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I’m building this, here is the problem I’m exploring, does anyone else have this pain?

I’m building Pritset — an API that generates PDFs from DOCX templates.

The idea came from a problem that looks simple at first:

“We just need to generate a PDF.”

But then the product grows.

You need invoices, reports, contracts, receipts, booking confirmations, certificates, statements, or other customer-facing documents.

At some point, developers start maintaining HTML templates, PDF rendering logic, styling issues, layout bugs, async generation, file storage, retries, and customer-specific document changes.

I’m trying a different approach:

Let teams design documents in Microsoft Word, then generate PDFs from those DOCX templates through an API using JSON data.

The goal is simple:

  • developers keep the integration simple

  • non-technical people can edit document layouts

  • companies do not need to rebuild document generation from scratch

Right now, I’m doing customer discovery and trying to understand where document generation is actually painful.

I’d love to hear from other founders and developers:

Do you generate PDFs in your product?

If yes:

  • What do you use today?

  • Is template editing painful?

  • Who owns document changes — developers or business users?

  • Would DOCX-based templates be useful for your workflow?

I also created example integrations for Node.js, .NET, Java, and Python:
https://github.com/daviatorstorm/pritset-examples

Happy to hear honest feedback.

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Pritset
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    I like that you're reframing the problem from "PDF generation" to "document ownership."

    The technical part is relatively well understood. The bigger pain is that every layout change ends up competing with product engineering time. Letting business teams own document changes without involving developers is a much stronger value proposition than simply generating PDFs.

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      Thanks for this highlight.

      We are already working on making easier create a template even without using Microsoft Word or LibreOffice Writer.

      In plans we have adding an AI to help create templates based on user prompt.

      1. 2

        Interesting.

        Reading your reply made me think less about AI-generated templates and more about the business consequence of making document ownership easier over time.

        I don't think where that line of thinking leads is obvious at first, and I don't think I can explain it properly in a thread without leaving out the parts that actually matter.

        If you're open to it, what's the best email to reach you on?

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          Thank you very much for your interest.

          Unfortunately I cannot pass an email address here.

          Better to go to my project landing page and in the bottom you will see a Contact Us. There will be our support email address.

          I will be very happy to talk with you in details.

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            Thanks! I’ve just sent it over.

            Looking forward to hearing your thoughts whenever you have a chance.