Claude can already make a PDF. Ask it in the chat app and you get a file back; ask it in Claude Code and it'll write a script to draw one. Either works once. But you're left with a one-off: a file, or a pile of drawing code, not something you can reuse next month with new details.
The ImaginePDF plugin changes what Claude is working with. Instead of a blank canvas and a drawing library, it hands Claude a real design system: text, tables, QR codes, barcodes, images, and shapes, a proper palette, and a preview it can look at and fix. You describe the document; Claude designs it. What comes back is a reusable design you can open, edit, and run again.
This guide walks through exactly that: designing a document with the plugin, from a blank workspace to a finished layout.
Get your API key
Create a key in your ImaginePDF dashboard under Settings → API Keys, then export it in your shell. Set it before you start Claude so the plugin picks it up right away:
export IMAGINEPDF_API_KEY=pc_live_...Drop that line in your .zshrc or .bashrc so it's always there.
Install the plugin
Launch Claude, then add the marketplace and install the plugin. It's a one-time step you run inside the session:
claude
/plugin marketplace add imaginepdf/claude-imaginepdf
/plugin install imaginepdf@imaginepdfThat's the whole setup. From here, you just talk to Claude.
Designing is a conversation
You don't open an editor or place boxes by hand. You say what you want, and Claude designs it:
> Design a course-completion certificate, A4 landscape, with a formal serif title, a gold accent rule, and the recipient's name centered. ⏺ imaginepdf:design Formal look · deep navy + gold · Playfair Display headings Starting from the certificate layout… ⏺ Built "Course Certificate" with 6 elements. Previewing it now.
Behind the scenes the plugin works through the same engine that powers the ImaginePDF editor, so the design is real. It's not a flat picture, not throwaway code. And because you're describing intent rather than coordinates, you can stay at the level of "make the title bigger" and let Claude handle the layout.
It starts with a look
Before placing anything, Claude settles on a style. If your request hints at one (a brand color, a logo, an industry, a word like "formal" or "playful"), it runs with that. If there's nothing to go on, it asks you once: a few directions to choose from, or "surprise me."
It also works from a starting point instead of a blank page, with ready layouts for the documents people actually make (invoices, receipts, certificates, reports, letters, ID cards), and restyles the closest one to match your look.
What you can put on the page
A design is just elements arranged on a page, and you have all the pieces you'd expect:
- Text for titles, labels, and paragraphs
- Tables for line items and structured data
- QR codes and barcodes
- Images for logos, photos, and artwork
- Shapes for bands, rules, and panels
You add them by describing them ("a header band across the top," "a totals box in the bottom-right corner"), and Claude sizes and positions everything to fit the page. You never do the math.
Preview and refine
This is the part that makes it feel like designing instead of guessing: Claude renders the page, looks at the result, and fixes what's off, like spacing, alignment, contrast, and balance. You steer in plain language.
> The title sits too close to the band, and use a warmer gold. ⏺ Moved the title down a little and switched the accent to a softer gold. Here's the updated preview.
Keep going until it looks right. For something two-sided, like an ID card, Claude checks each side.
Logos and artwork
Every image ends up as something real on the page, never an empty box. Hand Claude a logo file and it drops it in. Don't have one? Claude draws it as an SVG that matches your palette, so the design looks finished from the very first preview. When your real artwork is ready, swapping it in takes one line.
Your design is ready
That's the whole loop: describe, preview, refine. What you're left with is a polished, reusable design sitting in your ImaginePDF workspace, made entirely from a conversation, with no layout code to keep alive.
Open it in the visual editor to keep tweaking, or hand it to anyone on your team to use.
