How to Generate PDFs with Async and Multithreading

Async and Threading is useful when genearting PDFs in C# and VB.NET in batches or for high performance.


C# NuGet Library for PDF

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Install-Package IronPdf
or
C# PDF DLL

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Manually install into your project

Async Example

IronPDF fully supports Async using its Async Rendering methods such as the RenderHtmlAsPdfAsync method.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/async-async.cs
using IronPdf;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

// Instantiate ChromePdfRenderer
ChromePdfRenderer renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();

string[] htmlStrings = {"<h1>Html 1</h1>", "<h1>Html 2</h1>", "<h1>Html 3</h1>"};

// Create an array to store the tasks for rendering
var renderingTasks = new Task<PdfDocument>[htmlStrings.Length];

for (int i = 0; i < htmlStrings.Length; i++)
{
    int index = i; // Capturing the loop variable
    renderingTasks[i] = Task.Run(async () =>
    {
        // Render HTML to PDF
        return await renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdfAsync(htmlStrings[index]);
    });
}

// Wait for all rendering tasks to complete
// await Task.WhenAll(renderingTasks);
Imports IronPdf
Imports System.Threading.Tasks

' Instantiate ChromePdfRenderer
Private renderer As New ChromePdfRenderer()

Private htmlStrings() As String = {"<h1>Html 1</h1>", "<h1>Html 2</h1>", "<h1>Html 3</h1>"}

' Create an array to store the tasks for rendering
Private renderingTasks = New Task(Of PdfDocument)(htmlStrings.Length - 1){}

For i As Integer = 0 To htmlStrings.Length - 1
	Dim index As Integer = i ' Capturing the loop variable
	renderingTasks(i) = Task.Run(Async Function()
		' Render HTML to PDF
		Return Await renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdfAsync(htmlStrings(index))
	End Function)
Next i

' Wait for all rendering tasks to complete
' await Task.WhenAll(renderingTasks);
VB   C#

Multi-Threading Example

IronPDF is thread-safe and supports multithreading when using the IronPdf.ChromePdfRenderer rendering engine.

One limitation is that multithreading is limited on macOS machines.

We have found the Parallel.ForEach pattern very helpful for batch processing PDFs.

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/async-multi-thread.cs
using IronPdf;
using System.Collections.Concurrent;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

var queue = new List<string>() { "<h1>Html 1</h1>", "<h1>Html 2</h1>", "<h1>Html 3</h1>" };

// Instantiate ChromePdfRenderer
ChromePdfRenderer renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();

// Create a list to store the rendered PDFs
List<PdfDocument> pdfResults = new List<PdfDocument>();

Parallel.ForEach(queue, html =>
{
    // Render HTML to PDF
    PdfDocument pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(html);

    // You may choose to save the PDF to disk here if needed
    // For this example, we'll store it in the pdfResults list
    lock (pdfResults)
    {
        pdfResults.Add(pdf);
    }
});
Imports IronPdf
Imports System.Collections.Concurrent
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Threading.Tasks

Private queue = New List(Of String)() From {"<h1>Html 1</h1>", "<h1>Html 2</h1>", "<h1>Html 3</h1>"}

' Instantiate ChromePdfRenderer
Private renderer As New ChromePdfRenderer()

' Create a list to store the rendered PDFs
Private pdfResults As New List(Of PdfDocument)()

Parallel.ForEach(queue, Sub(html)
	' Render HTML to PDF
	Dim pdf As PdfDocument = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(html)

	' You may choose to save the PDF to disk here if needed
	' For this example, we'll store it in the pdfResults list
	SyncLock pdfResults
		pdfResults.Add(pdf)
	End SyncLock
End Sub)
VB   C#

Performance Comparison

Let's perform a comparison. I have additionally added a 5-second delay in rendering with the WaitFor class to simulate rendering more complex HTML. Below is the comparison table of the performance using various techniques described above.

Normal ReadAsynchronous ReadMultithreaded Read
15.75 second05.59 second05.68 second