Java HTML Rendering Engine

Question

I have a small HTML template using which i have to create an image. The HTML consists of text and formatting. The generated image is used by other services. It is similar to product price display in retail shops.

Is there a Java library that can render HTML to an image file or byte array ? I saw Cobra but it seems old.

EDIT: Setting basic HTML to JLabel and using BufferedImage should work, but i'm not sure if the CSS and Style stuff will get properly handled.

Sample Style

<styles> width: "240", height: "96", background: { type: "solid", color: "#ffffff" } </styles>

@david99world i have to create an image similar to what the html would look like when rendered in a browser. There is no image in the HTML. — basiljames, Jun 12 '13 at 09:13
*"The HTML consists of text and formatting."* Give us an example. I would initially look to simplify (if needed) the HTML, and render it in a `JLabel` or `JEditorPane`. BTW - *"CSS and Style stuff"* Unless you mean something completely different to what I understand by 'Style stuff', the two are one and the same. — Andrew Thompson, Jun 12 '13 at 09:17
`` That element does not exist in any HTML specification I ever heard of. Did you copy/paste it or are you just making it up as you go along? But I don't want just the style, show a complete (**valid**) HTML as might be supplied for rendering. — Andrew Thompson, Jun 12 '13 at 13:51
I just realized that even beyond `styles`/`style`, that is not valid **CSS.** Make sure to validate ***that** in an appropriate validation service also. — Andrew Thompson, Jun 12 '13 at 16:50

johnchen902 · Answer 1 · 2013-06-12T09:32:39.933

My solution involves 3 steps:

Create a BufferedImage and create the its Graphics
Create an JEditorPane and invoke print(Graphics)
Output the BufferedImage via ImageIO

Code:

import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.JEditorPane;

public class Test {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String html = "<h1>Hello, world.</h1>Etc. Etc.";
        int width = 200, height = 100;
        // Create a `BufferedImage` and create the its `Graphics`
        BufferedImage image = GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment()
                .getDefaultScreenDevice().getDefaultConfiguration()
                .createCompatibleImage(width, height);
        Graphics graphics = image.createGraphics();
        // Create an `JEditorPane` and invoke `print(Graphics)`
        JEditorPane jep = new JEditorPane("text/html", html);
        jep.setSize(width, height);
        jep.print(graphics);
        // Output the `BufferedImage` via `ImageIO`
        try {
            ImageIO.write(image, "png", new File("Image.png"));
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Result:

result

+1 The tool mentioned below is based in JEditorPane but has done few lines of additional coding to make sure that the page loading is complete before the print is done. — basiljames, Jun 14 '13 at 11:20

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 12 '13 at 09:17

5

Hello I use HTML2Image for this purpose.

It's quite simple:

HtmlImageGenerator imageGenerator = new HtmlImageGenerator();
imageGenerator.loadHtml("<b>Hello World!</b> Please goto <a title=\"Goto Google\" href=\"http://www.google.com\">Google</a>.");
imageGenerator.saveAsImage("hello-world.png");
imageGenerator.saveAsHtmlWithMap("hello-world.html", "hello-world.png");

answered Jun 12 '13 at 09:17

Ricardo Simmus

334
4
19

Let me look at this. Thanks. – basiljames Jun 12 '13 at 09:37
Thanks. This one serves my purpose. It is compatible with HTML 3.2 so had to make few modifications to my template. – basiljames Jun 14 '13 at 11:16
The link is dead. – null Jul 05 '19 at 10:16

rustyx · Answer 3 · 2014-02-10T16:30:10.610

1

Try flying saucer (a.k.a. xhtml renderer). It it supports many CSS 3 features and can render to images and PDF. Its image rendering is experimental though and missing things such as DPI setting (assumes 1 point == 1 pixel).

edited Feb 10 '14 at 16:30

answered Dec 09 '13 at 09:52

rustyx

80,671
25
200
267

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

0

You could probably use WebVector. It is based on the CSSBox rendering engine that actually does all the job. It's quite easy to generate a bitmap image from a web page using this library. Or you may take look at a similar topic here at StackOverflow.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:06

Community

1
1

answered Jun 12 '13 at 10:01

radkovo

868
6
10

Java HTML Rendering Engine

4 Answers4