Where to Download wkhtmltopdf and Find Its Documentation

Updated

wkhtmltopdf's official site, wkhtmltopdf.org, is the starting point for all of it: use Downloads for precompiled binaries, Docs for the auto-generated manual and C library documentation, GitHub for source code and project activity, and Support / Status for help and project state. The site describes wkhtmltopdf and wkhtmltoimage as open source (LGPLv3) command line tools that render HTML into PDF and various image formats using the Qt WebKit rendering engine, running entirely "headless" without a display or display service.

What the site offers, by destination

Destination What you get there When to use it
Downloads Precompiled binaries You want a working tool without building from source
Docs Documentation, including the auto-generated wkhtmltopdf manual and the C library documentation You need to look up command line options or the library API
GitHub Source code and project activity You want to build from source, inspect the code, or follow development
Support Support channels You're stuck or need help
Status Project status information You want to check the current state of the project

The site also notes the project is maintained by Ashish Kulkarni and was originally created by Jakob Truelsen.

Downloading and running it

The site lays out three steps:

  1. Download a precompiled binary, or build from source.
  2. Create the HTML document you want to turn into a PDF (or image).
  3. Run your HTML document through the tool.

The example given on the site converts a URL rather than a local file:

wkhtmltopdf http://google.com google.pdf

Here the input is the URL, the action is the conversion, and the expected result is a file named google.pdf in your working directory.

Finding the right command line options

The site points to the auto-generated wkhtmltopdf manual for the full set of command line options. Its own illustration of why you'd want them: adding a table of contents to the output. So if you need a table of contents, page size, headers, or similar controls, the manual is the reference to check rather than guessing at flags.

If you need the C library

Command line tools aren't the only option. The site states there is also a C library and directs you to the library documentation for it.

What people actually use it for

Beyond saving a web page as a PDF, the site lists generating invoices and creating birthday cards as real-world examples, framing the tool as general-purpose HTML-to-PDF and HTML-to-image conversion.