How to Generate Website Screenshots with Python in 3 Lines of Code

Source: Dev.to

Ever needed to capture a screenshot of a website programmatically? Whether you’re generating link previews, monitoring pages, or creating PDF reports, you can do it with Python in just a few lines.

The Problem

Taking website screenshots programmatically usually means setting up headless Chrome, installing Playwright or Puppeteer, managing browser instances, handling timeouts, and dealing with edge cases. It’s a lot of infrastructure for what should be a simple task.

The Simple Way

ScreenshotAPIs is an API that handles all of that for you. Send a URL, get back an image or PDF.

1. Get Your API Key

Sign up at screenshotapis.org — the free plan gives you 100 screenshots per month.

2. Take a Screenshot

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/screenshot",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key_here"},
    json={"url": "https://github.com"}
)

with open("screenshot.png", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

That’s it—three lines of real code (plus the import and file save).

3. Customize It

You can control the output format, viewport size, and more:

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/screenshot",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key_here"},
    json={
        "url": "https://github.com",
        "format": "jpeg",
        "width": 1280,
        "height": 720,
        "full_page": True
    }
)

Supported options

• format — png, jpeg, or webp
• width / height — viewport dimensions
• full_page — capture the entire scrollable page
• delay_ms — wait before capturing (useful for pages with animations)

Generate PDFs Too

Same API, different endpoint:

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/pdf",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key_here"},
    json={"url": "https://github.com"}
)

with open("page.pdf", "wb") as f:
    f.write(response.content)

Render Raw HTML

Don’t have a URL? You can pass HTML directly:

response = requests.post(
    "https://screenshotapis.org/v1/screenshot",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "your_api_key_here"},
    json={
        "html": "
## Hello World

Rendered as an image.
",
        "width": 800,
        "height": 400
    }
)

Great for generating OG images, email previews, or dynamic social cards.

Node.js? Same Thing

const response = await fetch("https://screenshotapis.org/v1/screenshot", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "X-API-Key": "your_api_key_here",
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ url: "https://github.com" })
});

const buffer = await response.arrayBuffer();
require("fs").writeFileSync("screenshot.png", Buffer.from(buffer));

Use Cases

• Link previews – Show a thumbnail of any URL in your app
• PDF reports – Convert dashboards or pages to downloadable PDFs
• OG images – Generate dynamic social media preview images from HTML templates
• Monitoring – Take periodic screenshots to track visual changes on a page
• Archiving – Save snapshots of web pages for compliance or records

Pricing

• Free tier – 100 captures per month
• Paid plans – start at $19/month for 2,000 captures
• One‑time credit packs – available if you don’t need a subscription

Check it out at screenshotapis.org.