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HTML to PDF – API Docs

Web Integrations

Edit PDFs from your website

Create a special link that anyone can use to fill out your document and send it back to you.
Share the link on your website or in your emails.

Link Generator

The publicly accessible URL where the file is available on your website:

We'll ask the user if they want to send the edited document to this email address.

Copy code Click to try

Link Setup

Pass input files as GET parameters, in JSON format:

https://www.sejda.com/pdf-editor?files=[{"downloadUrl":"https://www.example.com/download/sample.pdf"}]

Don't forget to URL encode the JSON value:

?files=%5B%7B%22downloadUrl%22%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2Fdownload%2Fsample.pdf%22%7D%5D

Add a returnEmail parameter to the URL if you would like the user to be asked if they want to send the edited document by email back to you.

https://www.sejda.com/pdf-editor?files=[{"downloadUrl":"https://www.example.com/download/sample.pdf"}]&returnEmail=name@example.com

Remember to URL encode the email address value passed in:

&returnEmail=name%40example.com

'Save as PDF' link for your website

Let your visitors save pages from your website to PDF.

Using the 'Save as PDF' link is free and does not require a paid plan.
Each of your website visitors will be able to use the link and 'Save as PDF' up to 10 times per hour.

How it works

Copy & paste snippet

Always save the current page as PDF:

<a id="saveAsPdfBtn" href="https://www.sejda.com/html-to-pdf">Save as PDF</a>
<script>
document.getElementById('saveAsPdfBtn').addEventListener('click', function(e){
  var pageUrl = encodeURIComponent(window.location.href);
  var opts = ['save-link=' + pageUrl, 'pageOrientation=auto'];
  window.open('https://www.sejda.com/html-to-pdf?' + opts.join('&'));
  e.preventDefault();
});
</script>

Customize

More options can be specified:

https://www.sejda.com/html-to-pdf?save-link=https://example.com&viewportWidth=1440&pageSize=A3
Name Description
save-link Web page URL to convert to PDF. Eg: https://example.com/my-page. Mandatory. Don't forget to URL encode.
pageSize One of the standard page sizes: a0, a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, letter, legal. Defaults to one long page.
viewportWidth The width, in pixels, for the rendered HTML page. Eg: 1440. Defaults to browser's window.innerWidth
pageOrientation One of portrait, landscape or auto (default). Eg: auto
pageMargin Size of page margin, including units (px, in, cm or mm). Eg: 100px. Defaults to no margin.
usePrintMedia Use the print stylesheet. Eg: true. Defaults to false.
delay Seconds (0 to 5) to wait before starting to convert. Eg: 2. Defaults to 0.


HTML to PDF – API Docs

Authentication

Sign up for an account to get started and get your API key.

Provide your API key in the Authorization header of each request:

Authorization: Token: api_Y0URAP1K3YH3R3

Want to use in the browser/client side javascript? Use the publishable key instead: see CORS sample code.

Get started

Run this CURL command in your console:

$> curl -i https://api.sejda.com/v2/html-pdf\
  --fail --silent --show-error \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --header "Authorization: Token: api_Y0URAP1K3YH3R3" \
  --data '{"url": "https://www.example.com", "viewportWidth":1200 }' > example_com.pdf

Endpoint URL

The API is organized around REST.

https://api.sejda.com/v2/html-pdf

Request

Make a POST request with JSON body:

Content-Type: application/json

Examples:

{"url":"example.com"}

Converting HTML code (instead of an URL) to PDF:

{"htmlCode":"<strong>HTML<\/strong>"}

HTML to PDF Options

Name Type Default Description
url string optional Web page URL to convert to PDF. Eg: https://example.com
htmlCode string optional HTML source code to convert to PDF. Eg: <strong>HTML</strong>
pageSize string one_long_page one_long_page, a standard page size: a0, a1, a2, a3, a4, a5, a6 letter, legal, tabloid, ledger or a custom page size: 30x40mm. Possible units are: px, cm, mm or in.
pageOrientation string auto landscape, portrait or auto.
viewportWidth integer optional The width in pixels for the rendered web page. Eg: 1600
pageMargin double optional Specifies the size of the margin around the PDF page. To be used together with pageMarginUnits. Eg: 2.2
pageMarginUnits string optional Specifies the units to be used for the margin size. One of px, in, cm or mm. To be used together with pageMargin. Eg: px for a margin size specified in pixels.
hideNotices boolean false Attempt to automatically hide cookie notices and similar overlays. Eg: true
usePrintMedia boolean false Use the print stylesheet. Eg: true
delay int 0 Seconds (0 to 5) to wait before starting to convert. Useful if your website has an intro animation, etc.
scrollPage boolean false Lazy loading of resources. Scroll page all the way down before converting. Eg: true
authUsername string optional Username for HTTP authentication. Eg: Admin
authPassword string optional Password for HTTP authentication. Eg: !S3cr3t
waitForSelector string pro-only Wait for the selector to appear in page, then begin the PDF conversion. Eg: #pageFullyLoaded
timezone string optional A timezone id Eg: America/New_York
shims string optional Hints to attempt workarounds for rendering issues. Eg: css-viewport-percent-units

HTTP Response Codes

200 All OK. Response contents will be the PDF document stream.
400 Invalid request.
403 Account unconfirmed, no api key provided, CORS origin not allowed etc. Details provided in the response body.
413 Request size too large. Current limit is 50MB. Try converting by URL instead of providing the HTML body.
429 Rate limit reached (per hour or concurrency limit). You should retry the request. Details provided in the response body.
450 Pro-only parameter used with free account. Parameters marked with pro-only are available on paid plans only.
500 An error on our side. You should retry the request.
550 Failed to convert (Eg: Web page was not reachable, could not be loaded). Details provided in the response body.

CSS Tricks

Hide elements in PDF

Add the CSS class --hide-from-pdf to remove that element from the PDF.

<div class="--hide-from-pdf">Hide me</div>
Show elements only in PDF

Use the CSS class --show-in-pdf and the inline CSS style="display: none" to show in PDF an element that is hidden in HTML. When rendering the PDF the inline style will be changed to display: block.

<div class="--show-in-pdf" style="display:none">Show me</div>
Page breaks & footer

Try this CSS style to force page breaks:

<style>
  .with-page-break {
    page-break-before: always;
    page-break-after: always;
  }
</style>
              

Example: Same footer on each page:

<style>
  .with-page-break {
    page-break-before: always;
    page-break-after: always;
  }
  .footer {
    position: fixed;
    bottom: 0;
  }
</style>
<div class="with-page-break">Page 1</div>
<div class="with-page-break">Page 2</div>
<div class="with-page-break">Page 3</div>
<div class="footer">This is a footer</div>
              

Example: Different footer each page, at the bottom:

<style>
  html,body { height: 100%; margin: 0; }  
  .page {
    page-break-before: always;
    page-break-after: always;
    height: 100%;
    overflow: hidden;  
    margin: 0;
    position: relative;
  }
  .page-footer {
    position: absolute;
    bottom: 5px;
  }
</style>
<div class="page">
  <div class="page-contents">Page 1</div>
  <div class="page-footer">Page 1 footer</div>
</div>
<div class="page">
  <div class="page-contents">Page 2</div>
  <div class="page-footer">Page 2 footer</div>
</div>

Make sure you specify a pageSize (eg: a4) and the hideNotices parameter is not set (or is set to false)

Page numbers

To add current page numbers and total pages count to a page footer (eg: "Page 1 of 5") you can use Javascript. Here's an example:

<style>
    html,body { height: 100%; margin: 0; }
    .page {
        page-break-before: always;
        page-break-after: always;
        height: 100%;
        overflow: hidden;
        margin: 0;
        position: relative;
    }
    .page-footer {
        position: absolute;
        bottom: 5px;
    }
</style>
<div class="page">
  <div class="page-contents">Page 1</div>
  <div class="page-footer">
    <span class="js-page-number"></span> / <span class="js-pages-total"></span>
  </div>
</div>
<div class="page">
  <div class="page-contents">Page 2</div>
  <div class="page-footer">
    <span class="js-page-number"></span> / <span class="js-pages-total"></span>
  </div>
</div>
<div class="page">
  <div class="page-contents">Page 3</div>
  <div class="page-footer">
    <span class="js-page-number"></span> / <span class="js-pages-total"></span>
  </div>
</div>
<script>
  (function() {
    let pageCounter = 1;
    const pageNumElems = document.getElementsByClassName('js-page-number');
    Array.from(pageNumElems).forEach((elem) => {
      elem.innerHTML = pageCounter;
      pageCounter++;
    });

    const totalPagesCount = document.querySelectorAll('.page').length;
    const pageTotals = document.getElementsByClassName('js-pages-total');
    Array.from(pageTotals).forEach((elem) => {
      elem.innerHTML = totalPagesCount;
    });
  })()
</script>
Using Google web fonts in your PDF documents

Here's an example on how to use Google web fonts.

<html>
<head>
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Merriweather&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">
<style>
body {
 font-family: 'Merriweather', serif;
 font-size: 30px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>Almost before we knew it, we had left the ground.</body>
</html>
Specific page size (A4, Letter)

Ensure your HTML will render well in a specific page size (A4, Letter, etc.) when converted to PDF.

<style>
@page {
    size: A4;
    margin: 0;
}
.page {
    width: 210mm;
    height: 297mm;
    margin: 0;
}
</style>

<div class="page">Page 1</div>
<div class="page">Page 2</div>
              
Stronger guarantee that page is fully loaded

On complex pages, ensure all content is fully loaded before converting to PDF. Avoids potential partial content issues.

When you decide the page finished loading (eg: your last ajax section was rendered), inject a special dom element on page.

var el = document.createElement('div');

el.style.display = 'none';
el.id = 'pageFullyLoaded';

document.body.appendChild(el);
              

Then make your API requests include "waitForSelector":"#pageFullyLoaded".

We'll wait for the selector to appear in page, then begin the PDF conversion.

Using the "waitForSelector" will not extend the timeout for the API request, the maximum time we wait for the page to load and convert it to PDF stays the same.

Code Samples

HTML to PDF in Bash Curl
$> curl -i https://api.sejda.com/v2/html-pdf\
  --fail --silent --show-error \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --header "Authorization: Token: api_Y0URAP1K3YH3R3" \
  --data '{"url": "https://example.com", "viewportWidth":1200 }' > out.pdf
HTML to PDF in Node.js Javascript
// npm install request
const request = require('request');
const fs = require('fs');

var opts = {
  uri: 'https://api.sejda.com/v2/html-pdf',
  headers: {
    'Authorization' : 'Token: ' + apiKey,
  },
  json: {
    'url': 'https://example.com',
    'viewportWidth': 1200
  }
};

request.post(opts)
  .on('error', function(err){
    return console.error(err);
  })
  .on('response', function(response) {
    if (response.statusCode === 200) {
      response.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('/tmp/out.pdf'))
        .on('finish', function () {
          console.log('PDF saved to disk');
        });
    } else {
      return console.error('Got code: ' + response.statusCode);
    }
  });
HTML to PDF in Python
import requests

url = 'https://api.sejda.com/v2/html-pdf'
r = requests.post(url, json = {
    'url': 'https://example.com',
    'viewportWidth': 1200
  }, headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Token: {}'.format(apiKey)
  })
open('/tmp/out.pdf', 'wb').write(r.content)
HTML to PDF in Javascript with CORS
<script src="//www.sejda.com/js/sejda-js-api.min.js"></script>
<script>
  document.getElementById('downloadPdfBtn')
    .addEventListener('click', function(e){
      SejdaJsApi.htmlToPdf({
        filename: 'out.pdf',
        /* leave blank for one long page */
        pageSize: 'a4',
        publishableKey: 'api_public_y0urap1k3yh3r3',
        htmlCode: document.querySelector('html').innerHTML,
        /* url: window.location.href */
        always: function() {
          // PDF download should have started
        },
        error: function(err) {
          console.error(err);
          alert('An error occurred');
        }
      });
    })
</script>
/* Don't forget to configure your API Allowed domains, on your account page. */
HTML to PDF in Java
<!-- Maven dependency -->
<dependency>
  <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
  <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
	<version>4.5.8</version>
</dependency>

import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.entity.ContentType;
import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClientBuilder;

CloseableHttpClient httpClient = HttpClientBuilder.create().build();
HttpPost request = new HttpPost("https://api.sejda.com/v2/html-pdf");
request.setHeader(HttpHeaders.AUTHORIZATION, "Token: " + apiKey);
request.setEntity(new StringEntity(
    "{\"url\": \"https://example.com\", \"viewportWidth\":1200 }",
    ContentType.APPLICATION_JSON));

HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(request);
if (response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() == 200) {

    try (InputStream in = response.getEntity().getContent();
         OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(new File("/tmp/out.pdf"))) {
        byte[] buffer = new byte[8 * 1024];
        int bytesRead;
        while ((bytesRead = in.read(buffer)) != -1) {
            out.write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
        }
    }
}
HTML to PDF in PHP
$url = "https://api.sejda.com/v2/html-pdf";
$content = json_encode(array('url' => 'https://example.com'));

$curl = curl_init($url);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HEADER, false);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, array(
  "Content-type: application/json",
  "Authorization: Token: " . $apiKey));

curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POST, true);
curl_setopt($curl, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $content);

$response = curl_exec($curl);

$status = curl_getinfo($curl, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);

if ($status == 200) {
  $fp = fopen("out.pdf", "w");
  fwrite($fp, $response);
  fclose($fp);
  print("PDF saved to disk");
} else {
  print("Error: failed with status $status, response $response, curl_error " . curl_error($curl) . ", curl_errno " . curl_errno($curl));
}
HTML to PDF in C# .NET
using System.Net.Http;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

var baseUrl = "https://api.sejda.com/v2/html-pdf";

using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
  client.DefaultRequestHeaders.TryAddWithoutValidation(
      "Authorization", "Token: " + apiKey
  );

  var json = new JObject();
  json.Add("url", "https://example.com");
  json.Add("viewportWidth", 1200);
  //json.Add("htmlCode", File.ReadAllText(@"c:\doc.html", Encoding.UTF8));

  var content = new StringContent(json.ToString(), Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");

  using (var res = await client.PostAsync(baseUrl, content))
  {
    var statusCode = (int)res.StatusCode;

    if (statusCode == 200)
    {
      var httpStream = await res.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync();
      var outputFilePath = Path.GetTempFileName();
      using (var fileStream = File.Create(outputFilePath))
      using (var reader = new StreamReader(httpStream))
      {
        httpStream.CopyTo(fileStream);
        fileStream.Flush();
      }
      // outputFilePath contains the PDF output
    }
    else
    {
      // retry, then handle error
      throw new Exception("Unexpected response code: " + statusCode);
    }
  }
}

API access to other PDF tools?

We do not offer API access to other PDF tools at the moment (Eg: merge, compress, etc).