Best way to generate complex, dynamic PDFs from JSON data?

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Hi everyone,I’m currently building an n8n workflow where I need to take a large JSON object (containing line items, nested categories, and customer data) and turn it into a high-quality, branded PDF invoice/report. I’ve looked into some of the native options, but I’m running into a few hurdles:

  • HTML-to-PDF: Managing CSS for page breaks, headers, and footers across multiple pages is becoming a nightmare.

  • Performance: Some of the nodes I’ve tried seem to struggle or time out with larger datasets.

  • Design: I’d like my non-technical team members to be able to tweak the document design without having to edit code or HTML templates in a node.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a reliable API or service that integrates well with n8n for this?
Thanks.

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Maybe you can try https://apitemplate.io/

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Hi @Michal_Liska,

I am not sure which solutions you have looked at yet, but have you looked at Gotenberg yet?

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Hi @Wouter_Nigrini, thanks for the suggestion!
I did come across Gotenberg, but it feels a bit too “tech-heavy” for our specific needs. Since it’s a containerized API, we’d have to manage the infrastructure ourselves, and we’d still be stuck writing and maintaining HTML/CSS templates for every document change. But if so, I can test POC and see.
Best
Michal

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Hi @Michal_Liska,

Your other options are to pay a subscription fee for PDF.co and making use of their official community built nodes. What you are asking for doesnt exist no matter what tools you use. The more custom and flexible you want these pdf templates to be and easy for non-technical people to use, the more complex the backend solution is going to be.

There is unfortunately no magic button solution for this as far as Im aware.

Have a look at their website and maybe try play around with their tools

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Also have a look at this service if it covers what you need

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Hey @Michal_Liska ,

After looking at a few options, I went with PDF Generator API and it’s been a total game-changer for our workflow. The biggest win for me was finding out they actually have an official n8n node already. It made the setup incredibly easy—I didn’t even have to mess around with the HTTP Request node or authentication headers manually.

The workflow is super clean now. I just pull my data, plug it into the PDF Generator API node, and it handles the rest.

If you’re struggling with complex layouts or just don’t want to manage your own PDF generation infrastructure, I’d definitely recommend checking their node out. It saved me a ton of time.

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