purepdf

Zero-dependency PDF library for Node.js and browsers.

Generate PDF documents from scratch, merge, split, extract text, or convert HTML to PDF — all without any external runtime dependencies.

Features

Generate PDFs — text, shapes, JPEG images, tables
14 built-in fonts — all standard PDF Type1 fonts (Helvetica, Times, Courier, …)
Merge PDFs — combine any number of PDF files into one
Split PDFs — extract individual pages or specific page ranges
Extract text — get the plain text content from any simple PDF
HTML → PDF — convert basic HTML (headings, paragraphs, lists, bold/italic, tables) to PDF
ESM + CJS — works in Node.js, Bun, Deno, and modern browsers
Zero dependencies — no external packages, no native bindings
TypeScript — full type definitions included

Install

npm install purepdf

Quick start

Generate a PDF

import { PDFDocument } from 'purepdf'
import { writeFileSync } from 'fs'

const doc = new PDFDocument({ size: 'A4' })

// Title
doc.text('Annual Report 2026', 50, 780, {
  font: 'Helvetica-Bold',
  size: 22,
  color: '#1a1a1a',
})

// Paragraph with auto word-wrap
doc.text(
  'This document was generated entirely without external dependencies using purepdf.',
  50, 740,
  { font: 'Helvetica', size: 11, maxWidth: 495 },
)

// Divider line
doc.line(50, 720, 545, 720, { stroke: '#cccccc', lineWidth: 0.5 })

// Coloured rectangle
doc.rect(50, 650, 200, 60, { fill: '#e8f4fd', stroke: '#4a90d9', lineWidth: 1 })

// Table
doc.table(
  {
    headers: ['Product',   'Qty', 'Price'],
    rows:    [
      ['Widget A',  '10', '$5.00'],
      ['Widget B',  '3',  '$12.50'],
      ['Widget C',  '25', '$2.00'],
    ],
  },
  50, 630,
  {
    colWidths:         [250, 80, 80],
    headerBackground:  '#1a73e8',
    headerColor:       '#ffffff',
    alternateRowColor: '#f8f8f8',
    borderColor:       '#dddddd',
  },
)

// Second page
doc.addPage()
doc.text('Page 2', 50, 780, { font: 'Helvetica', size: 14 })

writeFileSync('report.pdf', doc.save())

Merge PDFs

import { mergePDFs } from 'purepdf'
import { readFileSync, writeFileSync } from 'fs'

const a = readFileSync('invoice.pdf')
const b = readFileSync('appendix.pdf')
const merged = mergePDFs([a, b])
writeFileSync('complete.pdf', merged)

Split a PDF

import { splitPDF, extractPages } from 'purepdf'
import { readFileSync, writeFileSync } from 'fs'

const pdf = readFileSync('book.pdf')

// One file per page
const pages = splitPDF(pdf)
pages.forEach((page, i) => writeFileSync(`page-${i + 1}.pdf`, page))

// Extract specific pages (0-based indices)
const firstAndLast = extractPages(pdf, [0, pages.length - 1])
writeFileSync('excerpt.pdf', firstAndLast)

Extract text

import { extractText } from 'purepdf'
import { readFileSync } from 'fs'

const pdf = readFileSync('document.pdf')
const text = extractText(pdf)
console.log(text)

Markdown → PDF

import { markdownToPDF } from 'purepdf'
import { writeFileSync } from 'fs'

const md = `
# Annual Report

This document was generated from **Markdown** using *purepdf*.

## Highlights

- Zero dependencies
- Works in Node.js and browsers
- Supports tables, blockquotes, code blocks

| Quarter | Revenue |
|---------|---------|
| Q1      | $1.2M   |
| Q2      | $1.8M   |

> Revenue grew **50%** quarter over quarter.

\`\`\`ts
import { markdownToPDF } from 'purepdf'
const pdf = markdownToPDF('# Hello')
\`\`\`
`

writeFileSync('report.pdf', markdownToPDF(md))

HTML → PDF

import { htmlToPDF } from 'purepdf'
import { writeFileSync } from 'fs'

const html = `
  <h1>My Document</h1>
  <p>Hello <b>World</b>! This is <i>purepdf</i>.</p>
  <hr/>
  <ul>
    <li>Zero dependencies</li>
    <li>Works in Node.js and browsers</li>
    <li>Full TypeScript support</li>
  </ul>
`

writeFileSync('output.pdf', htmlToPDF(html, { size: 'A4', margin: 60 }))

API

`new PDFDocument(options?)`

Option	Type	Default	Description
`size`	`PageSize \| [w, h]`	`'A4'`	Page size

Methods

Method	Description
`addPage(options?)`	Add a new page and make it current. Chainable.
`getPageSize()`	Returns `{ width, height }` in points.
`text(str, x, y, options?)`	Draw text. Returns the y below the last line.
`rect(x, y, w, h, options?)`	Draw a rectangle.
`line(x1, y1, x2, y2, options?)`	Draw a line.
`circle(cx, cy, r, options?)`	Draw a circle.
`image(jpegData, x, y, options?)`	Draw a JPEG image.
`table(data, x, y, options?)`	Draw a table. Returns the y below the last row.
`save()`	Serialise and return `Uint8Array`.

`TextOptions`

Option	Type	Default
`font`	`FontName`	`'Helvetica'`
`size`	`number`	`12`
`color`	`string` (`'#RRGGBB'`)	`'#000000'`
`align`	`'left' \| 'center' \| 'right'`	`'left'`
`maxWidth`	`number`	—
`lineHeight`	`number`	`1.2`

`GraphicsOptions`

Option	Type	Default
`stroke`	`string \| false`	`'#000000'`
`fill`	`string \| false`	`false`
`lineWidth`	`number`	`1`

`ImageOptions`

Option	Type	Description
`width`	`number`	Render width in points. Height is auto-calculated.
`height`	`number`	Render height in points.

`TableOptions`

Option	Type	Default
`colWidths`	`number[]`	equal split across 400pt
`rowHeight`	`number`	`fontSize + padding*2`
`headerBackground`	`string`	`'#1a73e8'`
`headerColor`	`string`	`'#ffffff'`
`alternateRowColor`	`string`	—
`borderColor`	`string`	`'#cccccc'`
`cellPadding`	`number`	`6`
`font`	`FontName`	`'Helvetica'`
`fontSize`	`number`	`10`

`mergePDFs(pdfs: Uint8Array[]): Uint8Array`

Merge two or more PDFs. Pages from each input appear in order.

`splitPDF(pdf: Uint8Array): Uint8Array[]`

Split into individual single-page PDFs.

`extractPages(pdf: Uint8Array, indices: number[]): Uint8Array`

Extract specific pages (0-based indices) and return as one PDF.

`extractText(pdf: Uint8Array): string`

Extract plain text from a PDF. Works on simple, unencrypted PDFs.

`markdownToPDF(markdown: string, options?): Uint8Array`

Convert a Markdown string to PDF.

import { markdownToPDF } from 'purepdf'

const md = `
# My Report

This paragraph has **bold**, *italic*, ~~strikethrough~~, and \`inline code\`.

## Features

- Zero dependencies
- Works in Node.js and browsers

> Important: always validate your input.

| Name  | Score |
|-------|-------|
| Alice | 95    |
| Bob   | 82    |

\`\`\`ts
const pdf = markdownToPDF('# Hello')
\`\`\`
`

const pdf = markdownToPDF(md, { size: 'A4', margin: 60 })

Supported Markdown syntax:

Feature	Syntax
Headings	`# H1` … `###### H6`, Setext (`===` / `---`)
Bold	`text` or `__text__`
Italic	`text` or `_text_`
Bold+italic	`*text*`
Strikethrough	`~~text~~`
Inline code	`code`
Code blocks	```lang ```
Blockquote	`> text`
Unordered list	`-` / `*` / `+`
Ordered list	`1.`
Table (GFM)	`\| col \| col \|`
Horizontal rule	`---` / `***` / `___`
Link	`[text](url)` → shows text only
Image	`![alt](url)` → shows `[alt]`
Hard line break	Line ending with two spaces

`markdownToHTML(markdown: string): string`

Convert Markdown to an HTML string (useful for inspection or pre-processing).

`htmlToPDF(html: string, options?): Uint8Array`

Convert HTML to PDF.

`HtmlToPdfOptions`

Option	Type	Default
`size`	`PageSize \| [w, h]`	`'A4'`
`margin`	`number`	`50`
`baseFontSize`	`number`	`11`
`baseFont`	`FontName`	`'Times-Roman'`

Supported HTML tags: h1–h6, p, br, b/strong, i/em, u, ul, ol, li, table, tr, th, td, hr, pre, code, div, span, section, article.

`measureText(text, font, size): number`

Returns the rendered width of a string in points.

`wrapText(text, font, size, maxWidth): string[]`

Splits text into lines that fit within maxWidth. Respects \n.

`PAGE_SIZES`

PAGE_SIZES.A4     // [595.28, 841.89]
PAGE_SIZES.A3     // [841.89, 1190.55]
PAGE_SIZES.A5     // [419.53, 595.28]
PAGE_SIZES.Letter // [612, 792]
PAGE_SIZES.Legal  // [612, 1008]

Built-in fonts (`FontName`)

Serif	Sans-serif	Monospace
Times-Roman	Helvetica	Courier
Times-Bold	Helvetica-Bold	Courier-Bold
Times-Italic	Helvetica-Oblique	Courier-Oblique
Times-BoldItalic	Helvetica-BoldOblique	Courier-BoldOblique

Also: Symbol, ZapfDingbats.

Limitations

Fonts: only the 14 standard PDF fonts (no custom/embedded fonts in v1)
Images: JPEG only (PNG/GIF are not supported in v1)
HTML: basic structural tags only; complex CSS, <style>, and <script> are ignored
PDF parsing: traditional XRef tables only (PDF ≤ 1.4 style); PDFs with compressed XRef streams (PDF 1.5+) are not supported
Encryption: encrypted PDFs are not supported
Text encoding: Latin-1 / WinAnsiEncoding (chars 32–255). Characters outside this range are replaced with ?

Development

npm install
npm run build       # compile
npm test            # run tests
npm run typecheck   # TypeScript check
npm run test:coverage

License

MIT

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 3 Commits
.github		.github
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json
tsconfig.json		tsconfig.json
tsup.config.ts		tsup.config.ts

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purepdf

Features

Install

Quick start

Generate a PDF

Merge PDFs

Split a PDF

Extract text

Markdown → PDF

HTML → PDF

API

new PDFDocument(options?)

Methods

TextOptions

GraphicsOptions

ImageOptions

TableOptions

mergePDFs(pdfs: Uint8Array[]): Uint8Array

splitPDF(pdf: Uint8Array): Uint8Array[]

extractPages(pdf: Uint8Array, indices: number[]): Uint8Array

extractText(pdf: Uint8Array): string

markdownToPDF(markdown: string, options?): Uint8Array

markdownToHTML(markdown: string): string

htmlToPDF(html: string, options?): Uint8Array

HtmlToPdfOptions

measureText(text, font, size): number

wrapText(text, font, size, maxWidth): string[]

PAGE_SIZES

Built-in fonts (FontName)

Limitations

Development

License

About

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Languages

`new PDFDocument(options?)`

`TextOptions`

`GraphicsOptions`

`ImageOptions`

`TableOptions`

`mergePDFs(pdfs: Uint8Array[]): Uint8Array`

`splitPDF(pdf: Uint8Array): Uint8Array[]`

`extractPages(pdf: Uint8Array, indices: number[]): Uint8Array`

`extractText(pdf: Uint8Array): string`

`markdownToPDF(markdown: string, options?): Uint8Array`

`markdownToHTML(markdown: string): string`

`htmlToPDF(html: string, options?): Uint8Array`

`HtmlToPdfOptions`

`measureText(text, font, size): number`

`wrapText(text, font, size, maxWidth): string[]`

`PAGE_SIZES`

Built-in fonts (`FontName`)

Packages