URL to PDF

Generate a PDF from a live web page URL. Supports both simple GET requests and full-featured POST requests with authentication, cookies, and batch processing.

Endpoints

GET  /v1/url/pdf
POST /v1/url/pdf

GET  /v2/url/pdf
POST /v2/url/pdf

Quick Start (GET)

The simplest way to capture a web page as a PDF — just pass the URL as a query parameter:

curl -X GET "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v1/url/pdf?url=https://example.com" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key-here" \
  --output example.pdf

const url = encodeURIComponent("https://example.com");

const response = await fetch(
  `https://api.cloudlayer.io/v1/url/pdf?url=${url}`,
  {
    headers: {
      "X-API-Key": "your-api-key-here",
    },
  }
);

const pdf = await response.arrayBuffer();

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v1/url/pdf",
    params={"url": "https://example.com"},
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your-api-key-here"},
)

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

curl -X GET "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf?url=https://example.com&async=false" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key-here" \
  --output example.pdf

const url = encodeURIComponent("https://example.com");

const response = await fetch(
  `https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf?url=${url}&async=false`,
  {
    headers: {
      "X-API-Key": "your-api-key-here",
    },
  }
);

const pdf = await response.arrayBuffer();

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf",
    params={"url": "https://example.com", "async": "false"},
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your-api-key-here"},
)

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

Quick Start (POST)

Use POST for full control over the output:

curl -X POST "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v1/url/pdf" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key-here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "format": "a4",
    "margin": {
      "top": "1in",
      "bottom": "1in",
      "left": "0.75in",
      "right": "0.75in"
    },
    "printBackground": true,
    "waitUntil": "networkidle0"
  }' \
  --output example.pdf

const response = await fetch("https://api.cloudlayer.io/v1/url/pdf", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-API-Key": "your-api-key-here",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: "https://example.com",
    format: "a4",
    margin: { top: "1in", bottom: "1in", left: "0.75in", right: "0.75in" },
    printBackground: true,
    waitUntil: "networkidle0",
  }),
});

const pdf = await response.arrayBuffer();

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v1/url/pdf",
    headers={
        "X-API-Key": "your-api-key-here",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "url": "https://example.com",
        "format": "a4",
        "margin": {"top": "1in", "bottom": "1in", "left": "0.75in", "right": "0.75in"},
        "printBackground": True,
        "waitUntil": "networkidle0",
    },
)

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

curl -X POST "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key-here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "format": "a4",
    "margin": {
      "top": "1in",
      "bottom": "1in",
      "left": "0.75in",
      "right": "0.75in"
    },
    "printBackground": true,
    "waitUntil": "networkidle0",
    "async": false
  }' \
  --output example.pdf

const response = await fetch("https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-API-Key": "your-api-key-here",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: "https://example.com",
    format: "a4",
    margin: { top: "1in", bottom: "1in", left: "0.75in", right: "0.75in" },
    printBackground: true,
    waitUntil: "networkidle0",
    async: false,
  }),
});

const pdf = await response.arrayBuffer();

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf",
    headers={
        "X-API-Key": "your-api-key-here",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "url": "https://example.com",
        "format": "a4",
        "margin": {"top": "1in", "bottom": "1in", "left": "0.75in", "right": "0.75in"},
        "printBackground": True,
        "waitUntil": "networkidle0",
        "async": False,
    },
)

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

GET Parameters

The GET endpoint accepts these query parameters:

POST Parameters

URL Parameters

Base Parameters

These parameters control page loading behavior, viewport configuration, and general output settings.

PDF Parameters

Parameter Details

authentication Object

Provide HTTP Basic Authentication credentials. The browser will send these credentials when navigating to the URL.

{
  "url": "https://staging.example.com/report",
  "authentication": {
    "username": "admin",
    "password": "s3cur3p@ss"
  }
}

cookies Array

Set cookies in the browser before navigating to the URL. Each cookie is an object with the following fields:

{
  "url": "https://app.example.com/dashboard",
  "cookies": [
    {
      "name": "session_id",
      "value": "abc123def456",
      "domain": "app.example.com",
      "path": "/",
      "secure": true,
      "httpOnly": true
    },
    {
      "name": "theme",
      "value": "dark",
      "domain": "app.example.com"
    }
  ]
}

Use case: Cookies let you capture authenticated pages (dashboards, admin panels, user profiles) by passing the user’s session cookie. This is often simpler than Basic Auth for applications with cookie-based session management.

Batch Processing

Combine multiple URLs into a single multi-page PDF. Each URL is rendered as a separate section in the output document.

Pass an array of URL strings in the batch parameter:

{
  "batch": [
    "https://example.com/report/page-1",
    "https://example.com/report/page-2",
    "https://example.com/report/page-3"
  ],
  "format": "a4",
  "printBackground": true,
  "waitUntil": "networkidle0"
}

Note: When using batch, the url parameter is ignored. All other parameters (format, margin, viewport, etc.) apply to every URL in the batch.

Batch Example

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key-here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "batch": [
      "https://example.com/chapter-1",
      "https://example.com/chapter-2",
      "https://example.com/chapter-3"
    ],
    "format": "letter",
    "margin": {
      "top": "1in",
      "bottom": "1in",
      "left": "1in",
      "right": "1in"
    },
    "printBackground": true,
    "filename": "full-report.pdf"
  }' \
  --output full-report.pdf

JavaScript (fetch)

const response = await fetch("https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-API-Key": "your-api-key-here",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    batch: [
      "https://example.com/chapter-1",
      "https://example.com/chapter-2",
      "https://example.com/chapter-3",
    ],
    format: "letter",
    margin: { top: "1in", bottom: "1in", left: "1in", right: "1in" },
    printBackground: true,
    filename: "full-report.pdf",
  }),
});

const pdf = await response.arrayBuffer();

Python (requests)

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf",
    headers={
        "X-API-Key": "your-api-key-here",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json={
        "batch": [
            "https://example.com/chapter-1",
            "https://example.com/chapter-2",
            "https://example.com/chapter-3",
        ],
        "format": "letter",
        "margin": {"top": "1in", "bottom": "1in", "left": "1in", "right": "1in"},
        "printBackground": True,
        "filename": "full-report.pdf",
    },
)

with open("full-report.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

Authentication Example

Capture a page behind HTTP Basic Auth:

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key-here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://staging.internal.example.com/admin/report",
    "authentication": {
      "username": "report-viewer",
      "password": "s3cur3p@ss"
    },
    "format": "a4",
    "printBackground": true,
    "waitUntil": "networkidle0",
    "timeout": 60000
  }' \
  --output admin-report.pdf

Cookie Authentication Example

Capture an authenticated dashboard by injecting session cookies:

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.cloudlayer.io/v2/url/pdf" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-api-key-here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://app.example.com/dashboard",
    "cookies": [
      {
        "name": "auth_token",
        "value": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIs...",
        "domain": "app.example.com",
        "secure": true,
        "httpOnly": true,
        "sameSite": "Lax"
      }
    ],
    "format": "letter",
    "landscape": true,
    "printBackground": true,
    "waitUntil": "networkidle0",
    "delay": 2000
  }' \
  --output dashboard.pdf

Tips

• Dynamic content: Use waitUntil: "networkidle0" for SPAs and pages that fetch data via AJAX. Add a delay if content renders after API calls complete.
• Authenticated pages: Prefer cookies over authentication for modern web apps with session-based auth. Use authentication for sites with HTTP Basic Auth (common in staging environments).
• Batch limits: Batch processing is subject to your plan’s timeout limits. For large batches, consider using async mode.
• CORS and firewalls: The URL must be publicly accessible from cloudlayer.io servers. For internal/private URLs, consider using the HTML to PDF endpoint instead.
• Mobile rendering: Set viewPort.isMobile to true and viewPort.width to 375 (or similar) to capture the mobile version of a responsive site.