HTML2PDF API documentation

The HTML2PDF API is a fast and easy-to-implement service that creates high-quality PDF documents from web pages and HTML documents. It will take you only a few minutes to get started.

We take care of delivering PDF documents that match your web pages or HTML content perfectly through a high-availability network. Just follow our code examples to get started or read our documentation below.

Quick Start

You can start producing PDF documents in a few minutes, by following these three steps.

1. Sign up for a license key (free trial available!)
2. Set your default layout options in our members area
3. Use the simple API call below to create your PDFs

https://api.html2pdf.co.uk/?license=yourlicensekey&url=https://www.example.com

That's all there is to it! This request will return a PDF of the URL https://www.example.com.
If instead you'd like to convert some HTML to PDF, then you should use the html parameter like in the below request.

https://api.html2pdf.co.uk/?license=yourlicensekey&html=%3Cp%3Esome%20HTML%3C%2Fp%3E

As you can see you need to make sure you pass the URL or the HTML in a URL encoded form so that it arrives properly on our end.

You can use both GET as well as POST requests to call our API.

Setting Options

All our API options can be quickly set in our members area with an easy-to-use WYSIWIG screen, which is shown below. Once you've set these defaults, they will be used for all API requests from that point on.

Still, if you need to set specific options for certain API calls, then you can override these by adding parameters to the API call as described in the sections below.

Page Sizes and Margins

You can change the size, orientation and margins of your PDF by adding the parameters from the table below to your API call.

We have many different standard page sizes, but you can also define your own page size by using the width and height parameters.

The following is a list of page sizes that are pre-defined and that are available to be used as page_size.

So if you want to use Letter as the output page size, then you could use the following API call.

https://api.html2pdf.co.uk/?license=yourlicensekey&url=https://example.com&page_size=Letter

Layout Settings

By default we try to convert the webpage (or HTML) to PDF exactly as it would look on screen. But the layout sometimes needs a little tweaking, because a PDF is a different output medium than a monitor.

You may want to select the print layout for example, or hide/change part of the layout. Also, you may want to have us take extra time for the conversion so that the page is fully loaded before the PDF is created.

All this is possible with the parameters below.

So if you want to use the print layout and wait for content to load, then you can just add the two parameters to the API call like below.

https://api.html2pdf.co.uk/?license=yourlicensekey&url=https://example.com&css_media_type=print&lazy_load=true

Headers and Footers

You can use a custom header and/or footer on your PDFs. You can use the following parameters to override the default header/footer settings from your members area.

You use HTML to create the header and footer. Note that neither header or footer have access to the styling of the webpage that you're converting.

Automated information in your header or footer

We have defined some shortcodes that you can use to make it easier for your header and/or footer to have certain data in it. In the table below you can find the shortcodes that you can use. These will then be replaced by what they represent during the PDF creation.

Selective showing of headers or footers

By default your header or footer content will show up on ALL pages. You may want to show a header or footer only on the first page, or maybe only part of it on the last page. This is possible by wrapping content in your header of footer in special classes.

In the table below you'll find the three classes that we have defined for use in the header or footer.

Example

Below is sample header/footer HTML that you could use if you want to align the URL to the lift and the page number to the right.

In this example we used the custom class lastpage to make sure the page number will only be shown on the last page.

<HTML>
<BODY>
<table style="width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse;" border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 50%;">%url</td>
<td style="width: 50%; text-align: right;"><div class="lastpage">%page</div></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Watermarks and Backgrounds

You can apply watermarks to your PDFs or insert custom backgrounds by adding additional parameters to your API call.

We use the term watermark when something is put over your content. Others may call this a stamp.
A background is put behind your content and is sometimes also referred to as stationary.

Applying a Watermark

You can use a text or a custom image for your watermarks. If you want them to look like a stamp then use an opacity of 1.

By default we insert watermarks only over the content and not over the margins. If you want you can use negative positioning to adjust this.

Inserting a Custom Background aka Stationary

You can use custom backgrounds to make your PDFs appear like they are created with stationary behind them. By default we will put the background(s) behind the whole page - including the margins.

You can use the below parameters to define your own backgrounds.

Rights Management

Rights management is a PDF concept that lets you determine what can be done with a PDF in terms of opening, content copying, printing and modification. It is enforced with PDF encryption and password protection.

You can define this by using the parameters in the table below (or set it as default in our members area of course).

Note that we recommend at least 128-bit AES if you want to encrypt your PDF. The RC4 encryption levels are merely used for backwards compatibility, but are generally considered unsafe.

Other Options

Below are the remaining options for the HTML2PDF API.

Page Breaking

When your PDF is created, pages will break automatically in the most optimal places. You have control over this by using the standard CSS classes that are meant for this.

We recommend adding these to your print stylesheet so that also regular printouts will use these places to break your pages, but that's up to you. You can also use our custom css parameter to define them of course.

Forcing a Page Break

You can force a page break by using the CSS property page-break-after.

Example

<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
  .pagebreak {
	  display: block;
	  clear: both;
	  page-break-after: always;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
This would show on your first page
<div class="pagebreak"></div>
This would show on the next second page!
</body>
</html>

Preventing a Page Break

You can keep content together by using the CSS property page-break-inside.

Example

<html>
<head>
<style type="text/css">
  img {
        page-break-before: auto;
        page-break-after: auto; 
        page-break-inside: avoid;
        position: relative;
    }
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>The images that follow will NOT be broken in the middle during PDF creation.</p>
<img src="image1.png" />
<img src="image2.png" />
<img src="image3.png" />
</body>
</html>

Return Codes

If the API call was succesul, then it will return a PDF. If there was an issue with the conversion, you will NOT receive a PDF, but only a status code.

The following HTTP status codes tell you how the conversion went.

Usage Monitoring

In our members area you'll be able to see how many conversions you've done and you can also download a list of your conversions there. You'll also be able to set a warning limit there, so that you'll get notified in time BEFORE you overrun your limit.

You can also use our usage API to track your usage automatically. Do this by sending the following HTTP request.

https://api.html2pdf.co.uk/usage?license=yourlicensekey

This will return output similar to the output below in JSON.

array (
  'plan' => 
  array (
    'start' => '2013-04-15',
    'end' => '2099-12-31',
    'description' => 'Business License - Basic',
    'limit' => '500',
    'limit period' => 'month',
    'status' => 'blocked',
  ),
  'usage' => 
  array (
    'today' => '65',
    'current period' => '532',
    'all time' => '9014',
  ),
)

It's important to note the status field. If your license is still active then that field will be 'active'. Otherwise it will report 'blocked'.

Also note that all our date values will have the format yyyy-mm-dd.

Data Privacy

We understand that you don't want us to store any personal information or other information that is important to you. Therefore we would like to explain how our API works so you can rest assured that nothing is stored that you don't want stored.

Here is what we store and do NOT store when you use HTTP POST to access the API:

• PDFs - PDFs are NOT stored on our servers, but served directly to you from memory
• URLs - We store the URL in your conversion history. You can make sure something else is stored by using the logurl parameter
• HTML - We do NOT store the HTML of your webpages on our servers. This is converted in memory to PDF.

Please note that if you use HTTP GET to access our API, then our server access log WILL show the parameters that you pass to our API such as the URL or the HTML. We clear this log once per day automatically and only inspect it in case our service is abused or under attack.

Getting Help

Service is our number one priority. We feel an API is only useful not only if it's reliable, but also if you can resolve issues fast and frictionless. That's why we respond very quickly to support requests.

If you need our help, just send a mail to our support email address. Please try to include the following in your support mails:

• Your license details
• A short description of your problem
• A screenshot of your settings
• Your API call details (you can send code if you like)
• The error message and/or the PDF that you received

Priority and Phone Support

For customers on an enterprise license, we offer custom support channels and custom service level agreements. We can also do custom development in the form of additional API features in those cases.

Please reach out to our sales team in case you want to discuss an enterprise account.