DocPayload · document infrastructure

Plain JSON. Every document.

Describe contracts, compliance reports, lab results, financial statements, credentials — once. Render to PDF or DOCX, identically.

Start in the playground Talk to our team

Declarative by design

One JSON payload generates PDF and DOCX. Describe the document structure; the engine handles layout, typography, and rendering.

Production-ready, day one

63 barcodes, AcroForms, watermarks, native multilingual shaping, vector charts, bidirectional text. Every feature regulated teams actually need, built in.

Global by default

Native shaping for Arabic, Hebrew, CJK, Thai, nine Indic scripts and more: 25 scripts out of the box, any other with a font you supply. Bidirectional text, vertical CJK, and hyphenation in 73 languages built in.

Depth

The problems incumbents won't talk about.

The capabilities regulated workflows demand — and most engines can't give. Every one below is plain, declarative JSON.

Every feature, in plain JSON

  • Barcodes, forms, signatures 63 symbologies, AcroForm fields, signature blocks embedded at generation time — no separate eSignature service needed
  • Encryption & watermarks AES-256, permissions, headers, footers, table of contents
  • No code, no DSL every capability is a declarative shape — nothing binary to edit
See it on the barcode catalog

One source, both formats — charts and all

  • Charts as native vector donut, grouped bars and trend line drawn from SVG primitives
  • Identical in PDF and DOCX editable vector on both sides — never a flattened screenshot
  • One JSON source no port, no images, no Word-version drift
See it on the revenue dashboard

A seal for every authority

  • A 30+ seal library from one pattern every seal and stamp is a component — invoked by name, placed at any size
  • Parameters at the point of use names, dates, registration numbers and machine-readable zones change per instance, never per copy
  • Native vector in PDF and DOCX reeded rims, guilloche lathework and curved lettering stay editable — never a flattened screenshot
See the seal & stamp library

Equations and formulae, as real text

  • Math, chemistry, units fractions, roots, reactions, isotopes — backslash-free LaTeX and ce{}
  • Real OpenType math layout set in-house from the font's MATH table
  • Selectable, searchable text in PDF and DOCX — never flattened to an image
See it on the control-loop qualification report

Banknote-grade decor, declared in JSON

  • Guilloche from one component hundreds of fine vector strands over a gradient wash — a single use reference, no image assets
  • True recto/verso page dress section breaks mirror the decor and letterhead for double-sided print, identical in PDF and Word
  • Signed and verifiable script e-signatures with AdES evidence, plus a QR verification block
See it on the installment loan contract

Every script, shaped right

  • Zero configuration write Arabic, CJK, Devanagari, Hebrew, or Thai directly — script is detected and shaped automatically
  • Mixed direction on one line right-to-left and left-to-right together, within the same paragraph
  • Bring any font embedded identically in PDF and DOCX
See it on the world-languages proclamation
Authoring

Build in our playground, ship from your tenant.

Sign in. Iterate live. Ship.

Live playground

Auth-gated by default. Your tenant, your data, no shared sandbox.

Author in your editor

IDE autocomplete from the published schema. Git-versioned, PR-reviewed.

Natural-language assistant optional

Describe in any language. Optional. Never in the render path.

100 GB tenant storage

Fonts, logos, images. Isolated per tenant. Same path local and prod.

DocPayload Studio playground — editor with template picker open and JSON source visible
Studio · author, validate, render Open the playground
Integration

Two ways to compose. Three ways to deliver.

DocPayload supports the integration patterns regulated teams actually use in production: from inline one-offs to high-volume webhook pipelines. Same API. Same source language.

Composition modes

Templateless
Post the full document inline: structure, content, and data merged in one payload. Best for one-offs, prototypes, and AI-assisted drafts.
Template + data binding most production teams
Reference a stored template by ID, post only the data fixture. The template can compose other documents (letterheads, clauses, footers) by reference. Best for recurring documents at volume.

Delivery modes

Synchronous response
The response carries a download link to the finished document. Low-latency, simple integration. Best for interactive flows where a user is waiting.
Email delivery
DocPayload delivers the rendered document to a provided email address. No client storage or routing needed. Best for end-user-facing documents.
Webhook subscription
DocPayload POSTs the rendered document to your endpoint when ready. Signed payloads, retries with backoff. Best for batch jobs and async pipelines.

No SDK. The schema is the interface.

DocPayload's published JSON Schema is the only client-side dependency. Your editor reads it directly for autocompletion, validation, and inline documentation. Construct documents in the language your team already works in. POST them to the API. The artifact is the source — not the code that generated it.

No language-specific binding to version-pin. No templating engine to learn. No HTML scaffolding. The whole point of declarative documents is to free your team from those choices. Write JSON, get a document.

Get a sandbox key View the schema 
# generate PDF from a stored template with data binding
curl -X POST https://api.docpayload.com/v1/{YOUR_TENANT_ID}/documents/generate-from-template/pdf \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "templateId": "a1b2c3d4-...", "data": { ... } }'

# { "fileName": "...", "downloadUrl": "...", "status": "Completed" }
Compliance

Built for documents that have to survive scrutiny.

When documents carry legal, financial, or regulatory weight, the infrastructure behind them has to match.

HIPAA
BAA available. PHI handled per Security and Privacy Rules. End-to-end encryption with customer-managed keys.
eIDAS / PAdES
Qualified electronic signatures with B-LTA long-term validation. Compatible with EU trust service providers.
PDF/A-2, A-3, A-4
ISO 19005 archival output by default, claimed only when the file meets it. Every release is validated with veraPDF. PDF/A-3 carries the embedded XML of Factur-X and ZUGFeRD invoices.
PIPEDA / Law 25 / FINTRAC
Canadian regulatory frameworks supported natively. Data residency in Canadian jurisdiction available.
Data residency
US, EU, Canada, UAE deployments. Self-hosted and VPC options for sensitive workloads. No data leaves your chosen region.
Audit trail
Every render logged with source hash, schema version, fixture digest, renderer version, and approver identity. Tamper-evident archive.
DocPayload Activity page — audit log with timestamps, actions, results, actors, targets, and trace IDs
Activity · every render, every actor, every trace See the audit view
Compare

Out of the box, by approach

Teams generate documents one of four ways. Here is what each gives you out of the box, from archiving, accessibility and signatures to barcodes, forms, scripts, equations and reusable components, and what DocPayload does with the same job.

Capability DocPayload Chromium-based HTML to PDF PDF libraries Template services AI document tools
Archival (PDF/A) Built in By default: PDF/A‑2b (A‑3b with attachments); A‑4, U and A levels on request Not available No PDF/A option In your code Varies by product Not documented
Accessibility (PDF/UA) Built in On request: PDF/UA‑1 or UA‑2, with title, language and image descriptions required Partial Tagged output, not identified as PDF/UA In your code Varies by product Not documented
Digital signatures (PAdES) Built in B‑B to B‑LTA, with a key in your own vault Separate tool In your code Varies by product Not documented
Password protection Built in AES‑256, in PDF and DOCX Separate tool In your code Varies by product Not documented
Word (DOCX) from the same source Built in PDF and DOCX from one JSON Not available Separate tool Varies by product Not documented
Barcodes Built in 63 symbologies, inline in text or placed in SVG, drawn as vectors in PDF and DOCX In your code A JavaScript library or an image Varies by product Varies by product Not documented
Fillable form fields in flowing text Built in 8 field types inside a sentence: real form fields in PDF; in DOCX, content controls, and a drawn box for the signature field Not available Inputs print as static drawing In your code Placed by coordinates Varies by product Not documented
Tables, lists and columns Built in Tables split across pages with repeated headers, nested lists, column grids Built in Varies by product Varies by product Not documented
Complex scripts and typography Built in Arabic, Hebrew, Indic and Thai shaping, right-to-left text, hyphenation in 73 languages, vertical CJK Built in Varies by product Some need a paid add-on Varies by product Not documented
Math and science notation Built in LaTeX-style equations, chemistry and units; native, editable equations in Word Partial MathML built in; LaTeX needs a script Not documented Not documented Not documented
Reusable, versioned components Built in Components referenced by name and pinned by version, nested and overridable, the same in PDF and DOCX In your code Your own HTML templating In your code Reuse is your code; merging joins whole pages Varies by product Some offer sub-templates; none documented with version pins Not documented
Payload checked before rendering Built in Against a published JSON Schema: a bad payload is refused, not billed Not available In your code Not documented Not available
Same input, same document Built in Deterministic layout, byte-identical when the date is fixed Not available Timestamps differ every run In your code Not documented Not available Not deterministic, by the providers' own account
Says when a standard is not met Built in Every withheld claim is flagged CONFORMANCE_WITHHELD Not available In your code Not documented Not documented

Compared by category from each category's public documentation, October 2026. A product can go beyond its category's baseline: some HTML-to-PDF services built on other engines offer PDF/A profiles, for example.

Pricing

Aligned with how regulated teams actually buy.

Billing is per generated document, by its page size: small (labels, cards), standard (A4, Letter, up to A3) or large (posters, plans). Every 100 pages, or part of them, count as one document.

Starter

Free limited plan
14-day trial, then 5 documents a month - No credit card required
  • 14-day trial, then 5 documents a month
  • Basic templates
  • Email support
  • Advanced templates
  • Team collaboration

Pay-as-you-go most production teams

$0.15 per document
Small $0.05 · Standard $0.15 · Large $0.50 · per 100 pages
  • Pay only for what you use
  • Unlimited documents
  • Advanced templates
  • Team collaboration
  • Priority support

Enterprise

$79 per user/month
Billed monthly, or yearly up front
  • Everything in Pay-as-you-go
  • 1,000 documents per user each month, pooled (no roll-over)
  • Extra documents at Pay-as-you-go prices
  • For your organization's own use: no resale or white-label
  • Advanced workflows

Month-to-month. Cancel anytime. Volume pricing available for enterprise teams.

See full plans, billing options, and FAQs
Story

Two generations of document tools failed regulated teams.

We're the engineers who shipped document pipelines on every major PDF library, headless browser, containerized office suite, and document-services API. We have a lot of respect for what those tools do. We also know where they stop — because we shipped past their edges.

The first generation of document tools gave engineers total control but required engineering expertise per template, producing fragile imperative pipelines that broke every time a font was missing or a page broke unexpectedly.

The second generation — AI document tools — gave users ease but produced documents you can't audit, version, or trust under regulatory pressure. DocPayload exists because regulated teams need all of it: the rigor of a declarative, schema-validated, deterministic engine; the optional convenience of natural-language authoring on top; and a composition model where any document can reference any other, so teams collaborate on shared building blocks without copy-pasting drift across templates.

Recent

The product, in motion.

OCT 2026

Major engine upgrade: DocPayload Colibri

PDF and DOCX now fully render on DocPayload Colibri, our own engine. Tagged, accessible PDF when you claim ua-1 or ua-2, DOCX in the Office Open XML class you claim, up to 8 times faster on long tables, barcodes as vectors, and lower prices for most documents.

OCT 2026

The schema reaches full maturity

After four years of hard iteration the document schema is fully aligned with the PDF, DOCX, HTML, CSS and SVG specifications. Published as JSON Schema 2020-12 at schemas.docpayload.com, it has made its last breaking change: from here on it only grows.

MAY 2026

SVG style property renames

Four SVG style keys renamed to match SVG presentation attributes: lineDash → strokeDasharray, lineDashPhase → strokeDashoffset, lineCapStyle → strokeLinecap, lineJoinStyle → strokeLinejoin. Authors fluent in SVG now author SVG styles by ear.

MAY 2026

Enum-value casing normalized to lowercase

textAlign, borderCollapse, verticalAlign, and horizontalAlign values are now consistently lowercase across fixtures and docs. Since October 2026 another case is refused before rendering, with the spelling the schema expects.

GET STARTED

Your next document pipeline, in JSON.

Declarative, schema-validated, API-native. Production-ready in hours, not weeks.

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