Puppeteer vs wkhtmltopdf

Overview

wkhtmltopdf

Stacks57

Followers110

Votes0

GitHub Stars14.4K

Forks1.9K

Puppeteer

Stacks653

Followers582

Votes26

Puppeteer vs wkhtmltopdf: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Puppeteer and wkhtmltopdf

Puppeteer and wkhtmltopdf are both powerful tools used for automating the creation of PDF files from websites. However, there are several key differences between them that make each tool unique and suitable for different use cases.

Execution Environment: Puppeteer is a Node.js library developed by the Chrome team, allowing for the automated control of a headless Chrome or Chromium browser. On the other hand, wkhtmltopdf is a command-line tool that utilizes the WebKit rendering engine for PDF generation.
Control and Manipulation: Puppeteer provides extensive control and manipulation over the web page before generating the PDF. This includes actions like clicking buttons, filling forms, taking screenshots, and even generating complex charts and visualizations. In contrast, wkhtmltopdf has limited control over the web page and relies on the HTML and CSS provided.
CSS Support: Puppeteer leverages the full power of the Chrome browser, which has excellent CSS support. It can handle modern CSS features like Flexbox, CSS Grid, and CSS variables. In comparison, wkhtmltopdf has a limited subset of CSS properties and might not support some advanced features.
JavaScript Execution: Puppeteer allows for the execution of JavaScript on the page, enabling dynamic content generation or interaction with APIs. This capability makes it suitable for scenarios where data needs to be processed or fetched before generating the PDF. Wkhtmltopdf, on the other hand, does not execute JavaScript by default, which can limit its capabilities when dealing with dynamic content.
Dependencies and Installation: Puppeteer is a package that includes Chromium, so it does not require any external dependencies. Installing Puppeteer is straightforward and can be done using npm. In contrast, wkhtmltopdf requires the installation of external dependencies like Qt libraries, X11 libraries, and others, which can be more complex and platform-dependent.
Ease of Use: Puppeteer provides a more user-friendly and developer-focused API for generating PDFs. It has extensive documentation, a vibrant community, and supports multiple programming languages. Wkhtmltopdf, being a command-line tool, might have a steeper learning curve for developers less familiar with the command line.

In summary, Puppeteer is a powerful and flexible library for PDF generation that provides extensive control over web pages, executes JavaScript, and has excellent CSS support. On the other hand, wkhtmltopdf is a command-line tool that relies on external dependencies, has limited control over the web page, and lacks advanced CSS and JavaScript execution capabilities.

Advice on wkhtmltopdf, Puppeteer

Ankur

Software Engineer

Dec 4, 2019

Needs advice

I am using Node 12 for server scripting and have a function to generate PDF and send it to a browser. Currently, we are using PhantomJS to generate a PDF. Some web post shows that we can achieve PDF generation using Puppeteer. I was a bit confused. Should we move to puppeteerJS? Which one is better with NodeJS for generating PDF?

73k views73k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

wkhtmltopdf	Puppeteer
wkhtmltopdf and wkhtmltoimage are command line tools to render HTML into PDF and various image formats using the QT Webkit rendering engine. These run entirely "headless" and do not require a display or display service.	Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome over the DevTools Protocol. It can also be configured to use full (non-headless) Chrome.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 14.4K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 1.9K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 57	Stacks 653
Followers 110	Followers 582
Votes 0	Votes 26
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet	Pros 10 Scriptable web browser 10 Very well documented 6 Promise based Cons 10 Chrome only
Integrations
No integrations available	Node.js

What are some alternatives to wkhtmltopdf, Puppeteer?

Playwright

It is a Node library to automate the Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers with a single API. It enables cross-browser web automation that is ever-green, capable, reliable and fast.

PhantomJS

PhantomJS is a headless WebKit scriptable with JavaScript. It is used by hundreds of developers and dozens of organizations for web-related development workflow.

DocRaptor

DocRaptor makes it easy to convert HTML to PDF and XLS format. Choose your document format, select configuration options and make an HTTP POST request to our server. DocRaptor returns your file in a matter of seconds. We provide extensive documentation and examples to get you started, and our API makes it easy to use DocRaptor to generate PDF and Excel files in your own web applications.

HeadlessTesting

Headless Browser Cloud for Developers. Connect your Puppeteer and Playwright scripts to our Cloud. Automated Browser Testing with Puppeteer and Playwright in the Cloud.

Pandoc

It is a free and open-source document converter, widely used as a writing tool and as a basis for publishing workflows. It converts files from one markup format into another. It can convert documents in (several dialects of) Markdown, reStructuredText, textile, HTML, DocBook, LaTeX, MediaWiki markup, TWiki and many more.

jsdom

It is a pure-JavaScript implementation of many web standards, notably the WHATWG DOM and HTML Standards, for use with Node.js. In general, the goal of the project is to emulate enough of a subset of a web browser to be useful for testing and scraping real-world web applications.

Typ

It is a simple typesetting application. Turn plain Markdown into a formatted PDF, ready for print. Focus on content, not formatting.

CasperJS

CasperJS is a browser navigation scripting & testing utility written in Javascript for PhantomJS or SlimerJS.

Splash

It is a headless browser that executes JavaScript for people crawling websites. It is open source and fully integrated with Scrapy and Portia. You can also use its API to integrate with any project that needs to render JavaScript pages.

WeasyPrint

It is a visual rendering engine for HTML and CSS that can export to PDF. It aims to support web standards for printing. It is free software made available under a BSD license.

Related Comparisons

Puppeteer vs wkhtmltopdf: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Puppeteer and wkhtmltopdf

Execution Environment: Puppeteer is a Node.js library developed by the Chrome team, allowing for the automated control of a headless Chrome or Chromium browser. On the other hand, wkhtmltopdf is a command-line tool that utilizes the WebKit rendering engine for PDF generation.
Control and Manipulation: Puppeteer provides extensive control and manipulation over the web page before generating the PDF. This includes actions like clicking buttons, filling forms, taking screenshots, and even generating complex charts and visualizations. In contrast, wkhtmltopdf has limited control over the web page and relies on the HTML and CSS provided.
CSS Support: Puppeteer leverages the full power of the Chrome browser, which has excellent CSS support. It can handle modern CSS features like Flexbox, CSS Grid, and CSS variables. In comparison, wkhtmltopdf has a limited subset of CSS properties and might not support some advanced features.
JavaScript Execution: Puppeteer allows for the execution of JavaScript on the page, enabling dynamic content generation or interaction with APIs. This capability makes it suitable for scenarios where data needs to be processed or fetched before generating the PDF. Wkhtmltopdf, on the other hand, does not execute JavaScript by default, which can limit its capabilities when dealing with dynamic content.
Dependencies and Installation: Puppeteer is a package that includes Chromium, so it does not require any external dependencies. Installing Puppeteer is straightforward and can be done using npm. In contrast, wkhtmltopdf requires the installation of external dependencies like Qt libraries, X11 libraries, and others, which can be more complex and platform-dependent.
Ease of Use: Puppeteer provides a more user-friendly and developer-focused API for generating PDFs. It has extensive documentation, a vibrant community, and supports multiple programming languages. Wkhtmltopdf, being a command-line tool, might have a steeper learning curve for developers less familiar with the command line.

Puppeteer vs wkhtmltopdf

Overview

Puppeteer vs wkhtmltopdf: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Puppeteer and wkhtmltopdf

Advice on wkhtmltopdf, Puppeteer

Detailed Comparison