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📸 Website Screenshot & PDF API — Pixel-Perfect Captures in Under 3 Seconds

The fastest screenshot API on the market. Capture any webpage as PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF with sub-3-second delivery. Competitors take 6-21 seconds. We deliver in 1-2 seconds.

Architecture Overview

flowchart TB
 subgraph Client["Your Application"]
 REQ["HTTP Request"]
 end
 subgraph API["Screenshot & PDF API"]
 ROUTER["Request Router"]
 VALIDATE["Input Validation"]
 CACHE["10-min LRU Cache"]
 BROWSER["Pre-Warmed Puppeteer<br/>Chromium Browser"]
 RENDER["Page Renderer"]
 FORMAT["Output Formatter"]
 CHARGE["PPE Billing"]
 end
 subgraph Output["Response"]
 BIN["Binary Image/PDF"]
 B64["Base64 JSON"]
 end
 REQ --> ROUTER
 ROUTER -->|"/screenshot"| VALIDATE
 ROUTER -->|"/pdf"| VALIDATE
 ROUTER -->|"/batch"| VALIDATE
 VALIDATE --> CACHE
 CACHE -->|"Hit"| FORMAT
 CACHE -->|"Miss"| BROWSER
 BROWSER --> RENDER --> FORMAT
 FORMAT --> CHARGE
 CHARGE --> BIN & B64
 style Client fill:#1a1a2e,color:#fff
 style API fill:#16213e,color:#fff
 style Output fill:#533483,color:#fff

Performance Comparison

gantt
 title Screenshot Latency Comparison (lower is better)
 dateFormat X
 axisFormat %s seconds
 section This API
 Screenshot (2.1s) :done, 0, 2100
 PDF (1.2s) :done, 0, 1200
 section Competitor A
 Screenshot (8.4s) :crit, 0, 8400
 section Competitor B
 Screenshot (14.2s) :crit, 0, 14200
 section Competitor C
 Screenshot (21s) :crit, 0, 21000

Request Flow

sequenceDiagram
 participant App as Your App
 participant API as Screenshot API
 participant Cache as LRU Cache
 participant Chrome as Puppeteer Chrome
 App->>API: GET /screenshot?url=github.com&width=1280
 API->>Cache: Lookup (url + params hash)
 alt Cache Hit (within 10 min)
 Cache-->>API: Cached screenshot
 API-->>App: Image binary (instant)
 else Cache Miss
 API->>Chrome: Create new page
 Chrome->>Chrome: Set viewport (1280x720)
 Chrome->>Chrome: Navigate to URL
 Chrome->>Chrome: Wait for networkidle2
 Chrome-->>API: Screenshot buffer
 API->>Cache: Store screenshot
 API->>API: Actor.charge($0.005)
 API-->>App: Image binary (~2.1s)
 end

API Endpoints

GET /screenshot — Capture webpage

GET /screenshot?url=https://github.com&width=1920&height=1080&format=png&fullPage=true

GET /pdf — Generate PDF

GET /pdf?url=https://github.com&format=A4&landscape=false

POST /batch — Batch screenshots

POST /batch
{
"urls":[
"https://google.com",
"https://github.com",
"https://apple.com"
],
"width":1280,
"height":720,
"format":"jpeg"
}

Output Formats

Binary (Default)

Returns raw bytes with headers:

Content-Type:image/png (or image/jpeg, image/webp, application/pdf)
Content-Length:15856
X-Latency-Ms:2172
X-From-Cache:false

Base64 JSON

Send header Accept: application/json to get:

{
"base64":"iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAABQ...",
"mimeType":"image/png",
"size":15856,
"latencyMs":2172,
"fromCache":false,
"url":"https://github.com"
}

Batch Response

{
"count":3,
"succeeded":3,
"failed":0,
"latencyMs":4521,
"results":[
{"url":"https://google.com","base64":"...","mimeType":"image/jpeg","size":12340},
{"url":"https://github.com","base64":"...","mimeType":"image/jpeg","size":45678},
{"url":"https://apple.com","base64":"...","mimeType":"image/jpeg","size":23456}
]
}

Use Case Workflows

Visual QA Testing Pipeline

flowchart LR
 DEPLOY["New Deployment"] --> URLS["Page URL List"]
 URLS --> BATCH["Screenshot API<br/>POST /batch"]
 BATCH --> COMPARE["Visual Diff<br/>Engine"]
 COMPARE --> PASS["All Match?"]
 PASS -->|Yes| OK["Deploy to Prod"]
 PASS -->|No| ALERT["Alert QA Team<br/>+ Diff Report"]
 style BATCH fill:#10b981,color:#fff
 style OK fill:#3b82f6,color:#fff
 style ALERT fill:#ef4444,color:#fff

Social Media Preview Generator

flowchart LR
 BLOG["New Blog Post<br/>Published"] --> SCREEN["Screenshot API<br/>GET /screenshot"]
 SCREEN --> THUMB["1200x630<br/>OG Image"]
 THUMB --> TWITTER["Twitter Card"]
 THUMB --> LINKEDIN["LinkedIn Preview"]
 THUMB --> FACEBOOK["Facebook Share"]
 style SCREEN fill:#10b981,color:#fff

Competitive Price Monitoring

flowchart LR
 SCHEDULE["Daily Cron Job"] --> URLS["Competitor<br/>Product Pages"]
 URLS --> SCREEN["Screenshot API<br/>POST /batch"]
 SCREEN --> ARCHIVE["Screenshot<br/>Archive"]
 ARCHIVE --> COMPARE["Price Change<br/>Detection"]
 COMPARE --> ALERT["Slack Alert:<br/>Price Changed!"]
 style SCREEN fill:#10b981,color:#fff
 style ALERT fill:#f59e0b,color:#fff

PDF Report Generation

flowchart LR
 DASH["Web Dashboard<br/>URL"] --> PDF["Screenshot API<br/>GET /pdf"]
 PDF --> EMAIL["Email PDF<br/>to Stakeholders"]
 PDF --> DRIVE["Save to<br/>Google Drive"]
 PDF --> ARCHIVE["Monthly<br/>Report Archive"]
 style PDF fill:#10b981,color:#fff

Pricing

Cost Comparison

Technical Details

flowchart TB
 subgraph "Actor Lifecycle"
 INIT["Actor.init()"] --> LAUNCH["Launch Puppeteer<br/>(pre-warmed)"]
 LAUNCH --> LISTEN["HTTP Server<br/>on STANDBY_PORT"]
 LISTEN --> READY["Ready for<br/>Requests"]
 end
 subgraph "Per Request"
 READY --> PAGE["Create New Page"]
 PAGE --> VIEWPORT["Set Viewport"]
 VIEWPORT --> NAV["Navigate to URL<br/>(networkidle2, 25s timeout)"]
 NAV --> DELAY["Optional Delay"]
 DELAY --> CAPTURE["Screenshot or PDF"]
 CAPTURE --> CLOSE["Close Page"]
 CLOSE --> READY
 end
 style LAUNCH fill:#10b981,color:#fff
 style CAPTURE fill:#3b82f6,color:#fff

• Browser: Chromium via Puppeteer, pre-launched at startup
• Concurrency: 3 parallel captures per batch
• Cache: In-memory LRU, 100 entries, 10-minute TTL
• Timeout: 25 seconds per page navigation
• Base Image: apify/actor-node-puppeteer-chrome:22-24.11.1

Integrations

FAQ

Q: What browser is used? A: Chromium via Puppeteer, pre-warmed at actor startup for instant response.

Q: Can it capture login-protected pages? A: Current version captures public pages only. Authentication support coming soon.

Q: Maximum resolution? A: 3840x2160 (4K Ultra HD). Default: 1280x720 (HD).

Q: How does the cache work? A: Screenshots cached in-memory for 10 minutes. Same URL + same parameters = instant cached response at no additional cost.

Q: Can it handle SPAs / JavaScript-heavy pages? A: Yes! Puppeteer renders JavaScript completely before capture. Uses networkidle2 to wait for all resources.

Q: What's the maximum batch size? A: 20 URLs per batch request. Processed with bounded concurrency (3 at a time).

Related Actors

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Built by George Kioko | 6,196+ data extraction jobs | 35+ production APIs | Sub-3s delivery guaranteed