This page describes how to convert web pages and HTML to images in Java using the Pdfcrowd API. The API is easy to use and the integration takes only a few of lines of code.
We also offer other installation options (Maven, GitHub).
Authentication is needed in order to use the Pdfcrowd API. The credentials used for accessing the API are your Pdfcrowd username and the API key.
demo
ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d
To get your personal API credentials, you can start a free API trial or buy the API license.
Enter a web page or upload an HTML file to get an image preview and integration code that you can copy and paste to your application.
Or you can choose from the examples below and adapt the code to your needs. You can also interactively explore the API in the API Playground.
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d"); // configure the conversion client.setOutputFormat("png"); // run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "example.png"); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d"); // configure the conversion client.setOutputFormat("png"); // run the conversion and store the result into the "image" variable byte[] image = client.convertUrl("http://www.example.com"); // at this point the "image" variable contains PNG raw data and // can be sent in an HTTP response, saved to a file, etc. } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d"); // configure the conversion client.setOutputFormat("png"); // create an output stream for the conversion result FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream("example.png"); // run the conversion and write the result into the output stream client.convertUrlToStream("http://www.example.com", outputStream); // close the output stream outputStream.close(); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d"); // configure the conversion client.setOutputFormat("png"); // run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertFileToFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html", "MyLayout.png"); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d"); // configure the conversion client.setOutputFormat("png"); // run the conversion and store the result into the "image" variable byte[] image = client.convertFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html"); // at this point the "image" variable contains PNG raw data and // can be sent in an HTTP response, saved to a file, etc. } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d"); // configure the conversion client.setOutputFormat("png"); // create an output stream for the conversion result FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream("MyLayout.png"); // run the conversion and write the result into the output stream client.convertFileToStream("/path/to/MyLayout.html", outputStream); // close the output stream outputStream.close(); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d"); // configure the conversion client.setOutputFormat("png"); // run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>", "HelloWorld.png"); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d"); // configure the conversion client.setOutputFormat("png"); // run the conversion and store the result into the "image" variable byte[] image = client.convertString("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>"); // at this point the "image" variable contains PNG raw data and // can be sent in an HTTP response, saved to a file, etc. } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d"); // configure the conversion client.setOutputFormat("png"); // create an output stream for the conversion result FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream("HelloWorld.png"); // run the conversion and write the result into the output stream client.convertStringToStream("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>", outputStream); // close the output stream outputStream.close(); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToImageClient("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d"); // configure the conversion client.setOutputFormat("png"); client.setDebugLog(true); // run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertFileToFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html", "MyLayout.png"); // print URL to the debug log System.out.println("Debug log url: " + client.getDebugLogUrl()); // print the number of available conversion credits in your account System.out.println("Remaining credit count: " + client.getRemainingCreditCount()); // print the number of credits consumed by the conversion System.out.println("Consumed credit count: " + client.getConsumedCreditCount()); // print the unique ID of the conversion System.out.println("Job id: " + client.getJobId()); // print the size of the output in bytes System.out.println("Output size: " + client.getOutputSize()); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
The API can be easily integrated into your environment. You can have our interactive API Playground autogenerate the integration code for you:
The API lets you convert a web page, a local HTML file, or a string containing HTML. The result of the conversion can be stored to a local file, to a stream object or to a variable. See the conversion input section for more details.
The best way to start with the API is to choose one of the examples and once you get it working, you can further customize the code. You can find the most common customizations in the table below.
Image size | Set image dimensions with setScreenshotWidth and setScreenshotHeight. |
Image format | Specify a different output image format with setOutputFormat. |
Hide or remove elements |
You can use the following classes in your HTML
code to hide or remove elements from the output:
|
Use @media print | You can switch to the print version of the page (if it exists) with setUsePrintMedia. |
Run custom JavaScript | You can use setOnLoadJavascript or setCustomJavascript 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; }
|
The API enables rendering of HTML templates. The template syntax is based on the Jinja template rendering engine.
The most common constructs are:
Invoice: {{ invoice.number }}
{% for invoice in invoices %} ... {% endfor %}
{% if invoice.total > 100 %} ... {% endif %}
{{ invoice.to.first_name|capitalize }}
The supported input data formats are JSON, XML, CSV and YAML. The data can be uploaded from a file or from a string variable.
Supported template filters: capitalize, center, default, escape, first, forceescape, format, indent, join, last, length, list, lower, replace, reverse, safe, slice, sort, string, striptags, title, trim, truncate, unique, upper, wordcount, wordwrap.
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}"); // configure the conversion client.setDataString("{\n" + " \"name\": \"World\",\n" + " \"product\": \"Pdfcrowd API\"\n" + "}"); // run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}", "output.pdf"); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}"); // configure the conversion client.setDataString("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n" + "<data>\n" + " <name>World</name>\n" + " <product>Pdfcrowd API</product>\n" + "</data>"); // run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ data.name }} from {{ data.product }}", "output.pdf"); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}"); // configure the conversion client.setDataString("name: World\n" + "product: Pdfcrowd API"); // run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}", "output.pdf"); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
import com.pdfcrowd.*; import java.io.*; public class ApiTest { public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, Pdfcrowd.Error { try { // create the API client instance Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient client = new Pdfcrowd.HtmlToPdfClient("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}"); // configure the conversion client.setDataString("name,product\n" + "World,Pdfcrowd API"); // run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}", "output.pdf"); } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // report the error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } catch(IOException why) { // report the error System.err.println("IO Error: " + why); // rethrow or handle the exception throw why; } } }
try { // call the API } catch(Pdfcrowd.Error why) { // print error System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error: " + why); // print just error code System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error Code: " + why.getCode()); // print just error message System.err.println("Pdfcrowd Error Message: " + why.getMessage()); // or handle the error in your way }
libPdfcrowd.highlightHtmlElements
method call to visualize all HTML elements. See the
backgrounds example
,
borders example
and helper
JavaScript library
documentation.
Refer for details to the API Method Reference.