How to convert outlook email (.msg) to pdf c# ?

Question

Are there any free libraries using which I can convert outlook emails i.e. .msg files to pdf in my WPF c# app?

I've tried using PDFSharp like below but the data is not showing properly at all. The email body contains tables and text and sometimes it may even contain images, so please help

		public static void GenPDF()
		{
			// Load the Outlook email
			
			Application outlookApp = new Application();
			MailItem mailItem = (MailItem)outlookApp.CreateItemFromTemplate(@"C:\Users\yy\Desktop\Re payment release 222.msg");
			
			// Create a new PDF document
			PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument();

			// Create a new PDF page
			PdfPage page = document.AddPage();

			// Create a new PDF graphics object
			XGraphics gfx = XGraphics.FromPdfPage(page);

			// Add the email content to the document
			gfx.DrawString(mailItem.Body, new XFont("Arial", 12), XBrushes.Black, new XRect(0, 0, page.Width, page.Height), XStringFormats.TopLeft);

			// Save the document
			document.Save(@"D:\output.pdf");

		}

Answer 1

Hi,@don bradman. According to my tests, the code below works fine. You could refer to the following code to convert the .msg file to a word file and then to pdf.

xaml:

 <Button Content="convert" Width="100" Height="50" Click="Button_Click"/>

Codebedhind:

using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Windows;
using Application = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word.Application;
using Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;
using Window = System.Windows.Window;
using Word = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word;
namespace ConverterMSGToPDF
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        public void ConvertMsgToWord(string msgFilePath, string outputFilePath)
        {
            Application wordApp = new Application();

            wordApp.DisplayAlerts = WdAlertLevel.wdAlertsNone;
            wordApp.Visible = false;

            try
            {
                Outlook.Application outlookApp = new Outlook.Application();
                Outlook.MailItem mailItem = (Outlook.MailItem)outlookApp.Session.OpenSharedItem(msgFilePath);

                Document document = wordApp.Documents.Add();
                Range range = document.Range();
                range.InsertAfter(mailItem.Body);

                document.SaveAs(outputFilePath, Word.WdSaveFormat.wdFormatDocumentDefault);
               
                document.Close();

                Marshal.ReleaseComObject(document);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("An error occurred: " + ex.Message);
            }
            finally
            {
                wordApp.Quit();
                Marshal.ReleaseComObject(wordApp);
            }
        }
      
        public void ConvertWordToPdf(string wordFilePath, string outputFilePath)
        {
            Word.Application wordApp = new Word.Application();

            Word.Document document = wordApp.Documents.Open(wordFilePath);

            document.SaveAs2(outputFilePath, Word.WdSaveFormat.wdFormatPDF);

            document.Close();
            wordApp.Quit();
            System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(document);
            System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(wordApp);
        }

        private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {

            string msgFilePath = "C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\sample.msg";
            string wordFilePath = "C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\output.docx";
            ConvertMsgToWord(msgFilePath, wordFilePath);

            string outputFilePath = "C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\output.pdf";
            ConvertWordToPdf(wordFilePath, outputFilePath);

        }
    }
}

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Answer 2

This quick test works on my configuration (Office 2016, Windows 10 22H2, with a .msg with 2 images inside) :

                string sMsgFile = @"E:\Sources\OpenMSG\Test_Images.msg";
                string sPDFFile = @"E:\Sources\OpenMSG\Test_Images.pdf";
                var olApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application();
                var oMI = olApp.Session.OpenSharedItem(sMsgFile) as Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MailItem;               

                var oInspector = oMI.GetInspector;
                bool bMail = oInspector.IsWordMail();
                var et = oInspector.EditorType;
                if (bMail && et == OlEditorType.olEditorWord)
                {
                    oInspector.Activate();
                    var oDoc = oInspector.WordEditor;
                    oDoc.ExportAsFixedFormat(sPDFFile, 17);
                    Marshal.ReleaseComObject(oDoc);
                }
                Marshal.ReleaseComObject(oInspector);
                Marshal.ReleaseComObject(oMI);
                olApp.Quit();