HTML to PDF in Docker on Linux with C# (no apt-get)

Build it step by step.

1. 1Install the NuGet packages

   SelectPdf.Universal is the library. The native package carries the Chromium engine for one platform: add the one for the platform you run on.

   Windows x64 Linux x64 Linux ARM64 macOS · Apple Silicon
   terminal COPY

   dotnet add package SelectPdf.Universal
   dotnet add package SelectPdf.Universal.Native.win-x64

   terminal COPY

   dotnet add package SelectPdf.Universal
   dotnet add package SelectPdf.Universal.Native.linux-x64

   terminal COPY

   dotnet add package SelectPdf.Universal
   dotnet add package SelectPdf.Universal.Native.linux-arm64

   terminal COPY

   dotnet add package SelectPdf.Universal
   dotnet add package SelectPdf.Universal.Native.osx-arm64

2. 2Create a console app

   Any .NET 8 or .NET 10 project works. To follow along, create a console app, run the install commands above inside its folder, then replace Program.cs with the code below.

   terminal COPY

   dotnet new console -n PdfSample
   cd PdfSample

3. 3Prepare the HTML

   Program.cs · lines 3–10 COPY

   string html = """
       <html>
         <body style="font-family: sans-serif">
           <h1>Invoice #1042</h1>
           <p>Rendered on Linux by SelectPdf.Universal.</p>
         </body>
       </html>
       """;

   A C# raw string literal holds the page. Any HTML works here — a Razor view rendered to a string, a template with your data filled in, or a full page with CSS.

4. 4Convert and save

   Program.cs · lines 12–15 COPY

   HtmlToPdf converter = new HtmlToPdf();
   PdfDocument doc = converter.ConvertHtmlString(html);
   doc.Save("invoice.pdf");
   doc.Close();

   HtmlToPdf.ConvertHtmlString returns a PdfDocument. Save writes invoice.pdf and Close releases it. The same code runs unchanged on Windows, Linux and macOS; only the native package differs.

5. 5Run it

   terminal COPY

   dotnet run
   
   # or in the container (writes invoice.pdf to ./out):
   docker build -t invoice-pdf .
   docker run --rm -v "$PWD/out:/out" -w /out invoice-pdf

   The program writes invoice.pdf to the working folder. Without a license key, every page carries a trial watermark; set GlobalProperties.LicenseKey before the first conversion to remove it.

The complete Program.cs.

This is the exact file our samples pipeline compiled and ran on Linux ARM64 and Linux x64 and macOS ARM64 and Windows x64 to produce the output on this page.

using SelectPdf.Universal;

string html = """
    <html>
      <body style="font-family: sans-serif">
        <h1>Invoice #1042</h1>
        <p>Rendered on Linux by SelectPdf.Universal.</p>
      </body>
    </html>
    """;

HtmlToPdf converter = new HtmlToPdf();
PdfDocument doc = converter.ConvertHtmlString(html);
doc.Save("invoice.pdf");
doc.Close();

Open the project on GitHub → this program and the variations below, ready to dotnet run

Build and run the container.

Dockerfile

Two stages: the SDK image publishes the app, and the stock runtime image runs it. There is no apt-get line: everything the engine needs comes with the native NuGet package.

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0 AS build
WORKDIR /src
COPY . .
RUN dotnet publish -c Release -f net10.0 -o /out

FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/runtime:10.0-noble
# no apt-get: the Chromium closure ships in SelectPdf.Universal.Native.linux-x64
WORKDIR /app
COPY --from=build /out ./
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "/app/PdfSample.dll"]

.dockerignore

Keeps the host's build output out of the image's build context, so the publish inside the container starts clean and the context stays small.

bin/
obj/
out/

The PDF it produces.

Common problems and fixes.

Good to know.

• The Linux native package bundles the complete Chromium shared-library closure, so there is no apt-get step. Source
• A plain docker run works: no --no-sandbox, no added capabilities, no privileged mode, no --shm-size tuning. Source
• Verified on Debian 12, Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04, and Amazon Linux 2023; the engine needs glibc 2.30 or later. Source
• Linux x64 and ARM64 are both supported; use SelectPdf.Universal.Native.linux-arm64 on ARM. Source