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Using HtmlFormatProvider

Updated on Sep 8, 2026

Telerik Document Processing includes the HtmlFormatProvider class in RadWordsProcessing for importing HTML to RadFlowDocument and exporting RadFlowDocument to HTML. The provider maps supported HTML elements and CSS properties to the flow document model. The class is in the Telerik.Documents.Flow.FormatProviders.Html namespace. To use HtmlFormatProvider, reference the following packages:

Telerik.Documents.Core
Telerik.Documents.Flow

If your project uses the Windows-only package family, use the corresponding Telerik.Windows.Documents.* package names instead.

HtmlFormatProvider exposes ImportSettings and ExportSettings properties. Use HtmlImportSettings to handle external images and stylesheets through the LoadImageFromUri and LoadStyleSheetFromUri events. Use HtmlExportSettings to control options such as ImagesExportMode, StylesExportMode, and DocumentExportLevel.

Import

To import an HTML document, use the overloads of the HtmlFormatProvider.Import() method.

Example 1 shows how to use HtmlFormatProvider to import an HTML document from a file.

Example 1: Import an HTML File

using (Stream input = File.OpenRead(@"Sample.html"))
{
    Telerik.Documents.Flow.FormatProviders.Html.HtmlFormatProvider provider = new Telerik.Documents.Flow.FormatProviders.Html.HtmlFormatProvider();

    RadFlowDocument document = provider.Import(input, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));
}

Example 2 shows how to import an HTML string.

Example 2: Import an HTML String

string html = "<p>hello world!</p>";
Telerik.Documents.Flow.FormatProviders.Html.HtmlFormatProvider provider = new Telerik.Documents.Flow.FormatProviders.Html.HtmlFormatProvider();

RadFlowDocument document = provider.Import(html, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));

The resulting RadFlowDocument works like any document that you create in code.

Export

To export a document to HTML, use the overloads of the HtmlFormatProvider.Export() method.

Example 3 shows how to use the HtmlFormatProvider to export an instance of RadFlowDocument to a file:

Example 3: Export a RadFlowDocument to an HTML File

Telerik.Documents.Flow.FormatProviders.Html.HtmlFormatProvider provider = new Telerik.Documents.Flow.FormatProviders.Html.HtmlFormatProvider();
using (Stream output = File.Create("Sample.html"))
{
    RadFlowDocument document = CreateRadFlowDocument(); // CreateRadFlowDocument() is a custom method that creates a simple instance of RadFlowDocument. You can replace it with the instance you would like to export.

    provider.Export(document, output, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));
}

You can also export the document to a string variable as shown in Example 4.

Example 4: Export a RadFlowDocument to an HTML String

RadFlowDocument document = CreateRadFlowDocument(); // CreateRadFlowDocument() is a custom method that creates a simple instance of RadFlowDocument. You can replace it with the instance you would like to export.
Telerik.Documents.Flow.FormatProviders.Html.HtmlFormatProvider provider = new Telerik.Documents.Flow.FormatProviders.Html.HtmlFormatProvider();

string html = provider.Export(document, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));