Getting Started

Go from sign-up to your first PDF in under five minutes. This guide walks through the web UI — for AI agent setup, see AI & Agent Setup.

1. Create an account

Head to the registration page and sign up with your email. You'll get 500 free credits to start — enough for about 10 AI-generated templates or 500 renders.

2. Create an API key

If you plan to call the API (from code, scripts, or an AI agent), you'll need an API key.

1
Open Settings
Click your name in the header, then go to Settings → API Keys.
2
Generate a key
Click Create API Key, give it a name (e.g. "My App"), and copy the key. You won't be able to see it again.
3
Use the key
Pass it as a Bearer token in the Authorization header:

Authorization: Bearer mpdf_your_api_key_here

3. Create your first template

Templates are the core concept. You describe your document type and provide sample data — AI designs a professional layout with {{variable}} placeholders. You can then re-render the same template with different data as many times as you want.

Via the web UI

Go to Templates, click New Template, choose a document type (e.g. invoice), and paste in your JSON data. The AI will generate a template in about 20 seconds. You can generate multiple alternatives and pick your favourite.

Via the API

curl -X POST https://makespdf.com/api/v1/templates \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mpdf_your_api_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "type": "invoice",
    "style": "modern",
    "data": {
      "company": "Acme Corp",
      "invoiceNumber": "INV-001",
      "items": [
        { "description": "Web design", "quantity": 1, "unitPrice": 2500 }
      ],
      "subtotal": 2500,
      "tax": 250,
      "total": 2750
    }
  }'

The response includes a templateId — save this for rendering.

4. Render a PDF

Once you have a template, rendering is fast (sub-second) and costs 1 credit. Pass your template ID and fresh data:

curl -X POST https://makespdf.com/api/v1/render \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mpdf_your_api_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "templateId": "your-template-id",
    "data": {
      "company": "Different Corp",
      "invoiceNumber": "INV-002",
      "items": [
        { "description": "Consulting", "quantity": 10, "unitPrice": 150 }
      ],
      "subtotal": 1500,
      "tax": 150,
      "total": 1650
    }
  }' -o invoice.pdf

The response is the PDF binary. Open it and you'll see a professionally designed invoice with your data filled in.

Tip: Every PDF is PDF/A-2A + PDF/UA-1 dual-compliant — archival-grade with full accessibility (tagged structure, embedded fonts, Unicode text extraction). No extra configuration needed.

5. Quick alternative: Markdown to PDF

Don't need a reusable template? Send Markdown directly and get a PDF back. No AI call, no credits for template generation — just 1 credit per render.

curl -X POST https://makespdf.com/api/v1/md \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer mpdf_your_api_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"markdown": "# Monthly Report\n\n## Summary\n\nRevenue increased **23%** over last quarter.\n\n| Metric | Value |\n|--------|-------|\n| Revenue | $1.2M |\n| Users | 8,400 |"}' \
  -o report.pdf

Supports full GitHub Flavored Markdown — headings, tables, code blocks, task lists, images, footnotes, and more. See the API Reference for all options.

What's next

API Reference — Full endpoint documentation, request/response formats, error codes
AI & Agent Setup — Let your AI assistant generate PDFs with a single prompt
Generate — VS Code, Obsidian, AI chat, library templates
Pricing — Plans, credits, and usage