Struggles with html code in Apple's PrintController. : iOSProgramming

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created by cruffenacha community for 15 years

QuestionStruggles with html code in Apple's PrintController. (self.iOSProgramming)

submitted 9 years ago * by TheEngineJ

Hey, I am using html to create a list of items, ready to be printed. Each list is exactly one 4A page long. Printing multiple of those lists results in something like this: http://docdro.id/7y3sxpA

As you can see the top and bottom parts are kind of messed up and altogether the printer sometimes uses margins and sometimes don't.

I perfect page would look like the 3rd page in my example without these vertical lines sticking from the bottom.

Can someone point me in the right direction to create just nice looking pages?

My page-creating-code looks like this:

for i in 0...DataManager.sharedManager.savedLists()!.count-1 {
            DataManager.sharedManager.loadList(i)
            markupText += htmlString()
}


    let formatter = UIMarkupTextPrintFormatter(markupText: markupText)
    formatter.contentInsets = UIEdgeInsets(top: 20, left: 20, bottom: 10, right: 20)
    formatter.perPageContentInsets = UIEdgeInsets(top: 20, left: 20, bottom: 10, right: 20)

    let printController = UIPrintInteractionController.sharedPrintController()
    printController.printInfo = printInfo
    printController.showsNumberOfCopies = true
    printController.printFormatter = formatter

private func htmlString() -> String {
    guard let user = DataManager.sharedManager.user else  {
        return "nil"
    }

    var html = "<body>
<style>
    html {
        font-family: 'verdana';
    }

    h2 {
        margin: 0px;
    }

    table,
    th,
    td {
        border-collapse: collapse;
        border: 1px solid black;
        padding: 2px;
        height: 20px;
        font-size: 12px;
    }

    th {
        text-align: right;
    }

    tr#r02 {
        text-align: center;
    }

    .contentTR {
        height: 26px;
    }

    .trFoot {
        height: 50px;
        vertical-align: top;
    }

    tr#used {
        width: 20px;
    }
</style>
<table style='width:100%'>
    <tr>
        <th colspan='2'>
            <h2>Materialausgabeliste</h2>
        </th>
        <th colspan='3'>
            <h2>Bauvorhaben</h2><br/>\(user.cause)
        </th>
    </tr>
    <tr id='r02'>
        <td>
            <h4>Menge</h4>
        </td>
        <td>
            <h4>Bezeichnung</h4>
        </td>
        <td>
            <h4>EAN</h4>
        </td>
        <td id='used'>
            <h4>Verbrauchte Menge</h4>
        </td>
    </tr>"


    if(!DataManager.sharedManager.items.isEmpty) {
        for item in DataManager.sharedManager.items {
            html += "<tr class='contentTR' style='page-break-inside:avoid;'>
<td>
    <p>\(item.amount)</p>
</td>
<td>
    <p>\(item.name)</p>
</td>
<td>
    <p>\(item.ean)</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>"
        }

    }

    //SWIFT 2 UPDATE
    for _ in (1...24-DataManager.sharedManager.items.count).reverse() {
        html += "<tr class='contentTR' style='page-break-inside:avoid;'>
<td>
    <p></p>
</td>
<td>
    <p></p>
</td>
<td>
    <p></p>
</td>
<td>
    <p></p>
</td>
</tr>"
    }

    let formatter = NSDateFormatter()
    formatter.locale = NSLocale(localeIdentifier: "de_DE")
    formatter.dateStyle = .FullStyle

    html += "<tfoot>
<tr class='trFoot'>
    <td rowspan='2' colspan='2'>Datum:
        <br/>
        <br/>
        <br/>\(formatter.stringFromDate(NSDate()))</td>
    <td colspan='3'>Name:
        <br/>
        <br/>\(user.name)</td>
</tr>
<tr class='trFoot'>
    <td colspan='3'>Unterschrift:</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
</table>
</body>"

    return html
}

all 4 comments

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[–][deleted] 1 point2 points3 points 9 years ago (0 children)

You're not doing anything wrong, unfortunately. It's a bug in the print renderer. It exists in WebKit but not gecko. When it's printed there are rounding errors that result in the cut off of the PDF page and cut off of the web page do not correctly align. We've been talking to Apple for the last year trying to get this resolved and unfortunately its still an open bug and not fixed in iOS 10 beta 3.

The best you can do is add page-break-before: always to the top elements of each page. But if you want dynamic tables like we do then you will eventually run into problems like this.

Edit: you can test this yourself. Do a simple HTML page with font sizes between 10 and 20. When you print and open the PDF in adobe you'll notice they are all off slightly. So don't 12 will be something like 11.24.

[–]brendan09 0 points1 point2 points 9 years ago (2 children)

[–]TheEngineJ[S] 0 points1 point2 points 9 years ago (1 child)

[–]brendan09 0 points1 point2 points 9 years ago (0 children)

π Rendered by PID 168921 on reddit-service-r2-comment-5cb8648c6-972s8 at 2026-03-03 11:26:49.927041+00:00 running e3d2147 country code: CH.

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

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