pdfkit

A PDF generation library for Node.js

weekly downloads1.8M

versionv0.17.2

licenseMIT

categoryutility

pdfpdf writerpdf generatorgraphicsdocumentvector

Overview

PDFKit is a mature PDF generation library that provides low-level control over document creation in Node.js and browser environments. Unlike HTML-to-PDF converters, it offers a canvas-like API where you explicitly position text, draw vector shapes, embed fonts, and add images using coordinates and styling commands. This approach mirrors native PDF construction, giving developers precise control over every element's placement and appearance.

The library was built to solve the problem of generating complex, print-ready PDFs programmatically without relying on browser rendering engines or external services. With over 1.8 million weekly downloads, it's widely used in applications that need to produce invoices, reports, tickets, certificates, and other structured documents where layout consistency and visual precision matter. PDFKit's streaming architecture means you can generate large documents without loading everything into memory, making it suitable for server-side batch processing.

PDFKit stands out for its font subsetting capabilities through fontkit, which automatically includes only the glyphs you use to keep file sizes small. It supports TrueType, OpenType, WOFF, and font collections, along with advanced typography features. The library also handles PDF-specific functionality like encryption, access privileges, AcroForms for fillable PDFs, and accessibility standards (PDF/UA). While it requires more manual work than template-based solutions, this control makes it the go-to choice when you need pixel-perfect output or complex graphics that can't be easily expressed in HTML.

Quick Start

typescript

const PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');
const fs = require('fs');

const doc = new PDFDocument({ size: 'A4', margin: 50 });
doc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('invoice.pdf'));

doc.fontSize(20).text('INVOICE #12345', { align: 'right' });
doc.moveDown();

doc.fontSize(10)
  .text('Bill To:', 50, 150)
  .font('Helvetica-Bold')
  .text('Acme Corporation', 50, 165)
  .font('Helvetica')
  .text('123 Business St', 50, 180)
  .text('New York, NY 10001', 50, 195);

const tableTop = 250;
doc.fontSize(10).font('Helvetica-Bold');
doc.text('Item', 50, tableTop);
doc.text('Quantity', 250, tableTop);
doc.text('Price', 350, tableTop, { align: 'right' });
doc.text('Total', 450, tableTop, { align: 'right' });

doc.moveTo(50, tableTop + 15).lineTo(550, tableTop + 15).stroke();

doc.font('Helvetica');
const items = [
  { name: 'Widget Pro', qty: 2, price: 99.99 },
  { name: 'Support Package', qty: 1, price: 249.00 }
];

let y = tableTop + 25;
items.forEach(item => {
  doc.text(item.name, 50, y);
  doc.text(item.qty.toString(), 250, y);
  doc.text(`$${item.price.toFixed(2)}`, 350, y, { align: 'right' });
  doc.text(`$${(item.qty * item.price).toFixed(2)}`, 450, y, { align: 'right' });
  y += 20;
});

const total = items.reduce((sum, item) => sum + (item.qty * item.price), 0);
doc.font('Helvetica-Bold')
  .text('TOTAL:', 350, y + 20, { align: 'right' })
  .text(`$${total.toFixed(2)}`, 450, y + 20, { align: 'right' });

doc.end();

Use Cases

Invoice and receipt generation: E-commerce platforms and SaaS applications use PDFKit to create branded invoices with precise table layouts, embedded logos, and QR codes. The streaming API allows generating thousands of invoices in batch jobs without memory issues.

Custom reports and dashboards: Business intelligence tools generate PDF reports with charts, graphs, and formatted data tables. PDFKit's vector graphics support enables drawing custom visualizations that scale cleanly when printed.

Event tickets and badges: Ticketing systems create PDFs with barcodes, variable text positioning, and background images. Font embedding ensures tickets display correctly regardless of the recipient's installed fonts.

Legal and regulatory documents: Financial services generate compliance documents with specific formatting requirements, digital signatures, and encryption. PDFKit's access control features restrict printing or copying when needed.

Certificates and diplomas: Educational platforms produce personalized certificates with custom fonts, borders, and seal images. The coordinate-based positioning ensures consistent layout across thousands of generated documents.

Pros & Cons

Pros

+Stream-based architecture scales to large documents without high memory consumption, ideal for server-side batch processing
+Comprehensive font support with automatic subsetting keeps file sizes small while supporting international character sets and custom typography
+Low-level control over vector graphics, gradients, and transformations enables complex designs that aren't possible with HTML-based generators
+Works in both Node.js and browsers with bundlers, providing flexibility in deployment architecture
+Built-in support for PDF-specific features like forms, encryption, outlines, and accessibility standards that HTML converters often lack

Cons

−Manual positioning with coordinates requires more code than template-based solutions, increasing development time for complex layouts
−No built-in layout engine means you must calculate text wrapping, pagination, and overflow logic yourself for dynamic content
−Bundle size around 1-2MB with dependencies like fontkit can be significant for browser applications with strict performance budgets
−Debugging layout issues requires understanding PDF coordinate systems and measuring text dimensions, steeper learning curve than HTML/CSS
−Limited ecosystem of pre-built templates or components compared to React-based PDF solutions, most functionality built from scratch

Install

bash

npm install pdfkit

bash

pnpm add pdfkit

bash

bun add pdfkit

Overview

Quick Start

typescript

const PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');
const fs = require('fs');

const doc = new PDFDocument({ size: 'A4', margin: 50 });
doc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('invoice.pdf'));

doc.fontSize(20).text('INVOICE #12345', { align: 'right' });
doc.moveDown();

doc.fontSize(10)
  .text('Bill To:', 50, 150)
  .font('Helvetica-Bold')
  .text('Acme Corporation', 50, 165)
  .font('Helvetica')
  .text('123 Business St', 50, 180)
  .text('New York, NY 10001', 50, 195);

const tableTop = 250;
doc.fontSize(10).font('Helvetica-Bold');
doc.text('Item', 50, tableTop);
doc.text('Quantity', 250, tableTop);
doc.text('Price', 350, tableTop, { align: 'right' });
doc.text('Total', 450, tableTop, { align: 'right' });

doc.moveTo(50, tableTop + 15).lineTo(550, tableTop + 15).stroke();

doc.font('Helvetica');
const items = [
  { name: 'Widget Pro', qty: 2, price: 99.99 },
  { name: 'Support Package', qty: 1, price: 249.00 }
];

let y = tableTop + 25;
items.forEach(item => {
  doc.text(item.name, 50, y);
  doc.text(item.qty.toString(), 250, y);
  doc.text(`$${item.price.toFixed(2)}`, 350, y, { align: 'right' });
  doc.text(`$${(item.qty * item.price).toFixed(2)}`, 450, y, { align: 'right' });
  y += 20;
});

const total = items.reduce((sum, item) => sum + (item.qty * item.price), 0);
doc.font('Helvetica-Bold')
  .text('TOTAL:', 350, y + 20, { align: 'right' })
  .text(`$${total.toFixed(2)}`, 450, y + 20, { align: 'right' });

doc.end();

Use Cases

Pros & Cons

Pros

+Stream-based architecture scales to large documents without high memory consumption, ideal for server-side batch processing
+Comprehensive font support with automatic subsetting keeps file sizes small while supporting international character sets and custom typography
+Low-level control over vector graphics, gradients, and transformations enables complex designs that aren't possible with HTML-based generators
+Works in both Node.js and browsers with bundlers, providing flexibility in deployment architecture
+Built-in support for PDF-specific features like forms, encryption, outlines, and accessibility standards that HTML converters often lack

Cons

−Manual positioning with coordinates requires more code than template-based solutions, increasing development time for complex layouts
−No built-in layout engine means you must calculate text wrapping, pagination, and overflow logic yourself for dynamic content
−Bundle size around 1-2MB with dependencies like fontkit can be significant for browser applications with strict performance budgets
−Debugging layout issues requires understanding PDF coordinate systems and measuring text dimensions, steeper learning curve than HTML/CSS
−Limited ecosystem of pre-built templates or components compared to React-based PDF solutions, most functionality built from scratch

pdfkit

Overview

Quick Start

Use Cases

Pros & Cons

Pros

Cons

Related Content

Install

pdfkit

Overview

Quick Start

Use Cases

Pros & Cons

Pros

Cons

Related Content

Install