I'm using html2pdf to generate a pdf, can I hide the html so the user doesn't see it?

Question

I'm generating vouchers using the html2pdf library.

This works fine with the voucher showing as HTML in the page.

I have a button that triggers the html2pdf() function on click, prompting the user to accept the PDF download.

I would like for the HTML to not show on the page. I tried applying position: absolute; and placing the HTML away from the user's sight. Unfortunately, the PDF then renders as blank.

Is there a way to achieve this ?

Answer 1

If you want without showing content to user to download pdf, then use innerHTML

<div id="exportPdf" style="display: none"></div>

style="display: none" to div

var source = window.document.getElementById("exportPdf").innerHTML;

html2pdf().set(opt).from(source).save();

innerHTML will do the trick

Answer 2

Just toggle the display property of 'element-to-print' before and after the html2pdf call.

https://jsfiddle.net/bambang3128/u6o6ne41/10/

 function toggleDisplay() { var element = document.getElementById('element-to-print'); if (element.style.display == 'block') { element.style.display = 'none' } else { element.style.display = 'block' } console.log('toggleDisplay()'); } function printPDF() { var element = document.getElementById('element-to-print'); element.style.display = 'block' html2pdf(element); element.style.display = 'none' console.log('printPDF()'); }

 <script src="https://rawgit.com/eKoopmans/html2pdf/master/dist/html2pdf.bundle.min.js"></script> <div id="element-to-print" hidden> <h1>This is a hidden div</h1> This one is hidden div contents. </div> <p> Save the hidden element as PDF. </p> <button type="button" onclick="toggleDisplay();">Toggle Display!</button> <button type="button" onclick="printPDF();">Click Me!</button>

Answer 3

Just hide the element by using the display:none propery. The element will not appear in the downloaded pdf.

Take this example:

 function download() { var element = document.getElementById("report"); // if you want to show the element in pdf /* for showing element in pdf var hidden = document.querySelector('.hidden'); hidden.style.display = "block"; */ html2pdf(element) }

 .hidden { display: none; }

 <script src="https://rawgit.com/eKoopmans/html2pdf/master/dist/html2pdf.bundle.min.js"></script> <button onclick="download()">Download PDF</button> <div id="report"> <div class="hidden">Hidden Element</div> <div>Content to be shown in PDF</div> </div>

Answer 4

Instead of passing an element, simply pass the HTML as a string:

html2pdf().from("<h1>Title</h1>").save();

In my case I'm using ReactJS, so I would do:

const htmlAsString = ReactDOMServer.renderToString(<Row>
    <Col md="6">Section 1</Col>
    <Col md="6">Section 2</Col>
</Row>);

html2pdf().from(htmlAsString).save();

Answer 5

you can use absolute positioning and place your div wayyyyyy out of the screen like top: 10000000000.

then take the div away when you're done with the image / pdf !

Answer 6

All you need is to assign display:none; to your element as shown below:

 <div id="element-to-print" style="display:none"> </div> <button type="button" (click)="html2pdf()">Download as PDF</button>

Answer 7

In the context of a VueJS application, I was facing a similar situation where I wanted to only show the content when the PDF was generated.

So you can briefly 'show' the content and generate the PDF and immediately hide it.

<html2-pdf>
  <section slot="pdf-content" :class="generatingPDF ? 'inline-block' : 'hidden">
   // Content goes here
  </section>
</html2-pdf>

In a method:

methods: {
  async generatePDF(){
    try {
      this.generatedPDF = true
      // generating PDF code here
    } catch (e) {
      console.log(e)
    } finally {
      this.generatingPDF = false
    }
  }
}

From what I've experienced, the user will not be 'flashed' the pdf content that should be hidden.