Convert PowerPoint to PDF in Node.js — Without Office on Your Server

import { writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const API_TOKEN = 'YOUR_API_TOKEN';
const BASE_URL = 'https://apdf.io/api';
const headers = { Authorization: `Bearer ${API_TOKEN}`, Accept: 'application/json' };

async function post(path, body) {
    const response = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}${path}`, { method: 'POST', headers, body: new URLSearchParams(body) });
    if (!response.ok) {
        throw new Error(`${path} failed with ${response.status}: ${await response.text()}`);
    }
    return response.json();
}

// Start the conversion, then poll the job until the PDF is ready.
export async function convertToPdf(documentUrl, timeoutMs = 300_000) {
    const { job_id } = await post('/pdf/file/convert', { file: documentUrl });
    const deadline = Date.now() + timeoutMs;

    while (Date.now() < deadline) {
        const job = await post('/job/status/check', { id: job_id });
        if (job.status === 'successful') return job.result;
        if (job.status === 'failed') throw new Error(`Conversion failed: ${JSON.stringify(job.result)}`);
        await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 2000));
    }
    throw new Error(`Job ${job_id} did not finish in time`);
}

// Download the finished PDF (the link expires after one hour).
export async function downloadPdf(result) {
    const response = await fetch(result.file);
    if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Download failed with ${response.status}`);
    return Buffer.from(await response.arrayBuffer());
}

if (import.meta.url === `file://${process.argv[1]}`) {
    const result = await convertToPdf('https://files.northlight.example/decks/proposal-acme-q4-2026.pptx');
    await writeFile('proposal-acme-q4-2026.pdf', await downloadPdf(result));
    console.log(`Saved proposal-acme-q4-2026.pdf: ${result.pages} pages, ${result.size} bytes`);
}

{
    "id": "01M4D7REN6R9SJA4Z658R0RCDQ",
    "created": "2026-10-08T07:48:31.000000Z",
    "status": "successful",
    "result": {
        "file": "https://apdf-files.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/5a9656b46ac74acf7ebeb.pdf",
        "size": 42991,
        "pages": 5,
        "expiration": "2026-10-08T08:48:32.440485Z"
    }
}

import { mkdir, readFile, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
import express from 'express';
import { convertToPdf, downloadPdf } from './convert.mjs';

const DECKS_URL = 'https://files.northlight.example/decks';
const CACHE_DIR = './pdf-cache';
const app = express();

await mkdir(CACHE_DIR, { recursive: true });

// GET /decks/proposal-acme-q4-2026.pdf → the deck as PDF, converted on first request.
app.get('/decks/:name.pdf', async (req, res) => {
    const name = req.params.name.replace(/[^a-z0-9-]/gi, '');
    const cached = `${CACHE_DIR}/${name}.pdf`;

    try {
        const pdf = await readFile(cached).catch(async () => {
            const result = await convertToPdf(`${DECKS_URL}/${name}.pptx`);
            const converted = await downloadPdf(result);
            await writeFile(cached, converted);
            return converted;
        });

        res.type('application/pdf').send(pdf);
    } catch (error) {
        console.error(error);
        res.status(502).send('The deck could not be converted.');
    }
});

app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Listening on http://localhost:3000'));

$ curl -o kickoff.pdf -w "%{http_code} %{time_total}s\n" http://localhost:3000/decks/kickoff-globex-2026.pdf
200 2.211315s
$ curl -o kickoff.pdf -w "%{http_code} %{time_total}s\n" http://localhost:3000/decks/kickoff-globex-2026.pdf
200 0.002144s

Error: Conversion failed: {"errors":{"file":"404 Not Found"},"message":"The file could not be downloaded."}