PrinceXML (often just called Prince) is a commercial tool that converts HTML and CSS into high-quality, paginated PDF documents. It’s widely used for generating print-ready PDFs like reports, books, invoices, and other types of documents from web content.
🔧 What Does PrinceXML Do?
It takes your:
- HTML (content)
- CSS (styling, including print-specific styles)
And generates:
- A PDF that looks like a professionally typeset document.
🧩 Key Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Print-Quality PDF | Converts HTML/CSS into high-resolution, press-ready PDF documents. |
| CSS3 Support | Full support for CSS 3, including paged media, counters, floats, and more. |
| JavaScript | Limited JavaScript support (only runs before rendering, no DOM updates after). |
| PDF Features | Add bookmarks, metadata, hyperlinks, forms, table of contents, etc. |
| Headers/Footers | Supports dynamic headers and footers with page numbers. |
| Footnotes | Native support for footnotes using custom CSS. |
| Fonts & Unicode | Great font support, including web fonts, kerning, and ligatures. |
| Accessible PDFs | Can generate tagged PDFs for screen readers. |
📄 Typical Use Cases
- Generating invoices from a web app
- Creating reports with charts and tables
- Making eBooks or manuals in PDF
- Automating generation of government or legal documents
- Converting Markdown/HTML content to print-ready books
📥 Example Workflow
- You create an HTML + CSS template:
<html>
<head>
<style>
@page { size: A4; margin: 1in; }
h1 { break-before: page; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Chapter 1</h1>
<p>Welcome to your PDF book.</p>
</body>
</html>
- Run this through Prince:
prince input.html -o output.pdf
- You get a styled PDF.
💸 Pricing
PrinceXML is commercial software:
- Free version adds a watermark.
- Licenses are available for servers, developers, or organizations.
Website: https://www.princexml.com