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This walks you from zero to a PDF. You’ll create an API key, make a single POST request, and get a document back in the response.

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1. Create an API key

1

Sign in to the dashboard

Go to app.tipar.dev and sign in with your email. Tipar is passwordless — we send you a magic link, no password to set or forget.
2

Mint a key

Open API keys and create one. The full key is shown once, at creation — copy it now and store it somewhere safe (a secrets manager, your platform’s env vars). Tipar only keeps a hash, so a lost key can’t be recovered, only revoked and replaced.
Keys look like tipar_live_ followed by 32 characters. You send the key as a bearer token on every request to /generate. Full details in Authentication.
Treat the key like a password. It belongs in an environment variable on your server, never in client-side code, a mobile app, or a public repository.

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2. Generate your first PDF

The smallest possible request: a one-line template and a single data field. Replace tipar_live_your_key with your real key. 
curl https://api.tipar.dev/generate \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer tipar_live_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "template": { "page": { "content": { "type": "text", "value": "Hello, {{name}}!", "style": { "fontSize": 24, "bold": true } } } },
    "data": { "name": "world" }
  }' \
  --output hello.pdf
You now have hello.pdf on disk. That’s the whole loop: one request in, one PDF out.
A successful response is 200 OK with Content-Type: application/pdf and the raw PDF bytes as the body. There is no JSON wrapper and no job to poll — /generate is synchronous.

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3. Render a real document

A single line of text isn’t why you’re here. Here’s a complete one-page invoice — a header, a line-item table that repeats over your data, and a footer. Send this exactly as-is to see it render. 
{
  "page": {
    "size": "A4",
    "margin": 40,
    "defaultTextStyle": { "fontSize": 10 },
    "header": {
      "type": "row",
      "items": [
        { "size": { "kind": "relative", "weight": 1 }, "child": { "type": "text", "value": "{{company.name}}", "style": { "fontSize": 18, "bold": true } } },
        { "size": { "kind": "constant", "width": 180 }, "child": { "type": "column", "items": [
          { "type": "text", "value": "INVOICE", "style": { "fontSize": 16, "bold": true }, "align": "right" },
          { "type": "text", "value": "{{invoice.number}} · {{invoice.date}}", "style": { "fontSize": 9, "color": "grey.darken1" }, "align": "right" }
        ] } }
      ]
    },
    "content": {
      "type": "column",
      "spacing": 14,
      "items": [
        { "type": "column", "items": [
          { "type": "text", "value": "Bill to", "style": { "fontSize": 9, "color": "grey.darken1" } },
          { "type": "text", "value": "{{customer.name}}", "style": { "bold": true } },
          { "type": "text", "value": "{{customer.address}}" }
        ] },
        {
          "type": "table",
          "columns": [
            { "kind": "relative", "weight": 5 },
            { "kind": "relative", "weight": 1 },
            { "kind": "relative", "weight": 2 }
          ],
          "header": { "row": [
            { "child": { "type": "text", "value": "Description", "style": { "semiBold": true, "fontSize": 9 } }, "border": { "bottom": 1, "color": "grey.darken1" }, "padding": 5 },
            { "child": { "type": "text", "value": "Qty", "style": { "semiBold": true, "fontSize": 9 }, "align": "right" }, "border": { "bottom": 1, "color": "grey.darken1" }, "padding": 5 },
            { "child": { "type": "text", "value": "Amount", "style": { "semiBold": true, "fontSize": 9 }, "align": "right" }, "border": { "bottom": 1, "color": "grey.darken1" }, "padding": 5 }
          ] },
          "body": {
            "forEach": "invoice.lines",
            "row": [
              { "child": { "type": "text", "value": "{{item.description}}" }, "border": { "bottom": 1, "color": "grey.lighten2" }, "padding": 5 },
              { "child": { "type": "text", "value": "{{item.qty}}", "align": "right" }, "border": { "bottom": 1, "color": "grey.lighten2" }, "padding": 5 },
              { "child": { "type": "text", "value": "{{item.amount}}", "align": "right" }, "border": { "bottom": 1, "color": "grey.lighten2" }, "padding": 5 }
            ]
          }
        },
        { "type": "text", "value": "Total due: {{invoice.total}}", "style": { "bold": true, "fontSize": 13 }, "align": "right" }
      ]
    },
    "footer": {
      "type": "text",
      "value": "{{company.name}} · {{company.email}} · Payable within 14 days",
      "style": { "fontSize": 8, "color": "grey.darken1" },
      "align": "center"
    }
  }
}
Notice the moving parts:
  • {{company.name}}, {{invoice.total}} — interpolation tokens, replaced with values from data.
  • The table body uses forEach: "invoice.lines" to render one row per line item. Inside those rows, {{item.description}} refers to the current line. See Tables.
  • Totals are pre-formatted strings ("€87.00"). Tipar does no math — you compute and format values, Tipar lays them out. See why there are no expressions.

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Next steps

Learn the template language

Layout, text, tables, images, headers and footers.

Worked examples

Complete, copy-pasteable invoice, receipt, certificate and report templates.

API reference

Every parameter, status code and error of POST /generate.

Handle errors

What 400, 401, 402, 422 and 429 mean and how to react.