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.
jsPDF
A library to generate PDFs in client-side JavaScript.
You can catch me on twitter: @MrRio or head over to my company's website for consultancy.
Creating your first document
The easiest way to get started is to drop the CDN hosted library into your page:
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jspdf/1.5.1/jspdf.debug.js" integrity="sha384-THVO/sM0mFD9h7dfSndI6TS0PgAGavwKvB5hAxRRvc0o9cPLohB0wb/PTA7LdUHs" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
Integrity-hash generated by https://www.srihash.org/
or can always get latest version via unpkg
<script src="https://unpkg.com/jspdf@latest/dist/jspdf.min.js"></script>
Using yarn:
yarn add jspdf
Using npm:
npm install jspdf --save
Then you're ready to start making your document:
var 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:
var doc = new jsPDF({
orientation: 'landscape',
unit: 'in',
format: [4, 2]
})
doc.text('Hello world!', 1, 1)
doc.save('two-by-four.pdf')
Use of UTF-8 / TTF:
The 14 standard fonts in PDF are limited to the ASCII-codepage. If you want to use UTF-8 you have to 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 a blank space instead of the text.
To add the font to jsPDF use our fontconverter in /fontconver/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.
Angular/Webpack/React/etc. Configuration:
If you are using Webpack (including managed cli tools like angular-cli or create-react-app) you can import like this:
import * as jsPDF from 'jspdf'
In some frameworks you have to import jsPDF like this:
import jsPDF from 'jspdf';
You can add jsPDF to your meteor-project as follows:
meteor add jspdf:core
Contributing
Build the library with npm run build
. This will fetch all dependencies and then compile the dist
files. To see the examples locally you can start a web server with npm start
and go to localhost:8000
.
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.
- 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) 2010-2017 James Hall, https://github.com/MrRio/jsPDF
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.