EggPdf

Pure C# HTML/CSS to PDF rendering engine. Zero dependencies. Chrome-quality output.

Write normal HTML and CSS. Get a perfect PDF. No WebKit, no Chromium, no native binaries.

Why EggPdf?

Feature	EggPdf	SelectPdf	wkhtmltopdf	Puppeteer
Pure C#	Yes	No	No	No
Dependencies	Zero	~50MB WebKit	~40MB Qt	~300MB Chrome
.NET Framework	4.6.2+	Limited	N/A	N/A
.NET Core/5+	All	Some	N/A	Yes
CSS Flexbox	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
CSS Grid	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
SVG Support	Yes (vector)	Yes	Partial	Yes
PDF/A	Yes	No	No	No
PDF/UA	Yes	No	No	No
Tagged PDF	Yes	No	No	No
Digital Signatures	Yes	No	No	No
License	MIT	Commercial	LGPL	Apache 2

Quick Start

dotnet add package EggPdf

// One-liner
byte[] pdf = await EggPdf.HtmlToPdf.RenderAsync("<h1>Hello World</h1>");
File.WriteAllBytes("output.pdf", pdf);

Standard Usage

var converter = new HtmlToPdfConverter(new PdfOptions
{
    PageSize = PageSize.A4,
    Orientation = PageOrientation.Portrait,
    Margins = new PageMargins(top: 20, right: 15, bottom: 20, left: 15, unit: Unit.Mm),
    DefaultFont = "Arial",
    Title = "My Document"
});

// To byte[]
byte[] pdf = await converter.RenderAsync(htmlString);

// To file
await converter.RenderToFileAsync(htmlString, "report.pdf");

// To HTTP response (streaming, no buffering)
await converter.RenderAsync(htmlString, Response.Body, HttpContext.RequestAborted);

ASP.NET Core Integration

dotnet add package EggPdf.AspNetCore

// DI Registration
services.AddEggPdf(options =>
{
    options.PageSize = PageSize.A4;
    options.DefaultFont = "Arial";
});

// Controller
[HttpGet("invoice/{id}/pdf")]
public async Task<IActionResult> GetInvoice(int id)
{
    var model = await _invoiceService.GetAsync(id);
    string html = await _viewRenderer.RenderAsync("Invoice", model);
    return new PdfResult(html) { FileName = $"invoice-{id}.pdf" };
}

Razor Templates

dotnet add package EggPdf.Razor

services.AddEggPdfRazor();

// Render .cshtml template directly to PDF
public class InvoiceService(IRazorToPdfConverter pdf)
{
    public async Task<byte[]> Generate(InvoiceModel model)
        => await pdf.RenderViewAsync("Invoice", model);
}

Features

HTML & CSS

• Full HTML5 parsing (WHATWG spec-compliant)
• CSS 2.1 complete + CSS3 (Flexbox, Grid, Multi-column)
• CSS Custom Properties (var())
• @media print support
• @font-face with WOFF/WOFF2
• SVG rendering (vector output, not rasterized)
• All image formats (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, SVG, Base64)

PDF

• PDF 1.4 / 1.5 / 1.7 / 2.0
• Clickable hyperlinks and internal links
• Auto-generated bookmarks from headings
• Table of contents with page numbers
• Running headers/footers
• Page numbers (Page X of Y)
• Repeating table headers across pages
• Mixed page orientations (portrait + landscape)
• Watermarks

Typography

• TrueType/OpenType font embedding with subsetting
• Font fallback chain
• CJK support (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
• Vietnamese, Thai, Arabic, Hebrew
• Emoji rendering (color emoji)
• Automatic hyphenation
• Variable font support

Business

• PDF/A (archival: 1b, 2b, 3b)
• PDF/UA (accessibility)
• Digital signatures (PAdES)
• AcroForm fields
• QR codes and barcodes
• File attachments (ZUGFeRD/Factur-X e-invoicing)
• PDF merging
• AES-256 encryption

Performance

• Streaming output (constant memory for large documents)
• Font caching across renders
• Thread-safe converter (one instance per app)
• Streaming table layout for 10,000+ row tables

Scenario	Mean	Memory
Simple page (h1 + p)	13 µs	20 KB
Invoice (table + styles)	86 µs	85 KB
Large table (100 rows)	1.2 ms	939 KB

Benchmarks run on every PR (results posted as comment) and on every merge to main (artifacts uploaded). Targets: simple < 50ms, invoice < 100ms, large table < 5s.

Target Frameworks

Target	Coverage
netstandard2.0	.NET Framework 4.6.2+, .NET Core 2.0+, Mono, Xamarin, Unity
netstandard2.1	.NET Core 3.0+
net6.0	.NET 6+
net8.0	.NET 8+
net9.0	.NET 9+
net10.0	.NET 10+

Use EggPdf Your Way

NuGet (for .NET developers)

Package	Description	Dependencies
EggPdf	Core library	None
EggPdf.Razor	Razor template integration	ASP.NET Core
EggPdf.AspNetCore	ASP.NET Core middleware	ASP.NET Core

Docker (for any language / DevOps)

# REST API service (with Web UI)
docker run -p 8080:8080 eggspot/eggpdf:latest
# Open http://localhost:8080 for Web UI, or call REST API from any language

# CLI (convert files)
docker run -v $(pwd):/work eggspot/eggpdf:latest eggpdf /work/input.html -o /work/output.pdf

CLI Binary (standalone, no .NET needed)

Download a single executable for your platform -- no installation required:

Platform	Download
Windows x64	eggpdf-win-x64.exe
Windows ARM64	eggpdf-win-arm64.exe
Linux x64	eggpdf-linux-x64
Linux ARM64	eggpdf-linux-arm64
macOS x64 (Intel)	eggpdf-osx-x64
macOS ARM64 (Apple Silicon)	eggpdf-osx-arm64

./eggpdf input.html -o output.pdf
./eggpdf input.html -o output.png --format png
./eggpdf input.html --watch    # live reload
./eggpdf --serve               # start REST API server

Web UI (for anyone)

Open http://localhost:8080 after starting the Docker service. Paste HTML, get PDF. No coding required.

Documentation

See the Wiki for full documentation:

• Getting Started
• Configuration
• Page Layout & CSS
• Headers, Footers & Page Numbers
• Images & SVG
• Tables
• Fonts & Typography
• PDF Features
• Performance
• API Reference

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! We follow strict TDD — write the test before the code:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feat/my-feature
3. Write the failing test first — run it, confirm it fails
4. Write minimal code to make the test pass
5. Run the test — if it fails, fix code and run again; repeat until it passes
6. Run ALL tests — fix any regressions and repeat until the full suite passes
7. Check performance if touching hot paths
8. Commit with conventional prefixes: feat:, fix:, perf:, test:
9. Push and create a PR

See CLAUDE.md for detailed development guidelines.

Sponsoring

EggPdf is free and open source. If you find it useful, please consider sponsoring:

Your sponsorship helps us:

• Maintain and improve the library
• Add new CSS features and PDF capabilities
• Keep the documentation up to date
• Respond to issues and PRs

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Copyright (c) 2025 Eggspot