Website Screenshot API
Abstract’s Website Screenshot API is a simple yet powerful REST API that allows you to request an image of a given URL. It accepts but does not require various customizations on the image capture and rendering, such as setting a capture delay, injecting custom CSS, and specifying the capture’s view port.
It’s very simple to use: you only need to submit your api_key and a single URL, and the API will respond as an screenshot of the provided website.
Getting started
REST
The Website Screenshot API, like all of Abstract’s APIs, is organized around REST. It is designed to use predictable, resource-oriented URL’s and to use HTTP status codes to indicate errors.
HTTPS
The Website Screenshot API requires all communications to be secured TLS 1.2 or greater.
API Versions
All of Abstract’s API are versioned. The Website Screenshot API is currently on Version 1.
Your API Key
Your API key is your unique authentication key to be used to access Abstract’s Website Screenshot API. Note that each of Abstract’s API has a unique API key, so you will need different keys to access the Website Screenshot and Email Validation APIs, for example. To authenticate your requests, you will need to append your API key to the base URL.
Base URL
https://screenshot.abstractapi.com/v1/
Validation endpoint
Abstract’s Website Screenshot API only has two required parameters for the request, your unique API key and a single URL:
https://screenshot.abstractapi.com/v1/
? api_key = YOUR_UNIQUE_API_KEY
& url = https://news.ycombinator.com
This was a successful request, so the screenshot from that URL is returned below:
Request parameters
Your unique API key. Note that each user has unique API keys for each of Abstract’s APIs, so your Website Screenshot API key will not work for your User Avatar API, for example.
The URL to get the screenshot of. Note that this parameter should include the full HTTP Protocol (http:// or https://).
If true the request will capture the entire height and width of the page. Defaults to true.
The width in pixels of the view port to use to capture the image.
The height in pixels of the view port to use to capture the image.
The time in seconds to wait between loading the page and taking the screenshot.
A CSS string to inject into the website before capturing the image.
The User Agent to use when capturing the screenshot.
The image format to use for the screenshot. Can be jpeg or png, and defaults to jpeg.