wkhtmltopdf generates tiny output on Mac

Question

I'm running wkhtmltopdf 0.12.4 on Mac OS 10.11.6. When I try to run the basic example "wkhtmltopdf http://google.com google.pdf", though, I'm getting an unusual output. Where I'm expecting something like this:

(PDF generated directly from Chrome), I'm instead getting this:

It seems odd to me that the default output should be so far off, but I've tried some options as well (including --disable-smart-shrinking) with no luck. Would appreciate any direction you can offer!

Georas

I get the same issue. I didn't find solution yet – Coupling

Answer 1

I had the same problem, using wkhtmltopdf version 0.12.4 on a Mac installed via homebrew. I uninstalled that and tried version 0.12.3, downloaded from http://wkhtmltopdf.org/, and now I have normal size output.

Souse

Answer 2

Same here with Mac OS 10.11.6 WKHTMLTOPDF v 0.12.4.

Using --lowquality is the only thing that seems to resolve the "tiny output" issue.

Default wkhtmltopdf output without --lowquality: screenshot

With --lowquality, "tiny output" issue is fixed (and works with additional options like increasing resolution via --viewport-size): --lowquality screenshot

Williwaw

This helped me too! Thanks! Never would have guessed that one. – Pseudohemophilia

Answer 3

I have been trying to use the 0.12.4 version on Mac OS 10.13.3. Adding some information about this issue.

1. This is a known issue in 0.12.4 version. https://github.com/wkhtmltopdf/wkhtmltopdf/issues/3241
2. It has been fixed in a commit but not yet released as part of 0.12.4 https://github.com/wkhtmltopdf/wkhtmltopdf/commit/1c0e72d2faa6da026edc139fac97fcda43535fd3
3. the 'lowquality' flag fix discussed above is the fastest way to resolve this OR you can install the 0.12.5 version if you are an advanced user. https://github.com/wkhtmltopdf/wkhtmltopdf/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

Sarmatia

Answer 4

To solve problem install wkpdftohtml via

brew install Caskroom/cask/wkhtmltopdf

Coupling

No difference with this, even explicitly running /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf. – Georas

I have the same problem like you describe, and installing via bomebrew help me. I thought that it also help you. I think you should try to install older version. – Coupling

Answer 5

I encountered this issue when running wkhtmltopdf on very large screens, and found that specifying print media-type instead of screen media-type, i.e. via --print-media-type, resolved the issue.

For example:

wkhtmltopdf --print-media-type http://google.com google.pdf

Avril

No luck with that here -- running the command as you give it generates the same output as above. It's working well on the Amazon EC2 instance where I need it to work, but still rendering tiny locally. – Georas

Have you tried combining --print-media-type with e.g. --page-size letter, specifying the page size? – Avril

I have -- still no luck, even with a fresh brew install. – Georas

Hmmm, that's strange. Perhaps open an issue in the wkhtmltopdf repo? – Avril

Just noticed this issue: github.com/wkhtmltopdf/wkhtmltopdf/issues/3241 (Huge Font Size Difference Between 0.12.3 and 0.12.4) reported in wkhtmltopdf version 0.12.4, could that be the cause here? – Avril