The drop-in replacement for wkhtmltopdf

Strengths

• Same command line All 122 options of wkhtmltopdf 0.12.6, with its defaults, messages and exit codes.
• Same page count 32 real templates out of 32 (Odoo, ERPNext, Sylius, pandoc), and 99.1 % of the words on the same page, on Linux.
• Tested by the libraries pdfkit, knp-snappy, phpwkhtmltopdf and wicked_pdf pass their own test suites with pdfkiln.
• Up to date The latest stable Chromium in each release; on Debian and Ubuntu, apt upgrade brings it.

How it works

• One program, two names Called wkhtmltopdf: wkhtmltopdf 0.12.6’s command line. Called pdfkiln: its own interface, with print settings from the page’s CSS.
• Chromium in its sandbox Every conversion runs with Chromium’s sandbox on: run pdfkiln as an unprivileged user, not root.
• A call or a server One Chromium per call, or kept open by pdfkiln serve for volume.

Install

curl -fsS https://apt.pdfkiln.org/pdfkiln-archive-keyring.asc | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/pdfkiln-archive-keyring.asc > /dev/null
printf 'Types: deb\nURIs: https://apt.pdfkiln.org\nSuites: stable\nComponents: main\nSigned-By: /usr/share/keyrings/pdfkiln-archive-keyring.asc\n' \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pdfkiln.sources
sudo apt update && sudo apt install pdfkiln

curl -fsSO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jamalofski/pdfkiln/main/docker/seccomp.json
docker run --rm -i --security-opt seccomp=seccomp.json ghcr.io/jamalofski/pdfkiln wkhtmltopdf - - < page.html > page.pdf

composer require pdfkiln/pdfkiln

npx @pdfkiln/pdfkiln wkhtmltopdf page.html page.pdf
npm install -g @pdfkiln/pdfkiln    # pdfkiln, wkhtmltopdf and wkhtmltoimage

sudo apt install libasound2t64 libatk-bridge2.0-0t64 libatk1.0-0t64 libatspi2.0-0t64 libdbus-1-3 libexpat1 libgbm1 \
  libglib2.0-0t64 libnspr4 libnss3 libudev1 libx11-6 libxcb1 libxcomposite1 libxdamage1 libxext6 libxfixes3 \
  libxkbcommon0 libxrandr2 fontconfig fonts-liberation

Releases tested by CI, with SHA-256 sums and provenance attestations: gh attestation verify <file> --repo Jamalofski/pdfkiln.

Where wkhtmltopdf no longer installs: Ubuntu 24.04 and Debian 13, ARM64 and Apple Silicon, Docker.

Migrate in five minutes

Point the library at pdfkiln’s wkhtmltopdf, never at pdfkiln, which switches to its own interface. The Debian package already puts it in the PATH.

• knp-snappy PHP

  The PHP wrapper of Symfony bundles and laravel-snappy.

• laravel-snappy PHP, Laravel

  knp-snappy for Laravel: two lines of .env.

• phpwkhtmltopdf PHP

  mikehaertl’s wrapper: one option, or nothing.

• pdfkit Python

  python-pdfkit: nothing to change if it is in the PATH.

• wicked_pdf Ruby on Rails

  Drop the wkhtmltopdf-binary gem, set exe_path.

• imgkit Python

  Screenshots with pdfkiln’s wkhtmltoimage.

• Odoo ERP

  Reports keep their page count; nothing to configure.

• Frappe and ERPNext ERP

  HTML headers and footers, with their JavaScript.

• Rotativa .NET

  Rotativa.AspNetCore and IIS, on Windows.