Show HN: Pagify - Document Design and Generation on Cloud (opens in new tab)

I think you should consider dropping the design part of the workflow - there are applications out there that are very good at this and it will be hard to compete there, and it is not part of your core product value. I believe the core value is in the dynamic PDF generation aspect - not the template design aspect.

Allow me to upload a pre created template that follows some sort of variable naming that is compatible with your API, and allow me to use just the API to generate documents.

Very cool - thanks for sharing guys. I think you're certainly onto something - there's a lot of traditional paper-based business out there that could use a shift toward dynamic PDF-based workflow.

I'd tweak some of your marketing points a bit, in particular:

"No one wants to read emails, let alone dull and boring ones. Make your emails stand out from the crowd by designing creative documents and send them as attachments. And with Pagify, the whole process can be automated, so its quick and easy."

I don't know that I agree with that at all. And this point cheapens your product/message - it sounds like you're -really- reaching for a nail to hammer.

Take a look at some businesses that deal with contracts a lot -- legal agreements, etc. I had to sign an agreement for a vacation home yesterday using some awful service that auto-generated a PDF for me, and it was totally abysmal. Bad UX, clunky, etc.

Anyway - congrats on the launch and good luck!

Wow, pretty cool.

I see you can only use the API to generate the PDF's. I'd love to be able to upload an csv/xls file and use the columns as variables. Writing invitations/letters/labels to a lot of people happens occasionally and not having to dive into the code but simple use point-and-click to personalise the documents would be cool. I'm aware Word has this functionality but I think improvements can be made in simplicity. Pre-set templates for labels might also be useful.

Wow this is pretty neat. I love the api, very straightforward.

One question: Can I use the api to push a uri encoded png to the document? My use case would be converting d3.js charts into uri encoded pngs, pushing that to pagify via api and presenting the user with a customized report based on the current chart's data.

Very cool in concept. I genuinely believe that if you start packaging plugins based on your API for existing platforms like wordpress, magento, joomla for verticals like e-commerce, you would definitely start making bucks for the quick reporting features.

Can this generate a very long table and paginate it carefully, without tearing individual rows? Can the table have arbitrary number of columns? How do the columns get sized when there is a lot of data? Thanks.

Small thing, but it would be a big help if you could expand the font choices for your template maker - I could definitely see myself using this but would need to be able to drop in text in Times New Roman.

Just one tip for your site: Don't use youtube for the video, it links to more unrelated youtube videos that people might be tempted to watch instead of, you know, testing Pagify :)

We just launched our alpha (and are sending out invites to people who sign up). We want to validate our value proposition so any feedback/suggestion is very much appreciated!

How long does PDF generation take?

Can I upload and manipulate an existing PDF?