Templates
Dynamic PDF templates, not fill-in-the-blanks
Most "dynamic" PDF templates are a static page with placeholders: fine until the list has more rows than the design has blanks. A pdfs.build template is a program that takes data. Lists repeat, sections appear and disappear, values are computed, and the layout adapts to what you send.
What "dynamic" actually covers
Variables with types
Every field a template accepts is declared in its JSON schema: strings, numbers, dates, images, nested objects. The schema is the API contract, and payloads are validated against it before anything renders.
Repeating data
Line items, transactions, attendees: arrays render as many rows as you send. Three rows or three hundred, the table paginates with its header repeating on every page.
Conditional sections
A discount block that only exists when there is a discount. A second signature area for countersigned contracts. Sections are driven by the data, not left as awkward empty boxes.
Computed values
Subtotals, tax, page counts, "3 of 12" footers: templates compute inside the layout, so your integration sends facts and the document handles arithmetic and formatting.
The schema is the interface
{
"client": { "type": "string" },
"valid_until": { "type": "string", "format": "date" },
"discount_pct": { "type": "number", "optional": true },
"items": { "type": "array", "items": { "description": "string", "qty": "number", "price": "number" } }
}
Anyone integrating the template can read what it takes without opening the design. Rendering it is
one call to the PDF generation API
with a data object
matching this shape.
Dynamic data needs dynamic layout
Variables are the easy half. The hard half is what the page does when the data grows: the description that wraps to three lines, the table that spills onto page four, the totals block that must never split across a page break. Templates here are compiled by a typesetting engine, so those behaviors are authored into the design. Every template in the gallery states its reflow contract: what repeats, what grows, what must stay whole.
You do not have to write any of it by hand. The AI assistant edits the template, schema and sample data together and compile-checks every change (here is how that stays reliable), the live preview recompiles as you type, and the embeddable editor puts the same editing experience inside your own product, so your customers can adjust their documents themselves.
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