Drive2PDF API

Generate high-quality PDF documents from Google Docs and Sheets templates with advanced data insertion, conditional sections, repeating tables, and dynamic images.

Key Features

• Document Templates — Use Google Docs with placeholders for text, images, conditional sections, and repeating tables.
• Sheet Templates — Use Google Sheets with dynamic cell data, row/column visibility control, and multi-tab export.
• Rich Content — Support for styled text, hyperlinks, and dynamic images.
• PDF Customization — Add watermarks, metadata, and control page size/orientation.
• Secure Storage — Generated PDFs are stored securely and accessible via unique URLs for 24 hours (1-day TTL).

Authentication

All API requests require authentication using your API key. Include the key in the request header:

Base URL

All API requests should be made to:

Document Template Language

Drive2PDF uses a powerful template language for Google Docs that allows you to define dynamic content using placeholders, conditional sections, and repeating tables.

Text Placeholders

Text placeholders are defined using double curly braces: {{placeholder_name}}. These are replaced with the corresponding values from your API request.

Template Example

Dear {{customer_name}},

Thank you for your purchase on {{date}}. Your order #{{order_id}} has been confirmed.

API Data

{
  "data": [
    { "key": "customer_name", "value": "John Doe", "type": "text" },
    { "key": "date", "value": "January 22, 2026", "type": "text" },
    { "key": "order_id", "value": "ORD-12345", "type": "text" }
  ]
}

Conditional Sections

Conditional sections allow you to show or hide entire blocks of content based on a boolean value. Define sections with opening and closing tags:

Template Syntax

{{disclaimer}}
This section will only appear if the "disclaimer" key has show: true.
{{/disclaimer}}

API Data (Hide Section)

{
  "data": [
    { "key": "disclaimer", "show": false, "type": "section" }
  ]
}

If the section key is not provided in the data, the section content will be kept (shown) by default.

Repeating Tables

Repeating tables allow you to dynamically generate rows based on an array of data. Only the rows containing placeholders with dotted field notation (e.g., {{member.name}}) will be repeated for each item in the array.

Template Structure

Create a table with a header row containing {{table_key}} and data rows with {{table_key.field}} placeholders:

API Data

{
  "data": [
    {
      "key": "member",
      "type": "table",
      "value": [
        { "name": "Sarah Mitchell", "role": "CEO", "age": "34" },
        { "name": "James Chen", "role": "CTO", "age": "29" },
        { "name": "Emily Rodriguez", "role": "Designer", "age": "31" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Advanced Table Features

• Multi-row headers/footers: Rows without dotted field placeholders are preserved as static headers or footers.
• Row styling: Background colors, text styles, and borders from template rows are preserved in generated rows.
• Independent placeholders: Regular placeholders (not using dotted notation) in header/footer rows work normally and are replaced with their values.

Images

To replace images in your template, insert a placeholder image in Google Docs and set its Alt Text title to the key name. The API will replace it with the image from the provided URL.

Setup Steps

1. Insert a placeholder image in your Google Doc
2. Right-click the image → Alt Text
3. Set the Title to your key (e.g., logo)

API Data

{
  "data": [
    {
      "key": "logo",
      "value": "https://example.com/logo.png",
      "type": "image"
    }
  ]
}

Advanced: Image with Link

{
  "key": "logo",
  "value": "https://example.com/logo.png",
  "link": "https://example.com",
  "type": "image"
}

Images in Tables

For images inside repeating tables, use the dotted notation for the Alt Text title:

// Alt Text title: member.photo

"value": [
  { "photo": "https://example.com/sarah.jpg", "name": "Sarah" },
  { "photo": "https://example.com/james.jpg", "name": "James" }
]

Rich Text

Rich text allows you to insert styled text with bold, italic, colors, and more. Use the richtext type with an array of text segments.

API Data

{
  "key": "features",
  "type": "richtext",
  "value": [
    { "text": "Doc to PDF", "bold": true },
    { "text": ": Generate PDFs from Google Docs\n" },
    { "text": "Sheet to PDF", "bold": true, "color": "#6366f1" },
    { "text": ": Generate PDFs from Google Sheets" }
  ]
}

Available Style Properties

Links

The link type converts a placeholder into a clickable hyperlink with customizable display text.

{
  "key": "website",
  "type": "link",
  "value": "https://drive2pdf.com",
  "caption": "Visit our website",
  "color": "#0055FF",
  "underline": true
}

Sheets Templates

Google Sheets templates work differently from Docs. Instead of placeholders, you provide cell coordinates and data to insert. You can also control row/column visibility and export multiple tabs.

Sheet Organization

Each sheet tab in your spreadsheet has a unique GID (sheet ID). You can:

• Add data to any cell in any GID
• Hide or show rows/columns in any GID
• Export specific GIDs to PDF
• Merge multiple GIDs into a single PDF

Data Insertion

Specify a target cell and provide a 2D array of values to insert starting from that cell.

{
  "data": [
    {
      "targetCell": "B2",
      "gid": 0,
      "content": [
        ["Name", "Amount", "Status"],
        ["Order A", 150.00, true],
        ["Order B", 299.99, false]
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Row/Column Visibility

Control the visibility of rows and columns dynamically. This is useful for hiding empty rows or conditional content.

{
  "visibility": [
    {
      "dimension": "row",
      "start": 10,
      "quantity": 5,
      "hide": true,
      "gid": 0
    },
    {
      "dimension": "column",
      "start": 4,
      "end": 6,
      "hide": true
    }
  ]
}

Export Options

Control how the sheet is exported to PDF, including page size, orientation, margins, and which tabs to include.

API Reference

/v1/pdf Endpoint

Generate a PDF from a template. The template type (Doc or Sheet) is determined automatically based on the template configuration.

Common Parameters

These parameters apply to both Document and Sheet templates:

Metadata Object Fields

Document Parameters

Additional parameters for Document (Google Docs) templates:

Data Object Types

Sheet Parameters

Additional parameters for Sheet (Google Sheets) templates:

Response

Success Response (200)

{
  "urls": ["https://pdf.drive2pdf.com/pdfs/.../document.pdf"]
}

With base64: true

{
  "urls": ["https://pdf.drive2pdf.com/pdfs/.../document.pdf"],
  "base64": ["JVBERi0xLjQKJ..."]
}

Response Headers

Error Responses

All errors return a JSON object with code and message:

{
  "code": "ERROR_CODE",
  "message": "Human-readable description"
}

Examples

Document with Text and Image

curl -X POST https://api.drive2pdf.com/v1/pdf \
  -H "api_key: your-api-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "template_id": "tpl-123",
    "data": [
      { "key": "name", "value": "John Doe", "type": "text" },
      { "key": "date", "value": "January 22, 2026", "type": "text" },
      { "key": "signature", "value": "https://example.com/sig.png", "type": "image" }
    ],
    "name": "certificate",
    "watermark": true,
    "metadata": {
      "Title": "Certificate of Completion",
      "Author": "Acme University"
    }
  }'

Sheet with Multiple Tabs

curl -X POST https://api.drive2pdf.com/v1/pdf \
  -H "api_key: your-api-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "template_id": "tpl-456",
    "data": [
      { "targetCell": "B2", "content": [["Monthly Report"]], "gid": 0 },
      { "targetCell": "A5", "content": [[1500, 2300, 1800]], "gid": 0 }
    ],
    "visibility": [
      { "dimension": "row", "start": 10, "quantity": 5, "hide": true }
    ],
    "gid": [0, 58736200],
    "name": ["summary", "details"],
    "size": "letter",
    "portrait": false,
    "margins": "0.5",
    "merge": false
  }'

Document with Repeating Table

curl -X POST https://api.drive2pdf.com/v1/pdf \
  -H "api_key: your-api-key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "template_id": "tpl-789",
    "data": [
      { "key": "company_name", "value": "Acme Corp", "type": "text" },
      { "key": "report_date", "value": "Q4 2025", "type": "text" },
      {
        "key": "employee",
        "type": "table",
        "value": [
          { "name": "Alice Johnson", "department": "Engineering", "salary": "$95,000" },
          { "name": "Bob Smith", "department": "Marketing", "salary": "$78,000" },
          { "name": "Carol White", "department": "Sales", "salary": "$82,000" }
        ]
      },
      { "key": "total_employees", "value": "3", "type": "text" }
    ],
    "name": "employee_report"
  }'