Front-end printing solution - previewable and live-reloadable!
Recently, we say "front-end" everyday. Then why don't we make the printing documents in front-end? We believe we can make it perfectly without back-end. Paper CSS is just a small snippet of CSS, but it helps us create them in browser easily.
- New!: HTML --> PDF generation via CLI. See detail here.
- Installation
- Usage
- CLI
- Try
- Why Paper CSS?
- License
Get Paper CSS from cdnjs (recommended):
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/paper-css/0.2.3/paper.css">Or download paper.css file from GitHub manually, or via npm:
$ npm install paper-cssLoad paper-css into <head> like this:
<!-- Load paper.css for happy printing -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="dist/paper.css">
<!-- Set page size here: A5, A4 or A3 -->
<!-- Set also "landscape" if you need -->
<style>@page { size: A5 }</style>Set the class of <body> and set also "sheet" for each sheet.
<!-- Set "A5", "A4" or "A3" for class name -->
<!-- Set also "landscape" if you need -->
<body class="A5">
<!-- Each sheet element should have the class "sheet" -->
<!-- "padding-**mm" is optional: you can set 10, 15, 20 or 25 -->
<section class="sheet padding-10mm">
<!-- Write HTML just like a web page -->
<article>This is an A5 document.</article>
</section>
</body>See also the examples for detail.
We have small tool for previewing and PDF generation with ease. To use Paper CSS as a CLI tool, install it in global:
$ npm install --global paper-cssNote: to use Paper CSS as just CSS, you don't have to install CLI tool.
paper has three subcommands:
Preview your HTML file with live-reloading. The command below starts the preview server and open the HTML document in your browser automatically:
$ paper preview <file>You can also omit preview subcommand. Simply type like this:
$ paper <file>If you have no document yet, check our examples and the next section.
Note: paper preview doesn't have any option at this point.
$ paper create <file>Or use this shortcut: $ paper c <file>
All options are optional.
--sizeor-s: page size -A4,A5,A3--padding: padding -10mm,15mm,20mm,25mm,none--landscapeor-l: landscape mode
Export your HTML as PDF. The command below generates a PDF file.
$ paper export <file>Or use this shortcut: $ paper e <file>
All options are optional.
--sizeor-s: page size -A4,A5,A3--landscapeor-l: in landscape orientation--backgroundor-b: with background images or color--wait: waiting time (msec) before printing--outputor-o: where to export PDF
Note: the value in CSS is prior over options above, so you don't have to set --size or --landscape basically.
Here's an example of usage:
$ paper export your-document.html --background --wait 3000 --output any/location/your-document.pdfIf you haven't have our CLI yet, install it:
$ npm install --global paper-cssCreate an empty HTML document:
$ paper create first.html --size A5 --landscape
Open it in your favorite editor and open preview in the browser:
$ atom first.html
$ paper first.htmlEdit the file and save your change. Then the preview will be automatically reloaded. To export it as PDF, type a command below:
$ paper export first.htmlYou can check the design and layout before printing. See the browser like when you build a webpage.
This example could be printed like this.
It's just HTML/CSS, so we can edit it with live-reloading. See preview section above.
| type | expression | learning cost | editable | in-browser | multipage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HTML | Enough | already known | No | OK | ~100 pages * |
| SVG | Enough | not so difficult | No | OK | |
| Perfect | difficult | No | NG | no limit ** | |
| Excel | Not cool | sigh | Yes | NG | uncontrollable |
* It depends on user's environment. ** Only if you have huge memory on the server.
MIT © Tsutomu Kawamura