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Generate PDFs via API for Free: A Developer Guide

Convert HTML to PDF, parse documents, and generate invoices using free PDF APIs. No infrastructure required.

Generating PDFs server-side used to require complex libraries like wkhtmltopdf or headless Chrome. These free APIs handle the complexity for you with simple HTTP requests.

1. PDFGenerator - HTML to PDF Conversion

Convert HTML to PDF with full CSS support, including Flexbox and Grid layouts. Add custom headers, footers, and page numbers. 100 free PDFs per month.

curl -X POST https://freeapitools.dev/api/v1/pdf/generate \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "html": "<h1>Invoice</h1><p>Total: $1,250</p>",
    "format": "A4",
    "margin": "20mm"
  }'

View PDFGenerator docs →

2. InvoiceGen - Professional Invoice PDFs

Generate branded invoices programmatically with line items, tax calculations, and multiple currency support. 50 invoices/month free.

View InvoiceGen docs →

3. DocParser - Extract Data from Documents

Parse invoices, receipts, contracts, and forms. Returns structured JSON with extracted fields. 200 documents/month free.

View DocParser docs →

PDF Generation Best Practices

  • Use web-safe fonts: Or include font files in your HTML
  • Test print CSS: Use @media print rules for page breaks
  • Optimize images: Compress before including in PDFs
  • Set explicit dimensions: Define page size, margins, and DPI

Example: Generate an Invoice

import requests

html_content = """
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <style>
    body { font-family: Arial, sans-serif; }
    .header { background: #333; color: white; padding: 20px; }
  </style>
</head>
<body>
  <div class="header"><h1>Invoice #2026-001</h1></div>
  <p>Total: $1,250.00</p>
</body>
</html>
"""

response = requests.post(
    "https://freeapitools.dev/api/v1/pdf/generate",
    json={"html": html_content, "format": "A4"}
)

pdf_url = response.json()["url"]
print(f"PDF generated: {pdf_url}")

Get Your API Key

Start generating PDFs in minutes:

Get Free API Key →

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Ready to Start Building?

Get your free API key and access all the APIs mentioned in this article.

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