Page to PDF Converter

A simple web application that converts any web page to a PDF file with a single click.

Features

• 🌐 Convert any web page to PDF
• 📄 Generates PDFs using headless browser for accurate rendering
• ⚡ Real-time progress updates
• 🎨 Clean, modern UI
• ⏱️ Timeout and error handling
• 🗑️ Automatic cleanup of generated files
• 🚀 Can be installed globally via npm

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or higher)
• npm or yarn

Installation

Option 1: Install Globally via NPM (Recommended)

npm install -g page-to-pdf-converter

Then run:

page-to-pdf

Option 2: Use with npx (No Installation)

npx page-to-pdf-converter

Option 3: Local Development

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/page-to-pdf-converter.git
   cd page-to-pdf-converter

2. Install dependencies:

   npm install

   This will install:

   • Express (web server)
   • Puppeteer (headless browser)
   • pdf-lib (PDF processing)
   • Cheerio (HTML parsing)
   • CORS (cross-origin support)

Usage

If Installed Globally or via npx

Simply run:

page-to-pdf

This will:

1. Start the server on port 3000
2. Automatically open your browser to http://localhost:3000

For Local Development

1. Start the server:

   npm start

   For development with auto-reload:

   npm run dev

2. Open your browser: Navigate to http://localhost:3000

Converting a Page

1. Enter a web page URL (e.g., https://example.com/page)
2. Click "Generate PDF"
3. Wait for the process to complete
4. Download your PDF

How It Works

1. Input: User provides a web page URL
2. Rendering: The page is rendered using Puppeteer's headless Chrome
3. PDF Generation: A PDF is created from the rendered page
4. Download: The PDF is available for download

Configuration

You can modify these settings in server.js:

• PORT: Server port (default: 3000, or set via PORT environment variable)
• Timeout values for page loading and requests
• PDF format and margins

Example with custom port:

PORT=8080 page-to-pdf
``Converts single pages only (doesn't crawl links)
- 30-second timeout per page
- Generated PDFs are automatically deleted after 1 hour
- Some dynamic content may not render perfectlyl links)
- Maximum 50 pages per website (configurable)
- 30-second timeout per page
- Skips common file types (images, PDFs, executables, etc.)
- Generated PDFs are automatically deleted after 1 hour

## Troubleshooting

**Puppeteer installation issues:**
If Puppeteer fails to install, try:
```bash
npm install puppeteer --unsafe-perm=true

"Browser not found" error: Puppeteer downloads Chrome automatically. If it fails, reinstall:

npm uninstall puppeteer
npm install puppeteer

Port already in use: Change the PORT value in server.js or kill the process using port 3000:

lsof -ti:3000 | xargs kill

API Endpoints

POST /api/generate

Start PDF generation for a website.

Request:

{
  "url": "https://example.com"
}

Response:

{
  "jobId": "unique-job-id"
}

GET /api/status/:jobId

Get the status of a PDF generation job.

Response:

{
  "status": "generating",
  "progress": 45,
  "message": "Processing page 5 of 10...",
  "downloadUrl": "/downloads/website-xyz.pdf",
  "pageCount": 10
}

Project Structure

.
├── server.js           # Express server and PDF generation logic
├── package.json        # Dependencies and scripts
├── public/
│   ├── index.html     # Frontend interface
│   └── downloads/     # Generated PDFs (auto-created)
└── README.md          # This file

Technologies Used

• Backend: Node.js, Express
• Browser Automation: Puppeteer
• PDF Processing: pdf-lib
• HTML Parsing: Cheerio
• Frontend: Vanilla JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3

License

Publishing to NPM

See NPM_PUBLISH_GUIDE.md for detailed instructions on how to publish this package to npm.

License

MIT

Notes

• The app respects the crawl limit to prevent excessive resource usage
• PDF files are temporary and cleaned up automatically
• Large websites may take several minutes to process
• Some dynamic websites may not render perfectly in the headless browser