jspdf

What is jspdf?

The jsPDF npm package is a library that allows you to generate PDF documents using JavaScript. It can be used in a web browser or in a server-side environment using Node.js. It provides a wide range of features to create and manipulate PDF documents programmatically.

What are jspdf's main functionalities?

Text

This feature allows you to add text to a PDF document. The code sample demonstrates how to create a PDF with the text 'Hello world!' at coordinates (10, 10) on the page.

const { jsPDF } = require('jspdf');
const doc = new jsPDF();
doc.text('Hello world!', 10, 10);
doc.save('hello_world.pdf');

Graphics

This feature allows you to draw shapes and graphics, such as rectangles, circles, and lines. The code sample shows how to draw a filled red rectangle with a black border.

const { jsPDF } = require('jspdf');
const doc = new jsPDF();
doc.setDrawColor(0);
doc.setFillColor(255, 0, 0);
doc.rect(20, 20, 10, 10, 'FD');
doc.save('rectangle.pdf');

Images

This feature allows you to embed images into a PDF. The code sample demonstrates adding an image to the PDF, specifying the format, position, and size of the image.

const { jsPDF } = require('jspdf');
const doc = new jsPDF();
// Image must be in base64 format or a URL
const imgData = 'data:image/jpeg;base64,...';
doc.addImage(imgData, 'JPEG', 15, 40, 180, 160);
doc.save('image.pdf');

Fonts and Styles

This feature allows you to customize the font and style of the text in the PDF. The code sample sets the font to Helvetica, makes it bold, sets the font size, and then adds the text to the document.

const { jsPDF } = require('jspdf');
const doc = new jsPDF();
doc.setFont('helvetica', 'bold');
doc.setFontSize(16);
doc.text('Styled text', 10, 20);
doc.save('styled_text.pdf');

Vector Graphics

This feature allows you to create vector graphics such as lines and curves. The code sample draws a line with a certain width on the PDF.

const { jsPDF } = require('jspdf');
const doc = new jsPDF();
doc.setLineWidth(0.5);
doc.line(20, 20, 60, 20);
doc.save('line.pdf');

Other packages similar to jspdf

pdfkit

PDFKit is a PDF generation library for Node and the browser that makes creating complex, multi-page, printable documents easy. It has a similar feature set to jsPDF but works with a different syntax and has a focus on vector graphics and text layout.

pdfmake

pdfmake is a client/server side PDF printing in pure JavaScript. It is similar to jsPDF but offers a higher-level API for document definition, which can be more convenient for complex layouts.

html-pdf

html-pdf is a Node module that converts HTML content to PDFs using PhantomJS. It is different from jsPDF as it takes HTML/CSS as input and is useful for rendering web pages as PDFs.

README

A library to generate PDFs in JavaScript.

You can catch me on twitter: @MrRio or head over to my company's website for consultancy.

jsPDF is now co-maintained by yWorks - the diagramming experts.

Live Demo | Documentation

Install

Recommended: get jsPDF from npm:

npm install jspdf --save
# or
yarn add jspdf

Alternatively, load it from a CDN:

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jspdf/2.5.2/jspdf.umd.min.js"></script>

Or always get latest version via unpkg

<script src="https://unpkg.com/jspdf@latest/dist/jspdf.umd.min.js"></script>

The dist folder of this package contains different kinds of files:

• jspdf.es.*.js: Modern ES2015 module format.
• jspdf.node.*.js: For running in Node. Uses file operations for loading/saving files instead of browser APIs.
• jspdf.umd.*.js: UMD module format. For AMD or script-tag loading.
• polyfills*.js: Required polyfills for older browsers like Internet Explorer. The es variant simply imports all required polyfills from core-js, the umd variant is self-contained.

Usually it is not necessary to specify the exact file in the import statement. Build tools or Node automatically figure out the right file, so importing "jspdf" is enough.

Usage

Then you're ready to start making your document:

import { jsPDF } from "jspdf";

// Default export is a4 paper, portrait, using millimeters for units
const doc = new jsPDF();

doc.text("Hello world!", 10, 10);
doc.save("a4.pdf");

If you want to change the paper size, orientation, or units, you can do:

// Landscape export, 2×4 inches
const doc = new jsPDF({
  orientation: "landscape",
  unit: "in",
  format: [4, 2]
});

doc.text("Hello world!", 1, 1);
doc.save("two-by-four.pdf");

Running in Node.js

const { jsPDF } = require("jspdf"); // will automatically load the node version

const doc = new jsPDF();
doc.text("Hello world!", 10, 10);
doc.save("a4.pdf"); // will save the file in the current working directory

Other Module Formats

AMD

require(["jspdf"], ({ jsPDF }) => {
  const doc = new jsPDF();
  doc.text("Hello world!", 10, 10);
  doc.save("a4.pdf");
});

Globals

const { jsPDF } = window.jspdf;

const doc = new jsPDF();
doc.text("Hello world!", 10, 10);
doc.save("a4.pdf");

Optional dependencies

Some functions of jsPDF require optional dependencies. E.g. the html method, which depends on html2canvas and, when supplied with a string HTML document, dompurify. JsPDF loads them dynamically when required (using the respective module format, e.g. dynamic imports). Build tools like Webpack will automatically create separate chunks for each of the optional dependencies. If your application does not use any of the optional dependencies, you can prevent Webpack from generating the chunks by defining them as external dependencies:

// webpack.config.js
module.exports = {
  // ...
  externals: {
    // only define the dependencies you are NOT using as externals!
    canvg: "canvg",
    html2canvas: "html2canvas",
    dompurify: "dompurify"
  }
};

In Vue CLI projects, externals can be defined via the configureWebpack or chainWebpack properties of the vue.config.js file (needs to be created, first, in fresh projects).

In Angular projects, externals can be defined using custom webpack builders.

In React (create-react-app) projects, externals can be defined by either using react-app-rewired or ejecting.

TypeScript/Angular/Webpack/React/etc. Configuration:

jsPDF can be imported just like any other 3rd party library. This works with all major toolkits and frameworks. jsPDF also offers a typings file for TypeScript projects.

import { jsPDF } from "jspdf";

You can add jsPDF to your meteor-project as follows:

meteor add jspdf:core

Polyfills

jsPDF requires modern browser APIs in order to function. To use jsPDF in older browsers like Internet Explorer, polyfills are required. You can load all required polyfills as follows:

import "jspdf/dist/polyfills.es.js";

Alternatively, you can load the prebundled polyfill file. This is not recommended, since you might end up loading polyfills multiple times. Might still be nifty for small applications or quick POCs.

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jspdf/2.5.2/polyfills.umd.js"></script>

Use of Unicode Characters / UTF-8:

The 14 standard fonts in PDF are limited to the ASCII-codepage. If you want to use UTF-8 you have to integrate a custom font, which provides the needed glyphs. jsPDF supports .ttf-files. So if you want to have for example Chinese text in your pdf, your font has to have the necessary Chinese glyphs. So, check if your font supports the wanted glyphs or else it will show garbled characters instead of the right text.

To add the font to jsPDF use our fontconverter in /fontconverter/fontconverter.html. The fontconverter will create a js-file with the content of the provided ttf-file as base64 encoded string and additional code for jsPDF. You just have to add this generated js-File to your project. You are then ready to go to use setFont-method in your code and write your UTF-8 encoded text.

Alternatively you can just load the content of the *.ttf file as a binary string using fetch or XMLHttpRequest and add the font to the PDF file:

const doc = new jsPDF();

const myFont = ... // load the *.ttf font file as binary string

// add the font to jsPDF
doc.addFileToVFS("MyFont.ttf", myFont);
doc.addFont("MyFont.ttf", "MyFont", "normal");
doc.setFont("MyFont");

Advanced Functionality

Since the merge with the yWorks fork there are a lot of new features. However, some of them are API breaking, which is why there is an API-switch between two API modes:

• In "compat" API mode, jsPDF has the same API as MrRio's original version, which means full compatibility with plugins. However, some advanced features like transformation matrices and patterns won't work. This is the default mode.
• In "advanced" API mode, jsPDF has the API you're used from the yWorks-fork version. This means the availability of all advanced features like patterns, FormObjects, and transformation matrices.

You can switch between the two modes by calling

doc.advancedAPI(doc => {
  // your code
});
// or
doc.compatAPI(doc => {
  // your code
});

JsPDF will automatically switch back to the original API mode after the callback has run.

Support

Please check if your question is already handled at Stackoverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/jspdf. Feel free to ask a question there with the tag jspdf.

Feature requests, bug reports, etc. are very welcome as issues. Note that bug reports should follow these guidelines:

• A bug should be reported as an mcve
• Make sure code is properly indented and formatted (Use ``` around code blocks)
• Provide a runnable example.
• Try to make sure and show in your issue that the issue is actually related to jspdf and not your framework of choice.

Contributing

jsPDF cannot live without help from the community! If you think a feature is missing or you found a bug, please consider if you can spare one or two hours and prepare a pull request. If you're simply interested in this project and want to help, have a look at the open issues, especially those labeled with "bug".

You can find information about building and testing jsPDF in the contribution guide

Credits

• Big thanks to Daniel Dotsenko from Willow Systems Corporation for making huge contributions to the codebase.
• Thanks to Ajaxian.com for featuring us back in 2009. (Internet Archive Wayback Machine reference)
• Our special thanks to GH Lee (sphilee) for programming the ttf-file-support and providing a large and long sought after feature
• Everyone else that's contributed patches or bug reports. You rock.

License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2010-2021 James Hall, https://github.com/MrRio/jsPDF (c) 2015-2021 yWorks GmbH, https://www.yworks.com/

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.