Microlink API:
 Introducing Microlink PDF

January 8, 2020 ()

Six months ago we launched
Microlink screenshot
 as part of our product iteration to offer browser capabilities ready to be used directly consuming our
API
.
Today, we’re thrilled to announce Microlink PDF 🔥.
See live demo at microlink.io/pdf.
Microlink PDF is based on the same engineering principles as the rest of the functionality behind
Microlink API
: making it trivial to get something back from any URL.
Enabling the new
pdf
 query parameter will add a pdf data field as part of the response payload:
{
  "pdf": {
    "size_pretty": "62.5 kB",
    "size": 62450,
    "type": "pdf",
    "url": "https://microlink.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/wEjulsXuSQxZhZcm5BKmUoiyDcc_"
  }
}
The PDF file created as output of the process is hosted on Microlink CDN and it can be combined with
ttl
 to automatically refresh in the background, providing an updated PDF representation of the target URL.
Additionally, a set of new query parameters have been added for better PDF accommodation, such as
scale
,
margin
 and
mediaType
.
These query parameters are specially helpful when the target URL is not actually prepared to be properly exported as PDF.
Another thing worth mentioning is the ability to consume the PDF directly from HTML markup using
embed
 mode:
<iframe frameborder='0' target='_parent' src='https://api.microlink.io/?url=https://basecamp.com/shapeup/0.3-chapter-01&pdf&embed=pdf.url'
></iframe>
Also as a button
<a href="https://api.microlink.io/?url=https://basecamp.com/shapeup/0.3-chapter-01&pdf&embed=pdf.url">
    <button>Download File</button>
</a>
This way, the PDF file will be created on the fly, making it a backendless solution: just HTML.

Join the community

All of these improvements or features are community driven: We listen to your feedback and act accordingly.
Whether you are are building a product and you need fancy previews, you’re an indie hacker or simply you like frontend stuff, come chat with us 🙂.