
    -->
    <div class="html2pdf__page-break"/>

    <section class="pdf-item">
        <h4>
            Title
        </h4>

        <span>
            Value
        </span>
    </section>
</section>

Guide

The recommended format for the pdf-content

<section slot="pdf-content">
    <!--
        Divide your content into section, this pdf-item will
        be the element that it's content will not be separated
        in the paginating process. ex. <h4> and <span> wont be separated.
    -->
    <section class="pdf-item">
        <h4>
            Title
        </h4>

        <span>
            Value
        </span>
    </section>

    <!--
        All other pdf-item will be separated in the pagination process,
        depending on paginate-elements-by-height prop.
    -->
    <section class="pdf-item">
        <h4>
            Title
        </h4>

        <span>
            Value
        </span>
    </section>

    <!--
        If you have any image with a remote source
        set html2canvas.useCORS to true, although it is set to true by default
        Ex.
        html2canvas: {
            useCORS: true
        }
    -->
    <section class="pdf-item">
        <img :src="remoteImageLink">
    </section>
</section>

Known issues

As you can see on the description this package is mostly just a Vue.js wrapper for html2pdf.js, Below are known issues that comes along with html2pdf.js

1. Rendering: The rendering engine html2canvas isn't perfect (though it's pretty good!). If html2canvas isn't rendering your content correctly, I can't fix it.

   • You can test this with something like this fiddle, to see if there's a problem in the canvas creation itself.

2. Node cloning (CSS etc): The way html2pdf.js clones your content before sending to html2canvas is buggy. A fix is currently being developed - try out:

   • direct file: Go to html2pdf.js/bugfix/clone-nodes-BUILD and replace the files in your project with the relevant files (e.g. dist/html2pdf.bundle.js)
   • npm: npm install eKoopmans/html2pdf.js#bugfix/clone-nodes-BUILD
   • Related project: Bugfix: Cloned nodes

3. Resizing: Currently, html2pdf.js resizes the root element to fit onto a PDF page (causing internal content to "reflow").

   • This is often desired behaviour, but not always.
   • There are plans to add alternate behaviour (e.g. "shrink-to-page"), but nothing that's ready to test yet.
   • Related project: Feature: Single-page PDFs

4. Rendered as image: html2pdf.js renders all content into an image, then places that image into a PDF.

   • This means text is not selectable or searchable, and causes large file sizes.
   • This is currently unavoidable, however recent improvements in jsPDF mean that it may soon be possible to render straight into vector graphics.
   • Related project: Feature: New renderer

5. Promise clashes: html2pdf.js relies on specific Promise behaviour, and can fail when used with custom Promise libraries.

   • In the next release, Promises will be sandboxed in html2pdf.js to remove this issue.
   • Related project: Bugfix: Sandboxed promises

6. Maximum size: HTML5 canvases have a maximum height/width. Anything larger will fail to render.

   • This is a limitation of HTML5 itself, and results in large PDFs rendering completely blank in html2pdf.js.
   • The jsPDF canvas renderer (mentioned in Known Issue #4) may be able to fix this issue!
   • Related project: Bugfix: Maximum canvas size

License

The MIT License

Copyright (c) 2020 Kemp Sayson

Browser

Package has been tested in these browsers:

Chrome Version 85.0.4183.121 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Mozilla Firefox Version 80.0.1 (64-bit)

Microsoft Edge Version 85.0.564.63 (Official build) (64-bit)

Brave Version 1.14.84 Chromium: 85.0.4183.121 (Official Build) (64-bit)

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