Downloading files

A chapter has a file for each language it is translated into, in each format its project reaches. Some are packaged by the run itself; the rest are packaged when you ask for them. Exports are free.

Formats

A project's steps are set in the dashboard: Text only, Text and translation, Text, translation and cleaned pages, or Full translation. A novel has the three scripts. The CBZ and layered PSD files the dashboard offers are not handed out over the API.

A script has one paragraph for each line of text, in reading order. A line that is not translated yet appears as it was read.

Packaged by the run

When a chapter's run ends, it packages one file for each language, and announces it with export.ready:

• zip for a comic that goes through every step;
• txt for a novel, and for a comic project that stops at translation or at cleaning;
• nothing for a project that only reads its pages: ask for source.

Download it with the language and format:

curl -s -H "$AUTH" -OJ \
  "https://tinypica.com/api/v1/chapters/$CHAPTER/export/download?language=en&format=zip"

-OJ saves it under the name the answer gives it, such as chapter-1-en.zip.

Asking for any other file

Any other file is packaged by POST /chapters/:id/export/prepare, then downloaded the same way. A page's art takes time to render, so a prepare call works for a few seconds and says how far it got; call it again until it answers done: true. Pages already rendered are kept between calls, so none of the work is lost. A script is ready in one call.

# Asked for until it is done. Each call builds a few more pages. An error
# answer has no "done", and ends the loop too.
while :; do
  answer=$(curl -s -H "$AUTH" -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{"language":"en","format":"clean"}' \
    https://tinypica.com/api/v1/chapters/$CHAPTER/export/prepare)
  [ "$(jq .done <<< "$answer")" = false ] || break
done
echo "$answer"

curl -s -H "$AUTH" -OJ \
  "https://tinypica.com/api/v1/chapters/$CHAPTER/export/download?language=en&format=clean"

{ "done": false, "rendered": 9, "total": 24 }

{
  "done": true,
  "languageCode": "en",
  "format": "clean",
  "filename": "chapter-1-clean.zip",
  "byteSize": 45200,
  "pageCount": 24,
  "preparedAt": "2026-09-28T12:46:52.088Z"
}

A file you ask for is announced with export.ready too, so a webhook hears about every file, whichever way it was made.

Languages

language is one of the project's target languages, as its two-letter code: en, es, ja and so on. clean and source are the same in every language, since nothing in them is translated: ask with any of the project's.

After an edit

A file is the chapter as it was when it was packaged. Once a translation is edited in the dashboard, the file is out of date, and a download says so with a 409: This chapter changed since the export was prepared, prepare it again. Prepare it again, and download the new one.

When a file cannot be made