How to Create PDF Document in Node ?

Creating a PDF document in Node.js can be achieved using various libraries, with pdf-lib, pdfkit, and puppeteer being some of the most popular options. This guide will focus on using pdfkit to create PDF documents because it is a well-documented and powerful library suitable for a wide range of PDF generation tasks.

Prerequisites:

Syntax:

const PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');
const doc = new PDFDocument;

Import the necessary modules (‘PDFDocument’ from ‘pdfkit’ and ‘fs’ for file system operations) and create a new PDF document.
Set up a stream to save the PDF document using fs.createWriteStream('PDF Name') and pipe the document to this stream.
Add content to the PDF document, including text, an image, a new page with text and SVG path transformations, and another page with blue text and a hyperlink to w3wiki.
Finalize the PDF creation process and close the document to ensure all content is written to the file.

Step 1: Initialize the Node application

npm init -y

Step 2: Installing Module for setting NodeJS environment also we need to configure the package.json file and PDF module

npm install express pdfkit

For adding new page in the PDF:

doc.addPage()

For saving PDF document in root directory:

doc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('PDF Name'));

Project Structure:

Folder Structure

The updated dependencies in package.json file will look like

"dependencies": {
    "fs": "^0.0.1-security",
    "pdfkit": "^0.11.0"
}

Initialization:
- Import ‘PDFDocument’ and ‘fs’.
- Create a new PDF document and set up a stream to save it.
Content Addition:
- Add text, an image, and a new page with text and SVG path transformations.
Annotations and Finalization:
- Add a page with blue text and a link to w3wiki.
- Finalize and close the PDF file.
For adding new page in the PDF.

doc.addPage()

For saving PDF document in root directory.

doc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('PDF Name'));

Example: Below is the practical implementation of the create PDF document in Node.js.

Node

// Filename - index.js

// Importing modules
import PDFDocument from 'pdfkit'
import fs from 'fs'

// Create a document
const doc = new PDFDocument();

// Saving the pdf file in root directory.
doc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('example.pdf'));

// Adding functionality
doc
    .fontSize(27)
    .text('This the article for w3wiki', 100, 100);

// Adding an image in the pdf.

doc.image('download3.jpg', {
    fit: [300, 300],
    align: 'center',
    valign: 'center'
});

doc
    .addPage()
    .fontSize(15)
    .text('Generating PDF with the help of pdfkit', 100, 100);



// Apply some transforms and render an SVG path with the 
// 'even-odd' fill rule
doc
    .scale(0.6)
    .translate(470, -380)
    .path('M 250,75 L 323,301 131,161 369,161 177,301 z')
    .fill('red', 'even-odd')
    .restore();

// Add some text with annotations
doc
    .addPage()
    .fillColor('blue')
    .text('The link for w3wiki website', 100, 100)
    .link(100, 100, 160, 27, 'https://www.w3wiki.net/');

// Finalize PDF file
doc.end();

Output: Created PDF file will look like this.

Prerequisites:

Syntax:

Approach

Steps to Create the Application

Project Structure:

Explanation

Contact Us