Ironpress

Pure rust HTML/CSS/Markdown to PDF converter. No browser, no system dependencies.

Try it in your browser | Parity dashboard | Wiki

Performance

Document	Time	Pages/sec
Simple HTML (`<h1>` + `<p>`)	16 us	62,500
Styled HTML (CSS, lists, links)	71 us	14,000
Markdown (headings, code, lists)	141 us	7,000
Table (5 rows, styled headers)	341 us	2,900
Full report (tables, flex, progress bars)	587 us	1,700

Chrome headless takes ~2,500 ms per page. ironpress is 4,000x faster.

Quick start

use ironpress::html_to_pdf;

let pdf = html_to_pdf("<h1>Hello</h1><p>World</p>").unwrap();
std::fs::write("output.pdf", pdf).unwrap();

let pdf = ironpress::markdown_to_pdf("# Hello\n\nWorld").unwrap();

CLI

cargo install ironpress

ironpress input.html output.pdf
ironpress document.md output.pdf
ironpress --page-size letter --landscape --margin 54 input.html output.pdf
ironpress --header "Report" --footer "Page {page} of {pages}" input.html output.pdf
echo '<h1>Hello</h1>' | ironpress --stdin output.pdf

Builder API

use ironpress::{HtmlConverter, PageSize, Margin};

let pdf = HtmlConverter::new()
    .page_size(PageSize::LETTER)
    .margin(Margin::uniform(54.0))
    .header("My Document")
    .footer("Page {page} of {pages}")
    .convert("<h1>Custom page</h1>")
    .unwrap();

Features at a glance

Area	Highlights	Details
HTML	50+ elements: headings, tables, lists, forms, media, `<img>`, inline `<svg>`	Layout Engine
CSS	Flexbox, grid, multi-column, `calc()`, variables, `@media`, `@page`, `@font-face`	CSS Support
Fonts	Base-14 PDF fonts, custom TTF embedding with subsetting, system font discovery, Unicode/CJK fallback	Font System
Math	LaTeX via $...$ / `$$...$$`: fractions, roots, matrices, Greek, operators	Math Engine
SVG	Vector rendering: path, shapes, gradients, transforms, clip paths, `viewBox`	Layout Engine
Images	JPEG + PNG, data URIs, local files, remote URLs (`remote` feature)	Architecture
PDF	PDF 1.4, bookmarks, link annotations, headers/footers, gradients, streaming output	PDF Rendering
WASM	`npm install ironpress` - runs 100% client-side in the browser	WASM & Playground
Testing	2100+ unit tests, property-based tests, 6 fuzz targets, parity dashboard	Testing Strategy

Custom fonts

let pdf = HtmlConverter::new()
    .add_font("Inter", std::fs::read("Inter.ttf").unwrap())
    .convert(r#"<p style="font-family: Inter">Shaped with HarfBuzz</p>"#)
    .unwrap();

Fonts are shaped with rustybuzz, subset to used glyphs only, and embedded as CIDFontType2. Characters outside WinAnsi (CJK, Arabic, emoji) are rendered via automatic Unicode font fallback. See Font System.

Math

The equation $E = mc^2$ is famous.

$$\sum_{k=1}^{n} k = \frac{n(n+1)}{2}$$

Full LaTeX support: fractions, roots, matrices, Greek letters, operators, delimiters, accents. See Math Engine.

WASM

npm install ironpress

import init, { htmlToPdf, markdownToPdf } from 'ironpress';
await init();

const pdf = htmlToPdf('<h1>Hello</h1>');
const blob = new Blob([pdf], { type: 'application/pdf' });

See WASM & Playground.

Security

HTML is sanitized by default: <script>, <iframe>, event handlers, and javascript: URLs are stripped. Resources are sandboxed (local-only by default, 10 MB cap). SVG sanitizer strips dangerous elements. PNG decompression capped at 50 MB. Disable with .sanitize(false) if you trust the input.

How it works

HTML/Markdown → Sanitize → Parse (html5ever) → Style cascade → Layout engine → PDF 1.4

See Architecture for the full pipeline.

License

MIT

ironpress

Runtime