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CURL

Common Use Cases

  • Render PDF pages as lossless PNG images for a product catalog or design review
  • Convert diagrams, charts, or screenshots in a PDF into sharp images for a wiki or help center
  • Generate high-fidelity page previews where text and line art must stay crisp
  • Export selected PDF pages as PNGs for annotation, markup, or overlay in another tool
Try it live: PDF to PNG → API Tester — send a real request from your browser.

POST /v1/pdf/convert/to/png

Request body

Attributes are case-sensitive and should be inside JSON for POST request. for example: { "url": "https://example.com/file1.pdf" } No query parameters accepted.
To see the request size limits, please refer to the Request Size Limits.
string
required
URL to the source file url attribute
string
The callback URL (or Webhook) used to receive the POST data. see Webhooks & Callbacks. This is only applicable when async is set to true.
string
HTTP auth user name if required to access source URL.
string
HTTP auth password if required to access source URL.
string
default:"all pages"
Specify page indices as comma-separated values or ranges to process (e.g. “0, 1, 2-” or “1, 2, 3-7”). The first-page index is 0. Use ”!” before a number for inverted page numbers (e.g. “!0” for the last page). If not specified, the default configuration processes all pages. The input must be in string format.
string
Defines coordinates for extraction. UsePDF Edit Add Helperto get or measure PDF coordinates. The format is {x} {y} {width} {height}.
boolean
default:"false"
Set to true to return results inside the response. Otherwise, the endpoint will return a URL to the output file generated.
string
Password for the PDF file.
boolean
default:"false"
Set async to true for long processes to run in the background, API will then return a jobId which you can use with the Background Job Check endpoint. Also see Webhooks & Callbacks
string
File name for the generated output, the input must be in string format.
integer
default:"60"
Set the expiration time for the output link in minutes. After this specified duration, any generated output file(s) will be automatically deleted from PDF.co Temporary Files Storage. The maximum duration for link expiration varies based on your current subscription plan. To store permanent input files (e.g. re-usable images, pdf templates, documents) consider using PDF.co Built-In Files Storage.
string
Pass profile settings as a JSON-encoded string. See Profiles for more information.

Disable Text Layer

We can turn off the text layer for our render as follows:

Set Image Resolution

By default the screen resolution is 120 DPI. To change the rendering resolution, please use:

Use this parameter to set additional configurations for fine-tuning and extra options. Explore the Profiles section for more.

Profiles section for more.

OCRImagePreprocessingFilters

To set image preprocessing filters, please use:

Responses

Synchronous response
An asynchronous request returns a jobId and a reserved URL that should be used only after the job succeeds. Poll it via Background Job Check. Errors return error: true with a status code and message. See the response examples and Response Codes.
Inconsistent URL Encoding in cURL Output: When using cURL to make API requests, the output JSON may show URL characters encoded as Unicode escape sequences. For example, the ampersand character (&) may appear as \u0026 in the cURL output. This is normal JSON encoding behavior and does not affect the validity of the URL. The URL will function correctly when used, as JSON parsers automatically decode these escape sequences. If you’re parsing the response programmatically, your JSON parser will handle this conversion automatically.