The latest articles on DEV Community by ExitCodeZer0 (@exitcodezer0). https://dev.to/exitcodezer0 https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F3320269%2F39af047c-85b8-4135-b022-a561b4af5c1e.png https://dev.to/exitcodezer0 en ExitCodeZer0 Thu, 03 Jul 2025 18:17:10 +0000 https://dev.to/exitcodezer0/why-i-built-a-no-fluff-html-pdf-api-and-what-i-learned-shipping-my-first-dev-tool-26j8 https://dev.to/exitcodezer0/why-i-built-a-no-fluff-html-pdf-api-and-what-i-learned-shipping-my-first-dev-tool-26j8 <p>i've been lurking in dev spaces for a while, but only recently started actually shipping.</p> <p>earlier this week, i quietly launched my first microtool: <a href="https://fileslap.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">fileslap.com</a> — a simple HTML to PDF API with no signup, no SDKs, and no bloat.</p> <p>this post isn’t a pitch — just wanted to reflect on:</p> <ul> <li>why i built it</li> <li>what i learned</li> <li>what i’d do differently next time</li> </ul> <h2> the problem </h2> <p>i was building an internal dashboard and needed to export some styled reports to PDF.</p> <p>i tried:</p> <ul> <li>wkhtmltopdf (painful layout quirks)</li> <li>Puppeteer (too heavy for the job)</li> <li>3+ commercial APIs (signup walls, rate limits, weird formatting)</li> </ul> <p>all i wanted was to <code>curl</code> a URL and get a clean PDF.</p> <h2> what i built </h2> <p>so i wrote my own: a simple REST API that converts HTML → PDF using headless Chrome.</p> <p>it’s:</p> <ul> <li>zero-auth</li> <li>fast enough for realtime jobs</li> <li>dev-friendly by default (curlable + webhook-ready)</li> </ul> <p>free tier's live at <a href="https://fileslap.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">fileslap.com</a></p> <h2> what i learned </h2> <ul> <li> <strong>launching is uncomfortable</strong> — especially when you’re just getting started</li> <li>finishing touches take 3x longer than you think</li> <li>building something small forces sharp thinking</li> <li>you can <em>still</em> over-engineer something that’s only ~100 lines of logic</li> <li>feedback &gt; features</li> </ul> <h2> what’s next? </h2> <ul> <li>i’m still figuring that out.</li> <li>i’ll probably keep shipping small tools like this — tools i wish existed, tools i’ll use myself, tools that stay out of your way.</li> <li>if you’ve worked on something similar or just want to jam on dev tooling, hit me up. i’m mostly quiet, occasionally useful.</li> </ul> <p>— ExitCodeZer0</p> devtools webdev indiehackers api