What is the Preview SDK?

Creatomate is an API for video and image rendering in the cloud. If you're looking for a way to generate videos and images in an automated way, then the cloud API is all you need, just like the majority of our users.

The Preview SDK is an extension to our cloud API, bringing video rendering capabilities to the browser. As its name suggests, it allows you to display a real-time preview of videos or images before rendering them through the API. For example, if you're building a platform that allows users to input text, upload images, and customize videos while seeing a live preview (similar to Creatomate's template editor), the Preview SDK enables you to do this by seamlessly building upon Creatomate's technology.

The Preview SDK is published as a JavaScript library on NPM.com. It is framework-independent and can be used even in vanilla JavaScript web applications. It's important to note that the Preview SDK cannot generate the final MP4 in the browser due to hardware limitations on users' devices. However, this is where the cloud API comes into play: when users finish editing their video in the browser and need to export it as an MP4, you can do so using Creatomate's API. Because the Preview SDK uses the same JSON format as the API, no conversions are necessary. The video will be rendered exactly as shown in the preview.

The Preview SDK supports real-time previewing of both images and videos within the browser. The performance of the Preview SDK depends heavily on the device's capabilities. While many optimizations are implemented to ensure the live preview is as smooth as possible, not all devices and browsers have the necessary capabilities for live video editing. For this reason, it's important to thoroughly review the minimum requirements for the Preview SDK before using it.