react-native-pdf

What is react-native-pdf?

The react-native-pdf package is a React Native library that allows you to display PDF documents in your mobile applications. It provides a range of functionalities to handle PDF files, including loading PDFs from various sources, rendering pages, and handling user interactions such as zooming and scrolling.

What are react-native-pdf's main functionalities?

Load PDF from URL

This feature allows you to load a PDF document from a URL and display it within your React Native application. The code sample demonstrates how to load a PDF from a remote URL and handle events such as loading completion, page changes, and errors.

import React from 'react';
import { View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native';
import Pdf from 'react-native-pdf';

const PdfExample = () => {
  const source = { uri: 'http://www.pdf995.com/samples/pdf.pdf', cache: true };
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Pdf
        source={source}
        onLoadComplete={(numberOfPages, filePath) => {
          console.log(`Number of pages: ${numberOfPages}`);
        }}
        onPageChanged={(page, numberOfPages) => {
          console.log(`Current page: ${page}`);
        }}
        onError={(error) => {
          console.log(error);
        }}
        style={styles.pdf}
      />
    </View>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'flex-start',
    alignItems: 'center',
    marginTop: 25,
  },
  pdf: {
    flex: 1,
    width: '100%',
    height: '100%',
  },
});

export default PdfExample;

Load PDF from local file

This feature allows you to load a PDF document from a local file and display it within your React Native application. The code sample demonstrates how to load a PDF from a local file path and handle events such as loading completion, page changes, and errors.

import React from 'react';
import { View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native';
import Pdf from 'react-native-pdf';

const PdfExample = () => {
  const source = require('./path/to/local/file.pdf');
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Pdf
        source={source}
        onLoadComplete={(numberOfPages, filePath) => {
          console.log(`Number of pages: ${numberOfPages}`);
        }}
        onPageChanged={(page, numberOfPages) => {
          console.log(`Current page: ${page}`);
        }}
        onError={(error) => {
          console.log(error);
        }}
        style={styles.pdf}
      />
    </View>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'flex-start',
    alignItems: 'center',
    marginTop: 25,
  },
  pdf: {
    flex: 1,
    width: '100%',
    height: '100%',
  },
});

export default PdfExample;

Zoom and scroll

This feature allows users to zoom in and out of the PDF document and scroll through its pages. The code sample demonstrates how to enable zooming and scrolling functionalities in the PDF viewer.

import React from 'react';
import { View, StyleSheet } from 'react-native';
import Pdf from 'react-native-pdf';

const PdfExample = () => {
  const source = { uri: 'http://www.pdf995.com/samples/pdf.pdf', cache: true };
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Pdf
        source={source}
        onLoadComplete={(numberOfPages, filePath) => {
          console.log(`Number of pages: ${numberOfPages}`);
        }}
        onPageChanged={(page, numberOfPages) => {
          console.log(`Current page: ${page}`);
        }}
        onError={(error) => {
          console.log(error);
        }}
        style={styles.pdf}
        scale={1.0}
        minScale={1.0}
        maxScale={3.0}
        horizontal={false}
      />
    </View>
  );
};

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    justifyContent: 'flex-start',
    alignItems: 'center',
    marginTop: 25,
  },
  pdf: {
    flex: 1,
    width: '100%',
    height: '100%',
  },
});

export default PdfExample;

Other packages similar to react-native-pdf

react-native-pdf-view

react-native-pdf-view is another React Native library for displaying PDF documents. It provides basic functionalities for rendering PDF pages and handling user interactions. However, it may not be as feature-rich or actively maintained as react-native-pdf.

react-native-pdf-lib

react-native-pdf-lib is a library focused on creating and modifying PDF documents in React Native. While it offers functionalities for generating PDFs, it does not provide a built-in viewer for displaying PDF documents like react-native-pdf.

react-native-pdf-viewer

react-native-pdf-viewer is a lightweight library for rendering PDF documents in React Native applications. It offers basic viewing capabilities but may lack some advanced features and customization options available in react-native-pdf.

README

react-native-pdf

A react native PDF view component (cross-platform support)

Feature

• read a PDF from url, blob, local file or asset and can cache it.
• display horizontally or vertically
• drag and zoom
• double tap for zoom
• support password protected pdf
• jump to a specific page in the pdf

Supported versions

We use react-native-blob-util to handle file system access in this package, So you should install react-native-pdf and react-native-blob-util

The table below shows the supported versions of React Native and react-native-blob-util for different versions of react-native-pdf.

React Native	0.4x - 0.56	0.57	0.60+	0.62+	0.62+
react-native-pdf	4.x.x - 5.0.x	5.0.9+	6.0.0+	6.2.0+	6.4.0+
react-native-blob-util					0.13.7+

🚨 Expo: This package is not available in the Expo Go app. Learn how you can use this package in Custom Dev Clients via the out-of-tree Expo Config Plugin. Example: with-pdf.

Installation

# Using npm
npm install react-native-pdf react-native-blob-util --save

# or using yarn:
yarn add react-native-pdf react-native-blob-util

Then follow the instructions for your platform to link react-native-pdf into your project:

iOS installation

iOS details

React Native 0.60 and above

Run pod install in the ios directory. Linking is not required in React Native 0.60 and above.

React Native 0.59 and below

react-native link react-native-blob-util
react-native link react-native-pdf

Android installation

Android details

If you use RN 0.59.0 and above, please add following to your android/app/build.gradle**

android {

+    packagingOptions {
+       pickFirst 'lib/x86/libc++_shared.so'
+       pickFirst 'lib/x86_64/libjsc.so'
+       pickFirst 'lib/arm64-v8a/libjsc.so'
+       pickFirst 'lib/arm64-v8a/libc++_shared.so'
+       pickFirst 'lib/x86_64/libc++_shared.so'
+       pickFirst 'lib/armeabi-v7a/libc++_shared.so'
+     }

   }

React Native 0.59.0 and below

react-native link react-native-blob-util
react-native link react-native-pdf

Windows installation

Windows details

• Open your solution in Visual Studio 2019 (eg. windows\yourapp.sln)
• Right-click Solution icon in Solution Explorer > Add > Existing Project...
• If running RNW 0.62: add node_modules\react-native-pdf\windows\RCTPdf\RCTPdf.vcxproj
• If running RNW 0.62: add node_modules\react-native-blob-util\windows\ReactNativeBlobUtil\ReactNativeBlobUtil.vcxproj
• Right-click main application project > Add > Reference...
• Select progress-view and in Solution Projects
  • If running 0.62, also select RCTPdf and ReactNativeBlobUtil
• In app pch.h add #include "winrt/RCTPdf.h"
  • If running 0.62, also select #include "winrt/ReactNativeBlobUtil.h"
• In App.cpp add PackageProviders().Append(winrt::progress_view::ReactPackageProvider()); before InitializeComponent();
  • If running RNW 0.62, also add PackageProviders().Append(winrt::RCTPdf::ReactPackageProvider()); and PackageProviders().Append(winrt::ReactNativeBlobUtil::ReactPackageProvider());

Bundling PDFs with the app

To add a test.pdf like in the example add:

<None Include="..\..\test.pdf">
  <DeploymentContent>true</DeploymentContent>
</None>

in the app .vcxproj file, before <None Include="packages.config" />.

FAQ

FAQ details

Q1. After installation and running, I can not see the pdf file.
A1: maybe you forgot to excute react-native link or it does not run correctly. You can add it manually. For detail you can see the issue #24 and #2

Q2. When running, it shows 'Pdf' has no propType for native prop RCTPdf.acessibilityLabel of native type 'String'
A2. Your react-native version is too old, please upgrade it to 0.47.0+ see also #39

Q3. When I run the example app I get a white/gray screen / the loading bar isn't progressing .
A3. Check your uri, if you hit a pdf that is hosted on a http you will need to do the following:

iOS: add an exception for the server hosting the pdf in the ios info.plist. Here is an example :

<key>NSAppTransportSecurity</key>
<dict>
  <key>NSExceptionDomains</key>
  <dict>
    <key>yourserver.com</key>
    <dict>
      <!--Include to allow subdomains-->
      <key>NSIncludesSubdomains</key>
      <true/>
      <!--Include to allow HTTP requests-->
      <key>NSTemporaryExceptionAllowsInsecureHTTPLoads</key>
      <true/>
      <!--Include to specify minimum TLS version-->
      <key>NSTemporaryExceptionMinimumTLSVersion</key>
      <string>TLSv1.1</string>
    </dict>
  </dict>
</dict>

Android: see here

Q4. why doesn't it work with react native expo?.
A4. Expo does not support native module. you can read more expo caveats here

Q5. Why can't I run the iOS example? 'Failed to build iOS project. We ran "xcodebuild" command but it exited with error code 65.'
A5. Run the following commands in the project folder (e.g. react-native-pdf/example) to ensure that all dependencies are available:

yarn install (or npm install)
cd ios
pod install
cd ..
react-native run-ios

ChangeLog

ChangeLog details

v6.7.5

1. Added progressContainerStyle prop
2. Improved: Added enableDoubleTapZoom option
3. Fixed: Fix app crash with this.lastRNBFTask.cancel is not a function (#827)
4. Fixed: Remove override to fix 'no matching methods to override' error (#822)

v6.7.4

1. Fixed: fix Android crash issue

v6.7.3

1. Fixed: fix android package name

v6.7.2

1. Fixed: fix iOS double tap zoom scrolling
2. Fixed: fix RN 73 compatibility
3. Fixed: bump crypto-js to avoid critical vulnerability

v6.7.1

1. Fixed: fix ios project setting
2. Fixed: fix typo in RNPDFPdfViewManagerInterface interface causing android build error

v6.7.0

1. Fixed: fix(iOS): center page at tap point after double tap to zoom
2. Fixed: add PDFKit to podspec to make ios compile
3. Improved: Update build.gradle to support RN 0.71 on new arch
4. Fixed: fix some small bugs and documents.

v6.6.2

1. Fixed: Migrate to ViewPropTypes exported from 'deprecated-react-native-prop-types'
2. Added: Decode File Path for iOS
3. Improved: prefer current page for calculating scale factor on fit

v6.6.1 depresed

v6.6.0 depresed

1. Fixed: Migrate to ViewPropTypes exported from 'deprecated-react-native-prop-types'
2. Added: Decode File Path for iOS
3. Improved: prefer current page for calculating scale factor on fit
4. Improved: Typescript version source

v6.5.0

1. Fix: replace mavenCentral with maven
2. Breaking Change(Android): replace deprecated repository: jcenter()
3. Fix: loading progress
4. Add: Typed "source" prop
5. Remove: dependency to fbjs

v6.4.0

1. Remove sample for reducing NPM package size
2. Add support for setting a filename for the cached pdf file
3. Use react-native-blob-util instead of rn-fetch-blob
4. Add blob support
5. remove progress-view dependency

v6.3.0

1. Add windows support
2. Fixed some bugs

[more]

Example

/**
 * Copyright (c) 2017-present, Wonday (@wonday.org)
 * All rights reserved.
 *
 * This source code is licensed under the MIT-style license found in the
 * LICENSE file in the root directory of this source tree.
 */

import React from 'react';
import { StyleSheet, Dimensions, View } from 'react-native';
import Pdf from 'react-native-pdf';

export default class PDFExample extends React.Component {
    render() {
        const source = { uri: 'http://samples.leanpub.com/thereactnativebook-sample.pdf', cache: true };
        //const source = require('./test.pdf');  // ios only
        //const source = {uri:'bundle-assets://test.pdf' };
        //const source = {uri:'file:///sdcard/test.pdf'};
        //const source = {uri:"data:application/pdf;base64,JVBERi0xLjcKJc..."};
        //const source = {uri:"content://com.example.blobs/xxxxxxxx-...?offset=0&size=xxx"};
        //const source = {uri:"blob:xxxxxxxx-...?offset=0&size=xxx"};

        return (
            <View style={styles.container}>
                <Pdf
                    source={source}
                    onLoadComplete={(numberOfPages,filePath) => {
                        console.log(`Number of pages: ${numberOfPages}`);
                    }}
                    onPageChanged={(page,numberOfPages) => {
                        console.log(`Current page: ${page}`);
                    }}
                    onError={(error) => {
                        console.log(error);
                    }}
                    onPressLink={(uri) => {
                        console.log(`Link pressed: ${uri}`);
                    }}
                    style={styles.pdf}/>
            </View>
        )
    }
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
    container: {
        flex: 1,
        justifyContent: 'flex-start',
        alignItems: 'center',
        marginTop: 25,
    },
    pdf: {
        flex:1,
        width:Dimensions.get('window').width,
        height:Dimensions.get('window').height,
    }
});

Configuration

Property	Type	Default	Description	iOS	Android	Windows	FirstRelease
source	object	not null	PDF source like {uri:xxx, cache:false}. see the following for detail.	✔	✔	✔	<3.0
page	number	1	initial page index	✔	✔	✔	<3.0
scale	number	1.0	should minScale<=scale<=maxScale	✔	✔	✔	<3.0
minScale	number	1.0	min scale	✔	✔	✔	5.0.5
maxScale	number	3.0	max scale	✔	✔	✔	5.0.5
horizontal	bool	false	draw page direction, if you want to listen the orientation change, you can use [react-native-orientation-locker]	✔	✔	✔	<3.0
showsHorizontalScrollIndicator	bool	true	shows or hides the horizontal scroll bar indicator on iOS	✔			6.6
showsVerticalScrollIndicator	bool	true	shows or hides the vertical scroll bar indicator on iOS	✔			6.6
fitWidth	bool	false	if true fit the width of view, can not use fitWidth=true together with scale	✔	✔	✔	<3.0, abandoned from 3.0
fitPolicy	number	2	0:fit width, 1:fit height, 2:fit both(default)	✔	✔	✔	3.0
spacing	number	10	the breaker size between pages	✔	✔	✔	<3.0
password	string	""	pdf password, if password error, will call OnError() with message "Password required or incorrect password."	✔	✔	✔	<3.0
style	object	{backgroundColor:"#eee"}	support normal view style, you can use this to set border/spacing color...	✔	✔	✔	<3.0
progressContainerStyle	object	{backgroundColor:"#eee"}	support normal view style, you can use this to set border/spacing color...	✔	✔	✔	6.9.0
renderActivityIndicator	(progress) => Component		when loading show it as an indicator, you can use your component	✔	✔	✖	<3.0
enableAntialiasing	bool	true	improve rendering a little bit on low-res screens, but maybe course some problem on Android 4.4, so add a switch	✖	✔	✖	<3.0
enablePaging	bool	false	only show one page in screen	✔	✔	✔	5.0.1
enableRTL	bool	false	scroll page as "page3, page2, page1"	✔	✖	✔	5.0.1
enableAnnotationRendering	bool	true	enable rendering annotation, notice:iOS only support initial setting,not support realtime changing	✔	✔	✖	5.0.3
enableDoubleTapZoom	bool	true	Enable double tap to zoom gesture	✔	✔	✖	6.8.0
trustAllCerts	bool	true	Allow connections to servers with self-signed certification	✔	✔	✖	6.0.?
singlePage	bool	false	Only show first page, useful for thumbnail views	✔	✔	✔	6.2.1
onLoadProgress	function(percent)	null	callback when loading, return loading progress (0-1)	✔	✔	✖	<3.0
onLoadComplete	function(numberOfPages, path, {width, height}, tableContents)	null	callback when pdf load completed, return total page count, pdf local/cache path, {width,height} and table of contents	✔	✔	✔ but without tableContents	<3.0
onPageChanged	function(page,numberOfPages)	null	callback when page changed ,return current page and total page count	✔	✔	✔	<3.0
onError	function(error)	null	callback when error happened	✔	✔	✔	<3.0
onPageSingleTap	function(page)	null	callback when page was single tapped	✔	✔	✔	3.0
onScaleChanged	function(scale)	null	callback when scale page	✔	✔	✔	3.0
onPressLink	function(uri)	null	callback when link tapped	✔	✔	✖	6.0.0

parameters of source

parameter	Description	default	iOS	Android	Windows
uri	pdf source, see the forllowing for detail.	required	✔	✔	✔
cache	use cache or not	false	✔	✔	✖
cacheFileName	specific file name for cached pdf file	SHA1(uri) result	✔	✔	✖
expiration	cache file expired seconds (0 is not expired)	0	✔	✔	✖
method	request method when uri is a url	"GET"	✔	✔	✖
headers	request headers when uri is a url	{}	✔	✔	✖

types of source.uri

Usage	Description	iOS	Android	Windows
{uri:"http://xxx/xxx.pdf"}	load pdf from a url	✔	✔	✔
{require("./test.pdf")}	load pdf relate to js file (do not need add by xcode)	✔	✖	✖
{uri:"bundle-assets://path/to/xxx.pdf"}	load pdf from assets, the file should be at android/app/src/main/assets/path/to/xxx.pdf	✖	✔	✖
{uri:"bundle-assets://xxx.pdf"}	load pdf from assets, you must add pdf to project by xcode. this does not support folder.	✔	✖	✖
{uri:"data:application/pdf;base64,JVBERi0xLjcKJc..."}	load pdf from base64 string	✔	✔	✔
{uri:"file:///absolute/path/to/xxx.pdf"}	load pdf from local file system	✔	✔	✔
{uri:"ms-appx:///xxx.pdf"}}	load pdf bundled with UWP app	✖	✖	✔
{uri:"content://com.example.blobs/xxxxxxxx-...?offset=0&size=xxx"}	load pdf from content URI	✔*	✖	✖
{uri:"blob:xxxxxxxx-...?offset=0&size=xxx"}	load pdf from blob URL	✖	✔	✖

*) requires building React Native from source with this patch

Methods

• setPage

Methods operate on a ref to the PDF element. You can get a ref with the following code:

return (
  <Pdf
    ref={(pdf) => { this.pdf = pdf; }}
    source={source}
    ...
  />
);

setPage()

setPage(pageNumber)

Set the current page of the PDF component. pageNumber is a positive integer. If pageNumber > numberOfPages, current page is not changed.

Example:

this.pdf.setPage(42); // Display the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything