Three ways to make a PDF from HTML in Python (preferred is weasyprint or phantomjs)

1_pdf.py

def render_pdf_weasyprint(html):
    from weasyprint import HTML
    pdf = HTML(string=html.encode('utf-8'))
    return pdf.write_pdf()

def render_pdf_xhtml2pdf(html):
    """mimerender helper to render a PDF from HTML using xhtml2pdf.
    Usage: http://philfreo.com/blog/render-a-pdf-from-html-using-xhtml2pdf-and-mimerender-in-flask/
    """
    from xhtml2pdf import pisa
    from cStringIO import StringIO
    pdf = StringIO()
    pisa.CreatePDF(StringIO(html.encode('utf-8')), pdf)
    resp = pdf.getvalue()
    pdf.close()
    return resp

def render_pdf_phantomjs(html):
    """mimerender helper to render a PDF from HTML using phantomjs."""
    # The 'makepdf.js' PhantomJS program takes HTML via stdin and returns PDF binary via stdout
    # https://gist.github.com/philfreo/5854629
    # Another approach would be to have PhantomJS do a localhost read of the URL, rather than passing html around.
    from subprocess import Popen, PIPE, STDOUT
    import os
    p = Popen(['phantomjs', '%s/pdf.js' % os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))], stdout=PIPE, stdin=PIPE, stderr=STDOUT)
    return p.communicate(input=html.encode('utf-8'))[0]
  

pdf.js

// PhantomJS: generate PDF to stdout from HTML in stdin.
// Example: echo "<b>test</b>" | phantomjs makepdf.js > test.pdf && open test.pdf

var page = require('webpage').create(),
    fs = require('fs');

page.viewportSize = { width: 600, height: 600 };
page.paperSize = { format: 'Letter', orientation: 'portrait', margin: '1cm' };

page.content = fs.read('/dev/stdin');

window.setTimeout(function() {
    page.render('/dev/stdout', { format: 'pdf' });
    phantom.exit();
}, 1);

Any benchmarks of these three methods?. Would be great if you have any performance stats like time taken to print a complex 100-page pdf, memory used, etc

if you are on Windows, weasyprint is hard to get going

Oh man, xhtml2pdf can't even render an image without dividing the page into "frames". Don't recommend. Likely best to allow the browser to render it ... and find a way to save to pdf.

Can i use any of them to include highcharts (which is in scripts tag) in my pdf and actually make the pdf in background without opening it in any browser.

For Highcharts check out https://www.highcharts.com/docs/export-module/export-module-overview

Thank for your quick reply @philfreo.
Export module allows only one charts image or pdf at a time...but i have many charts which need to be included in the same pdf...that is why i was thinking of using a converter like xhtml2pdf which would load my html page and convert it..but turns out that ot doesnt load the javascript the html template

I would use a headless browser. Of these options, phantomjs, but I would look into more modern headless browser options since this gist is a few years old.

And in python3? I'm facing this problem -> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/68284524/how-encode-this-string-to-export-it-to-pdf