---
title: "Generate PDF files from complex HTML"
canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/ios/knowledge-base/generating-pdf-from-complex-html/"
md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/ios/knowledge-base/generating-pdf-from-complex-html.md"
last_updated: "2026-05-14T16:53:43.872Z"
description: "Learn how to create PDF files from complex HTML using powerful APIs. Fast conversion techniques for seamless documentation."
---
# Generate PDFs from complex HTML
[`Processor`](https://www.nutrient.io/api/ios/documentation/pspdfkit/processor) provides a powerful API for generating PDF files directly from HTML strings. The conversion is fast, but it only supports simple HTML tags, such as ``, ``, or ``.
If you want to generate a PDF file from more complex HTML, you can use another technique. First save your HTML to a temporary local file, and then generate a PDF file from that URL. Nutrient utilizes the full power of WebKit when generating PDF files from URLs, allowing you to use CSS, embed images, or take advantage of a variety of tags and modern HTML constructs. This isn’t possible with simple HTML-to-PDF conversion.
Generating PDF files from URLs is a more time- and memory-consuming operation than simple HTML-to-PDF conversion. Make sure to perform the conversion and opt to do simple HTML-to-PDF conversion if possible.
Using these APIs requires the HTML-to-PDF Conversion component in your license.
### SWIFT
```swift
let htmlURL = // URL to save the temporary HTML file to.
let pdfURL = // URL to save the converted PDF file to.
let html = """
Hello, world!
"""
do {
try html.data(using:.utf8)!.write(to: htmlURL)
} catch {
// Handle the error.
}
Processor.generatePDF(from: htmlURL, outputFileURL: pdfURL, options: nil) { outputURL, error in
if let outputURL = outputURL {
let document = Document(url: outputURL)
// Handle the document.
} else if let error = error {
// Handle the error.
}
}
```
### OBJECTIVE-C
```objc
NSURL *htmlURL = // URL to save the temporary HTML file to.
NSURL *pdfURL = // URL to save the converted PDF file to.
NSString *html = @"\
\
\
\
\
\
Hello, world!
\
\
";
if (![[html dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding] writeToURL:htmlURL atomically:NO]) {
// Handle the error.
}
[PSPDFProcessor generatePDFFromURL:htmlURL outputFileURL:pdfURL options:nil completionBlock:^(NSURL *outputURL, NSError *error) {
if (outputURL!= nil) {
PSPDFDocument *document = [[PSPDFDocument alloc] initWithURL:outputURL];
// Handle the document.
} else if (error!= nil) {
// Handle the error.
}
}];
```
For more details about how to generate PDF files from HTML strings, URLs, and attributed strings, take a look at [`Processor` documentation](https://www.nutrient.io/api/ios/documentation/pspdfkit/processor) and `ConvertHTMLToPDFExample` from our [Catalog app](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/ios/getting-started/example-projects.md#nutrient-catalog).
---
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