Htmldocs
Dev tools
pdf generation
SHOW HN2024
226points
89comments
#337of 3,515 in 2024
Top 10%of 2024 by points
How HN took it
DebatedReal support and real criticism
10 positive, 10 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 12 critical, out of 34 comments about the project. Thread score -0.06.
Idea: 7 for, 2 againstExecution: 1 for, 7 againstDocs: 0 for, 2 againstPerformance: 1 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Good idea, looks well implemented
From 3 comments
This looks well implemented. I will play with it some. I have a couple projects that rely on html interface to pdf output (or at least print > save to PDF reliability). I would…
shanecleveland on HNAwesome idea, been looking for something like this every now and then, esp right now. But could use some performance improvements... Maybe you tested this on your state of the…
jdthedisciple on HNThis looks awesome, congratulations. I think you’re onto something here. I work on an OSS reporting and analytics tool (https://github.com/evidence-dev/evidence) and the amount…
amcaskill on HN
Requests for open source release
From 3 comments
Great stuff! Yes, please open source it.
cpr on HNPlease open source it!! I've looked for a solution like this multiple times. Well done!
nimalu on HNWould love to see an open-source version. Also, are you thinking of making a version that one could run locally with the command line?
shafyy on HN
Objections
Chromium-based rendering lacks CSS Paged Media features compared to PrinceXML or WeasyPrint
From 2 comments
> htmldocs is different from other tools like Wkhtmltopdf and Weasyprint in that it uses Chromium to generate PDFs, meaning that it supports the most modern CSS features and…
chrismorgan on HNI think in the long term, HTML/CSS will win out once there's better support for CSS Paged Module Level 3, and you'll be able to achieve that requirement with just ``` @page :left…
kelvinzhang on HN
Documentation is incomplete and sign-up required to try it
From 1 comment
This might be great, and it might not. It's hard to tell as a lot of the documentation is missing, or has broken links. It would be really nice if the docs were more complete,…
kayo_20211030 on HN
Google login blocked by verification for testers
From 1 comment
Trying to login with google I get this error: > htmldocs.com has not completed the Google verification process. The app is currently being tested, and can only be accessed by…
amadeuspagel on HN
Mobile UI and performance issues reported
From 3 comments
It’s a good idea. You’ll want to support GitHub flavoured markdown as an input, if you don’t already. Be sure to allow an inline <style> so documents can still be customised…
heads on HNAwesome idea, been looking for something like this every now and then, esp right now. But could use some performance improvements... Maybe you tested this on your state of the…
jdthedisciple on HNHi @kelvinzhang, the burger menu does not work on firefox for android
taulien on HN
Requests
Open source the project
From 4 comments
Great stuff! Yes, please open source it.
cpr on HNPlease open source it!! I've looked for a solution like this multiple times. Well done!
nimalu on HN@kelvinzhang Quite frankly, htmldocs is the exact project i'm looking for months. I'm tired of word and same alternative and wanted something i can write html and css3 to convert…
QuiCasseRien on HNWould love to see an open-source version. Also, are you thinking of making a version that one could run locally with the command line?
shafyy on HN
Offline or local rendering mode
From 2 comments
It’s a good idea. You’ll want to support GitHub flavoured markdown as an input, if you don’t already. Be sure to allow an inline <style> so documents can still be customised…
heads on HNHow does this compare to Typst?[1] What I like about Typst is that I can use it completely offline and with my editor of choice. Is this planned for htmldocs too? [1]…
matricaria on HN
Command-line version
From 1 comment
Would love to see an open-source version. Also, are you thinking of making a version that one could run locally with the command line?
shafyy on HN
Markdown and inline style support
From 1 comment
It’s a good idea. You’ll want to support GitHub flavoured markdown as an input, if you don’t already. Be sure to allow an inline <style> so documents can still be customised…
heads on HN
Questions
How does it compare to Typst?
From 1 comment
How does this compare to Typst?[1] What I like about Typst is that I can use it completely offline and with my editor of choice. Is this planned for htmldocs too? [1]…
matricaria on HN
What is the pricing model?
From 1 comment
What is the pricing like, e.g., per-template created, per-PDF rendered, or per-API call? I don't see any pricing info on the public site.
cholmon on HN
Long-term plans for the project and documents
From 1 comment
@kelvinzhang Quite frankly, htmldocs is the exact project i'm looking for months. I'm tired of word and same alternative and wanted something i can write html and css3 to convert…
QuiCasseRien on HN
Alternatives named
WeasyPrint
From 2 comments
Some people might be interested in https://weasyprint.org/
karteum on HNWe actually ran off of WeasyPrint at first but switched to Chromium due to emojis not rendering properly, poor flexbox support, no custom fonts, and other differences between the…
kelvinzhang on HN
Typst
From 2 comments
How does this compare to Typst?[1] What I like about Typst is that I can use it completely offline and with my editor of choice. Is this planned for htmldocs too? [1]…
matricaria on HNOffline isn’t a priority at the moment but can be done in the future by packaging with Electron. Typst is great but there are a few key differences: - full CSS support, allowing…
kelvinzhang on HN
PrinceXML
From 2 comments
Prince has been doing this for 20 years and is in my opinion the gold standard, with good support for footnotes, endnotes, page headers and other little extensions that are only…
pitdicker on HNTypesetting for print from HTML is one of those things that both keeps popping up but also never really seems to take off. Prince still remains the main player and as proprietary…
zokier on HN
Gotenberg
From 1 comment
I have used Gotenberg [1] in a production environment. Dockerized in a Kubernetes Cluster. It just works! I can absolutely recommend it. Uses Chromium under the hood and was able…
NanoWar on HN
Pandoc
From 2 comments
Oh, is this like a paid version of pandoc?
jppittma on HNYou can probably get away with Pandoc depending on your use-case, this is primarily built for: - having a web editor interface without needing to re-run a CLI command - people…
kelvinzhang on HN