# POST /documentprocessing/pdf/create

> Create a PDF or PDF/A from a Base64 document with PDFCreationSettings: passwords, access permissions, digital signature, embedded files, keywords, JavaScript.

- **Product:** DS Server
- **Section:** Documentation
- **Kind:** Endpoint
- **Path:** DS Server > API Reference > Web API > DocumentProcessing > /pdf/create > POST /documentprocessing/pdf/create
- **2150 words**
- **Web URL:** https://docs.textcontrol.com/ds-server/reference/web-api/documentprocessing/pdf-create/post/
- **LLMs URL:** https://docs.textcontrol.com/ds-server/reference/web-api/documentprocessing/pdf-create/post/llms.txt
- **LLMs-Full URL:** https://docs.textcontrol.com/ds-server/reference/web-api/documentprocessing/pdf-create/post/llms-full.txt

---

`POST` `https://example.com/documentprocessing/pdf/create`

### Description

Creates a PDF document from an input document.

### Examples

The following example creates a new PDF document from a document in the internal format.

```bash
# Request:
curl --location --request POST 'https://trial.dsserver.io/documentprocessing/pdf/create?returnFormat=PDF' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer fePFHv8OtIyRSCAdOnn7USc9kKdYB2rg' \
    --data-raw '{
        "documentData": "eAUBAA4AAAAAAAAAAA[..]="
    }'

# Result:
"JVBERi0xLjQNJ[..]"
```

### Authorization

This endpoint supports the OAuth authorization method. DS Server checks the access token only when OAuth is enabled in the admin portal (see [Enable OAuth](https://docs.textcontrol.com/ds-server/administration/oauth/llms-full.txt)). With OAuth disabled, the default of a new installation, the endpoint accepts requests without a token.

DS Server implements OAuth as the authorization method. Two flows are supported:

- Authorization Code
- Client Credentials

To use the *Client Credentials* flow, switch on **Allow “Client Credentials” grant type** in the security profile (see [OAuth Grant Types](https://docs.textcontrol.com/ds-server/administration/oauth-grant-types/llms-full.txt)).

In both cases, a valid access token returned from the OAuth endpoints must be passed in a *Bearer* **Authorization Header**, as a **Query Parameter** or in a **Cookie**.

#### Authorization Header

| Header field | Description |
|---|---|
| Authorization | A Bearer authorization header (also called token authentication) contains the OAuth access token. The authorization method and a space i.e. "Bearer " is then put before your valid access token. For example: `Authorization: Bearer 4796E23054E64BC773CACBCAF24AD179DE9A3` |

#### Query Parameter

| Query parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| access\_token | The access token is passed directly in the endpoint URL as a query string. For example: `?access_token=4796E23054E64BC773CACBCAF24AD179DE9A3` |

#### Cookie

| Cookie | Description |
|---|---|
| access\_token | The access token is passed in a cookie named `access_token`. For example: `Cookie: access_token=4796E23054E64BC773CACBCAF24AD179DE9A3` |

### Request Parameters

| Name | Type | Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| returnFormat | String | A string that specifies the format of the created document. Possible values are: "PDF" and "PDFA" (PDF/A-3b). **Default value is "PDF".** | yes |

### Request Payload

| Type | Value |
|---|---|
| PDFCreationSettings | The PDFCreationSettings object contains the settings for the requested PDF document. |

#### PDFCreationSettings

| Name | Type | Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| documentKeywords | String\[\] | String array that contains keywords that will be added to the PDF document meta information. | yes |
| documentLevelJavaScriptActions | String\[\] | String array that contains JavaScript actions that are embedded in the PDF. | yes |
| imageCompressionQuality | Integer | Specifies the compression quality of images, a value between 1 and 100. | yes |
| masterPassword | String | Specifies the password for the document's access permissions. | yes |
| digitalSignature | DigitalSignature | Specifies the digital signature that is used to sign the document. | yes |
| embeddedFiles | EmbeddedFile\[\] | Specifies an array of embedded files that are embedded into the document. | yes |
| documentAccessPermissions | DocumentAccessPermissions (Number) | Specifies access permissions for the document as the sum of the values below. It has an effect only if `masterPassword` is set. A name such as "AllowAll" is refused with 400. | yes |
| documentData | String | Document that will be converted to PDF encoded as Base64 string. | no |
| author | String | Sets the document's author. | yes |
| creationDate | DateTime (String) | Sets the document's creation date which will be saved in the document. | yes |
| lastModificationDate | DateTime (String) | Sets the date the document is last modified. | yes |
| creatorApplication | String | Sets the application, which has created the document. | yes |
| documentSubject | String | Sets the document's subject string which will be saved in the document. PDF limitation: The length is limited to 2000 characters. | yes |
| documentTitle | String | Sets the document's title that will be saved in the document. PDF limitation: The length is limited to 2000 characters. | yes |
| userPassword | String | Specifies the password for the user to open the document. | yes |

#### DigitalSignature

| Name | Type | Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| x509Certificate2 | String | The X.509 certificate encoded as a Base64 string. | no |
| password | String | The password of the certificate. | no |
| timeServerURL | String | The URL of a time server. | yes |

#### EmbeddedFile

| Name | Type | Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| creationDate | DateTime (String) | Specifies the date of the creation. | yes |
| data | String | Specifies the data of the embedded file. | yes |
| dataType | String | Specifies the type of the data. | yes |
| description | String | Specifies the description of the embedded file. | yes |
| fileName | String | Specifies the file name of the embedded file. | yes |
| lastModificationDate | DateTime (String) | Specifies the last modification date. | yes |
| mimeType | String | Specifies the MIME type of the embedded file (for example: "application/pdf"). | yes |
| relationship | String | Specifies the relationship string of the embedded file. | yes |
| metadata | String | Specifies meta data for the embedded file. | yes |

#### DocumentAccessPermissions

| Name | Type | Value | Optional |
|---|---|---|---|
| None = 0 | Enum | Allows none of the possible permissions. | yes |
| AllowAuthoring = 1 | Enum | Allows authoring comments and fill in interactive form fields (including signature fields). | yes |
| AllowAuthoringFields = 2 | Enum | Fill-in existing interactive form fields (including signature fields) is allowed. | yes |
| AllowContentAccessibility = 4 | Enum | Allows content access for the visually impaired only. | yes |
| AllowDocumentAssembly = 8 | Enum | Allows to assemble the document (insert, rotate or delete pages and create bookmarks or thumbnails). | yes |
| AllowExtractContents = 16 | Enum | Copying or otherwise extracting text and/or graphics is allowed. | yes |
| AllowGeneralEditing = 32 | Enum | Allows modifying the document's contents. | yes |
| AllowHighLevelPrinting = 64 | Enum | Printing the document is fully allowed. | yes |
| AllowLowLevelPrinting = 128 | Enum | Printing the document is allowed (low-level). | yes |
| AllowAll = 255 | Enum | Allows all of the possible permissions. | yes |

### Success Response

| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| 200 | On success, the HTTP status code in the response header is 200 (OK). The response body contains the resulting document encoded as a Base64 encoded string. |

### Error Response

| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| 401 | A 401 (Unauthorized) with an empty body is returned, if OAuth is enabled and the request has no valid access token. |
| 400 | A 400 (Bad Request) is returned, if the body can't be read as a PDFCreationSettings object. The body is a problem details object (`application/json`) with the title "One or more validation errors occurred." and the message per field in `errors`. This check comes before the license check. |
| 415 | A 415 (Unsupported Media Type) is returned, if the `Content-Type` header of a request with a body is not `application/json`. |
| 405 | A 405 (Method Not Allowed) with an empty body and the header `Allow: POST` is returned for any other HTTP method, for example `GET`. |
| 400 | A 400 (Bad Request) is returned, if DS Server is not licensed or the license is invalid. On a server that is not registered, the body is the JSON string `"DS Server is not registered."` (`application/json`). DS Server checks the license before the parameter values, but after it has read the body and the typed query parameters. |
| 400 | A 400 (Bad Request) is returned, if no data is found in the PDFCreationSettings object. |
| 400 | A 400 (Bad Request) is returned, if no documents were found in the PDFCreationSettings object. |
| 400 | A 400 (Bad Request) is returned, if the uploaded document is not valid. |

---

## Nearby

- **Previous:** [/documentprocessing/pdf/create](https://docs.textcontrol.com/ds-server/reference/web-api/documentprocessing/pdf-create/llms-full.txt)
- **Next:** [/documentprocessing/pdf/embeddedfiles](https://docs.textcontrol.com/ds-server/reference/web-api/documentprocessing/pdf-embeddedfiles/llms-full.txt)