HTML to Image .tiff File

Question

Is there a way to convert a HTML string into a Image .tiff file?

I am using C# .NET 3.5. The requirement is to give the user an option to fact a confirmation. The confirmation is created with XML and a XSLT. Typically it is e-mailed.

Is there a way I can take the HTML string generated by the transformation HTML string and convert that to a .tiff or any image that can be faxed?

3rd party software is allowed, however the cheaper the better.

We are using a 3rd party fax library, that will only accept .tiff images, but if I can get the HTML to be any image I can covert it into a .tiff.

Answer 1

Here are some free-as-in-beer possibilities:

You can use the PDFCreator printer driver that comes with ghostscript and print directly to a TIFF file or many other formats.

If you have MSOffice installed, the Microsoft Office Document Image Writer will produce a file you can convert to other formats.

But in general, your best bet is to print to a driver that will produce and image file of some kind or a windows meta-file format (.wmf) file.

Is there some reason why you can't just print-to-fax? Does the third-party software not support a printer driver? That's unusual these days.

Answer 2

A starting point might be the software of WebSuperGoo, which provide rich image editing products, cheap or for free.

I know for sure their PDF Writer can do basic HTML (http://www.websupergoo.com/helppdf6net/source/3-concepts/b-htmlstyles.htm). This should not be too hard to convert to TIFF.

This does not include the full HTML subset or CSS. That might require using Microsofts IE ActiveX component.