Flavor 1.0.3

Flavor

HTML to PDF for .NET — free, fast, cross-platform.

var pdf = await new FlavorConverter().ConvertHtmlAsync("<h1>Hello</h1>");
await pdf.SaveAsync("hello.pdf");

Contents

• Install · Why Flavor? · Quick Start · Options
• ASP.NET Core · PDF Operations · Security
• Playwright · Performance · Deployment

Full Documentation — detailed guides, API reference, deployment examples

Install

dotnet add package Flavor
dotnet add package Flavor.AspNetCore    # optional
dotnet add package Flavor.Playwright    # optional

First run downloads Chromium (~150MB). Use BrowserExecutablePath to skip.

Why Flavor?

You can use PuppeteerSharp and PdfSharpCore directly. Flavor adds:

Without Flavor:

await new BrowserFetcher().DownloadAsync();
var browser = await Puppeteer.LaunchAsync(new LaunchOptions { Headless = true });
var page = await browser.NewPageAsync();
await page.SetContentAsync(html);
await page.PdfAsync("output.pdf", new PdfOptions { Format = PaperFormat.A4 });
await browser.CloseAsync();
// + separate code for merge, watermarks, encryption...

With Flavor:

var pdf = await new FlavorConverter().ConvertHtmlAsync("<h1>Hello</h1>");

When to skip Flavor: single simple use-case, need full browser control, already have your own wrapper.

Quick Start

// HTML
var pdf = await converter.ConvertHtmlAsync("<h1>Hello</h1>");

// URL
var pdf = await converter.ConvertUrlAsync("https://example.com");

// With options
var pdf = await converter.ConvertHtmlAsync(html, o => o
    .WithPageSize(PageSize.A4)
    .WithMargins(Margins.Normal)
    .WithBackground());

Options

// Page sizes
.WithPageSize(PageSize.A4)
.WithPageSize(new PageSize(8.5, 11))  // custom inches

// Margins
.WithMargins(Margins.None)
.WithMargins(new Margins(1, 0.5, 1, 0.5))  // top, right, bottom, left

// Headers/Footers
.WithHeader("<div style='font-size:10px'><span class='title'></span></div>")
.WithFooter("<div>Page <span class='pageNumber'></span> of <span class='totalPages'></span></div>")

// Wait for JS
.WithWaitCondition(WaitCondition.NetworkIdle0)
.WithWaitDelay(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1))

ASP.NET Core

// Program.cs
builder.Services.AddFlavorAspNetCore();
builder.Services.AddFlavorWarmup();  // optional, reduces first-request latency

// Controller
[HttpGet("invoice")]
public IActionResult GetInvoice()
{
    return this.Pdf("<h1>Invoice</h1>", "invoice.pdf");
}

[HttpGet("report")]
public IActionResult GetReport()
{
    return this.PdfFromView("Reports/Template", model, "report.pdf");
}

PDF Operations

using Flavor.Operations;

// Merge
var merged = PdfMerger.Merge(pdf1, pdf2, pdf3);

// Split
var pages = PdfSplitter.SplitToPages(document);
var extracted = PdfSplitter.ExtractPages(document, 1, 3, 5);

// Watermark
var marked = PdfWatermark.AddText(document, "DRAFT");
var marked = PdfWatermark.AddText(document, o => o
    .WithText("CONFIDENTIAL")
    .WithOpacity(0.3)
    .WithRotation(-45));

// Page numbers
var numbered = PdfPageNumbers.Add(document);

Security

using Flavor.Security;

// Password protect
var encrypted = PdfSecurity.Encrypt(document, "secret");

// With permissions
var encrypted = PdfSecurity.Encrypt(document, new PdfSecurityOptions
{
    UserPassword = "view",
    OwnerPassword = "edit",
    AllowPrinting = false
});

Playwright

Alternative to PuppeteerSharp. Supports Firefox and WebKit.

dotnet add package Flavor.Playwright
pwsh bin/Debug/net8.0/playwright.ps1 install

builder.Services.AddFlavorWithPlaywright(PlaywrightBrowserType.Firefox);

Performance

Browser pool for concurrent requests:

builder.Services.AddFlavor(o => o.PoolSize = 4);

System Requirements

Uses real browser engine = heavy dependencies.

Deployment

Docker

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:8.0

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y chromium \
    fonts-liberation libasound2 libatk-bridge2.0-0 libcups2 \
    libdrm2 libgbm1 libgtk-3-0 libnspr4 libnss3 \
    libxcomposite1 libxdamage1 libxfixes3 libxrandr2 \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*

ENV FLAVOR_BROWSER_PATH=/usr/bin/chromium

Kubernetes

resources:
  limits:
    memory: "1Gi"
env:
  - name: Flavor__PoolSize
    value: "2"

Scale pods, not pool size.

Azure

// App Service
options.BrowserArgs = ["--no-sandbox", "--disable-dev-shm-usage"];

// Functions: use Premium Plan or Container Apps

AWS Lambda

250MB limit. Use Lambda Layer with Chrome, or better — Fargate.

Contributing

I appreciate feedback and contribution to this repo!

License

Apache 2.0

Built on PuppeteerSharp, Playwright, PdfSharpCore.