Markdown to PDF API

What you can send

The text goes in as markdown, up to 1 MB of UTF-8, which is several hundred pages of prose. A YAML front matter block at the top gives the PDF its title, author, subject and keywords; without one, the first heading is the title. A line \newpage starts a new page, [^1] makes a footnote, and a link to #revenue-by-region jumps to that heading inside the PDF.

A picture named by a bare file name, such as logo.png, is a file of the workspace’s file library; public https addresses and data:image/ addresses work as well. The command above asks for the file itself with ?output=binary; without it the answer is JSON with a signed download link, the page count and the units.

Text from your users and from models

By default raw HTML in the text is shown as text, and only <br> and a few formatting tags such as <sup> and <mark> stay tags, without attributes. Links keep to http, https, mailto and tel, pictures to https, data:image/ and the library, so an answer from a model can neither run a script nor point a link at javascript:.

For Markdown you wrote yourself, with a styled box or an embedded widget, settings.markdown.html: "allow" writes the HTML as it stands, as an HTML render does:

{
  "markdown": "# Release notes\n\n<div class=\"note\">Version 2.4 is out.</div>",
  "settings": { "markdown": { "html": "allow" } }
}

Its look: the theme, your CSS, your brand

The document theme sets the text in Noto Sans and code in a monospace face, keeps headings with what follows them and wraps whatever would be wider than the page. Where your organisation has a brand kit, headings and text take its fonts and links its primary colour. theme: "none" leaves only the print reset, and css, up to 256 kB, comes after either:

{
  "markdown": "# Release notes\n\n…",
  "settings": {
    "markdown": {
      "theme": "none",
      "css": ".ff-markdown { font-family: Georgia, serif; } .ff-markdown h1 { color: #0f766e; }"
    }
  }
}

Markdown with data

With engine set to jinja2, liquid or handlebars, the text is a template for the data you send along and is read as Markdown afterwards, with every helper for money, dates and codes. Values are escaped, so a value can bring Markdown but no HTML.

{
  "markdown": "# Report for {{ customer.name }}\n\n{% for item in items %}- {{ item.name }}: {{ item.total | money }}\n{% endfor %}",
  "engine": "jinja2",
  "data": {
    "customer": { "name": "Olvarest GmbH" },
    "items": [{ "name": "Consulting", "total": 960 }]
  }
}

Bookmarks, PDF/UA-1 and PDF/A

The converter closes up the heading levels and fills empty table cells, and the title comes from the front matter or the first heading. With settings.pdf.ua, veraPDF holds the file to the machine-checkable rules of PDF/UA-1 before it is delivered, and the render carries its verdict; the alternative texts are yours to write. settings.pdf.pdfa makes the file a PDF/A-2b or PDF/A-3b for archiving, and settings.pdf.outline writes bookmarks from the headings at no cost.

What a PDF costs

Every plan renders Markdown. A PDF of up to five pages is one unit, and every further five pages add one. The Free plan has 100 units a month and asks for no credit card; Starter has 3,000 units for €19 a month. Renders with a test key cost nothing, and a render that fails is never counted. Every plan is on the pricing page.