Fill in your details, pick a template, download a professional invoice PDF. Free, no signup.
Invoice PDF generated successfully
- pages · - · A4
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This tool uses the same API you can call from your code. Generate invoices at scale from order data, billing events, or any JSON. One endpoint, full Chromium rendering.
import PDFBase from 'pdfbase'
const client = new PDFBase()
const invoiceHtml = renderTemplate(orderData)
const pdf = await client.pdfs.create({
html: invoiceHtml,
format: 'A4'
})
// pdf.url → signed download URL
// pdf.pages → 1
// pdf.bytes → 42,891
A PDF invoice generator creates professional, printable invoice documents from structured data. Instead of manually formatting invoices in Word or Google Docs, you fill in the details (or pass them via an API) and get a pixel-perfect PDF ready to send to clients. The best generators use HTML and CSS under the hood, which means your invoices can look exactly like a well-designed web page — custom fonts, brand colors, clean table layouts, and all.
Developers need invoice generation for three common scenarios: SaaS billing (monthly/annual invoices sent automatically after payment), e-commerce receipts (order confirmations with line items and tax breakdowns), and freelance invoicing (ad-hoc invoices for project work). In all cases, the pattern is the same: take structured data (line items, amounts, dates, addresses), inject it into a template, and produce a PDF.
This tool lets you build and preview invoices interactively before downloading the PDF. For production use, the same HTML template can be populated programmatically using the PDFBase API — same rendering engine, same output quality, but called from your code instead of a form.
Enter your company details, client information, invoice number, dates, and line items. The live preview on the right updates in real-time as you type, so you can see exactly how the final invoice will look before generating the PDF.
Pick from three built-in templates: Modern (clean accent header with grid layout), Classic (traditional bordered table, formal typography), or Minimal (spare layout, lots of whitespace). Each generates a standalone HTML document with embedded CSS optimized for PDF rendering.
Click "Generate PDF" (or Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter). The invoice HTML is sent to the PDFBase API, rendered in a full Chromium browser, and returned as a downloadable A4 PDF. Typical generation takes 150-300ms.
Manual invoice creation doesn't scale past a handful of clients. Here's why teams invest in programmatic invoice generation:
When a subscription payment succeeds, your webhook fires and generates an invoice PDF automatically. No human touches it. The invoice is attached to the confirmation email and stored for tax records. At scale, this means thousands of invoices per month with zero manual effort.
Every order generates a receipt PDF with line items, shipping details, tax breakdown, and return policy. The same template handles orders of 1 item or 50. Dynamic HTML makes this trivial — loop over line items, calculate totals, and render.
Different jurisdictions require different tax formats, mandatory fields, and numbering schemes. Programmatic generation ensures every invoice includes the required tax ID, registration number, correct tax rate, and sequential numbering — no human error.
Global businesses invoice in the client's local currency. The template handles currency symbol formatting, decimal conventions (comma vs. period), and exchange rate notes. One template, any currency — just pass different data.
There are several ways to generate invoice PDFs in code. Here's how they stack up:
Full control but painful to use. You position every element with x/y coordinates, manually handle page breaks, and calculate text wrapping yourself. Good for simple, fixed layouts. Becomes a maintenance nightmare for anything complex or frequently changed.
Write HTML and CSS — get a PDF. Best design flexibility and fastest iteration. PDFBase handles the rendering infrastructure (Chromium, scaling, caching) so you don't manage headless browsers. Puppeteer works but requires self-hosting. wkhtmltopdf is deprecated.
Full billing platforms that include invoice generation. Great if you're already using Stripe or FreshBooks for billing. But you're locked into their template designs, customization is limited, and costs scale with your transaction volume rather than PDF volume.
Upload a DOCX or ODS template, send JSON data, get a PDF. Simpler than HTML-to-PDF but much less flexible. You're constrained by what the template engine supports — no CSS Grid, no custom fonts, no JavaScript-driven content.
Include your branding. Add your company logo, use your brand colors for headers and accents, and set your brand typeface with Google Fonts or @font-face. A branded invoice reinforces professionalism and makes your business instantly recognizable.
Get tax details right. Include your tax registration number (GST, VAT, EIN), apply the correct tax rate for the jurisdiction, and show the tax calculation clearly. Some regions require specific line items like CGST/SGST split or reverse charge notices. Get this wrong and you create accounting headaches for your clients.
State payment terms clearly. "Net 30" is standard but be explicit: include the exact due date, accepted payment methods, bank transfer details, and late payment policy. The fewer questions a client has about how to pay, the faster you get paid.
Use sequential numbering. Invoice numbers should be sequential and unique (INV-001, INV-002, ...). This is a legal requirement in many jurisdictions and makes reconciliation trivial. Never reuse an invoice number, even for voided invoices — mark them as void instead.
Handle localization. Different countries use different date formats (MM/DD/YYYY vs DD/MM/YYYY), decimal separators (1,000.00 vs 1.000,00), and paper sizes (Letter vs A4). If you invoice internationally, parametrize these in your template rather than hardcoding them.
Full HTML editor with live preview — build any PDF template from scratch
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