An optimized version of pdfkit, with a slightly more involved interface

optimized_pdfkit.rb

# Usage
#
#      OptimizedPDFKit.new(html_tempfile).to_pdf(pdf_tempfile_path)
#
class OptimizedPDFKit < PDFKit
  def initialize(url_file_or_html, options = {})
    @source = Source.new(url_file_or_html)

    @stylesheets = []

    @options = PDFKit.configuration.default_options.merge(options)
    # Skip scan, might be a large file!
    # @options.merge! find_options_in_meta(url_file_or_html) unless source.url?
    @options = normalize_options(@options)

    #raise NoExecutableError.new unless File.exists?(PDFKit.configuration.wkhtmltopdf)
  end
  
  def append_stylesheets
    raise ImproperSourceError.new('Stylesheets may only be added to an HTML source') if stylesheets.any? && !@source.html?

    #    # Skip scan, might be a large file ..
    #    stylesheets.each do |stylesheet|
    #      if @source.to_s.match(/<\/head>/)
    #        @source.to_s.gsub!(/(<\/head>)/, style_tag_for(stylesheet)+'\1')
    #      else
    #        @source.to_s.insert(0, style_tag_for(stylesheet))
    #      end
    #    end
  end
  
  def to_pdf(path) # always require path to be given
    # Skip this, we use tempfiles
    # append_stylesheets

    args = command(path)
    invoke = args.join(' ')

    result = IO.popen(invoke, "wb+") do |pdf|
      # pdf.puts(@source.to_s) if @source.html? # always work with files in the optimized version
      pdf.close_write
      pdf.gets(nil)
    end

    raise "command failed: #{invoke}" unless $?.exitstatus == 0
    path
  end
  
  def command(path = nil)
    args = [executable]
    args += @options.to_a.flatten.compact
    args << '--quiet'
    args << @source.instance_variable_get(:@source).path
    args << (path || '-') # Write to file or stdout

    args.map {|arg| %Q{"#{arg.gsub('"', '\"')}"}}
  end
end

Thanks, not only did this optimize for me but also fixed pdfkit altogether. I kept having problems when creating presentations with showoff and taking some of your code fixed that for me :)

Thanks for letting me know, I knew that putting this here is a good idea! Your welcome!

I gisted my version here https://gist.github.com/2585848. For some reason, pdf.puts kept telling me invalid argument and the usual if result.to_s.strip.empty? was not happy either.