How to Add a Clickable Link to PDF using PDF.co and Zapier?

We prepared this step-by-step tutorial with screenshots to teach you how to add a clickable link to your PDF.

Quick Navigation:

  1. Start by clicking on Make a Zap! at the upper-left corner of your Zapier dashboard
  2. We will now set up our Trigger. Search and select Google drive as the App event. As for our Trigger Event go ahead and choose New File in Folder.
  3. Select or connect your Google Drive account which you will be using with Zapier
  4. Select My Google Drive as the drive to be used and select the specific folder where the PDF file is located.
  5. We will then Test the trigger to see if there are any errors or none.
  6. Search and select PDF.co as our App event and select Custom API Call as our Action event.
  7. Select or connect your PDF.co account which you will be using with Zapier.
  8. Under Set up Action, choose v1/pdf/edit/add as the PDF.co API Endpoint. Set the URL Input Parameter Override to Web Content Link. For the Input JSON add the following code:
    {
    "name": "Output",
    "annotations": [
    {
    "text": "Sample Text 2 - Click here to test link\r\n(CLICK ME!)",
    "x": 250,
    "y": 240,
    "size": 24,
    "pages": "0-",
    "color": "CCBBAA",
    "link": "https://bytescout.com/",
    "fontName": "Colibri",
    "fontItalic": true,
    "fontBold": true,
    "fontStrikeout": false,
    "fontUnderline": true
    }
    ]
    }
  9. Click on Test & Review to see if there are any errors or none.
  10. Once the test returns as successful. You can use the link to view and download the output PDF.

Step by step guide:

We will use this sample PDF and add a clickable link to it.

Screenshot of Source PDF
Screenshot of Source PDF

After following the step by step guide, the result will look like this:

Screenshot of Output PDF
Screenshot of Output PDF

STEP 1 – Start by clicking on Make a Zap! at the upper-left corner of your Zapier dashboard
STEP 2 -We will now set up our Trigger. Search and select Google drive as the App event. As for our Trigger Event go ahead and choose New File in Folder. In this case, whenever there’s a new file added to your specific folder, it will trigger this zap.

Selecting Google Drive as the Trigger and New File in Folder as the Trigger Event

NOTE: If you are not a Google Drive user, you can use a different cloud storage service such as Dropbox, OneDrive, etc., and look for a similar Trigger Event.

STEP 3Select or connect your Google Drive account which you will be using with Zapier

Choosing a Google Drive account to use

STEP 4 – Select My Google Drive as the drive to be used and select the specific folder where the PDF file is located. In my case, I put the PDF file in the PDF Filler folder.

Choosing My Google Drive as the drive to be used and selecting the folder that contains the PDF File

STEP 5 – We will then Test the trigger to see if there are any errors or none.

Testing the trigger

So we’re done setting up the Trigger. We will now set up the Action.

STEP 6Search and select PDF.co as our App event and select Custom API Call as our Action event. With Custom API Call you can manually add PDF.co API Endpoints that you want to use.

Choosing PDF.co as the App Event and Custom API Call as the Action Event

STEP 7Select or connect your PDF.co account which you will be using with Zapier. You can get your API key by clicking here.

Choosing a PDF.co account to be used

STEP 8 – Under Set up Action, choose v1/pdf/edit/add as the PDF.co API Endpoint. Set the URL Input Parameter Override to Web Content Link. For the Input JSON add the following code:

{
"name": "Output",
"annotations": [
{
"text": "Sample Text 2 - Click here to test link\r\n(CLICK ME!)",
"x": 250,
"y": 240,
"size": 24,
"pages": "0-",
"color": "CCBBAA",
"link": "https://bytescout.com/",
"fontName": "Colibri",
"fontItalic": true,
"fontBold": true,
"fontStrikeout": false,
"fontUnderline": true
}
]
}

Setting up the action

STEP 9 – We will now Test the action. Click on Test & Review to see if there are any errors or none.

Testing the action

STEP 10 – Once the test returns as successful. You can use the link to view and download the output PDF.

Test successful

Add a Clickable Link to PDF – Video