Developer guide

Easy integration, any stack

Drop in the SDK or call the REST API directly — grab a key, paste a snippet, and your first PDF is rendering in minutes.

Step 1

Get an API key

Create a free account and copy your API key from the dashboard.

Sign up
Step 2

Install the SDK

Use the PHP / Laravel SDK for the cleanest integration. Or call the API directly with curl.

PHP SDK on GitHub
Step 3

Generate a PDF

Send HTML or a URL. Receive PDF bytes back. That's it.

API reference

PHP / Laravel SDK

One fluent builder per API field. Auto-discovered Laravel service provider, facade, and config. Typed exceptions so validation errors flow into your existing form-error UI.

Install
composer require htmltopdfapi/php-sdk
.env (Laravel)
HTML_TO_PDF_API_KEY=sk_live_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Generate an invoice PDF (Laravel)
use HtmlToPdfApi\Laravel\Facades\HtmlToPdf;

Route::get('/invoices/{invoice}.pdf', function (Invoice $invoice, Request $request) {
    $html = view('invoices.pdf', compact('invoice'))->render();

    return HtmlToPdf::html($html)
        ->paperSize('a4')
        ->margins(top: 25, bottom: 25)
        ->footer('<div class="text-center">Page <span class="pageNumber"></span> of <span class="totalPages"></span></div>')
        ->waitUntil('networkidle0')
        ->generate()
        ->toResponse($request);
});
Plain PHP — URL to disk
use HtmlToPdfApi\HtmlToPdf;

$sdk = new HtmlToPdf(['api_key' => getenv('HTML_TO_PDF_API_KEY')]);

$sdk->url('https://example.com/dashboard')
    ->landscape()
    ->waitUntil('networkidle0')
    ->retina()
    ->generate()
    ->saveAs('/tmp/dashboard.pdf');
Typed error handling
use HtmlToPdfApi\Exceptions\ValidationException;

try {
    $pdf = HtmlToPdf::html($html)->generate();
} catch (ValidationException $e) {
    foreach ($e->errors() as $field => $messages) {
        report("[$field] " . $messages[0]);
    }
}
View on GitHubFull README

No SDK? Use raw HTTP

Any HTTP client works. Bearer token auth, JSON body, PDF bytes back. The full request shape is documented in the API reference.

curl
curl -X POST https://platform.htmltopdfapi.co/api/v1/pdf/generate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_xxxxxxxxxxxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "html": "<h1>Hello world</h1>",
    "paper_size": "a4",
    "margin_top": 25,
    "margin_bottom": 25,
    "footer_html": "<div style=\"text-align:center;font-size:9px\">Page <span class=\"pageNumber\"></span></div>"
  }' \
  --output document.pdf
Full API reference (every field, every error code)

Recipes

Common patterns for the most-asked use cases.

Invoice PDFs with page numbering

Render a Blade view, add a footer with .pageNumber / .totalPages spans, stream inline.

Snapshot a URL

Wait for JS-rendered charts with wait_for_selector, then capture the full page.

Custom paper dimensions

Send paper_width + paper_height in millimetres for non-standard sizes.

Error handling patterns

ValidationException, UsageLimitException, ConnectionException — what to catch and when to retry.

Error responses

Every error response uses the same envelope so you can parse it once and reuse it everywhere.

StatusMeaningWhat to do
401Bad / missing API keyVerify the Bearer token; rotate if compromised.
422Request validation failedRead errors map: { field → [messages] }; surface inline.
429Plan quota exceededWait for the reset window or upgrade plan.
5xxServer errorRetry with backoff. Persistent? Email support.