PDF for pure JavaScript

live demo

This is an independent JavaScript port of dart_pdf by David PHAM-VAN.

This port is based on dart_pdf 3.13.0, specifically upstream commit 5cc542.

js_pdf is an independent and unofficial JavaScript port of dart_pdf. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the original project maintainers.

js_pdf composes PDF documents from a widget tree using only standard ECMAScript. It has no runtime dependencies and touches no host API — no DOM, no Canvas, no Node globals, no timers, no filesystem, no network. The build output is a single ES module intended for a browser importmap or a bare V8 host such as ClearScript.

Written in TypeScript and shipped with type declarations; the compiler is configured against the ES2020 lib alone, so the host-free guarantee is enforced at build time rather than by convention.

Why this port exists

I have used many PDF libraries across different languages and ecosystems, including iText, PDFKit, pdfmake, jsPDF, and React-pdf. Among them, I have always considered dart_pdf the best library for PDF generation because its declarative API makes documents remarkably easy to compose. I have successfully used it in mobile, server, desktop, and web applications.

What I still wanted was a fully declarative PDF library for JavaScript. React-pdf is the closest alternative, but it depends on React. I wanted a framework-free library that could run in a browser using plain JavaScript, in Node.js, or directly inside a bare V8 host.

That is why I decided to port dart_pdf. This port was only possible because of the exceptional work David PHAM-VAN put into the original project and advances in LLM agents, which made it feasible to translate and validate a project of this scale.

Status

The implementation roadmap is complete through phase 5.7. The port includes the PDF object model, Type1 and embedded TrueType fonts, declarative layout and pagination, SVG, raster images, tables, charts, barcodes, links, forms, page labels and metadata/XMP. All eight retained upstream examples generate end to end under Node.js and bare ClearScript V8.

Version 0.1.6 is the first release candidate, and the first version published to npm. The port itself is finished; it is a candidate rather than a stable release because nothing outside the project has exercised it yet. The API is expected to hold, but is not frozen until 1.0.0.

• CHANGELOG.md — what changed in each version
• docs/PORTING-STATUS.md — what has been ported so far, file by file
• docs/ROADMAP.md — the next steps, in order
• docs/ARCHITECTURE.md — how the port is organized and where it diverges from dart_pdf
• AI_USAGE.md — instructions for LLMs generating js_pdf code from dart_pdf knowledge

Install

npm install @romulocrj/js_pdf

The package is ESM-only and has no runtime dependencies. Type declarations ship with it, so TypeScript needs no separate @types package.

Build from source

npm install
npm run build      # tsc + rollup: src/ -> dist/
npm run verify     # source gate + type check + build + tests

The build emits four single-file ES modules plus declarations:

Artifact
dist/js_pdf.mjs	readable, canonical — what import '@romulocrj/js_pdf' resolves to
dist/js_pdf.min.mjs	minified, canonical — import '@romulocrj/js_pdf/min'
dist/js_pdf-<version>.mjs	readable, versioned — for vendoring into a host directory
dist/js_pdf-<version>.min.mjs	minified, versioned
dist/types/**.d.ts	type declarations

Each JavaScript artifact carries the attribution banner and no other comment.

Install via CDN

Import the minified ES module directly from jsDelivr, with no install step. Pinning the version is recommended — the unpinned URL follows whatever the latest published release is:

import * as pw from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@romulocrj/js_pdf@0.1.6/dist/js_pdf.min.mjs';

unpkg serves the same file at https://unpkg.com/@romulocrj/js_pdf@0.1.6/dist/js_pdf.min.mjs.

Use

The same document, examples/hello-world.mjs, on each supported host. Only the wiring around it changes — the composition and save() are identical everywhere, because the library touches no host API.

Node, or any bundler:

import * as pw from '@romulocrj/js_pdf';

const pdf = new pw.Document();

pdf.addPage(new pw.Page({
  build: () => new pw.Text('Hello World!', { align: 'center' })
}));

const bytes = pdf.save();
// bytes instanceof Uint8Array

Browser, via importmap (cdn or vendoring) — no build step on the consumer side (see examples/Browser.html or live demo):

<script type="importmap">
  { "imports": { "@romulocrj/js_pdf": "https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@romulocrj/js_pdf@0.1.6/dist/js_pdf.min.mjs" } }
</script>
<script type="module">
  import * as pw from '@romulocrj/js_pdf';

  const pdf = new pw.Document();

  pdf.addPage(new pw.Page({
    build: () => new pw.Text('Hello World!', { align: 'center' })
  }));

  const bytes = pdf.save();
</script>

ClearScript, as a standard module. Copy the js_pdf.min.mjs file from npm or CDN and place it in modules directory that is accessible to your host. Then run the following code:

using var engine = new V8ScriptEngine();
engine.DocumentSettings.AccessFlags = DocumentAccessFlags.EnableFileLoading;
engine.DocumentSettings.SearchPath = modulesDirectory;

dynamic result = engine.Evaluate(new DocumentInfo { Category = ModuleCategory.Standard }, @"
      import * as pw from 'js_pdf.min.mjs';

      const pdf = new pw.Document();

      pdf.addPage(new pw.Page({
        build: () => new pw.Text('Hello World!', { align: 'center' })
      }));

      const bytes = pdf.save();
");

The result is a Uint8Array, produced synchronously. Converting it to byte[] depends on your ClearScript version and host binding strategy.

Public API

Highlights include Document, Page, MultiPage, Text, Column, Row, Container, Table, Chart, SvgImage, Image, BarcodeWidget, Inseparable, ListView, GridPaper, geometric annotation widgets, TextField, ChoiceField, Checkbox, FlatButton, PageFormat, PdfType1Font, PdfTtfFont and Widget.

See docs/PORTING-STATUS.md for the complete implemented surface and the remaining upstream gaps.

Examples

The eight examples retained from dart_pdf. Each is a synchronous, host-free module that returns PDF bytes, so the same file runs under Node.js and under bare ClearScript V8.

Example	What it shows
hello-world.mjs	Minimal Document, Page, Text and synchronous save()
calendar.mjs	Grid layout, TrueType fonts, SVG and themed text
certificate.mjs	Stack/positioned layout, transformations, clipping, rich text and decorative SVG
document.mjs	Long-form multipage document, headers, paragraphs, table of content, outlines and links
invoice.mjs	Business invoice, repeated table headers, SVG, barcode, totals, header and footer
report.mjs	Cartesian and pie charts, legends, tables and embedded fonts
resume.mjs	Images, icons, progress indicators, partitions, QR code and two-page layout
server.mjs	Charts, SVG, feature cards, pricing table and external links

Generate all eight with npm run examples.

examples/ also holds a browser page, a project sales report and one focused example per implementation phase. They are indexed, with what each one covers, in AI_USAGE.md.

Current limitations

• Reading existing PDFs, rasterizing PDFs, encryption and digital signatures are out of scope.
• PDF/A output intents are not implemented.
• Library code performs no host I/O. Fonts, images and other external assets must be supplied by the caller as bytes or text.
• An indivisible MultiPage child taller than one content area is rejected; spanning widgets such as text, columns and tables paginate normally.

See docs/PORTING-STATUS.md for details about each remaining gap.

License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.

Bundled example fonts and visual resources retain their respective licenses. See examples/assets/THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md for copyright, license and provenance details.

Notice

This project contains a JavaScript port of portions of dart_pdf.

Original project: https://github.com/DavBfr/dart_pdf

Original author: David PHAM-VAN

Original code licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.

The JavaScript port and subsequent modifications are Copyright (C) 2026 Romulo Campos

Full attribution is in NOTICE. Every ported file under src/ names the upstream Dart sources it derives from in its header.

Warranty and support

This software is provided “as is”, without warranties of any kind. No support is provided or implied.