Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteFor HTML that relies on browser layout, CSS, or web fonts, convert it to PDF in Node.js with a headless browser. Puppeteer and Playwright both provide a page.pdf() method: load a URL or set page content, choose print or screen media, generate the PDF, and close the browser. Use PDFKit when you want to build PDF content programmatically; the cited PDFKit guide does not document it as an HTML renderer.
Choose the right Node.js approach
A headless browser is the practical choice when your input is a web page or HTML document and you need the browser to lay out its CSS. Puppeteer and Playwright both expose PDF generation from a page, with print media as the default. Their APIs and controls differ slightly, but both require a browser runtime in the environment that runs your code.
| Approach | Best fit | PDF and rendering controls | Runtime consideration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Puppeteer | Browser-rendered HTML, using Puppeteer’s page API. | page.pdf() writes a PDF; print CSS is the default. Use emulateMediaType('screen') for screen styles. |
Launch a browser and ensure the runtime can run it. Puppeteer’s documentation version surfaced for this guidance is 25.12.0. |
| Playwright | Browser-rendered HTML when Playwright’s page API suits your project. | page.pdf() returns a buffer; print CSS is the default. Screen media can be selected, and width and height accept px, in, cm, or mm. |
Launch a browser and ensure the runtime can run it. |
| PDFKit | Programmatic construction of PDF content rather than browser layout of existing HTML. | The official guide shows creating a PDFDocument and piping it to a writable Node stream; it does not establish HTML rendering. |
Uses a writable stream in the documented workflow; this is not a substitute for browser-based HTML rendering. |
Convert a URL to PDF with Puppeteer
Install Puppeteer in your Node.js project, then save this as an ES module such as url-to-pdf.mjs. The flow launches a browser, opens a page, navigates to the target, writes the PDF, and closes the browser even if an operation fails.
import puppeteer from 'puppeteer';
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
try {
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com', { waitUntil: 'networkidle2' });
await page.pdf({ path: 'page.pdf', format: 'A4', printBackground: true });
} finally {
await browser.close();
}Run it with node url-to-pdf.mjs. The output path is relative to the process’s current working directory unless you provide an absolute path. page.pdf() waits for fonts by default, according to Puppeteer’s documentation. The example requests networkidle2 before printing; for a page with ongoing network activity, choose a readiness condition appropriate to that site rather than assuming all requests will become idle.
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Use print styles or screen styles
PDF generation uses print CSS media by default. That is usually appropriate for a document intended to be printed: the site’s @media print rules can simplify navigation and adjust page layout. If the PDF should resemble the on-screen page, emulate screen media before calling pdf():
await page.emulateMediaType('screen');
await page.pdf({ path: 'screen-layout.pdf', format: 'A4', printBackground: true });Browsers may adjust colors for print output. Puppeteer documents -webkit-print-color-adjust for retaining exact colors. Add it to the page’s stylesheet when exact color rendering matters, then inspect the resulting PDF because the page’s print styles and browser rendering both affect the final document.
Convert an HTML string
For generated or locally assembled markup, set content on a page instead of navigating to a URL. Ensure referenced stylesheets, images, and fonts are available to the browser; relative paths need a meaningful base URL or absolute paths.
import puppeteer from 'puppeteer';
const html = `<!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<style>
body { font: 16px sans-serif; margin: 24px; }
h1 { color: #173b65; }
@media print { .screen-only { display: none; } }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Quarterly report</h1>
<p>Generated from HTML in Node.js.</p>
</body>
</html>`;
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
try {
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.setContent(html, { waitUntil: 'load' });
await page.pdf({ path: 'report.pdf', format: 'A4', printBackground: true });
} finally {
await browser.close();
}This example uses inline CSS, so no external asset path is required. If you inject untrusted HTML, treat it as untrusted input: rendering it in a browser is not the same as sanitizing it or making it safe to load.
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Use Playwright instead
Playwright also generates PDFs from a page and returns the PDF as a buffer. Install Playwright and its browser runtime for your environment, then save this example as playwright-pdf.mjs:
import { chromium } from 'playwright';
import { writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
const browser = await chromium.launch();
try {
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com', { waitUntil: 'networkidle' });
const pdf = await page.pdf({ format: 'A4', printBackground: true });
await writeFile('page.pdf', pdf);
} finally {
await browser.close();
}To use screen styles, call await page.emulateMedia({ media: 'screen' }) before page.pdf(). Playwright documents width and height in px, in, cm, or mm, and paper formats including Letter and A4. For example, specify dimensions directly with page.pdf({ width: '210mm', height: '297mm' }) when a custom page size is more suitable than a named format.
Choose between the two browser libraries based on the APIs already used in your project and the controls you need. Both still depend on a browser-capable runtime; selecting a library does not remove that deployment constraint.
Set page size, margins, and output details
For standard paper, pass a named format such as A4 or Letter in the PDF options. For custom dimensions, Playwright explicitly documents px, in, cm, and mm units for width and height. Set margins and other print options through the PDF method’s options supported by the browser library version you install; consult its API documentation for exact option names and behavior.
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- Backgrounds: set
printBackground: truewhen background colors or images must appear in the output. - Print versus screen: keep the default print media for print-specific layout; emulate screen media before PDF generation if the screen stylesheet is the intended output.
- Color: print output may adjust colors. Puppeteer documents
-webkit-print-color-adjustas the CSS mechanism for retaining exact colors. - Long pages: browser pagination and print CSS determine page breaks. Use print-specific CSS to manage breaks and verify the final PDF for clipped or split content.
Run browser PDF generation in production
The application must be able to launch the browser used by the library. Before deploying, confirm that the chosen Node.js runtime can run that browser and that the browser executable is present and accessible. The documentation cited here does not establish exact memory, CPU, hosting, or security requirements for a particular deployment, so validate those against your own HTML, workload, and provider.
- Close browser resources: close pages or contexts when no longer needed and always close the browser in a
finallyblock, as in the examples. - Bound work: set an application-level timeout for navigation and PDF jobs so a page that never finishes cannot occupy a worker indefinitely.
- Handle concurrency deliberately: browser rendering consumes runtime resources. Measure your own workload before choosing parallelism or worker sizing; no performance benchmark is established here.
- Check output: confirm the file exists, is non-empty, and opens as a PDF. For buffer-based output, write the returned buffer and handle filesystem errors.
- Protect inputs: if users can submit URLs or HTML, apply your own input validation and access controls. The cited PDF-generation guides do not define an application security policy.
Troubleshoot common conversion failures
The browser will not launch
The runtime may not have a compatible browser available or may prevent the process from launching it. Install or provision the browser required by your library and verify the executable and permissions in the same environment that runs the Node.js service.
The PDF is blank or missing content
The page may not have finished rendering before the PDF call. Wait for a relevant load condition or for a page-specific selector that signals the content is ready. If content appears only after client-side scripts run, allow those scripts to complete before printing.
Fonts or images are absent
Check that asset URLs are reachable from the browser process and that relative URLs resolve from the page’s base location. Puppeteer waits for fonts by default during page.pdf(); that does not guarantee an inaccessible font can load. Inspect browser errors and network access for failed assets.
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Colors or layout differ from the browser view
Print CSS is the default for both APIs. If you want the screen design, switch to screen media before making the PDF. If print colors are being adjusted, review Puppeteer’s documented -webkit-print-color-adjust guidance and inspect the output against your print stylesheet.
The process hangs on a page
Some sites keep network connections open or continue making requests. A network-idle condition may therefore be a poor readiness signal. Use a more specific readiness condition, such as a selector for the content you need, and enforce a timeout in your application.
The PDF is cut off or paginated badly
Check the chosen page format and dimensions, then review the page’s print stylesheet for fixed widths, overflow, and page-break behavior. Browser PDF pagination follows the rendered document; it cannot infer where your application considers a logical section to begin.
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If you need a screenshot rather than a PDF, ScreenshotNeo returns PNG, JPEG, or WebP from one GET request. It is not a replacement for the Puppeteer or Playwright PDF workflow shown above. A screenshot is useful when an image of a page is sufficient; use browser PDF generation when you need a paginated PDF document.
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- Bot checks or CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits are not billed; responses report the page verdict and billing status in headers.
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take_screenshot,get_page_info, andcapture_pdffor AI agents and MCP clients. - The Free plan includes 1,000 shots per month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots.
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When PDFKit makes more sense
Use PDFKit when you want to construct a PDF directly in code rather than reproduce a browser-rendered HTML page. Its official guide shows creating a PDFDocument and piping it to a writable Node stream. That workflow supports programmatic PDF generation, but the cited guide does not show HTML rendering; choose a headless browser if your requirement is to convert existing HTML and CSS into a PDF.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Puppeteer save a PDF to a file or return data?
The Puppeteer example uses page.pdf({ path: 'page.pdf' }) to write a file. Playwright’s documented method returns a buffer, which the example writes with Node’s filesystem API.
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Can I generate a PDF from HTML without a URL?
Yes. Set the markup on a browser page with Puppeteer’s page.setContent(), wait for required resources, then call page.pdf().
Is PDFKit an HTML-to-PDF converter?
The official PDFKit guide cited here documents programmatic PDF construction and streaming, not HTML rendering.
Quick Recap
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