converting html document to PDF

Woopydalan

Hello,

I am trying to convert a .html file of my unofficial transcript so I can send it to REU programs because I am trying to get into an REU this summer. I've tried using the website converters and I always get an error. Is there any way to conver this for free?

Or, can I PM it to somebody and they could convert it for me? That would be very nice. Thanks!

Borek

What kind of error do you get?

What I did in the past was I added Linotronic 330 v52.3 as a printer, printed Post Script to file and used some web based ghostscript converter.

Woopydalan

Not sure depends on which free converter I use. They just come up blank

berkeman

I use PrimoPDF for the final conversion step. What are you viewing the HTML with?

Woopydalan

firefox html document

berkeman

Okay, so if you download and install the free verion of PrimoPDF, it should show up as a printer option when you got to print from Firefox. Try printing from Firefox to the PrimoPDF printer, and see how that turns out.

Woopydalan

It still comes up blank. I have now been able to turn the .html to a .docx, but not .html to .pdf or .docx to .pdf

berkeman

I'll PM you my e-mail address if you want me to give it a shot.

Woopydalan

Please do

Borek

Try what I told you earlier. Install a printer driver I have mentioned in such a way that it will allow printing to file. Print your page to the file. Convert this file to pdf using some web service - for example ps2pdf.com. See if their FAQ doesn't help: http://www.ps2pdf.com/faq.htm

Woopydalan

I don't have a printer on this computer

MATLABdude

It only looks like a printer. You "print" the webpage to the PDF "printer" and it prompts you for a save location. Presto chango, PDF "copy" of the webpage, with layout preserved (this also means you can use Print Preview beforehand to adjust margins and what not).

I've never used Primo PDF, but the completely free PDFcreator is what I use most of the time (the only caveat is that you have to change the paper size from A4 to letter, presuming you're an American):
http://www.pdfforge.org/pdfcreator

Borek

As MATLABdude wrote it is not a physical printer, but a virtual device that pretends to be a printer and allows you to save to a file all the commands that would be sent to printer. Later you can either copy a content of the file to the physical printer port (and print it on paper) and use it for any other purpose - like conversion to pdf. Just to convert to pdf you need to prepare a file pretending you are using a postrcript printer, and the Linotronic driver is considered a standard. Or at least it was considered a standard when I needed to convert document to pdf.

AlephZero

You are a bit out date there. There are several free virtual printer drivers for Windows that produce a PDF in one step. For example CutePDF, PDF995, PrimoPDF, etc, etc. Actually they are all pretty much the same except for the graphics of the user interface, because they they all use the same open-source Ghostscript software to do the work!

What you describe still works, but it's mroe complicated than it needs to be.

AFAIK on Macs this functionality is part of the OS - just use the "create PDF" option instead of "print".

Just be careful when you install them - don't get suckered into paying for a "pro" version that does a lot of other stuff you don't need, and untick the boxes that install search engine toolbars etc. The three I mentioned above are all reputable (non-malware) products, but their authors don't live on fresh air, hence the sales pitch to get you to pay them!

Borek

I know there are virtual printer drivers that produce pdfs directly, but - as you mentioned - they require adding a printer driver that is not built in into Windows. Procedure I described doesn't require that and can be done on any Windows machine without downloading anything.

Woopydalan

I used primoPDF and it wouldn't convert the document. It shows the banner on the top of the website like the logo, but none of the information, and I have no idea how that PDF creator program works, looks not very easy

The website you gave Borek said ''Input file doesn't appear to be a Postscript compatible file''

slider142

View your transcript in Firefox. Go to the File menu (or Firefox menu) and select "Print...". A window will come up to allow you to set your print options. The first option should be "Printer Name:" with a drop-down list of "printers" to choose from, even if no physical printer is attached. What choices are listed on this menu?