# Screenshot

## Overview

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Status** | private |
| **Method** | `GET` |
| **Endpoint** | `/v1/capture` |
| **Base URL** | `https://api.capturekit.dev` |
| **Credit Cost** | 1 credit per call |
| **Documentation** | https://www.piloterr.com/library/capture |

## Description

Browser-like Screenshot API that captures webpages as PNG/JPEG/WebP or PDF for previews, QA, reporting, monitoring, and archiving no headless setup.

## Authentication

- **Key Name:** `x-api-key`
- **Location:** HTTP Header
- **Get an API key:** https://app.capturekit.dev/register

## Example Request

```bash
curl --location --request GET 'https://api.capturekit.dev/v1/capture' \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY'
```

## Documentation

## Overview

CaptureKit’s Screenshot API renders a webpage like a real browser and returns a screenshot (PNG/JPEG/WebP) or a PDF. 
It’s designed for workflows where you need a reliable visual output for previews, reporting, QA, monitoring, and archiving without building your own headless browser infrastructure.

## Typical use cases

- **Website previews & thumbnails:** generate consistent previews for links in dashboards, directories, or SEO tools.
- **QA & visual regression:** capture pages across releases (desktop/mobile) to detect UI changes.
- **Reporting & client deliverables:** export full-page screenshots or PDFs for audits and documentation.
- **Monitoring & compliance:** store visual proof of page state at a given time (pricing pages, legal pages, ads).
- **Product / page capture:** take clean product screenshots while removing cookie banners/ads/popups.
- **Component capture:** screenshot a specific element (card, widget, chart) rather than the full page.

## Quickstart

Send a request with url and your access_key. The response body is the generated file (binary).

Example request:

```
`curl -L "https://api.capturekit.dev/v1/capture?x-api-key=YOUR_KEY&url=https://example.com" --output capture.png`
```

Common variants:

**Full page**

```
`curl -L "https://api.capturekit.dev/v1/capture?x-api-key=YOUR_KEY&url=https://example.com&full_page=true" --output full.png`
```

**Mobile preview**

```
`curl -L "https://api.capturekit.dev/v1/capture?x-api-key=YOUR_KEY&url=https://example.com&device=iphone_14_pro" --output mobile.png`
```

**PDF export**

```
`curl -L "https://api.capturekit.dev/v1/capture?x-api-key=YOUR_KEY&url=https://example.com&format=pdf&full_page=true" --output page.pdf`
```

## Parameters

### Required

- `url` (string): Webpage URL to render and capture.

- `x-api-key` (string): API key (can be provided as query param, header `x-api-key`, or request body).

### Output

- `format` **(optional)**: Output file type (png default; also supports webp, jpeg/jpg, pdf).
- `viewport_width` / `viewport_height` **(optional)**: Control the desktop viewport size.
- `scale_factor` **(optional)**: Increase pixel density for sharper output.
- `image_quality` **(optional)**: Compression quality for webp / jpeg.

### Mobile / responsive testing

- `device` **(optional)**: Emulate a predefined mobile/tablet device profile.

### Full-page capture

- `full_page` **(optional)**: Capture the entire page height.
- `full_page_scroll` / `full_page_scroll_duration` **(optional)**: Scroll to trigger lazy-loaded content during full-page capture.

### Timing (JS-heavy pages)

- `wait_for_selector` **(optional)**: Wait until a CSS selector exists before capturing (best for SPAs).
- `wait_until` **(optional)**: Choose the page readiness event.
- `delay` **(optional)**: Fixed wait time before capture.

### Cleanup (remove overlays)

- `remove_cookie_banners` **(optional)**: Attempt to remove cookie banners.
- `remove_ads` **(optional)**: Attempt to remove ads.
- `remove_selectors` **(optional)**: Remove specific elements via CSS selectors.
- `selector` **(optional)**: Capture only one specific element.

### Performance / routing

- `block_urls` **(optional)**: Block matching URL patterns (trackers, analytics).
- `block_resources` **(optional)**: Block resource types (images, fonts, etc.).
- `proxy` **(optional)**: Route through a proxy (geo / restricted / anti-bot cases).

### Caching

- `cache` **(optional)**: Cache results for repeated requests.
- `cache_ttl` **(optional)**: Cache TTL in seconds.

### Storage **(optional)**

- **S3 upload:** `s3_url` + bucket/credentials fields to upload directly to S3 or S3-compatible storage.

## Notes / limits

- **Page variability:** dynamic pages can change between captures; store timestamps with your outputs.
- **SPAs need deterministic waits:** prefer wait_for_selector for consistent results on JS-heavy sites.
- **Full-page + infinite scroll:** pages with endless content can produce unpredictable full-page renders.
- **Cleanup isn’t universal:** cookie banners/ads vary by site; remove_selectors is the most reliable fallback.
- **Performance tradeoffs:** higher scale_factor and full-page captures increase output size and render time.
- **Binary response handling:** treat responses as binary (Blob/ArrayBuffer) in your playground/client.