Document Configuration

Document Name

By default, PDF documents generated by the PDFlayer API are named pdflayer.pdf. Using the API's document_name parameter you can specify a custom name for your final PDF document.

Example API Request:

Parameter Specification:

Document Units

The default document unit is px. A custom unit can be specified by appending the API's custom_unit parameter and setting it to one of the four supported document units.

Example API Request:

Parameter Specification:

HTTP User-Agent Header

The API's user_agent parameter is used to adjust the final PDF document to a certain device setting. In many cases, this parameter is used to ensure more consistent functionality of the Viewport Control feature.

To specify a custom HTTP User-Agent header, simply append the respective User-Agent string to the user_agent parameter.

Example API Request:

Common HTTP User-Agent Headers:

Find a detailed list of HTTP User-Agent headers here »

HTTP Accept-Language Header

By default, PDF documents processed by the PDFlayer API don't come with a specific HTTP Accept-Language header. An Accept-Language header can be specified by appending the respective string to the API's accept_lang parameter.

Example API Request:

Common HTTP Accept-Language Headers:

You can find a comprehensive list of accept-language strings here.

TTL (Caching Time)

By default, generated PDFs are cached for a period of 30 days (2,592,000 seconds). Using the API's ttl parameter, you can specify a custom caching time (in seconds) lower than the default setting.

The example API query below requests the final PDF to be cached for 259,200 seconds (3 days).

Example API Request:

Parameter Specification:

Force New PDF

As mentioned earlier, by default PDF documents are cached for 30 days upon creation. (Learn more about TTL - Caching Time)

By setting the PDFlayer API's force parameter to 1 the API will be requested to generate a new PDF each time the API request URL is called.

Example API Request:

Please Note: Each call of an API request URL including the force functionality counts towards your monthly API request volume.

Inline/Attachment Parameter

By default, accessing a PDFlayer API request URL in a browser will trigger the download of the generated PDF (attachment behaviour). By setting the API's inline parameter to 1 the API will be requested to display the PDF in the browser instead (inline behaviour).

Example API Request:

Parameter Specification:

Password-Protected Sites

The PDFlayer API can also generate PDFs from password-protected websites. The parameters auth_user and auth_pass are used to authenticate with a password-protected website.

Example API Request:

Parameter Specification:

PDF Encryption

There are two encryption levels available for PDFs generated by the PDFlayer API: 40-bit, 128-bit and 156-bit. In order to activate encryption, set the API's encryption parameter to 40, 128 or 256.

Example API Request:

Parameter Specification:

PDF Authentication

The pdflayer API offers two levels of PDF password protection: owner password and user password. These can be specified by appending the owner_password and user_password parameter(s) and setting them to their respective password value. Both owner_password and user_password must be provided.

Supplying an owner password grants unlimited access to the PDF, including the ability to change the password and Permission Options. A user password, on the other hand, must be supplied to view the document and perform operations allowed by the Permission Options.

Example API Request:

Parameter Specification:

Misc Options

In addition to the above-mentioned document configuration parameters, there is a series of extra settings that can be specified for the final PDF document. Please find them in the table below:

Example API Request:

Parameter Specification:

Permission Options

PDFLayer allows you to configure document permission options such as printing, copying, and modification restrictions at the time of PDF generation. Certain permission flags, including no_print, no_copy, and no_modify, can now be applied without requiring an owner_password, user_password, or the encryption parameter. These restrictions are embedded directly during PDF creation.

For advanced security features — such as password-protected documents, encrypted PDFs, or permissions that require post-generation control — Please check the PDF Authentication section.

After a PDF is generated, permission settings that rely on passwords or encryption can only be changed or removed by supplying the owner password."

Example API request using permission options:

Parameter Specification: