External Resources

PDFMonkey templates can load assets from external URLs – images, stylesheets, scripts, and fonts. These are called external resources, and their availability depends on your plan. This page explains what qualifies, how to tell if your template uses one, and what to do if you are on the Free plan.

What Counts as an External Resource?

An external resource is any file your template loads via a URL (http://... or https://...). This includes:

• Remote images – loaded from a server or CDN (data-uri and inline SVG still work on all plans)
• CSS files – stylesheets hosted on your servers or a CDN
• JavaScript files – scripts hosted on your servers or a CDN
• Web fonts – like Google Fonts or Bunny Fonts
• Visual Editor fonts – any font selected in the builder’s font-family picker

How to tell if your template uses external resources

Look for URLs in your template code. Anything that starts with http:// or https:// is an external resource:

<!-- External resources -- require a paid plan -->
<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/chart.js"></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://example.com/styles.css" />
<img src="https://example.com/logo.png" />

/* Also external */
@import url("https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter&display=swap");

Resources written directly in your template are not external resources and work on every plan:

<!-- Inline resources -- work on all plans -->
<script>console.log('inline JS');</script>
<style>h1 { color: red; }</style>
<img src="data:image/png;base64,iVBOR..." />
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">...</svg>

Plan Availability

External resources are available on all paid plans and during the 30-day Pro trial. On the Free plan, documents that reference external resources will fail at generation time.

For a full breakdown of what each plan includes, see Our Plans. For details on what the trial unlocks, see 30-day Pro trial.

PDFMonkey-Hosted Resources

Resources hosted on PDFMonkey’s own servers (pdfmonkey-resources.s3-eu-west-3.amazonaws.com) are the exception: they work on all plans, including Free.

The most common example is the hosted Tailwind CSS builds. See Hosted Tailwind CSS Versions for the full list of available versions.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use web fonts in PDFMonkey templates?

Yes, but only on paid plans (Starter and above). Web fonts loaded via URL (e.g., Google Fonts) count as external resources. On the Free plan, use system fonts or embed fonts as Base64 data URIs instead.

What counts as an external resource in PDFMonkey?

Any file your template loads via a URL (http:// or https://) is an external resource. This includes remote images, CSS files, JavaScript files, web fonts, and fonts selected in the Builder's font picker. Inline code and data URIs are not external resources and work on all plans.

Why are my images or fonts not loading in PDFMonkey?

If you are on the Free plan, external resources (remote images, web fonts, external CSS/JS) are not available. Upgrade to Starter or higher, or switch to inline alternatives: Base64 data URIs for images, inline SVGs, or system fonts.