Gotenberg

Gotenberg is a self-hosted API designed to convert various document formats and web pages into PDF files. It operates as a server deployed via Docker, allowing users to send files through multipart/form-data requests and receive a PDF in return. This architecture enables the software to run in isolated environments, ensuring that the conversion process does not interfere with the host system.

The application handles the underlying dependencies for document conversion, removing the need for users to manually manage Chromium, LibreOffice, or system fonts. It is used for automating document generation, creating snapshots of web content, and manipulating existing PDF files within a programmatic workflow. By providing a standardized API, it allows different services in a microservices architecture to request PDF generation without needing to implement the conversion logic themselves.

Key features

• Conversion of HTML, URLs, and Markdown to PDF using Headless Chromium
• Conversion of over 100 Office document formats via LibreOffice
• Tools to merge, split, rotate, and flatten PDF files
• Ability to watermark, stamp, and encrypt PDFs
• Support for PDF/A and PDF/UA compliance
• Generation of screenshots from URLs and HTML
• Reading and writing of PDF metadata and bookmarks

Gotenberg integrates several specialized tools into a single API, including Chromium for web rendering and LibreOffice for office document processing. It is designed for developers and system administrators who need a scalable way to handle document conversion without configuring complex software environments on their host machines. The system is built to be stateless, making it suitable for deployment in container orchestration environments where multiple instances may be required to handle high volumes of conversion requests.

This software serves as a backend infrastructure component for document management systems and workflow automation pipelines.