Why I Built Yet Another PDF API (And What's Different)

ẞLACK Zebra — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 10:30:30 +0000

Why I Built Yet Another PDF API (And What's Different)

If you've ever generated PDFs programmatically, you know the pain.

Puppeteer works until you deploy. Then fonts break. Or the container runs out of memory. Or you spend 3 hours figuring out why Arial renders as Times New Roman on your Linux server.

I dealt with this enough times that I finally built Fileloom.

The problems I kept hitting

1. Fonts don't work in production

Locally, everything looks perfect. In production (headless Linux, Docker, Lambda), your carefully chosen fonts become fallback serif garbage. The fix usually involves installing font packages, configuring fontconfig, or giving up.

2. Pricing that doesn't scale

Most PDF APIs charge $15-30/month for 100-500 PDFs. If you're generating invoices at any volume, that math gets painful fast.

3. Templating is either too simple or requires a PhD

You either get basic string replacement, or you're learning a whole DSL. I wanted Handlebars – something familiar with enough power for real documents.

What Fileloom does

Single endpoint:

const response = await fetch('https://api.fileloom.io/v1/pdf/generate', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'X-API-Key': 'fl_your_api_key',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    templateId: 'invoice_pro',
    templateData: {
      invoiceNumber: 'INV-2025-001',
      customer: 'Acme Corporation',
      total: 2499.00
    }
  })
});

const { data } = await response.json();
console.log(data.url); // PDF ready in ~1.2s

Or send raw HTML if you don't need templates.

Built-in helpers (70+)

The stuff you always end up writing yourself:

{{currency total "USD"}}        // $2,499.00
{{formatDate date "MMMM D, YYYY"}}  // January 15, 2025
{{#each items}}...{{/each}}
{{#if isPaid}}Paid{{else}}Pending{{/if}}

Math, string manipulation, date formatting, conditionals – all included.

Fonts just work

Fileloom injects Google Fonts and handles Twemoji automatically. Your template looks the same locally and in production.

Storage options

PDFs go to our Firebase storage by default, or configure S3/Supabase if you want files in your own infrastructure.

Pricing

Free: 200 PDFs/month
Starter: $7.20/mo for 2,000 PDFs
Growth: $39.20/mo for 10,000 PDFs
Scale: $159.20/mo for 50,000 PDFs

No credit card for free tier.

Try it

https://fileloom.io

I'm building this in public and would love feedback – especially on the API design, docs, or anything that feels confusing.

Forem: ẞLACK Zebra

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