react-print-pdf VS puppeteer

For this comparison we decided to use a simple example of HTML document with some specific CSS styles (fonts, margins, etc.) and a header and footer. We used the react-print-pdf library to design the HTML document using React components. Especially, we re-used the advanced invoice with QR code template from the reac-print-pdf library. We then converted this HTML document to PDF using each of the four libraries and compared both the process required to generate the PDF and the quality of the output. We run the experiment on a MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Pro chip, 32 GB of RAM, using Node.js v20.11.0. We used chromium as the browser for Puppeteer and Playwright.

The open-source library react-print-pdf brings a set of components and wrappers we can use to build beautiful PDFs in minutes.

Hey HN, we’re the co-founders of Onedoc (https://www.onedoclabs.com/), and the original contributors to the open-source library react-print-pdf (https://github.com/OnedocLabs/react-print-pdf) which lets developers design and generate PDF documents automatically. Here’s a demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgfCyOyckQU&t=3s

Billions of PDFs are generated daily: invoices, contracts, receipts, reports, you name it. Developer time gets wasted producing these basic documents because there are no good-enough tools to design and generate PDFs.

We previously worked at giant firms, where documents (especially PDFs) were central to most workflows. We got asked to generate automated trade confirmations for our customer’s counterparties. We could not find any tool other than outdated libraries offering poor control over layout and the generation process. In the end, we just created our own—basically bringing web technologies to PDFs. That was the genesis of Onedoc.

PDF creation has two phases: design (specifying content and layout) and generation (producing the actual PDF file). Onedoc lets you do both simply and automatically.

Design: we have an open-source library called "react-print-pdf" (https://github.com/OnedocLabs/react-print-pdf) that allows you to design a document the same way you would design a website. It supports Tailwind CSS components, Chakra UI components, and recently also built LaTeX and Markdown components. The latter let you write text in Markdown style, and include formulas using LaTeX syntax, directly within a React component.

Generation: we have an API (https://docs.onedoclabs.com/api-reference/introduction) and Node.js SDK (https://docs.onedoclabs.com/quickstart/nodejs) that render your designs into PDFs.

The choice of renderer significantly affects the accuracy of the resulting PDF. For example, exporting a webpage into PDF will often result in a layout that differs from the original webpage. We ensure that what you designed is what you get, and therefore you have 100% control over the entire layout of your document including margin, style, etc. We can do that because we built the react-print-pdf library to match the HTML/CSS to PDF rendering tool we have.

Once you have generated your document, you can either store it on your local system or, if you want, use our platform (https://app.onedoclabs.com/) to host your document online. If you use us, you’ll also get analytics over your documents.

Our main product is an API, but you can try it on our website directly (https://www.onedoclabs.com/) using our playground without any installation or sign-up. Our pricing is usage-based: per document generated. The pricing is degressive: the more documents you generate, the less you pay per document. If you don’t want to pay for PDF generation, you can still generate as many documents as you want, but with a watermark on the margin.

It’s been fun to see what our users are building with our open-source library (components, templates, etc.) and our API. We have a website (https://react-print.onedoclabs.com/) dedicated to the open-source library where we post the templates submitted by the community. Some early power users built simple web apps (CV/Resume generator, NDA and Invoice generator). We are excited to show our product to the HN community and look forward to your feedback!

Contribute to the open-source library.

If you are still here and reading this article, you probably already know what react-print-pdf is. But just in case, is collection of high-quality, unstyled components for creating beautiful PDFs using React and TypeScript. Unlike other solutions, react-print-pdf gives you complete control over your documents, allowing you to design complex layouts with features like footnotes, headers, margins, and more. Additionally, it enables you to track and analyze specific parts of your document, and build and update charts using data from your database.

We believe documents are at the core of communication—invoices, contracts, resumes, brochures, etc. They are the primary method for exchanging information with others professionally. So, why do we continue to use decades-old technology to create them? We believe you deserve better. Document production needs to be modernized. Start today and create your next PDF the same way you build a web app. And yes, this includes automating data integration into your documents. Say hello to react-print-pdf.

I am not in any way associated with the developers at puppeteer, but if you are looking for a way to contribute, they are open source

With the advent of tools like Puppeteer and now Playwright, end-to-end testing has become much easier and more reliable. For anyone who's used Selenium in the past, you know what I'm talking about. Puppeteer has opened the way in terms of E2E tooling, but Playwright has taken it to the next level and made it easier to await for certain selectors or conditions to be fulfilled (via locators), thus making tests more reliable and less flaky. Also, it's a game changer that it introduced a test-runner - this made the integration between the headless browser and the actual test code much smoother.

1.Puppeteer: Puppeteer is a Node library that provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium using the DevTools Protocol. Key Features: More control over Chrome. Enables web scraping. Allows taking screenshots and generating PDFs for UI testing. Measures load times through the Chrome Performance Analysis tool

HTML to PDF conversion is a common requirement in modern web applications. It allows users to save web pages, reports, and other content in a format that is easy to share and print. There are many libraries and services available for converting HTML to PDF, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we will compare some of the most popular HTML to PDF renderers in Node.js, including Puppeteer, Playwright, node-html-pdf, and Onedoc.

Playwright seems to be a superior library for working with headless browsers than Puppeteer, but I will go with Puppeteer.

Puppeteer is a Node library that provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium. It's primarily used for browser automation, making it a powerful tool for end-to-end testing of web applications, taking screenshots, and generating pre-rendered content from web pages.

Puppeteer

Website: pptr.dev Repositório: GitHub

# Define variables PYTHON := python3 POETRY := poetry PYTEST := pytest PIP := pip3 PROJECT_NAME := web automation with Pyppeteer .PHONY: install install: $(POETRY) install @echo "Dependency installation complete" $(PIP) install -r requirements.txt @echo "Set env vars LT_USERNAME & LT_ACCESS_KEY" # Procure Username and AccessKey from https://accounts.lambdatest.com/security export LT_USERNAME=himansh export LT_ACCESS_KEY=Ia1MiqNfci .PHONY: install poetry-install: poetry install .PHONY: test test: export NODE_ENV = test .PHONY: test pyunit-pyppeteer: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTHON) tests/pyunit-pyppeteer/test_pyunit_pyppeteer.py .PHONY: test pytest-pyppeteer: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s -n 2 tests/pytest-pyppeteer/test_pytest_pyppeteer_1.py \ tests/pytest-pyppeteer/test_pytest_pyppeteer_2.py .PHONY: test pyunit-pyppeteer-browser-session: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTHON) tests/starting-browser-session/pyunit/test_pyppeteer_browser_session.py .PHONY: test pytest-pyppeteer-browser-session: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s \ tests/starting-browser-session/pytest/test_pyppeteer_browser_session.py .PHONY: test asyncio-run-pyppeteer-browser-session: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTHON) tests/starting-browser-session/asyncio_run/test_pyppeteer_browser_session.py .PHONY: test asyncio-run-complete-pyppeteer-browser-session: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTHON) tests/starting-browser-session/\ asyncio_run_until_complete/test_pyppeteer_browser_session.py .PHONY: test pyppeteer-button-click: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/button-click/test_page_class_click.py .PHONY: test pyppeteer-activate-tab: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/active-tab/test_page_class_bringtofront.py ###### Testing Custom Environment - https://miyakogi.github.io/pyppeteer/reference.html#environment-variables # Available versions: 113, 121, and default .PHONY: test pyppeteer-custom-chromium-version: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - echo 'Browser Version:' $(CHROMIUM_VERSION) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/custom-configuration/test_launcher_exe_path.py ###### Testing Headless - https://miyakogi.github.io/pyppeteer/reference.html#launcher # Available values: headless and non-headless .PHONY: test pyppeteer-custom-browser-mode: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - echo $(BROWSER_MODE) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/custom-configuration/test_launcher_headless.py .PHONY: test pyppeteer-generate-pdf: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/generate-pdf/test_page_class_pdf.py .PHONY: test pyppeteer-generate-screenshot: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/generate-screenshots/test_page_class_screenshot.py .PHONY: test pyppeteer-cookies: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/handling-cookies/test_page_class_cookies.py .PHONY: test pyppeteer-dialog-box: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/handling-dialog-box/test_handling_dialog_box.py .PHONY: test pyppeteer-iframe: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/handling-iframe/test_page_class_iframe.py # Like Puppeteer, Navigation operations mentioned below only work in Headless mode # goBack: https://miyakogi.github.io/pyppeteer/reference.html#pyppeteer.page.Page.goBack # goForward: https://miyakogi.github.io/pyppeteer/reference.html#pyppeteer.page.Page.goForward # Bug Link # https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer/issues/7739 # https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65540674/how-to-error-check-pyppeteer-page-goback .PHONY: test pyppeteer-navigate-ops: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/navigate-operations/test_page_class_navigation_ops.py .PHONY: test pyppeteer-request-response: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/request-response/test_page_class_req_resp.py .PHONY: test pyppeteer-viewport: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - echo $(BROWSER_MODE) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/setting-useragent-viewports/\ test_page_class_useragent_viewport.py::test_mod_viewport .PHONY: test pyppeteer-non-headless-useragent: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - echo $(BROWSER_MODE) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/setting-useragent-viewports/\ test_page_class_useragent_viewport.py::test_get_nonheadless_user_agent .PHONY: test pyppeteer-headless-useragent: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - echo $(BROWSER_MODE) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/setting-useragent-viewports/\ test_page_class_useragent_viewport.py::test_get_headless_user_agent .PHONY: test pyppeteer-dynamic-content: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - echo $(BROWSER_MODE) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s -n 4 tests/handling-dynamic-content/\ test_page_class_lazy_loaded_content.py .PHONY: test pyppeteer-web-scraping: - echo $(EXEC_PLATFORM) - $(PYTEST) --verbose --capture=no -s tests/web-scraping-content/\ test_scraping_with_pyppeteer.py .PHONY: clean clean: # This helped: https://gist.github.com/hbsdev/a17deea814bc10197285 find . | grep -E "(__pycache__|\.pyc$$)" | xargs rm -rf rm -rf .pytest_cache/ @echo "Clean Succeeded" .PHONY: distclean distclean: clean rm -rf venv .PHONY: help help: @echo "" @echo "install : Install project dependencies" @echo "clean : Clean up temp files" @echo "pyunit-pyppeteer : Running Pyppeteer tests with Pyunit framework" @echo "pytest-pyppeteer : Running Pyppeteer tests with Pytest framework" @echo "pyunit-pyppeteer-browser-session : Browser session using Pyppeteer and Pyunit" @echo "pytest-pyppeteer-browser-session : Browser session using Pyppeteer and Pytest" @echo "asyncio-run-pyppeteer-browser-session : Browser session using Pyppeteer (Approach 1)" @echo "asyncio-run-complete-pyppeteer-browser-session : Browser session using Pyppeteer (Approach 2)" @echo "pyppeteer-button-click : Button click demo using Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-activate-tab : Switching browser tabs using Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-custom-chromium-version : Custom Chromium version with Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-custom-browser-mode : Headless and non-headless test execution with Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-generate-pdf : Generating pdf using Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-generate-screenshot : Generating page & element screenshots with Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-cookies : Customizing cookies with Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-dialog-box : Handling Dialog boxes with Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-iframe : Handling iFrames with Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-navigate-ops : Back & Forward browser operations with Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-request-response : Request and Response demonstration using Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-viewport : Customizing viewports using Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-non-headless-useragent : Customizing user-agent (with browser in headed mode) using Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-headless-useragent : Customizing user-agent (with browser in headless mode) using Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-dynamic-content : Handling dynamic web content using Pyppeteer" @echo "pyppeteer-web-scraping : Dynamic web scraping using Pyppeteer"

This library works by creating an instance of WhatsApp web running inside an instance of headless chrome automated by puppeteer. In my testing, I ran into tons of compatibility issues when trying to use these dependencies inside anything other than a bare-bones Node.js + express server. Also, we can’t spin up a new instance of chrome and WhatsApp web each time a user sends a message, this will exhaust our allowed WhatsApp connections (4 max), not to mention that doing this will make the response times painfully slow.