PDF Compression

Reduce PDF file size with configurable compression levels.

PDF Compression

Reduce the file size of generated PDFs with configurable compression levels. Compression can be added to any PDF generation endpoint.

Adding Compression to PDF Generation

Compression is available as an option on all PDF generation endpoints:

POST /v1/pdf/markdown
POST /v1/pdf/html
POST /v1/pdf/url
POST /v1/pdf/template

Compression Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`compression.enabled`	boolean	`false`	Enable compression
`compression.level`	string	`"medium"`	Compression level

Compression Levels

Level	Description	Typical Reduction	Quality
`none`	No compression	0%	Original
`low`	Light compression	10-20%	Excellent
`medium`	Balanced compression	30-50%	Very good
`high`	Maximum compression	50-70%	Good

Code Examples

curl -X POST https://api.pdfapi.dev/v1/pdf/markdown \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_xxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "markdown": "# Large Document\n\nThis document contains lots of content...",
    "options": {
      "format": "A4",
      "compression": {
        "enabled": true,
        "level": "medium"
      }
    }
  }' \
  --output compressed.pdf

const response = await fetch('https://api.pdfapi.dev/v1/pdf/html', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${process.env.PDFAPI_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    html: '<html><body><h1>Invoice</h1>...</body></html>',
    options: {
      format: 'A4',
      compression: {
        enabled: true,
        level: 'high'
      }
    }
  }),
});

const buffer = await response.arrayBuffer();
console.log(`Compressed PDF size: ${buffer.byteLength} bytes`);

import requests
import os

response = requests.post(
    'https://api.pdfapi.dev/v1/pdf/url',
    headers={
        'Authorization': f'Bearer {os.environ["PDFAPI_KEY"]}',
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    },
    json={
        'url': 'https://example.com/large-page',
        'options': {
            'format': 'A4',
            'full_page': True,
            'compression': {
                'enabled': True,
                'level': 'medium'
            }
        }
    }
)

if response.status_code == 200:
    print(f"Original size estimate vs compressed: {len(response.content)} bytes")
    with open('compressed.pdf', 'wb') as f:
        f.write(response.content)

package main

import (
    "bytes"
    "encoding/json"
    "io"
    "net/http"
    "os"
)

func main() {
    payload := map[string]interface{}{
        "markdown": "# Report\n\nContent here...",
        "options": map[string]interface{}{
            "format": "A4",
            "compression": map[string]interface{}{
                "enabled": true,
                "level":   "medium",
            },
        },
    }

    body, _ := json.Marshal(payload)
    req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.pdfapi.dev/v1/pdf/markdown", bytes.NewBuffer(body))
    req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("PDFAPI_KEY"))
    req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

    client := &http.Client{}
    resp, _ := client.Do(req)
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    pdf, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    os.WriteFile("compressed.pdf", pdf, 0644)
}

Compression with Templates

Apply compression when generating PDFs from templates:

curl -X POST https://api.pdfapi.dev/v1/pdf/template \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_xxx" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "template": "invoice",
    "data": {
      "invoice_number": "INV-2025-001",
      "items": [...]
    },
    "options": {
      "compression": {
        "enabled": true,
        "level": "low"
      }
    }
  }' \
  --output invoice.pdf

Choosing the Right Level

Low Compression

Best for documents where quality is critical:

Legal documents
Contracts
Certificates
High-resolution images

Medium Compression

Best balance for most use cases:

Invoices and receipts
Reports
General documentation
Email attachments

High Compression

Best for minimizing file size:

Bulk document storage
Bandwidth-constrained delivery
Archival purposes
Mobile-first applications

Response Headers

When compression is enabled, the response includes additional headers:

X-Compression-Level: medium
X-Original-Size: 2456789
X-Compressed-Size: 1234567
X-Compression-Ratio: 49.7%

Notes

Compression affects images and embedded fonts the most
Text content is already efficiently stored in PDFs
Very small PDFs may not benefit significantly from compression
Compression adds minimal processing time (typically < 1 second)
The none level is useful for explicitly disabling default compression