Introduction to PDFKit

PDFKit is a flexible and powerful library in JavaScript for generating PDF documents programmatically. It allows developers to create PDFs with complex layouts and high-quality text, images, and other graphics. Whether you need to generate invoices, reports, ebooks, or other types of documents, PDFKit provides a seamless way to accomplish this.

Setting Up PDFKit

To get started with PDFKit, you need to install it via npm:

  npm install pdfkit

Once installed, you can require it in your Node.js applications:

  const PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');

Basic Usage

Here’s a basic example of creating a PDF document with PDFKit:

  const fs = require('fs');
  const PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');
  
  const doc = new PDFDocument();
  doc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('output.pdf'));
  
  doc.text('Hello World!');
  doc.end();

Adding Text

You can add text to your PDF document with various styles:

  doc.font('Times-Roman')
    .fontSize(12)
    .text('This is a test', 100, 100);

Adding Images

PDFKit supports embedding images in the PDF document:

  doc.image('path/to/image.png', {
    fit: [250, 300],
    align: 'center'
  });

Drawing Shapes

You can draw shapes like rectangles, circles, and lines:

  doc.rect(50, 50, 100, 100)
    .fill('#FF0000');
    
  doc.circle(150, 150, 50)
    .stroke('#00FF00');

Adding Links

Add hyperlinks to your text:

  doc.text('Click here!', 100, 100)
    .link(100, 100, 160, 27, 'http://google.com');

Creating Tables

PDFKit makes it possible to generate tables:

  const tableData = [
    ['Name', 'Age', 'Location'],
    ['John Doe', '29', 'New York'],
    ['Jane Roe', '32', 'San Francisco']
  ];

  for (let i = 0; i < tableData.length; i++) {
    const row = tableData[i];
    for (let j = 0; j < row.length; j++) {
      doc.text(row[j], 100 + j * 100, 200 + i * 20);
    }
  } 

Complete App Example

Below is a complete example of a Node.js application that uses many of the PDFKit features presented:

  const fs = require('fs');
  const PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');
  
  const doc = new PDFDocument();
  doc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('example.pdf'));
  
  doc.font('Times-Roman')
    .fontSize(18)
    .text('Invoice', { align: 'center' });

  doc.moveDown()
    .fontSize(14)
    .text('Customer:', { align: 'left' });

  doc.fontSize(12)
    .text('John Doe', 100, 150)
    .text('123 Fake St.', 100, 165)
    .text('New York, NY 10001', 100, 180);
  
  doc.moveDown()
    .fontSize(14)
    .text('Order Details:', { align: 'left' });

  const orderDetails = [
    ['Item', 'Description', 'Price', 'Quantity', 'Total'],
    ['Widget', 'A useful widget', '10.00', '2', '20.00'],
    ['Thingy', 'Another thing', '15.00', '1', '15.00']
  ];

  for (let i = 0; i < orderDetails.length; i++) {
    const row = orderDetails[i];
    for (let j = 0; j < row.length; j++) {
      doc.text(row[j], 100 + j * 100, 230 + i * 20);
    }
  }

  doc.image('path/to/company_logo.png', {
    fit: [100, 100],
    align: 'center'
  });

  doc.end();

We hope this guide helps you utilize PDFKit’s full potential in your projects.

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