What you should know
HTML is the language of web pages. A saved .html file contains the page's text, its structure and often its styles; images and stylesheets may be embedded in the file or stored next to it.
People receive them outside the web more often than they think: invoices and receipts generated by software, exported emails, reports, help pages saved for offline reading.
Strengths
- Readable in any browser, on every device
- Structured text, tables and links
- Styles and images can be embedded in the file itself
- Open, durable format, standardised by the W3C
Limitations to know
- A page often depends on external files (images, styles) that do not travel with the .html
- Rendering varies with screen width: it is not a paginated format
- Content generated by JavaScript does not exist in the saved file
- Poorly suited to archiving or faithful printing
When to use it
Keep HTML for on-screen reading. To archive, print or send a page in a form that will not change, convert it to PDF.
Quality, size and compatibility
To PDF, FileXvert uses Chromium, Chrome's engine, on its server: the page is rendered as in a browser and laid out on A4. For security, JavaScript is disabled and external resources are not loaded.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I save a web page as HTML?
- In your browser, use Save As and choose Web page, complete or HTML only. For a live page, Print then Save as PDF gives a PDF directly.
- Why convert HTML to PDF?
- To get a paginated, printable, fixed document: an HTML invoice or receipt becomes a standard supporting document.