A wkhtmltopdf alternative: headless Chromium over an API

wkhtmltopdf's own status page and repository tell you where the project stands. This guide maps its common options to a headless Chromium PDF API and shows the same job as code you can run.

Why people are moving

• The wkhtmltopdf GitHub repository shows "archived by the owner on Jan 2, 2023" and is read-only. Source: github.com/wkhtmltopdf/wkhtmltopdf, checked 2026-10-09.
• Its status page says QtWebKit, the engine it uses, was deprecated in 2015 and removed in 2016, and tells you not to use wkhtmltopdf with untrusted HTML. Source: wkhtmltopdf.org/status.html, checked 2026-10-09.
• This service renders with headless Chromium, which supports current CSS such as flexbox and grid layout, and runs your page's JavaScript.

None of this means your existing PDFs are wrong. It is a reason to plan a move, and to test your own templates before you do.

Option mapping

wkhtmltopdf options are from its usage page (wkhtmltopdf.org/usage/wkhtmltopdf.txt, checked 2026-10-09). The API options go inside options of POST /v1/render.

Before and after

A typical wkhtmltopdf call:

wkhtmltopdf --page-size A4 --orientation Portrait \
  --margin-top 20mm --margin-bottom 20mm --margin-left 15mm --margin-right 15mm \
  report.html report.pdf

The same job against the API. Set AIIPWORLD_API_KEY to a key from your dashboard. The cURL version needs jq.

import { readFile, writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";

const API = "https://api.aiipworld.com";
const headers = { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.AIIPWORLD_API_KEY}`, "Content-Type": "application/json" };

const html = await readFile("report.html", "utf8");
const submit = await fetch(`${API}/v1/render`, {
  method: "POST",
  headers,
  body: JSON.stringify({
    html,
    output: "pdf",
    options: {
        "format": "A4",
        "landscape": false,
        "media": "screen",
        "margin": { "top": "20mm", "bottom": "20mm", "left": "15mm", "right": "15mm" }
      },
  }),
});
const { job_id } = await submit.json();

let job;
do {
  await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 500));
  job = await (await fetch(`${API}/v1/jobs/${job_id}`, { headers })).json();
} while (job.status === "queued" || job.status === "running");

if (job.status !== "succeeded") throw new Error(`${job.status}: ${job.error}`);
const pdf = await (await fetch(job.download_url)).arrayBuffer();
await writeFile("report.pdf", Buffer.from(pdf));

Headers and footers: add display_header_footer: true with header_template and footer_template, as in the PDF API example. The sample below was made that way.

Example output

Things to check when you switch

• Relative files. The API loads public http and https addresses only, not files on your disk. Inline images and CSS with data URLs, use absolute https URLs, or send base_url.
• Fonts. Fonts on your own server are not on ours. The render server has the Noto and Liberation families and colour emoji; for others use @font-face with a public or data URL.
• Page breaks. Use break-inside: avoid on rows or blocks you do not want split. A table header set to display: table-header-group repeats on each page; we checked that with a multi-page table.
• Layout differences. A different engine means small differences. Compare real documents side by side.
• Where the HTML goes. It is sent to our servers and deleted after the retention time of your plan. Keep documents that cannot leave your network on your own infrastructure.

Prefer to run it yourself? Headless Chromium driven by Playwright or Puppeteer is the common self-hosted route. Our HTML to PDF tool lets you try the output without an account.