jspdf vs pdfmake vs html2pdf.js vs html-pdf
PDF Generation Libraries Comparison
1 Year
jspdfpdfmakehtml2pdf.jshtml-pdfSimilar Packages:
What's PDF Generation Libraries?

PDF generation libraries are essential tools in web development that allow developers to create PDF documents programmatically from HTML or JavaScript. These libraries offer various functionalities, including converting HTML content to PDF, generating PDFs from scratch, and customizing the layout and design of the documents. They are widely used for generating reports, invoices, and other documents that require a fixed layout, ensuring that the content is presented consistently across different devices and platforms.

Package Weekly Downloads Trend
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Package
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jspdf1,881,05029,90714.8 MB12212 days agoMIT
pdfmake924,74711,85913.5 MB2912 months agoMIT
html2pdf.js254,5364,3016.48 MB4995 days agoMIT
html-pdf122,5443,560-4704 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: jspdf vs pdfmake vs html2pdf.js vs html-pdf

Ease of Use

  • jspdf:

    jspdf has a moderate learning curve, as it requires understanding its API for creating PDFs from scratch. However, once familiar, developers can leverage its flexibility for various use cases.

  • pdfmake:

    pdfmake has a steeper learning curve due to its declarative syntax, but it offers powerful features for creating complex documents once mastered.

  • html2pdf.js:

    html2pdf.js provides a simple interface for converting HTML elements to PDF directly in the browser, making it very user-friendly for developers and end-users alike.

  • html-pdf:

    html-pdf is designed for simplicity, allowing developers to convert HTML to PDF with minimal setup. Its API is straightforward, making it easy to implement for basic use cases.

Customization

  • jspdf:

    jspdf provides extensive customization options, allowing developers to control every aspect of the PDF, including fonts, colors, and layout, making it very flexible for custom designs.

  • pdfmake:

    pdfmake excels in customization, enabling detailed styling and layout options through its declarative approach, allowing for complex document structures.

  • html2pdf.js:

    html2pdf.js allows for some customization of the PDF output, including margins and page size, but is primarily focused on converting HTML elements as they are.

  • html-pdf:

    html-pdf offers limited customization options, primarily focused on converting existing HTML content to PDF without extensive styling capabilities.

Output Quality

  • jspdf:

    jspdf can produce good quality PDFs, but the output may require additional effort to achieve the desired appearance, especially for complex layouts.

  • pdfmake:

    pdfmake generates high-quality PDFs with precise control over the layout and styling, making it ideal for professional documents.

  • html2pdf.js:

    html2pdf.js also generates high-quality PDFs, but the output may vary depending on the complexity of the HTML and CSS used in the original document.

  • html-pdf:

    html-pdf produces high-quality PDFs that closely resemble the original HTML layout, making it suitable for generating documents that need to maintain their visual integrity.

Performance

  • jspdf:

    jspdf is generally performant for generating PDFs from scratch, but complex documents may require optimization to avoid slow rendering times.

  • pdfmake:

    pdfmake is efficient for generating complex documents, but performance can vary based on the complexity of the content and the device capabilities.

  • html2pdf.js:

    html2pdf.js performs efficiently in the browser, but performance can degrade with very large HTML elements or complex styles, as it relies on the browser's rendering capabilities.

  • html-pdf:

    html-pdf performs well for simple documents, but may experience slower performance with very large or complex HTML content due to the rendering process.

Browser Compatibility

  • jspdf:

    jspdf is compatible with most modern browsers, but older browsers may not fully support all features, requiring polyfills or fallbacks.

  • pdfmake:

    pdfmake is also compatible with modern browsers, providing a consistent experience across different platforms.

  • html2pdf.js:

    html2pdf.js is designed for client-side use and works well across all modern browsers, making it a versatile choice for web applications.

  • html-pdf:

    html-pdf is a server-side library and does not have browser compatibility issues, as it runs in a Node.js environment.

How to Choose: jspdf vs pdfmake vs html2pdf.js vs html-pdf
  • jspdf:

    Choose jsPDF if you need a versatile library that allows you to create PDFs from scratch using JavaScript. It offers extensive customization options and supports various formats, making it suitable for applications that require detailed control over the PDF content and layout.

  • pdfmake:

    Choose pdfmake if you need a powerful library for creating complex PDF documents with a declarative syntax. It supports advanced features like tables, lists, and styling, making it ideal for generating structured documents such as reports and invoices.

  • html2pdf.js:

    Choose html2pdf.js if you want a client-side solution that allows users to generate PDFs directly in the browser. It is user-friendly and integrates well with existing HTML content, making it ideal for web applications that require on-the-fly PDF generation.

  • html-pdf:

    Choose html-pdf if you need a straightforward server-side solution for converting HTML to PDF using Node.js. It is easy to set up and works well for simple use cases, but may lack advanced features for complex documents.

README for jspdf

jsPDF

Continous Integration Code Climate Test Coverage GitHub license Total alerts Language grade: JavaScript Gitpod ready-to-code

A library to generate PDFs in JavaScript.

You can catch me on twitter: @MrRio or head over to my company's website for consultancy.

jsPDF is now co-maintained by yWorks - the diagramming experts.

Live Demo | Documentation

Install

Recommended: get jsPDF from npm:

npm install jspdf --save
# or
yarn add jspdf

Alternatively, load it from a CDN:

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jspdf/3.0.0/jspdf.umd.min.js"></script>

Or always get latest version via unpkg

<script src="https://unpkg.com/jspdf@latest/dist/jspdf.umd.min.js"></script>

The dist folder of this package contains different kinds of files:

  • jspdf.es.*.js: Modern ES2015 module format.
  • jspdf.node.*.js: For running in Node. Uses file operations for loading/saving files instead of browser APIs.
  • jspdf.umd.*.js: UMD module format. For AMD or script-tag loading.
  • polyfills*.js: Required polyfills for older browsers like Internet Explorer. The es variant simply imports all required polyfills from core-js, the umd variant is self-contained.

Usually it is not necessary to specify the exact file in the import statement. Build tools or Node automatically figure out the right file, so importing "jspdf" is enough.

Usage

Then you're ready to start making your document:

import { jsPDF } from "jspdf";

// Default export is a4 paper, portrait, using millimeters for units
const doc = new jsPDF();

doc.text("Hello world!", 10, 10);
doc.save("a4.pdf");

If you want to change the paper size, orientation, or units, you can do:

// Landscape export, 2×4 inches
const doc = new jsPDF({
  orientation: "landscape",
  unit: "in",
  format: [4, 2]
});

doc.text("Hello world!", 1, 1);
doc.save("two-by-four.pdf");

Running in Node.js

const { jsPDF } = require("jspdf"); // will automatically load the node version

const doc = new jsPDF();
doc.text("Hello world!", 10, 10);
doc.save("a4.pdf"); // will save the file in the current working directory

Other Module Formats

AMD
require(["jspdf"], ({ jsPDF }) => {
  const doc = new jsPDF();
  doc.text("Hello world!", 10, 10);
  doc.save("a4.pdf");
});
Globals
const { jsPDF } = window.jspdf;

const doc = new jsPDF();
doc.text("Hello world!", 10, 10);
doc.save("a4.pdf");

Optional dependencies

Some functions of jsPDF require optional dependencies. E.g. the html method, which depends on html2canvas and, when supplied with a string HTML document, dompurify. JsPDF loads them dynamically when required (using the respective module format, e.g. dynamic imports). Build tools like Webpack will automatically create separate chunks for each of the optional dependencies. If your application does not use any of the optional dependencies, you can prevent Webpack from generating the chunks by defining them as external dependencies:

// webpack.config.js
module.exports = {
  // ...
  externals: {
    // only define the dependencies you are NOT using as externals!
    canvg: "canvg",
    html2canvas: "html2canvas",
    dompurify: "dompurify"
  }
};

In Vue CLI projects, externals can be defined via the configureWebpack or chainWebpack properties of the vue.config.js file (needs to be created, first, in fresh projects).

In Angular projects, externals can be defined using custom webpack builders.

In React (create-react-app) projects, externals can be defined by either using react-app-rewired or ejecting.

TypeScript/Angular/Webpack/React/etc. Configuration:

jsPDF can be imported just like any other 3rd party library. This works with all major toolkits and frameworks. jsPDF also offers a typings file for TypeScript projects.

import { jsPDF } from "jspdf";

You can add jsPDF to your meteor-project as follows:

meteor add jspdf:core

Polyfills

jsPDF requires modern browser APIs in order to function. To use jsPDF in older browsers like Internet Explorer, polyfills are required. You can load all required polyfills as follows:

import "jspdf/dist/polyfills.es.js";

Alternatively, you can load the prebundled polyfill file. This is not recommended, since you might end up loading polyfills multiple times. Might still be nifty for small applications or quick POCs.

<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jspdf/3.0.0/polyfills.umd.js"></script>

Use of Unicode Characters / UTF-8:

The 14 standard fonts in PDF are limited to the ASCII-codepage. If you want to use UTF-8 you have to integrate a custom font, which provides the needed glyphs. jsPDF supports .ttf-files. So if you want to have for example Chinese text in your pdf, your font has to have the necessary Chinese glyphs. So, check if your font supports the wanted glyphs or else it will show garbled characters instead of the right text.

To add the font to jsPDF use our fontconverter in /fontconverter/fontconverter.html. The fontconverter will create a js-file with the content of the provided ttf-file as base64 encoded string and additional code for jsPDF. You just have to add this generated js-File to your project. You are then ready to go to use setFont-method in your code and write your UTF-8 encoded text.

Alternatively you can just load the content of the *.ttf file as a binary string using fetch or XMLHttpRequest and add the font to the PDF file:

const doc = new jsPDF();

const myFont = ... // load the *.ttf font file as binary string

// add the font to jsPDF
doc.addFileToVFS("MyFont.ttf", myFont);
doc.addFont("MyFont.ttf", "MyFont", "normal");
doc.setFont("MyFont");

Advanced Functionality

Since the merge with the yWorks fork there are a lot of new features. However, some of them are API breaking, which is why there is an API-switch between two API modes:

  • In "compat" API mode, jsPDF has the same API as MrRio's original version, which means full compatibility with plugins. However, some advanced features like transformation matrices and patterns won't work. This is the default mode.
  • In "advanced" API mode, jsPDF has the API you're used from the yWorks-fork version. This means the availability of all advanced features like patterns, FormObjects, and transformation matrices.

You can switch between the two modes by calling

doc.advancedAPI(doc => {
  // your code
});
// or
doc.compatAPI(doc => {
  // your code
});

JsPDF will automatically switch back to the original API mode after the callback has run.

Support

Please check if your question is already handled at Stackoverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/jspdf. Feel free to ask a question there with the tag jspdf.

Feature requests, bug reports, etc. are very welcome as issues. Note that bug reports should follow these guidelines:

  • A bug should be reported as an mcve
  • Make sure code is properly indented and formatted (Use ``` around code blocks)
  • Provide a runnable example.
  • Try to make sure and show in your issue that the issue is actually related to jspdf and not your framework of choice.

Contributing

jsPDF cannot live without help from the community! If you think a feature is missing or you found a bug, please consider if you can spare one or two hours and prepare a pull request. If you're simply interested in this project and want to help, have a look at the open issues, especially those labeled with "bug".

You can find information about building and testing jsPDF in the contribution guide

Credits

  • Big thanks to Daniel Dotsenko from Willow Systems Corporation for making huge contributions to the codebase.
  • Thanks to Ajaxian.com for featuring us back in 2009. (Internet Archive Wayback Machine reference)
  • Our special thanks to GH Lee (sphilee) for programming the ttf-file-support and providing a large and long sought after feature
  • Everyone else that's contributed patches or bug reports. You rock.

License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2010-2021 James Hall, https://github.com/MrRio/jsPDF (c) 2015-2021 yWorks GmbH, https://www.yworks.com/

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.