Question 1

How to generate a PDF from HTML in Java with Flying Saucer?

Accepted Answer

Use the PDFRenderer class from the flying-saucer-pdf artifact. Load your well-formed XHTML document, apply CSS 2.1 styles, and call the render method to output a PDF file, as shown in the examples directory.

Question 2

Flying Saucer vs iText for PDF generation in Java?

Accepted Answer

Flying Saucer focuses on rendering XML/XHTML with CSS to PDF, making it ideal for HTML-based templates, while iText offers more low-level PDF manipulation. Choose Flying Saucer if you have existing HTML/CSS; use iText for complex PDF structures.

Question 3

Does Flying Saucer support CSS3 or JavaScript?

Accepted Answer

No, Flying Saucer only supports CSS 2.1 and does not execute JavaScript. For modern web features, you'll need to rely on CSS 2.1 properties or consider alternative libraries that handle newer standards.

Question 4

How to render HTML to an image in Java using Flying Saucer?

Accepted Answer

Utilize the ImageRenderer class from the core library. It can convert XHTML content to images by specifying output format and dimensions, useful for creating previews or thumbnails in applications.

Question 5

Is Flying Saucer still actively maintained?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but maintenance is infrequent. The project accepts PRs from users and does releases every 4-6 months, but issues are deactivated on GitHub, so community support is limited compared to more active projects.

Question 6

What license does Flying Saucer use and can I use it commercially?

Accepted Answer

Flying Saucer is licensed under the LGPL (v2.1 or later), which allows commercial use as long as you comply with terms like providing source code for modifications if you distribute the library, as stated in the LICENSE file.

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