wkhtmltopdf headers post

blog/_posts/2013-03-15-using-html-headers-with-wkhtmltopdf.md

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+---
+title: Using HTML Headers with wkhtmltopdf
+layout: post
+tags: headers wkhtmltopdf
+description: Experimenting with dynamic HTML headers for PDFs.
+---
+
+Preparing for my job search, I really wanted to somehow reuse the content from my [about][2] page for my
+résumé instead of trying to also maintain the information in a Word/Google Drive file. Mac OS X has the
+convenient capability to convert any print to a PDF which is helpful in creating a general print-specific stylesheet for
+browsers, but it still had a few drawbacks. One of those drawbacks is headers - I expect to see them on even the
+simplest professional documents. Having used [`wkhtmltopdf`][1] before, I knew it could be a solution.
+
+I started by creating a simple [header file][3] to include my name, my website, document name, and page information. I
+also created a new CSS class which would take care of hiding headers and footers since they just take up extra space and
+are being replaced. By using a few extra arguments, `wkhtmltopdf` does a brilliant job at creating a professional
+document:
+
+    wkhtmltopdf \
+      --print-media-type \
+      --run-script 'document.body.className+=" alt-printarticle";' \
+      --margin-left 8mm --margin-right 8mm --margin-top 20mm \
+      --header-spacing 3 \
+      --header-html 'http://localhost:4000/include/content/header-simple.html?doctitle=r%26%23233%3Bsum%26%23233%3B' \
+      --title 'resume' \
+      'http://localhost:4000/about.html' \
+      resume.pdf
+
+Once that was working, I applied a few other tricks to make the printout a bit nicer:
+
+ * [`page-break-inside`][5] – to prevent specific lines from breaking across pages (e.g. keeping the job title and
+   company lines together)
+ * `a` tag styling – suppressing underlines and visual differences since they make less sense when printed on
+   paper
+ * `.screen-only` and `.print-only` classes – to show slightly different content when printing (e.g. showing
+   company website addresses instead of a generically linked "website" that looks simpler on browser screens)
+
+Finally, after a bit of experimenting, learning, and styling, I can now present a consistent résumé (and cover
+letters, references, …) whether it's through [PDF file][4] or [web page][2]. When viewing as a PDF, it has the
+added benefits of remaining interactive with embedded links.
+
+
+ [1]: https://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/
+ [2]: /about.html
+ [3]: /include/content/header-simple.html
+ [4]: http://static.dpb587.me/about.pdf
+ [5]: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/CSS/page-break-inside