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Get Started with TemplateFox in 5 Minutes

This is the common first step for every TemplateFox user — whether you will use the API directly or drive generation from a no-code tool. Design a template, preview it, and generate your first PDF.

A Welcome template is automatically added to your dashboard when you sign up, so you can experiment right away. You can also duplicate any template from our library — invoices, packing slips, certificates, reports — as a starting point.

Open a template in the editor and start building. A template contains one or more pages, each independently Fixed or Infinite — see Pages for the difference.

TemplateFox Editor - top toolbar, left panel, canvas, and right panel
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  1. Give your template a name at the top of the editor.
  2. Toggle header and footer zones in the left panel if you need content that repeats on every page.
  3. Set safe margins in the right panel when a page is selected.
  4. Customize default typography and background from the top toolbar and right panel.
  5. Add sections on Infinite pages to group content — Fixed pages place elements directly.
  6. Add elements: text, image, table, barcode, QR code, line, circle, rectangle.
  7. Switch to the Preview tab to see the rendered PDF (covered in the next step).

Templates are saved automatically as you work. Go deeper in the Template Designer docs.

Variables are placeholders that get replaced with real data when you generate a PDF. Use the {{variable_name}} syntax inside:

  • Text — Type {{customer_name}} directly inside a text element.
  • Images, QR codes, barcodes, shapes — Set the source to {{image_url}} or {{item.barcode}} in the Content field in the right panel.

QR Code element with a dynamic variable in the Content field

For advanced use — expressions, filters, aggregates, system variables — see the Data Binding and Expressions guides.

Switch to Preview mode from the top bar. The preview renders your template with sample data so you can verify the output before calling the API.

TemplateFox Preview mode - showing the rendered PDF and template data panel
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  1. The rendered PDF appears on the left. Use Refresh Preview to update after changes, or Generate PDF to download the result.
  2. The right panel contains the JSON data used to populate the template. Edit values directly or click Add missing key to auto-generate placeholders for every variable in your template.

Two things are needed to generate PDFs programmatically:

The template dashboard also exposes a ready-made API button that gives you a working curl snippet with your template ID and a sample payload already filled in.

Template dashboard showing Template ID and API button

Driving this from a no-code tool? You’re basically done — jump to For No-Code Users and pick Zapier, Make, n8n, or Airtable. These apps authenticate with your API key and fetch your templates automatically, so you don’t even need to copy the Template ID — just pick it from a dropdown.

Send a POST request to /v1/pdf/create. Three things are required:

  • x-api-key header — your API key from step 4.
  • template_id — the 12-character ID of your template.
  • data — an object whose keys match your template variables.
curl -X POST https://api.templatefox.com/v1/pdf/create \
-H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
  "template_id": "YOUR_TEMPLATE_ID",
  "data": {
    "customer_name": "John Doe",
    "invoice_number": "INV-001",
    "amount": "$1,234.56"
  }
}'

Or use one of our official SDKs — installation and full examples for TypeScript, Python, Go, PHP, Ruby, Java, and C#.

The response contains a signed URL to the generated PDF, valid for 24h by default.

There is much more you can do — binary responses, custom filenames, S3 upload, PDF/A compliance, URL expiration. See Create PDF for every parameter, or the full API Reference for all endpoints.

Now that you have generated your first PDF, continue along the path that fits your use case: