Mike has spent the last 20 years crafting software solutions for all kinds of amazing businesses. He specializes in building digital products and APIs that make a real difference. As an expert in Laravel and a voting member on the PHP language, Mike helps shape the future of web development.
Mike founded HTML to Image after watching the same problem repeat across agency projects: every team that needed dynamic Open Graph images, invoice graphics or screenshot endpoints ended up building and babysitting its own headless Chrome setup. He writes the articles and the API documentation here, and works on the rendering service behind them.
Headless Chrome at scale: cold starts, font loading, memory limits and the operational cost of keeping a browser farm alive. HTML to Image exists because that work should only need doing once.
Two decades of shipping Laravel applications, and a voting member on the PHP language itself. Most of the framework guides on this site come out of that background.
Building developer products where the interface is the product. The recurring theme across these articles is making a hard rendering problem into one HTTP call.
Published across Comparisons, Deep dives, Framework guides, Tutorials.
35 articles on rendering HTML to images and PDFs at scale.
Convert Markdown to an image without screenshots: parse GFM to HTML, add a document stylesheet and render a content-sized PNG in one API call.
Your og:image not showing on LinkedIn, Slack or X? The eight reasons link previews break, how to tell which one is yours, and the fix for each.
Self-hosted PDF generation looks free with wkhtmltopdf, dompdf or Puppeteer. Price the build, the Chrome upkeep and the page-two failures and the maths flips.
Bannerbear alternatives compared: seven image generation APIs ranked on entry price, free tier and rendering model, from $9 code-first to full visual editors.
Generate Open Graph images in GitHub Actions without installing a browser: build-time OG cards, PR preview screenshots and release images in one step.
Generate images in n8n with one HTTP Request node: social cards from an RSS feed, certificates from form submissions and weekly PDF reports.
Generate images from an AI agent with MCP: connect Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code to the HTML to Image server and it designs, renders and refines its output.
Automate branded product card images for Shopify: render cards from product data, set them as og:image with metafields and keep them current with webhooks.
Migrating from htmlcsstoimage? Map every hcti.io parameter to its HTML to Image equivalent, keep output pixel-identical with dpi 2 and cut over safely.
How to choose an HTML to image API: the rendering engine, pricing model and production details that separate a dozen near-identical services.
OG image generation looks free with Puppeteer. Price the build, the Chrome upkeep and the silent failures and the maths points the other way.
Page breaks in HTML to PDF output are a CSS problem. Use break-inside, break-before and break-after to stop tables, invoices and cards splitting across pages.
Statamic Open Graph images from first field to full automation: meta tags, the SEO Pro cascade and a branded og:image generated for every entry.
WeasyPrint alternative for HTML to PDF in Python: a real browser engine over one API call, with working JavaScript and no Pango or Chromium to manage.
HTML to PDF with Puppeteer works locally then breaks on Lambda: binaries, fonts, memory and cold starts. Why it happens and the one-parameter fix.
Migrating from ApiFlash? Map every urltoimage parameter to its HTML to Image equivalent, move your key out of the query string and cut over safely.
dompdf alternatives for Laravel: render Blade views to real vector PDFs with modern CSS. No abandoned wkhtmltopdf binary, no Chrome on your server.
Browsershot alternatives for Laravel: render HTML to images without Node, Puppeteer or Chrome on your server. One composer install, real Chrome renders.
nuxt-og-image leans on Satori's limited CSS or a heavy Chromium binary. Render Nuxt OG images from a Nitro route with one API call instead, no browser to ship.
Screenshot one element from a live URL as a PNG in one API call. Pass a CSS selector to crop to a pricing table, chart or hero, no headless browser to run.
Satori, the engine behind @vercel/og, renders a flexbox-only subset of CSS: no grid, no pseudo-elements, no media queries. Here are the limits and the fix.
wkhtmltopdf and wkhtmltoimage are dead and unpatched. Replace them with a real Chromium renderer: a drop-in API call, modern CSS and no binary to maintain.
Email clients render HTML inconsistently. Render the parts that carry your design to a PNG so your email images look the same in every inbox.
Generate branded WordPress Open Graph and social images automatically. Render per-post cards from HTML with one API call, no headless Chrome needed.
Code screenshots for social media, done properly: set the theme, background and line numbers with one API call, or automate the lot in your build.
Generate dynamic Open Graph images in Rails by rendering ERB templates to PNGs over HTTP. No headless Chrome on your server, no MiniMagick pixel maths.
Generate course-completion certificates with a verifiable ID, signature image and consistent branding. Three approaches with code, plus when each falls short.
Pre-generate per-page Open Graph images at build time across three popular static site generators. Working code, caching, and meta-tag wiring covered for each.
Generate per-page Open Graph images in Laravel with Browsershot, Puppeteer Lambda or an API. Working code, queue handling and storage covered for each.
@vercel/og renders emoji as empty boxes by default because Satori does not bundle a color font. Three fixes, with code, and one production-ready alternative.
Render Chart.js charts on the server and get back a PNG. A cleaner alternative to chartjs-node-canvas or wrestling with matplotlib in Python.
Rendering invoices as PNGs that actually look professional. Laravel Blade templates, a clean API call, and no Puppeteer to maintain.
Tired of chrome-aws-lambda breaking on every Chrome update? Here's a cleaner way to run screenshot workloads without managing Chromium yourself.
Hit a wall with Satori's CSS limits? Here's how to generate dynamic OG images in Next.js using a real browser renderer, with full working code.
Learn how to generate a screenshot using cURL using the HTML to Image API. With full examples, including dimensions and webhook usage.
Support replies within one business day, and Mike reads the technical ones.
