Paste a URL, get a PDF. Captures the full rendered page including JavaScript, images, and fonts.
This tool uses the same API you can call from your code. Capture any URL as a PDF at scale — with custom headers, cookies, viewport sizing, and wait strategies.
import PDFBase from 'pdfbase'
const client = new PDFBase()
const pdf = await client.pdfs.create({
url: 'https://example.com/report',
format: 'A4'
})
// pdf.url → signed download URL
// pdf.pages → number of pages
// pdf.bytes → file size in bytes
URL to PDF conversion takes a live webpage and captures it as a static PDF document. A headless browser navigates to the URL, loads all resources (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images, fonts), waits for the page to fully render, and then generates a PDF snapshot of the result. The output is a portable document that preserves the exact visual layout of the original page.
This is different from HTML to PDF in a fundamental way: you don't need the source markup. Point it at any publicly accessible URL and you get the fully rendered page as a PDF — complete with external stylesheets, loaded images, executed JavaScript, and web fonts. Single-page apps built with React, Vue, or Angular render correctly because the conversion uses a real Chromium browser under the hood.
Common use cases include archiving web content for legal or compliance purposes, generating PDF snapshots of dashboards and reports for stakeholders who don't have login access, capturing web receipts and confirmations as permanent records, and converting web-based documentation into offline-readable PDFs. If it renders in Chrome, it can be captured as a PDF.
Enter any publicly accessible URL into the input field above. The tool accepts any valid HTTP or HTTPS URL — webpages, dashboards, documentation sites, web apps, or any content that renders in a browser.
Choose page size (A4, Letter, or Legal) and orientation (portrait or landscape). These map directly to the PDFBase API's format and landscape parameters — the same options you'd pass programmatically.
Click "Capture to PDF" (or press Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter). A headless Chromium browser navigates to your URL, waits for the page to fully load and render, then captures it as a PDF. This typically takes 3-8 seconds depending on page complexity.
URL to PDF fills a different niche than HTML to PDF. Instead of generating documents from templates, it captures existing live pages. Here are the primary patterns developers build with this capability:
Schedule nightly PDF captures of internal dashboards (Grafana, Metabase, Looker, custom analytics) and email them to stakeholders. No one needs dashboard access — they get a pixel-perfect PDF snapshot in their inbox every morning.
Capture timestamped PDF snapshots of web content for compliance, litigation, or regulatory requirements. Terms of service pages, competitor pricing pages, user-generated content — anything that might change or disappear. The PDF serves as a permanent, shareable record.
Turn live dashboards into sharable reports without rebuilding the UI as a PDF template. Point the API at your dashboard URL (with auth cookies), and the Chromium browser renders charts, tables, and interactive elements exactly as they appear in the browser.
Capture structured web content as portable documents. Research papers, documentation pages, product listings, news articles — convert any web content into an offline, annotatable PDF without building a scraper or parsing HTML.
URL to PDF is the right tool whenever you need to capture existing web content rather than generate documents from data. Here are the most common patterns:
Cron job captures your analytics dashboard URL every Monday morning and emails the PDF to your team. Works with Grafana, Metabase, Looker, Retool, or any web-based reporting tool — no custom PDF templates needed.
Capture timestamped snapshots of terms of service, privacy policies, or regulatory pages for your compliance archive. Proves what was published on a specific date. Some teams capture daily for audit trails.
Convert web-hosted documentation into offline PDFs for air-gapped environments, client deliverables, or printable manuals. Capture individual pages or crawl an entire docs site and stitch PDFs together.
Build proposals as web pages (easier to design, easier to update) and capture them as PDFs for client delivery. Update the web version, re-capture, and the PDF always matches the latest content.
Automatically capture order confirmations, payment receipts, or booking confirmations as PDFs. Run the capture as part of your post-checkout flow and attach the PDF to the confirmation email.
Capture competitor pricing pages, feature comparison pages, or landing pages on a schedule. Build a searchable archive of how competitors position and price their products over time.
Wait for dynamic content to load. Many modern pages load content asynchronously. The PDFBase API supports wait strategies — waitForSelector waits for a specific element to appear, and waitForTimeout adds a fixed delay. Use these to ensure charts, lazy-loaded images, and SPA content are fully rendered before capture.
Set the viewport width for responsive pages. Pages render at a default viewport width of 1280px. If the site is responsive and you want the desktop layout, this is usually fine. For mobile captures, pass a narrower viewport width via the API. For dashboards with lots of columns, try 1920px.
Use cookies for authenticated pages. The free tool captures public URLs only, but the PDFBase API lets you pass cookies and custom headers with your request. Grab your session cookie from DevTools and include it in the API call to capture pages behind login walls.
Hide cookie banners and popups. Many sites show GDPR banners or newsletter popups that clutter the PDF. Via the API, use the javascript option to inject a script that hides these elements before capture. A simple document.querySelector('.cookie-banner')?.remove() does the trick.
Choose the right format for the content. Use A4 portrait for article-style pages and documentation. Use Letter landscape for dashboards, spreadsheet views, and wide data tables. Legal format works well for legal documents that need extra vertical space per page.
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