HTML to Image / HTTP API Reference

Conversion Format

`output_format`

The format of the output file.

Default:

png

Allowed Values:

png
jpg
gif
tiff
bmp
ico
ppm
pgm
pbm
pnm
psb
pct
ras
tga
sgi
sun
webp

Conversion Input

`url`

The address of the web page to convert.

Constraint:

Supported protocols are http:// and https://.

`file`

The path to a local file to convert.
The file can be either a single file or an archive (.tar.gz, .tar.bz2, or .zip).
If the HTML document refers to local external assets (images, style sheets, javascript), zip the document together with the assets.

Constraints:

The file must exist and not be empty.
The file name must have a valid extension.

`text`

The string content to convert.

`zip_main_filename`

Set the file name of the main HTML document stored in the input archive. If not specified, the first HTML file in the archive is used for conversion. Use this method if the input archive contains multiple HTML documents.

Response

`output_name`

The file name of the created file (max 180 chars). If not specified then the name is auto-generated.

`content_disposition`

The value of the Content-Disposition HTTP header sent in the response.

Default:

attachment

Allowed Values:

attachment — Forces the browser to pop up a Save As dialog.
inline — The browser will open the result file in the browser window.

Image Output

`screenshot_width`

Set the output image width in pixels.

Constraint:

The accepted range is 96-65000.

Default:

1024

Example:

Full HD width: 1920

`screenshot_height`

Set the output image height in pixels. If it is not specified, actual document height is used.

Constraint:

Must be a positive integer.

Example:

Full HD height: 1080

`scale_factor`

Set the scaling factor (zoom) for the output image.

Constraint:

Must be a positive integer.

Default:

100

Example:

Reduce image for thumbnails: 50

`background_color`

The output image background color.

Availability:

Available for converters >= 20.10. See versioning.

Constraint:

The value must be in RRGGBB or RRGGBBAA hexadecimal format.

Examples:

red color: FF0000
fully transparent background: 00000000
green color with 50% opacity: 00ff0080
green color: 00ff00

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`load_iframes`

Specifies how iframes are handled.

Availability:

Available for converters >= 20.10. See versioning.

Default:

all

Allowed Values:

all — All iframes are loaded.
same-origin — Only iframes with the same origin as the main page are loaded.
none — Iframe loading is disabled.

`block_ads`

Try to block ads. Enabling this option can produce smaller output and speed up the conversion.

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`default_encoding`

Set the default HTML content text encoding.

Default:

auto detect

Examples:

Set to use Latin-2 encoding: iso8859-2
Set to use UTF-8 encoding: utf-8

`locale`

Set the locale for the conversion. This may affect the output format of dates, times and numbers.

Availability:

Available for converters >= 20.10. See versioning.

Default:

en-US

Example:

Set to use Japanese locale: ja-JP

`http_auth_user_name`

Set the HTTP authentication user name.

Example:

HTTP auth username: John

`http_auth_password`

Set the HTTP authentication password.

Example:

Simple password for protected sites: 123456

`cookies`

Set HTTP cookies to be included in all requests made by the converter.

Example:

Multiple cookies for authentication: session=6d7184b3bf35;token=2710

`verify_ssl_certificates`

Do not allow insecure HTTPS connections.

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`fail_on_main_url_error`

Abort the conversion if the main URL HTTP status code is greater than or equal to 400.

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`fail_on_any_url_error`

Abort the conversion if any of the sub-request HTTP status code is greater than or equal to 400 or if some sub-requests are still pending. See details in a debug log.

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`no_xpdfcrowd_header`

Do not send the X-Pdfcrowd HTTP header in PDFCrowd HTTP requests.

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`custom_css`

Apply custom CSS to the input HTML document. It allows you to modify the visual appearance and layout of your HTML content dynamically. Tip: Using !important in custom CSS provides a way to prioritize and override conflicting styles.

Availability:

Available for converters >= 20.10. See versioning.

Examples:

Set the page background color to gray: body { background-color: gray; }
Do not show nav HTML elements and the element with ad-block ID in the output PDF: nav, #ad-block { display: none !important; }

`custom_javascript`

Run a custom JavaScript after the document is loaded and ready to print. The script is intended for post-load DOM manipulation (add/remove elements, update CSS, ...). In addition to the standard browser APIs, the custom JavaScript code can use helper functions from our JavaScript library.

Example:

Set the page background color to gray: document.body.style.setProperty('background-color', 'gray', 'important')

`on_load_javascript`

Run a custom JavaScript right after the document is loaded. The script is intended for early DOM manipulation (add/remove elements, update CSS, ...). In addition to the standard browser APIs, the custom JavaScript code can use helper functions from our JavaScript library.

Example:

Set the page background color to gray: document.body.style.setProperty('background-color', 'gray', 'important')

`custom_http_header`

Set a custom HTTP header to be included in all requests made by the converter.

Constraint:

A string containing the header name and value separated by a colon.

Example:

API client tracking header: X-My-Client-ID:k2017-12345

`javascript_delay`

Wait the specified number of milliseconds to finish all JavaScript after the document is loaded. Your license defines the maximum wait time by "Max Delay" parameter.

Constraint:

Must be a positive integer or 0.

Default:

200

Example:

Wait for 2 seconds: 2000

`element_to_convert`

Convert only the specified element from the main document and its children. The element is specified by one or more CSS selectors. If the element is not found, the conversion fails. If multiple elements are found, the first one is used.

Examples:

The first element with the id main-content is converted: #main-content
The first element with the class name main-content is converted: .main-content
The first element with the tag name table is converted: table
The first element with the tag name table or with the id main-content is converted: table, #main-content
The first element <p class="article"> within <div class="user-panel main"> is converted: div.user-panel.main p.article

`element_to_convert_mode`

Specify the DOM handling when only a part of the document is converted. This can affect the CSS rules used.

Default:

cut-out

Allowed Values:

cut-out — The element and its children are cut out of the document.
remove-siblings — All element's siblings are removed.
hide-siblings — All element's siblings are hidden.

`wait_for_element`

Wait for the specified element in a source document. The element is specified by one or more CSS selectors. The element is searched for in the main document and all iframes. If the element is not found, the conversion fails. Your license defines the maximum wait time by "Max Delay" parameter.

Examples:

Wait until an element with the id main-content is found: #main-content
Wait until an element with the class name main-content is found: .main-content
Wait until an element with the tag name table is found: table
Wait until an element with the tag name table or with the id main-content is found: table, #main-content
Wait until <p class="article"> is found within <div class="user-panel main">: div.user-panel.main p.article

`auto_detect_element_to_convert`

The main HTML element for conversion is detected automatically.

Availability:

Available for converters >= 20.10. See versioning.

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`readability_enhancements`

The input HTML is automatically enhanced to improve the readability.

Availability:

Available for converters >= 20.10. See versioning.

Default:

none

Allowed Values:

none — No enhancements are used.
readability-v1 — Version 1 of the enhancements is used.
readability-v2 — Version 2 of the enhancements is used.
readability-v3 — Version 3 of the enhancements is used.
readability-v4 — Version 4 of the enhancements is used.

Data

Methods related to HTML template rendering.

`data_string`

Set the input data for template rendering. The data format can be JSON, XML, YAML or CSV.

Example:

Template variables for mail merge: {"recipient": "Anna May", "sender": "John Doe"}

`data_file`

Load the input data for template rendering from the specified file. The data format can be JSON, XML, YAML or CSV.

Example:

External data for template rendering: /home/user/john/data.json

`data_format`

Specify the input data format.

Default:

auto

Allowed Values:

auto — the data format is auto detected
json
xml
yaml
csv

`data_encoding`

Set the encoding of the data file set by data_file.

Default:

utf-8

Example:

Set to use Latin-2 encoding: iso8859-2

`data_ignore_undefined`

Ignore undefined variables in the HTML template. The default mode is strict so any undefined variable causes the conversion to fail. You can use {% if variable is defined %} to check if the variable is defined.

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`data_auto_escape`

Auto escape HTML symbols in the input data before placing them into the output.

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`data_trim_blocks`

Auto trim whitespace around each template command block.

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`data_options`

Set the advanced data options:

csv_delimiter - The CSV data delimiter, the default is ,.
xml_remove_root - Remove the root XML element from the input data.
data_root - The name of the root element inserted into the input data without a root node (e.g. CSV), the default is data.

Examples:

Use semicolon to separate CSV data: csv_delimiter=;
Name the root of data rows and use the name in the template loop {% for row in rows %}...{% endfor %}: data_root=rows
Remove XML root so it the HTML template can be more simple: xml_remove_root=1

Miscellaneous

`debug_log`

Turn on the debug logging. Details about the conversion are stored in the debug log. The URL of the log is returned in the x-pdfcrowd-debug-log response header or available in conversion statistics.

Default:

false

Allowed Values:

true, 1 or on
false, 0 or off

`tag`

Tag the conversion with a custom value. The tag is used in conversion statistics. A value longer than 32 characters is cut off.

Example:

Track job in analytics: client-1234

`http_proxy`

A proxy server used by the conversion process for accessing the source URLs with HTTP scheme. It can help to circumvent regional restrictions or provide limited access to your intranet.

Constraint:

The value must have format DOMAIN_OR_IP_ADDRESS:PORT.

Examples:

Corporate proxy server: myproxy.com:8080
Direct IP proxy connection: 113.25.84.10:33333

`https_proxy`

A proxy server used by the conversion process for accessing the source URLs with HTTPS scheme. It can help to circumvent regional restrictions or provide limited access to your intranet.

Constraint:

The value must have format DOMAIN_OR_IP_ADDRESS:PORT.

Examples:

Secure proxy for HTTPS: myproxy.com:443
Direct secure proxy IP: 113.25.84.10:44333

`client_certificate`

A client certificate to authenticate the converter on your web server. The certificate is used for two-way SSL/TLS authentication and adds extra security.

Constraint:

The file must exist and not be empty.

Example:

Custom CA certificate path: /home/user/john/pdfcrowd.crt

`client_certificate_password`

A password for PKCS12 file with a client certificate if it is needed.

Example:

PKCS12 certificate password: 123456

Tweaks

Expert options for fine-tuning output.

`max_loading_time`

Set the maximum time to load the page and its resources. After this time, all requests will be considered successful. This can be useful to ensure that the conversion does not timeout. Use this method if there is no other way to fix page loading.

Availability:

Available for converters >= 20.10. See versioning.

Constraint:

The accepted range is 10-30.

`converter_user_agent`

Specifies the User-Agent HTTP header that will be used by the converter when a request is made to the converted web page.

Availability:

See versioning.

Default:

latest-chrome-desktop

Allowed Values:

chrome-desktop — The user-agent for desktop chrome corresponding to the converter used.
chrome-mobile — The user-agent for mobile chrome corresponding to the converter used.
latest-chrome-desktop — The user-agent of the recently released Chrome browser on desktops.
latest-chrome-mobile — The user-agent of the recently released Chrome browser on mobile devices.
custom string — A custom string for the user agent.

Examples:

Mimic the recent chrome on mobiles: latest-chrome-mobile
Mimic Safari 18.0 browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 14_7_1) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/18.0 Safari/605.1.15