HTML to Image with HTTP POST

Overview

The Pdfcrowd API is HTTP-based, the communication is made through normal HTTP requests. You can call the API by sending an HTTP request to the API server address with options passed as POST data.

You can also check out our API client libraries if you want to implement the API in your favorite programming language.

Below are sample images generated by the API.

Wikipedia

Stack Overflow

Quick Start

Here are HTTP POST examples for quickly getting started with the API. See more examples.

curl -f -u "demo:ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d" \
    -o "example.png" \
    -F "output_format=png" \
    -F "url=http://www.example.com" \
    https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/20.10/

curl -f -u "demo:ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d" \
    -o "MyLayout.png" \
    -F "output_format=png" \
    -F "file=@/path/to/MyLayout.html" \
    https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/20.10/

curl -f -u "demo:ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d" \
    -o "HelloWorld.png" \
    -F "output_format=png" \
    --form-string "text=<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>" \
    https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/20.10/

# or read HTML from a pipe
html_producer | curl -u "demo:ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d" \
    -o "HelloWorld.png" \
    -F "output_format=png" \
    -F "text=<-" \
    https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/20.10/

Authentication

The credentials to access the API are your Pdfcrowd username and the API key. You can try out the API without registering using the following demo credentials:

Username: demo
API key: ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d

To get your personal API credentials, you can start a free API trial or buy the API license.

The authentication method for user credentials is HTTP Basic Access Authentication. You provide your credentials every time you make a request.

Server Address

The server address is https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/20.10/

Other addresses can be used:

https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/latest/ is for the latest converter version.
https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/20.10/ is for version 20.10.
https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/18.10/ is for version 18.10.
https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/ is a shortcut for version 18.10.

The POST request content type must be multipart/form-data if the request includes any local files. Otherwise application/x-www-form-urlencoded can also be used.

API Output Preview

To get a quick idea of what the API output will look like, enter a web page or upload an HTML file using the form below. It will generate several API output previews with different conversion settings. You can then choose the one that looks best, and use the auto-generated API settings in your application.

Common Customizations

The API enables conversion of a web page, a local HTML file, or a string containing HTML.

The table below lists the most common customizations. You can also interactively explore the API in the API Playground.

Image size	Set image dimensions with screenshot_width and screenshot_height.
Image format	Specify a different output image format with output_format.
Hide or remove elements	You can use the following classes in your HTML code to hide or remove elements from the output: `pdfcrowd-remove` - sets `display:none!important` on the element `pdfcrowd-hide` - sets `visibility:hidden!important` on the element Learn about other options.
Use @media print	You can switch to the print version of the page (if it exists) with use_print_media.
Run custom JavaScript	You can use on_load_javascript or custom_javascript to alter the HTML contents with a custom JavaScript. In addition to the standard browser APIs, the custom JavaScript code can use helper functions from our JavaScript library .
Custom CSS styling	You can alter CSS styling used during conversion with a custom JavaScript or using the `pdfcrowd-body` CSS class, which is automatically set on the HTML <body> element. You can, for example, set the H1 height to 48px by adding the following line to your CSS: `.pdfcrowd-body h1 { font-size: 48px; }`
HTML Templates	Add data to your HTML template and convert it to an image. Learn more in HTML Template to Image.

Response Headers

HTTP response can contain the following headers.
You can find details about each conversion in your conversion log.

Name	Description
x-pdfcrowd-debug-log	URL to the debug log
x-pdfcrowd-remaining-credits	the number of available conversion credits in your account
x-pdfcrowd-consumed-credits	the number of credits consumed by the conversion
x-pdfcrowd-job-id	the unique ID of the conversion
x-pdfcrowd-pages	the total number of pages in the output document
x-pdfcrowd-total-pages	the total number of pages in the original output document, including the pages excluded by print_page_range option
x-pdfcrowd-output-size	the size of the output in bytes

Troubleshooting

Refer to the API Status Codes page if the API returns an error.
You can use debug_log to get detailed info about the conversion, such as load errors, load times, browser console output, etc.
Check the FAQ.
You can use our JavaScript library to resolve rendering problems, such as missing content or blank pages.
Just use custom_javascript with libPdfcrowd.highlightHtmlElements method call to visualize all HTML elements. See the backgrounds example , borders example and helper JavaScript library documentation.
The maximum size of the created image is 65 megapixels. Larger images are cropped vertically.
Contact us if you need help or are missing a feature.

POST Parameter Reference

Refer to the HTML to Image POST Reference for a description of all options.