DEV Community: screenshotapis

How to Convert HTML to PDF with a Simple API Call

screenshotapis — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 18:02:16 +0000

Need to generate PDFs from HTML? Invoices, reports, certificates — whatever it is, you probably don't want to set up a headless browser just to render some HTML to a file.

Here's how to do it with a single API call.

The Hard Way

The typical approach involves:

Installing Puppeteer or Playwright
Launching a headless Chromium instance
Loading your HTML into a browser page
Calling page.pdf()
Managing browser lifecycle, memory, timeouts, and crashes

That's a lot of moving parts for "turn this HTML into a PDF."

The Easy Way

ScreenshotAPIs handles all of that behind a REST endpoint.

Python

import requests

html = """
<html>
<head>
  <style>
    body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; padding: 40px; }
    h1 { color: #2563eb; }
    table { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; margin-top: 20px; }
    th, td { border: 1px solid #e5e7eb; padding: 10px; text-align: left; }
    th { background: #f9fafb; }
    .total { font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.2em; }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Invoice #1042</h1>
  <p>Date: April 2, 2026</p>
  <p>Bill to: Acme Corp</p>
  <table>
    <tr><th>Item</th><th>Qty</th><th>Price</th></tr>
    <tr><td>API Access - Growth Plan</td><td>1</td><td>$49.00</td></tr>
    <tr><td>Credit Pack (2000)</td><td>2</td><td>$58.00</td></tr>
    <tr><td colspan="2" class="total">Total</td><td class="total">$107.00</td></tr>
  </table>
</body>
</html>
"""

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/pdf",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key"},
    json={"html": html, "format": "A4"}
)

with open("invoice.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

That's it — a styled HTML invoice rendered to a clean A4 PDF.

Node.js

const html = `
<html>
<body style="font-family: Arial; padding: 40px;">
  <h1 style="color: #2563eb;">Invoice #1042</h1>
  <p>Your invoice content here...</p>
</body>
</html>`;

const response = await fetch("https://screenshotapis.org/v1/pdf", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-API-Key": "your_api_key",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ html, format: "A4" })
});

const buffer = await response.arrayBuffer();
require("fs").writeFileSync("invoice.pdf", Buffer.from(buffer));

PDF Options

You can customize the output:

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/pdf",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key"},
    json={
        "html": html,
        "format": "A4",        # A4, Letter, Legal, A3, Tabloid
        "landscape": True,      # Landscape orientation
        "print_background": True # Include background colors/images
    }
)

From a URL

Don't want to pass HTML? Just pass a URL and the API will render that page to PDF:

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/pdf",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key"},
    json={"url": "https://example.com", "format": "Letter"}
)

with open("page.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

Real-World Use Cases

Invoices and receipts — Generate branded PDF invoices from your HTML template. No need for a PDF library — just style it with CSS like a web page.

Reports — Render dashboards or data tables to PDF for email digests or downloads.

Certificates — Create course completion certificates or award documents dynamically.

Contracts — Generate pre-filled agreements from templates.

Tickets — Event tickets, boarding passes, or confirmation documents.

Why Not Just Use a PDF Library?

Libraries like WeasyPrint, wkhtmltopdf, or ReportLab work — but they have trade-offs:

WeasyPrint — good CSS support but struggles with complex layouts and JS
wkhtmltopdf — deprecated, uses an old WebKit engine
ReportLab — low-level, you build PDFs element by element instead of using HTML/CSS

A browser-based renderer (which is what ScreenshotAPIs uses under the hood) gives you the most accurate HTML/CSS rendering because it's an actual browser.

Getting Started

Sign up at screenshotapis.org — free tier, 100 renders/month
Grab your API key from the dashboard
Start generating PDFs

Check it out at screenshotapis.org.

How to Generate Website Screenshots with Python in 3 Lines of Code

screenshotapis — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 20:44:55 +0000

Ever needed to capture a screenshot of a website programmatically? Maybe for generating link previews, monitoring pages, or creating PDF reports. Here's how to do it with Python in just a few lines.

The Problem

Taking website screenshots programmatically usually means setting up headless Chrome, installing Playwright or Puppeteer, managing browser instances, handling timeouts, and dealing with all the edge cases. It's a lot of infrastructure for what should be a simple task.

The Simple Way

ScreenshotAPIs is an API that handles all of that for you. Send a URL, get back an image or PDF.

1. Get Your API Key

2. Take a Screenshot

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/screenshot",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key_here"},
    json={"url": "https://github.com"}
)

with open("screenshot.png", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

That's it. Three lines of real code (plus the import and file save).

3. Customize It

You can control the output format, viewport size, and more:

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/screenshot",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key_here"},
    json={
        "url": "https://github.com",
        "format": "jpeg",
        "width": 1280,
        "height": 720,
        "full_page": True
    }
)

Supported options:

format — png, jpeg, or webp
width / height — viewport dimensions
full_page — capture the entire scrollable page
delay_ms — wait before capturing (useful for pages with animations)

Generate PDFs Too

Same API, different endpoint:

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/pdf",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key_here"},
    json={"url": "https://github.com"}
)

with open("page.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

Render Raw HTML

Don't have a URL? You can pass HTML directly:

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/screenshot",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key_here"},
    json={
        "html": "<h1>Hello World</h1><p>Rendered as an image.</p>",
        "width": 800,
        "height": 400
    }
)

This is great for generating OG images, email previews, or dynamic social cards.

Node.js? Same Thing

const response = await fetch("https://screenshotapis.org/v1/screenshot", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-API-Key": "your_api_key_here",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ url: "https://github.com" })
});

const buffer = await response.arrayBuffer();
require("fs").writeFileSync("screenshot.png", Buffer.from(buffer));

Use Cases

Link previews — Show a thumbnail of any URL in your app
PDF reports — Convert dashboards or pages to downloadable PDFs
OG images — Generate dynamic social media preview images from HTML templates
Monitoring — Take periodic screenshots to track visual changes on a page
Archiving — Save snapshots of web pages for compliance or records

Pricing

The free tier gives you 100 captures per month. Paid plans start at $19/month for 2,000 captures. There are also one-time credit packs if you don't need a subscription.

Check it out at screenshotapis.org.