What is the best way to generate invoice PDFs from a web app?

Render your existing HTML invoice template with the template engine you already use — Jinja2, ERB, Handlebars — then POST the finished HTML to /v1/render. The template stays in version control and is reviewed like the rest of your code.

How do I get the invoice totals to line up across page breaks?

Use CSS Paged Media: thead repeats automatically on each page, and break-inside: avoid on a row group keeps line items from splitting mid-row.

Can I include a company logo?

Yes, but it must be inlined as a data: URI. pdfrender never fetches external http(s) URLs, so a remote is rejected with 400 external_resource_blocked.

Generate invoice PDFs from HTML templates

Turn an HTML invoice template into a pixel-faithful PDF via API: template with your stack, style with CSS, POST to /v1/render. Example included.

Last updated 2026-07-26

Invoices are the classic HTML→PDF workload: you already have the data, HTML+CSS is the easiest layout language you know, and the output must look identical every time. The pattern:

Keep one invoice.html template in your codebase (any template engine — Jinja2, ERB, Handlebars, Blade …).
Render it with the invoice data → an HTML string.
POST /v1/render → store or email the returned PDF.

<style>
  @page { size: A4; margin: 20mm;
    @bottom-center { content: "Page " counter(page) " of " counter(pages); } }
  table { width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse; }
  td, th { padding: 6px 8px; border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; }
  .total { font-weight: bold; }
</style>
<h1>Invoice 2026-001</h1>
<table>
  <tr><th>Item</th><th>Qty</th><th>Price</th></tr>
  <tr><td>Design work</td><td>12 h</td><td>1,200.00 €</td></tr>
  <tr class="total"><td>Total</td><td></td><td>1,200.00 €</td></tr>
</table>

Logos go in as data: URIs (how); the rendering is deterministic — same HTML in, same PDF out.

Operational notes

Renders are synchronous and bounded (20 s timeout, 50 pages) — an invoice renders in well under a second, so you can generate it inline in the request that closes the order. One render costs one credit; a failed render (5xx) auto-refunds the credit. pdfrender stores nothing: the PDF exists only in the response.

Try it free

Paste your invoice template into the free browser tool, then try the API free — 100 renders a month, no card.

FAQ

What is the best way to generate invoice PDFs from a web app?: Render your existing HTML invoice template with the template engine you already use — Jinja2, ERB, Handlebars — then POST the finished HTML to /v1/render. The template stays in version control and is reviewed like the rest of your code.
How do I get the invoice totals to line up across page breaks?: Use CSS Paged Media: thead repeats automatically on each page, and break-inside: avoid on a row group keeps line items from splitting mid-row.
Can I include a company logo?: Yes, but it must be inlined as a data: URI. pdfrender never fetches external http(s) URLs, so a remote <img src> is rejected with 400 external_resource_blocked.