PDFPipe is an HTML-to-PDF API. You send a POST request to https://api.pdfpipe.xyz/v1/pdf with a JSON body containing an HTML string or a URL, and receive an application/pdf file in the response. It handles browser rendering in a managed cloud environment, so you do not need to install or maintain any PDF software on your servers.

How do I use the PDFPipe API?

1. Sign up at pdfpipe.xyz to get an API key (format: pp_live_…). 2. POST to https://api.pdfpipe.xyz/v1/pdf with Authorization: Bearer pp_live_your_key and Content-Type: application/json. 3. Set the request body to {"html": " Hello "} or {"url": "https://example.com"} plus an optional "options" object for format, margins, etc. 4. The response body is the raw PDF file. Full reference at https://pdfpipe.xyz/docs.

What programming languages does PDFPipe support?

PDFPipe works with any language that can make an HTTP request. Official SDKs are available for Node.js (npm install pdfpipe-node) and Python (pip install pdfpipe-python). The API also works directly in Go, Java, PHP, Ruby, Rust, C#, Kotlin, Elixir, and others via standard HTTP clients. Framework-specific guides are available at https://pdfpipe.xyz/guides.

What PDF options are available?

Pass an "options" object in the request body. Key options: format (A4, A3, A5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid, default A4), landscape (true/false), margin (CSS length or object with top/bottom/left/right), print_background (true/false), scale (0.1 to 2.0), page_ranges (e.g. "1-3, 5"), header_html, footer_html, inject_css, wait_until (load, domcontentloaded, networkidle0, networkidle2), wait_ms, timeout_ms (1000 to 60000, default 30000), pdf_a (true/false for PDF/A-1b). Full reference at https://pdfpipe.xyz/docs#options.

How much does PDFPipe cost?

Hobby: free, 100 documents per month, no credit card required. Starter: $19/month, 3,000 documents. Growth: $49/month, 15,000 documents. Scale: $149/month, 50,000 documents. Business: $299/month, 100,000 documents. Enterprise: custom volume set in contract. No overage: at the limit the API returns HTTP 402. Flat pricing: one document counts as one document with no credit conversion.

What is the PDFPipe API endpoint?

The main render endpoint is POST https://api.pdfpipe.xyz/v1/pdf. Additional endpoints: POST /v1/pdf/batch (batch rendering, 10 to 250 items per call depending on plan), POST /v1/pdf/merge (merge PDFs), GET /v1/me (check key and usage), GET /v1/documents (list stored PDFs), POST /v1/demo (playground, no key required). Full endpoint list at https://pdfpipe.xyz/docs#endpoints.

Can I not just run Puppeteer or wkhtmltopdf myself?

You can, but running a browser in production means managing memory limits, system font availability, concurrency queues, version pinning, and on-call incidents when it crashes. PDFPipe handles the rendering infrastructure so your team ships product code instead. The API also includes SSRF protection so untrusted HTML cannot reach internal services.

Does PDFPipe support AI agents via MCP?

Yes. Install pdfpipe-mcp-server (npm install pdfpipe-mcp-server), set PDFPIPE_API_KEY, and point any MCP-compatible agent at it. The pdfpipe_generate_pdf tool becomes available for the agent to generate PDFs in a single tool call. Details at https://pdfpipe.xyz/mcp.

Text and typography / hyphens

How to enable hyphenation in a PDF

hyphens: auto lets the layout break words at syllable boundaries, using a dictionary for the language declared on the document.

What it is for

In a narrow column, particularly in German, Finnish or any language with long compounds, hyphenation is the difference between an even text block and one full of rivers of whitespace.

Support: Works everywhere

Supported, and completely dependent on a lang attribute. Without one there is no dictionary to consult and the property does nothing at all, with no warning.

The syntax

Written the way it would appear in a document stylesheet, using hyphens as intended.

css

<html lang="de">   <!-- Required. Without it, hyphens: auto is inert. -->

.document {
  hyphens: auto;
  /* Do not hyphenate anything shorter than this. */
  -webkit-hyphenate-limit-before: 3;
  -webkit-hyphenate-limit-after: 3;
}

/* Never hyphenate identifiers, which have no syllables to break at. */
.reference,
.document code {
  hyphens: none;
}

The mistake people make

No lang attribute. This is the most common reason hyphens: auto appears not to work, and it is invisible because the CSS is correct.

Frequently asked

Does hyphens work when generating a PDF?

Works everywhere. Supported, and completely dependent on a lang attribute. Without one there is no dictionary to consult and the property does nothing at all, with no warning.

How would I know if it were not working?

You would not, from the CSS. Unimplemented and unmatched CSS both fail silently, which is why the reliable test is to set a deliberately extreme value and see whether anything changes. If a 40mm margin looks the same as an 18mm one, the rule is not reaching the page.

Related properties

Things that come up in the same part of a document stylesheet.

How to embed a custom font in a PDF@font-face. Works everywhere.Which font-display value should a PDF usefont-display. Works everywhere.How to use different fonts for different scripts in a PDFunicode-range. Works everywhere.How to align numbers in a PDF table columnfont-variant-numeric. Works everywhere.How to wrap long URLs and reference numbers in a PDFoverflow-wrap. Works everywhere.Every property, with its support statusThe full reference, grouped by what part of the page it touches.

Paste the CSS and see what the rendered page does with it.

Try it live, no signup Try it in the playground