How to Take a Website Screenshot with PHP

#php #webdev #api

PHP still powers a lot of real-world web applications, so screenshot generation fits naturally into CMS plugins, monitoring tools, and link preview workflows. This Dev.to version keeps the original examples intact while tightening the framing for developers who want a straightforward API-based approach.

Prerequisites

PHP 7.4+ with the cURL extension enabled
A Site-Shot API key (sign up here)

Basic Screenshot Capture

<?php

$params = http_build_query([
    'url'     => 'https://example.com',
    'userkey' => 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    'width'   => 1280,
    'height'  => 1024,
    'format'  => 'png',
]);

$ch = curl_init("https://api.site-shot.com/?{$params}");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 70);

$image = curl_exec($ch);
$httpCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($ch);

if ($httpCode === 200 && $image) {
    file_put_contents('screenshot.png', $image);
    echo "Screenshot saved.\n";
} else {
    echo "Error: HTTP {$httpCode}\n";
}

The API returns the raw image bytes. Just save them to a file or serve them to the browser.

Full Page Screenshot

To capture the entire scrollable page:

$params = http_build_query([
    'url'        => 'https://example.com',
    'userkey'    => 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    'full_size'  => 1,
    'max_height' => 15000,
    'format'     => 'png',
]);

JSON Response with Base64

If you need the image as base64 along with HTTP metadata:

<?php

$params = http_build_query([
    'url'           => 'https://example.com',
    'userkey'       => 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    'width'         => 1280,
    'height'        => 1024,
    'format'        => 'png',
    'response_type' => 'json',
]);

$ch = curl_init("https://api.site-shot.com/?{$params}");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 70);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

$data = json_decode($response, true);

if (!empty($data['error'])) {
    die("API error: " . $data['error']);
}

$base64 = $data['image'];
if (strpos($base64, ',') !== false) {
    $base64 = explode(',', $base64, 2)[1];
}

file_put_contents('screenshot.png', base64_decode($base64));
echo "Screenshot saved.\n";

Serving Screenshots in a Web Application

Generate and serve a thumbnail screenshot directly to the browser:

<?php

$targetUrl = $_GET['url'] ?? '';
if (empty($targetUrl)) {
    http_response_code(400);
    die('Missing url parameter');
}

$params = http_build_query([
    'url'          => $targetUrl,
    'userkey'      => 'YOUR_API_KEY',
    'width'        => 1280,
    'height'       => 800,
    'format'       => 'jpeg',
    'scaled_width' => 400,
]);

$ch = curl_init("https://api.site-shot.com/?{$params}");
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 70);

$image = curl_exec($ch);
$httpCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE);
curl_close($ch);

if ($httpCode === 200 && $image) {
    header('Content-Type: image/jpeg');
    header('Cache-Control: public, max-age=3600');
    echo $image;
} else {
    http_response_code(502);
    die('Screenshot failed');
}

WordPress Integration

You can integrate the screenshot API into a WordPress plugin or theme:

function site_shot_capture($url, $options = []) {
    $defaults = [
        'url'     => $url,
        'userkey' => defined('SITE_SHOT_API_KEY') ? SITE_SHOT_API_KEY : '',
        'width'   => 1280,
        'height'  => 1024,
        'format'  => 'png',
    ];

    $params = http_build_query(array_merge($defaults, $options));

    $response = wp_remote_get(
        "https://api.site-shot.com/?{$params}",
        ['timeout' => 70]
    );

    if (is_wp_error($response)) {
        return false;
    }

    return wp_remote_retrieve_body($response);
}

// Usage:
$image = site_shot_capture('https://example.com', ['full_size' => 1]);
if ($image) {
    file_put_contents('/tmp/screenshot.png', $image);
}

Summary

Parameter	Description	Example
`url`	Target web page	`https://example.com`
`userkey`	Your API key	`abc123`
`width`	Viewport width (100–8000)	`1280`
`height`	Viewport height (100–20000)	`1024`
`full_size`	Capture full page	`1`
`format`	Output format	`png` or `jpeg`
`response_type`	Response format	`image` or `json`
`scaled_width`	Resize output	`400`

See the full API documentation for all available parameters.

Try Site-Shot free — no registration needed: https://www.site-shot.com/

DEV Community