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Rendering PDFs Containing Images Stored in Azure Blob Storage

Chaknith Bin

Updated:July 28, 2025

Azure Blob Storage is a cloud-based storage service provided by Microsoft Azure. It's designed to store large amounts of unstructured data, such as text or binary data, that can be accessed via HTTP or HTTPS.

Some developers would like to use images stored in Azure Blob Storage. This presents an issue because the image data is stored as binary rather than as a file, which could easily be referenced by HTML. The workaround is to convert images to a base64 string and add them to an img tag.

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Convert Azure Blob to HTML

Assuming you have already set up an Azure Storage account and have a container with blobs, you also need to handle authentication and connection to your Azure Storage in the C# project. Afterward, you can use the DownloadToStreamAsync method to download the image as a stream. The stream information can then be converted to Base64 and embedded in the img tag of HTML. Finally, the imageTag variable can be merged into an HTML document.

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public async Task ConvertBlobToHtmlAsync()
{
    // Define your connection string and container name
    string connectionString = "your_connection_string";
    string containerName = "your_container_name";

    // Initialize BlobServiceClient with the connection string
    BlobServiceClient blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient(connectionString);

    // Get the BlobContainerClient for the specified container
    BlobContainerClient blobContainer = blobServiceClient.GetBlobContainerClient(containerName);

    // Get the reference to the blob and initialize a stream
    BlobClient blobClient = blobContainer.GetBlobClient("867.jpg");
    using var stream = new MemoryStream();

    // Download the blob data to the stream
    await blobClient.DownloadToAsync(stream);
    stream.Position = 0; // Reset stream position

    // Convert the stream to a byte array
    byte[] array = stream.ToArray();

    // Convert bytes to base64
    var base64 = Convert.ToBase64String(array);

    // Create an img tag with the base64-encoded string
    var imageTag = $"<img src=\"data:image/jpeg;base64,{base64}\"/><br/>";

    // Use the imageTag in your HTML document as needed
}

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

public async Task ConvertBlobToHtmlAsync()
{
    // Define your connection string and container name
    string connectionString = "your_connection_string";
    string containerName = "your_container_name";

    // Initialize BlobServiceClient with the connection string
    BlobServiceClient blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient(connectionString);

    // Get the BlobContainerClient for the specified container
    BlobContainerClient blobContainer = blobServiceClient.GetBlobContainerClient(containerName);

    // Get the reference to the blob and initialize a stream
    BlobClient blobClient = blobContainer.GetBlobClient("867.jpg");
    using var stream = new MemoryStream();

    // Download the blob data to the stream
    await blobClient.DownloadToAsync(stream);
    stream.Position = 0; // Reset stream position

    // Convert the stream to a byte array
    byte[] array = stream.ToArray();

    // Convert bytes to base64
    var base64 = Convert.ToBase64String(array);

    // Create an img tag with the base64-encoded string
    var imageTag = $"<img src=\"data:image/jpeg;base64,{base64}\"/><br/>";

    // Use the imageTag in your HTML document as needed
}

Imports Azure.Storage.Blobs
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Threading.Tasks

Public Async Function ConvertBlobToHtmlAsync() As Task
	' Define your connection string and container name
	Dim connectionString As String = "your_connection_string"
	Dim containerName As String = "your_container_name"

	' Initialize BlobServiceClient with the connection string
	Dim blobServiceClient As New BlobServiceClient(connectionString)

	' Get the BlobContainerClient for the specified container
	Dim blobContainer As BlobContainerClient = blobServiceClient.GetBlobContainerClient(containerName)

	' Get the reference to the blob and initialize a stream
	Dim blobClient As BlobClient = blobContainer.GetBlobClient("867.jpg")
	Dim stream = New MemoryStream()

	' Download the blob data to the stream
	Await blobClient.DownloadToAsync(stream)
	stream.Position = 0 ' Reset stream position

	' Convert the stream to a byte array
	Dim array() As Byte = stream.ToArray()

	' Convert bytes to base64
	Dim base64 = Convert.ToBase64String(array)

	' Create an img tag with the base64-encoded string
	Dim imageTag = $"<img src=""data:image/jpeg;base64,{base64}""/><br/>"

	' Use the imageTag in your HTML document as needed
End Function

Convert HTML to PDF

Continuing from the imageTag, it can then be converted to PDF by using the RenderHtmlAsPdf method of ChromePdfRenderer.

Below is a simple example of how you might call RenderHtmlAsPdf:

:path=/static-assets/pdf/content-code-examples/how-to/images-azure-blob-storage-html-to-pdf.cs

using IronPdf;

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

// Create a PDF from a HTML string using C#
var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(imageTag);

// Export to a file
pdf.SaveAs("imageToPdf.pdf");

Imports IronPdf

' Instantiate Renderer
Private renderer = New ChromePdfRenderer()

' Create a PDF from a HTML string using C#
Private pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(imageTag)

' Export to a file
pdf.SaveAs("imageToPdf.pdf")

Make sure to adjust the "htmlContent" variable to include your actual HTML content where the imageTag is used.

Chaknith Bin

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Software Engineer

Chaknith works on IronXL and IronBarcode. He has deep expertise in C# and .NET, helping improve the software and support customers. His insights from user interactions contribute to better products, documentation, and overall experience.

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