HTML to PDF in Python: Convert HTML using wkhtmltopdf and pdfkit

import pdfkit

pdfkit.from_url('https://example.com', 'out.pdf')   # from a URL
pdfkit.from_file('index.html', 'out.pdf')           # from a file
pdfkit.from_string('<h1>Hello</h1>', 'out.pdf')     # from a string

If you’re looking for a way to convert HTML to PDF using Python, this post will show you how to do it efficiently using wkhtmltopdf(opens in a new tab).

If you’re looking for a way to convert HTML to PDF using Python, this post will show you how to do it using wkhtmltopdf(opens in a new tab) and python-pdfkit(opens in a new tab) — a Python wrapper around the wkhtmltopdf binary. Common use cases include generating invoices, shipping labels, resumes, and reports.

How to pick a Python HTML-to-PDF library

This tutorial covers the wkhtmltopdf + pdfkit path. If your HTML uses modern CSS or JavaScript-rendered content, consider WeasyPrint or Playwright instead.

Installing wkhtmltopdf

Before you can use wkhtmltopdf, you need to install it on your operating system.

On macOS

Install with Homebrew (the cask still installs the final 0.12.6 build):

brew install --cask wkhtmltopdf

On Debian/Ubuntu

The version in the default APT repositories is built without the wkhtmltopdf Qt patches, so outlines, headers, footers, and TOC support are disabled. For full functionality, download the latest .deb from the wkhtmltopdf releases page(opens in a new tab):

sudo dpkg -i wkhtmltox_*.deb
sudo apt-get install -f

On Windows

Download the latest installer from the wkhtmltopdf website(opens in a new tab). Then add the wkhtmltopdf binary to your PATH environment variable.

Installing python-pdfkit

Install python-pdfkit using pip:

pip install pdfkit
# or
pip3 install pdfkit # for Python 3

python-pdfkit provides several APIs(opens in a new tab) to create a PDF document:

• From a URL using from_url
• From a string using from_string
• From a file using from_file

Creating a PDF from a URL

The from_url method takes two arguments: the URL and the output path. The following code snippet shows how to convert the Google home page to PDF using pdfkit:

import pdfkit

pdfkit.from_url('https://google.com', 'example.pdf')

Running the code

This section outlines two options for running the code.

Option 1: Direct execution

1. Save the code snippet in a file named url.py.
2. Run the script:

python url.py

If you’re using Python 3 and the default Python command points to Python 2, use:

python3 url.py

Option 2: Using a virtual environment

1. Create a virtual environment:

   python3 -m venv venv

2. Activate the virtual environment:

   source venv/bin/activate

3. Install pdfkit:

   pip install pdfkit

4. Save the code snippet in a file named url.py and run the script:

   python url.py

The output PDF will be saved in the current directory as example.pdf.

Creating a PDF from a string

The from_string method takes two arguments: the HTML string and the output path. The following code snippet shows how to do this:

import pdfkit

pdfkit.from_string('<h1>Hello World!</h1>', 'out.pdf')

Creating a PDF from a file

The from_file method takes two arguments: the path to the HTML file and the output path. The following code snippet shows how to do this:

import pdfkit

pdfkit.from_file('index.html', 'index.pdf')

You’ll use an invoice template for the HTML file. You can download the template from here. The following image shows the invoice template.

It’s also possible to pass some additional parameters — like the page size, orientation, and margins. Add the options(opens in a new tab) parameter to do this:

options = {
    'page-size': 'Letter',
    'orientation': 'Landscape',
    'margin-top': '0.75in',
    'margin-right': '0.75in',
    'margin-bottom': '0.75in',
    'margin-left': '0.75in',
    'encoding': "UTF-8",
    'custom-header': [
        ('Accept-Encoding', 'gzip')
    ],
    'no-outline': None
}

pdfkit.from_file('index.html', 'index.pdf', options=options)

Adding headers and footers

Use header-html and footer-html in the options dict to attach HTML files as repeating headers and footers on every page:

import pdfkit

options = {
    'header-html': 'header.html',
    'footer-html': 'footer.html',
    'page-size': 'A4',
    'margin-top': '1in',
    'margin-right': '1in',
    'margin-bottom': '1in',
    'margin-left': '1in',
    'encoding': "UTF-8"
}

pdfkit.from_url('https://example.com', 'output_with_headers_footers.pdf', options=options)

More use cases

Here are some common scenarios where HTML-to-PDF conversion with pdfkit is useful, with example code for each.

Generating reports

If you need to generate reports from web data, you can convert HTML tables or dashboards to PDF for easy sharing and archiving:

import pdfkit

html_report = """
<html>
  <head><title>Report</title></head>
  <body>
    <h1>Monthly Sales Report</h1>
    <table border="1">
      <tr><th>Product</th><th>Quantity</th><th>Price</th></tr>
      <tr><td>Product A</td><td>10</td><td>$100</td></tr>
      <tr><td>Product B</td><td>5</td><td>$200</td></tr>
    </table>
  </body>
</html>
"""

pdfkit.from_string(html_report, 'report.pdf')

Creating printable event tickets

Convert dynamically generated HTML event tickets into PDFs that users can print or store digitally:

import pdfkit

event_ticket = """
<html>
  <head><title>Event Ticket</title></head>
  <body>
    <h1>Concert Ticket</h1>
    <p>Date: 2026-09-15</p>
    <p>Venue: Music Hall</p>
    <p>Seat: A12</p>
    <p>Confirmation: 1234567890</p>
  </body>
</html>
"""

pdfkit.from_string(event_ticket, 'ticket.pdf')

Exporting blog posts to PDF

If you’re running a blog and want to offer readers the option to download posts as PDFs, you can convert the HTML content of a post into a PDF:

import pdfkit

blog_post_html = """
<html>
  <head><title>My Blog Post</title></head>
  <body>
    <h1>How to Use Python for Web Development</h1>
    <p>Python is a versatile language...</p>
    <h2>Getting Started</h2>
    <p>To start developing web applications with Python...</p>
  </body>
</html>
"""

pdfkit.from_string(blog_post_html, 'blog_post.pdf')

Invoice generation with data integration

Combine Python’s data processing capabilities with HTML-to-PDF conversion to generate invoices automatically:

import pdfkit

customer_name = "John Doe"
items = [
    {"name": "Product 1", "quantity": 2, "price": 50},
    {"name": "Product 2", "quantity": 1, "price": 150},
]

total = sum(item["quantity"] * item["price"] for item in items)

invoice_html = f"""
<html>
  <head><title>Invoice</title></head>
  <body>
    <h1>Invoice for {customer_name}</h1>
    <table border="1">
      <tr><th>Item</th><th>Quantity</th><th>Price</th></tr>
      {''.join(f"<tr><td>{item['name']}</td><td>{item['quantity']}</td><td>${item['price']}</td></tr>" for item in items)}
      <tr><td colspan="2">Total</td><td>${total}</td></tr>
    </table>
  </body>
</html>
"""

pdfkit.from_string(invoice_html, 'invoice.pdf')

PDFs for e-learning materials

Create downloadable PDFs for e-learning courses, where the content is initially written in HTML:

import pdfkit

course_material = """
<html>
  <head><title>Python Programming Course</title></head>
  <body>
    <h1>Introduction to Python</h1>
    <p>Python is a powerful, easy-to-learn programming language...</p>
    <h2>Lesson 1: Variables</h2>
    <p>Variables in Python are...</p>
  </body>
</html>
"""

pdfkit.from_string(course_material, 'python_course.pdf')

PDFs for product catalogs

Convert product catalogs stored as HTML into PDFs for distribution to clients or for offline viewing:

import pdfkit

catalog_html = """
<html>
  <head><title>Product Catalog</title></head>
  <body>
    <h1>Our Products</h1>
    <div><h2>Product A</h2><p>Description of Product A...</p></div>
    <div><h2>Product B</h2><p>Description of Product B...</p></div>
  </body>
</html>
"""

pdfkit.from_string(catalog_html, 'catalog.pdf')

Multipage PDF creation

You can create a multipage PDF by concatenating several HTML strings:

import pdfkit

pages = [
    "<html><body><h1>Page 1</h1><p>Content for page 1...</p></body></html>",
    "<html><body><h1>Page 2</h1><p>Content for page 2...</p></body></html>",
    "<html><body><h1>Page 3</h1><p>Content for page 3...</p></body></html>"
]

pdfkit.from_string("".join(pages), 'multi_page.pdf')

Common wkhtmltopdf gotchas

• IOError: 'No wkhtmltopdf executable found' — The binary isn’t on your PATH. Either add it, or pass an explicit configuration: pdfkit.from_file('in.html', 'out.pdf', configuration=pdfkit.configuration(wkhtmltopdf='/usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf')).
• Local images and CSS don’t render — Pass 'enable-local-file-access': None in options so wkhtmltopdf can read files from disk.
• JavaScript-rendered content is missing — wkhtmltopdf executes JavaScript via Qt WebKit but with a short default delay. Use 'javascript-delay': 1000 (ms) to wait for scripts.
• Fonts look wrong on Linux servers — Install the fonts your HTML references (e.g. fonts-liberation) before generating; wkhtmltopdf can’t fetch them at runtime.

Conclusion

You now have a working HTML-to-PDF pipeline in Python using wkhtmltopdf and pdfkit — enough for invoices, reports, and other static documents.

When the toolchain starts to bite — complex CSS, JavaScript-heavy pages, missing fonts on a server, or simply the maintenance risk of two deprecated dependencies — Nutrient’s HTML-to-PDF API is a drop-in REST replacement that needs no binary install. For in-browser viewing, annotation, and signing, the Nutrient JavaScript PDF library integrates with React.js, Angular, and Vue.js. Start a free trial or launch the demo.

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