Making PDF content accessible on the web enhances usability, searchability, and compatibility across devices. Whether you're developing a PDF viewer, automating document workflows, or republishing content online, converting PDF to HTML using Python can significantly improve the user experience.

This comprehensive guide demonstrates how to convert PDF to HTML using Python. It covers everything from basic conversions and advanced customization to stream-based output—each section includes practical, easy-to-follow code snippets to help you get started quickly.

Table of Contents

• Why Export PDF as HTML
• Install Python PDF to HTML Converter Library
• Basic PDF to HTML Conversion in Python
• Customize the HTML Output
• Save PDF to HTML Stream
• Conclusion
• FAQs

Why Export PDF as HTML?

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the foundation of web content. By exporting PDFs into HTML, you enable seamless viewing, editing, and indexing of document content online. Key advantages include:

• Improved Web Accessibility: HTML renders natively in all browsers.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Search engines can index content better than in PDFs.
• Responsive Layouts: HTML adjusts to different screen sizes.
• Interactive Enhancements: HTML allows for styling, scripts, and better user interaction.
• Plugin-Free Viewing: No need for third-party PDF viewers.

Install Python PDF to HTML Converter Library

To start exporting PDFs to HTML using Python, you’ll need a reliable library that supports PDF processing and HTML export. For this tutorial, we’re using Spire.PDF for Python, a high-performance PDF library that supports reading, editing, and converting PDF files in various formats, including HTML, with minimal effort.

Installation

The library can be installed easily via pip. Open your terminal and run the following command:

pip install Spire.PDF

This will download and install the latest version of the package along with its dependencies.

Need help with the installation? Follow this step-by-step guide: How to Install Spire.PDF for Python on Windows

Basic PDF to HTML Conversion in Python

Spire.PDF makes it easy to export an entire PDF document to HTML using the SaveToFile() method.

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

# Initialize a PdfDocument object
doc = PdfDocument()

# Load your PDF file
doc.LoadFromFile("Sample.pdf")

# Convert and save it as HTML
doc.SaveToFile("PdfToHtml.html", FileFormat.HTML)

# Close the document
doc.Close()

This approach generates a single HTML file that preserves the layout and structure of the original PDF.

The screenshot below showcases the input PDF and the output HTML file:

Customize the HTML Output

If you need more control over the conversion process, the SetPdfToHtmlOptions() method lets you fine-tune the HTML output.

You can customize various aspects of the conversion—such as image embedding, page splitting, and SVG quality—using the following parameters:

Example Code

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

# Initialize a PdfDocument object
doc = PdfDocument()
# Load your PDF file
doc.LoadFromFile("Sample.pdf")

# Access conversion settings
options = doc.ConvertOptions

# Customize conversion: use image embedding, one page per file
options.SetPdfToHtmlOptions(False, True, 1, False)

# Save the PDF to HTML with the custom options
doc.SaveToFile("PdfToHtmlWithOptions.html", FileFormat.HTML)
# Close the document
doc.Close()

This configuration disables SVG and instead embeds images, outputting each page as a separate HTML file.

Save PDF to HTML Stream

In web or cloud-based applications, you might prefer to write the HTML output to a stream (e.g., for serving over HTTP) instead of saving directly to the file system. This can be achieved with the SaveToStream() method.

Example Code

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

# Initialize a PdfDocument object
doc = PdfDocument()
# Load your PDF file
doc.LoadFromFile("Sample.pdf")

# Create a stream to save the HTML output
fileStream = Stream("PdfToHtmlStream.html")

# Save the PDF to HTML stream
doc.SaveToStream(fileStream, FileFormat.HTML)

# Close the stream and the document
fileStream.Close()
doc.Close()

This approach is ideal for web servers, APIs, or any application that handles files dynamically in memory or over the network.

Conclusion

Converting PDF to HTML using Python is an effective way to make your documents web-compatible and more interactive. With Spire.PDF for Python, you get full control over the conversion process, from simple exports to advanced configurations like embedded images or SVGs and stream output.

Ready to transform your PDFs into interactive web content? Give Spire.PDF for Python a try and streamline your document-to-HTML workflow today.

FAQs

Q1: Can I convert password-protected PDFs to HTML?

A1: Yes, Spire.PDF allows you to open encrypted PDFs using doc.LoadFromFile("file.pdf", "password").

Q2: Does this method support multi-page PDFs?

A2: Yes. By default, it converts all pages. You can control how many pages appear per HTML file using the maxPageOneFile parameter.

Q3: Are images and fonts preserved in HTML output?

A3: Yes, depending on the conversion settings (e.g., embedding images or SVGs), visual fidelity is preserved as closely as possible.

Get a Free License

To fully experience the capabilities of Spire.PDF for Python without any evaluation limitations, you can request a free 30-day trial license.

In PDF, you can change the page size to make the document meet different needs. For example, a smaller page size is required when creating handouts or compact versions of documents, while a larger page size could be useful for designing posters or graphics-intensive materials. In some cases, you may also need to get the page dimensions (width and height) to determine if the document is resized optimally. In this article, you will learn how to change or get PDF page size programmatically in Python using Spire.PDF for Python.

• Change PDF Page Size to a Standard Paper Size with Python
• Change PDF Page Size to a Custom Paper Size with Python
• Get PDF Page Size with Python

Install Spire.PDF for Python

This scenario requires Spire.PDF for Python and plum-dispatch v1.7.4. They can be easily installed in your Windows through the following pip command.

pip install Spire.PDF

If you are unsure how to install, please refer to this tutorial: How to Install Spire.PDF for Python on Windows

Change PDF Page Size to a Standard Paper Size with Python

The way to change the page size of a PDF file is to create a new PDF file and add pages of the desired size to it, then create templates based on the pages in the original PDF file and draw the templates onto the pages in the new PDF file. This process will preserve text, images, and other elements present in the original PDF file.

Spire.PDF for Python supports a variety of standard paper size, such as letter, legal, A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, B0, B1, B2, B3, B4 and so on. The following are the steps to change the page size of a PDF file to a standard paper size:

• Initialize a PdfDocument instance and load the original PDF file using PdfDocument.LoadFromFile() method.
• Initialize another PdfDocument instance to create a new PDF file.
• Loop through the pages in the original PDF.
• Add pages of the desired size to the new PDF file using PdfDocument.Pages.Add() method.
• Initialize a PdfTextLayout instance and set the text layout as one page through PdfTextLayout.Layout property.
• Create templates based on the pages in the original PDF using PdfPageBase.CreateTemplate() method.
• Draw the templates onto the pages in the new PDF file with the specified text layout using PdfTemplate.Draw() method.
• Save the result file using PdfDocument.SaveToFile() method.

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

inputFile = "Sample1.pdf"
outputFile = "ChangePageSizeToA3.pdf"

# Create a PdfDocument instance
originalPdf = PdfDocument()

# Load the original PDF document
originalPdf.LoadFromFile(inputFile)

# Create a new PDF document
newPdf = PdfDocument()

# Loop through the pages in the original PDF
for i in range(originalPdf.Pages.Count):
    page = originalPdf.Pages.get_Item(i)

    # Add pages of size A3 to the new PDF
    newPage = newPdf.Pages.Add(PdfPageSize.A3(), PdfMargins(0.0))

    # Create a PdfTextLayout instance
    layout = PdfTextLayout()

    # Set text layout as one page (if not set the content will not scale to fit page size)
    layout.Layout = PdfLayoutType.OnePage

    # Create templates based on the pages in the original PDF
    template = page.CreateTemplate()

    # Draw the templates onto the pages in the new PDF
    template.Draw(newPage, PointF.Empty(), layout)

# Save the result document
newPdf.SaveToFile(outputFile)
newPdf.Close()

Change PDF Page Size to a Custom Paper Size with Python

Spire.PDF for Python uses point (1/72 of an inch) as the unit of measure. If you need to change the page size of a PDF to a custom paper size in other units of measure like inches or millimeters, you can use the PdfUnitConvertor class to convert them to points.

The following are steps to change the page size of a PDF file to a custom paper size in inches:

• Initialize a PdfDocument instance and load the original PDF file using PdfDocument.LoadFromFile() method.
• Initialize another PdfDocument instance to create a new PDF file.
• Initialize a PdfUnitConvertor instance, then convert the custom size in inches to points using PdfUnitConvertor.ConvertUnits() method.
• Initialize a SizeF instance from the custom size.
• Loop through the pages in the original PDF.
• Add pages of the custom size to the new PDF file using PdfDocument.Pages.Add() method.
• Initialize a PdfTextLayout instance and set the text layout as one page through PdfTextLayout.Layout property.
• Create templates based on the pages in the original PDF using PdfPageBase.CreateTemplate() method.
• Draw the templates onto the pages in the new PDF file with the specified text layout using PdfTemplate.Draw() method.
• Save the result file using PdfDocument.SaveToFile() method.

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

inputFile = "Sample1.pdf"
outputFile = "CustomizePdfPageSize.pdf"

# Create a PdfDocument instance
originalPdf = PdfDocument()

# Load the original PDF document
originalPdf.LoadFromFile(inputFile)

# Create a new PDF document
newPdf = PdfDocument()

# Create a PdfUnitConvertor instance
unitCvtr = PdfUnitConvertor()

# Convert the custom size in inches to points
width = unitCvtr.ConvertUnits(12.0, PdfGraphicsUnit.Inch, PdfGraphicsUnit.Point)
height = unitCvtr.ConvertUnits(15.5, PdfGraphicsUnit.Inch, PdfGraphicsUnit.Point)

#Create a new SizeF instance from the custom size, then it will be used as the page size of the new PDF
size = SizeF(width, height)

# Loop through the pages in the original PDF
for i in range(originalPdf.Pages.Count):
    page = originalPdf.Pages.get_Item(i)

    # Add pages of the custom size (12.0*15.5 inches) to the new PDF
    newPage = newPdf.Pages.Add(size, PdfMargins(0.0))

    # Create a PdfTextLayout instance
    layout = PdfTextLayout()

    # Set text layout as one page (if not set the content will not scale to fit page size)
    layout.Layout = PdfLayoutType.OnePage

    # Create templates based on the pages in the original PDF
    template = page.CreateTemplate()

    # Draw the templates onto the pages in the new PDF
    template.Draw(newPage, PointF.Empty(), layout)

# Save the result document
newPdf.SaveToFile(outputFile)
newPdf.Close()

Get PDF Page Size with Python

Spire.PDF for Python offers the PdfPageBase.Size.Width and PdfPageBase.Size.Height properties to get the width and height of a PDF page in points. If you want to convert the default unit of measure to other units, you can use the PdfUnitConvertor class.

The following are the steps to get the PDF page size:

• Initialize a PdfDocument instance.
• Load a PDF file using PdfDocument.LoadFromFile() method.
• Get a specified page using PdfDocument.Pages[] property.
• Get the width and height of the PDF page using PdfPageBase.Size.Width and PdfPageBase.Size.Height properties.
• Initialize a PdfUnitConvertor instance, and then convert the size units from points to other units of measure using PdfUnitConvertor.ConvertUnits() method.
• Add the size information to a StringBuilder instance, and then save the result to a TXT file.

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

def AppendAllText(fname: str, text: List[str]):
    fp = open(fname, "w")
    for s in text:
        fp.write(s + "\n")
    fp.close()

inputFile = "Sample1.pdf"
outputFile = "GetPageSize.txt"

# Create a PdfDocument instance
pdf = PdfDocument()

# Load a sample PDF from disk
pdf.LoadFromFile(inputFile)

# Get the first page of the file
page = pdf.Pages[0]

# Get the width and height of page based on "point"
pointWidth = page.Size.Width
pointHeight = page.Size.Height

# Create PdfUnitConvertor to convert the unit
unitCvtr = PdfUnitConvertor()

# Convert size units from points to pixels
pixelWidth = unitCvtr.ConvertUnits(pointWidth, PdfGraphicsUnit.Point, PdfGraphicsUnit.Pixel)
pixelHeight = unitCvtr.ConvertUnits(pointHeight, PdfGraphicsUnit.Point, PdfGraphicsUnit.Pixel)

# Convert size units from points to inches
inchWidth = unitCvtr.ConvertUnits(pointWidth, PdfGraphicsUnit.Point, PdfGraphicsUnit.Inch)
inchHeight = unitCvtr.ConvertUnits(pointHeight, PdfGraphicsUnit.Point, PdfGraphicsUnit.Inch)

# Convert size units from points to centimeters
centimeterWidth = unitCvtr.ConvertUnits(pointWidth, PdfGraphicsUnit.Point, PdfGraphicsUnit.Centimeter)
centimeterHeight = unitCvtr.ConvertUnits(pointHeight, PdfGraphicsUnit.Point, PdfGraphicsUnit.Centimeter)

# Add the size information to a StringBuilder instance
content = []
content.append("The page size of the file in points is (width: " +
               str(pointWidth) + "pt, height: " + str(pointHeight) + "pt).")
content.append("The page size of the file in pixels is (width: " +
               str(pixelWidth) + "pixel, height: " + str(pixelHeight) + "pixel).")
content.append("The page size of the file in inches is (width: " +
               str(inchWidth) + "inch, height: " + str(inchHeight) + "inch).")
content.append("The page size of the file in centimeters is (width: " +
               str(centimeterWidth) + "cm, height: " + str(centimeterHeight) + "cm.)")

# Save to a txt file
AppendAllText(outputFile, content)
pdf.Close()

Apply for a Temporary License

If you'd like to remove the evaluation message from the generated documents, or to get rid of the function limitations, please request a 30-day trial license for yourself.