cURL HTML to PDF API guide
Use cURL to test the HTML to PDF API from a terminal, shell script, CI job, or backend task.
Overview
Generate PDFs from URLs or raw HTML with cURL before wiring the same request into your application code.
The API accepts a JSON request body. Send either a public URL or inline HTML in the required html parameter. For normal synchronous conversions, the response body is the generated PDF and should be saved as binary data.
Requirements
- cURL 7.61 or newer
- An html2pdf.app API key
- A terminal that can write the PDF response to a file
Quick start
Replace <your-api-key> or the environment variable with your html2pdf.app API key, then run the example from a trusted backend environment.
Send a public web page URL in the html field and write the binary response directly to document.pdf.
curl -X POST https://api.html2pdf.app/v1/generate \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'X-API-Key: <your-api-key>' \
-d '{
"html": "https://www.example.com"
}' \
--output document.pdfcURL examples
These examples cover the next common production flows: generating from inline HTML with options and queuing a callback job.
1. Generate a PDF from inline HTML
Use raw HTML when the page is assembled by your application and does not have a public URL.
curl -X POST https://api.html2pdf.app/v1/generate \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'X-API-Key: <your-api-key>' \
-d '{
"html": "<h1>Invoice INV-1042</h1><p>Total: $240.00</p>",
"format": "A4",
"marginTop": 40,
"marginRight": 32,
"marginBottom": 40,
"marginLeft": 32
}' \
--output invoice.pdf2. Queue a conversion with a callback
Provide callBackUrl when the PDF should be generated in the background and posted back to your service.
curl -X POST https://api.html2pdf.app/v1/generate \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'X-API-Key: <your-api-key>' \
-d '{
"html": "https://www.example.com/report",
"callBackUrl": "https://your-app.com/webhooks/pdf",
"state": "report-1042"
}'Request options
Most integrations start with html and then add options as the document design becomes more specific.
htmlis required and accepts a public URL or raw HTML.format,landscape,width, andheightcontrol page size.marginTop,marginRight,marginBottom, andmarginLeftcontrol whitespace around the rendered page.mediaselectsscreenorprintCSS rendering.callBackUrlswitches the request to asynchronous generation and sends the completed PDF to your webhook.
See the full API parameter reference for every supported field.
Troubleshooting
- Use --fail-with-body in scripts so non-2xx responses fail the command.
- Keep the API key in an environment variable instead of shell history.
- Use --output for synchronous requests because the response body is the PDF file.
If the generated document is blank or missing styles, first confirm that the source URL is public and that required CSS, fonts, and images are reachable by the rendering service.