Introduction to the PDF Blocks API
What PDF Blocks is, the model every action follows, and the catalog of everything the API can do. One authenticated HTTPS call, no SDK, nothing stored.
PDF Blocks is a secure, fast, stateless HTTP API for working with PDF documents. Send a document, name an action, and get the processed PDF straight back in the response. There is no account state to manage, nothing is stored after a request returns, and there is no SDK to install: every action is a single authenticated HTTPS call you can make from any language.
The mental model
One PDF in, one PDF out. Every action is a pure transformation: it takes a
document (plus a few parameters), returns a new document, and keeps nothing. You
send multipart/form-data with your PDF in a file field, and a single-output
action answers 200 OK with application/pdf, the finished document as the
response body.
Because each output is itself a valid PDF, it is a valid input to the next action. That makes actions composable: merge several files, watermark the result, then encrypt it, each step feeding the next. See Chaining actions for how to build a pipeline without ever touching disk.
The action catalog
Seventeen actions, grouped by capability. Each links to its full reference.
Merge & Split
Combine an ordered list of PDFs into one.
Break into fixed-size chunks.
Break at a chosen page boundary.
Cap each part’s byte size.
Group pages by a pattern you define.
Watermarks
Passwords & security
Encrypt a document.
Decrypt a document with a known password.
Set permission flags.
Clear the permission flags.
Strip digital signatures.
Pages
Keep a page subset.
Drop a page subset.
Turn pages 90°, 180°, or 270°.
Flip the page order.
Rearrange pages into any order.
For the whole picture (the naming convention, how actions compose, and where each one lives), see the Actions overview.
What makes it different
- Fast. Actions are single-purpose transformations with no queues and no round trips. You send a request and stream the result straight to a file.
- Secure and stateless. Requests travel over HTTPS only and authenticate with a secret key. Documents are processed in-region and never stored: once the response is written, nothing remains.
- Regional data residency. The same catalog runs in ten regions, so your documents can be processed where your compliance needs them to be. Point a request at the region’s base URL and everything else is identical.
| Region | Base URL |
|---|---|
| Global | https://api.pdfblocks.com |
| United States | https://us.api.pdfblocks.com |
| US HIPAA | https://hipaa.api.pdfblocks.com |
| European Union | https://eu.api.pdfblocks.com |
| United Kingdom | https://uk.api.pdfblocks.com |
| Canada | https://ca.api.pdfblocks.com |
| Australia | https://au.api.pdfblocks.com |
| Japan | https://jp.api.pdfblocks.com |
| India | https://in.api.pdfblocks.com |
| Brazil | https://br.api.pdfblocks.com |
See Regions & data residency for the full details.