jspdf vs html2pdf.js vs react-pdf vs react-to-pdf
PDF Generation Libraries
jspdfhtml2pdf.jsreact-pdfreact-to-pdfSimilar Packages:

PDF Generation Libraries

PDF Generation Libraries are tools that allow developers to create PDF documents programmatically from web applications. These libraries provide APIs to convert HTML content, text, images, and other elements into PDF format, enabling features like styling, pagination, and embedding fonts. They are widely used in applications for generating invoices, reports, forms, and any other documents that need to be downloaded or printed in a standardized format. Each library has its strengths, such as ease of use, customization options, and support for different content types.

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Package
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jspdf13,332,60531,17130.2 MB11017 days agoMIT
html2pdf.js829,6544,80510.9 MB4932 months agoMIT
react-pdf010,976309 kB2511 days agoMIT
react-to-pdf034075.3 kB5816 days agoMIT

Feature Comparison: jspdf vs html2pdf.js vs react-pdf vs react-to-pdf

PDF Generation Method

  • jspdf:

    jsPDF allows for programmatic PDF generation using JavaScript. It provides APIs to create PDFs from scratch, add text, images, and shapes, and manipulate the PDF content dynamically. This method offers greater flexibility for creating custom-designed PDFs but requires more coding effort to achieve complex layouts.

  • html2pdf.js:

    html2pdf.js combines the capabilities of html2canvas and jsPDF to convert HTML elements into PDF. It captures the visual representation of the HTML, including styles and images, and renders it as a PDF document. This method is particularly effective for generating PDFs that closely match the original layout of the web page.

  • react-pdf:

    react-pdf is designed for rendering PDF documents within React applications. It uses a component-based approach to display PDFs, allowing developers to integrate PDF viewing functionality seamlessly. While it does not generate PDFs, it provides tools for displaying and interacting with existing PDF files.

  • react-to-pdf:

    react-to-pdf focuses on converting specific React components into PDF format. It uses a ref-based approach to capture the content of the targeted component and generate a PDF. This method is straightforward and efficient for generating PDFs from predefined sections of a React app.

Customization and Styling

  • jspdf:

    jsPDF offers extensive customization capabilities for PDF content. Developers can programmatically control the layout, fonts, colors, and more. It supports adding text, images, and shapes at specific coordinates, allowing for precise design. This makes jsPDF ideal for creating highly customized PDFs, but it requires more effort to implement.

  • html2pdf.js:

    html2pdf.js preserves the existing styles of HTML elements when generating PDFs. It supports CSS styling, images, and even SVGs, ensuring that the PDF output closely resembles the original content. However, customization options for the PDF structure are limited since it primarily converts HTML as-is.

  • react-pdf:

    react-pdf provides some customization options for PDF rendering, such as styling text and components using React props. However, it is primarily focused on displaying PDFs rather than generating them. Customization is more about how the PDF is presented within the React app rather than altering the PDF file itself.

  • react-to-pdf:

    react-to-pdf allows for basic styling of the components being converted to PDF. Since it captures the HTML content of the specified component, any CSS applied to that component will be reflected in the PDF. However, the customization is limited to the styles of the HTML elements being rendered.

Ease of Use

  • jspdf:

    jsPDF has a steeper learning curve due to its extensive feature set and programmatic nature. While it offers great flexibility, developers may need to spend time understanding its API to fully utilize its capabilities, especially for more complex PDF generation tasks.

  • html2pdf.js:

    html2pdf.js is very easy to use, especially for developers who want to quickly convert HTML to PDF without extensive configuration. Its API is straightforward, and it requires minimal setup to get started. Simply call the function on an HTML element to generate the PDF.

  • react-pdf:

    react-pdf is user-friendly for React developers, as it leverages familiar component-based architecture. However, it requires some understanding of how to work with PDF rendering in React, which may be challenging for those new to the library.

  • react-to-pdf:

    react-to-pdf is simple and intuitive, particularly for those familiar with React. Its use of refs to capture components makes it easy to implement, and the documentation is clear, which helps reduce the learning curve.

Code Example

  • jspdf:

    PDF Generation with jsPDF

    import { jsPDF } from 'jspdf';
    
    const pdf = new jsPDF();
    pdf.text('Hello, World!', 10, 10);
    pdf.save('document.pdf');
    
  • html2pdf.js:

    HTML to PDF Conversion with html2pdf.js

    import html2pdf from 'html2pdf.js';
    
    const element = document.getElementById('content');
    const options = { filename: 'document.pdf' };
    html2pdf().from(element).set(options).save();
    
  • react-pdf:

    PDF Viewer with react-pdf

    import { Document, Page } from 'react-pdf';
    
    function MyApp() {
      return (
        <Document file='path/to/file.pdf'>
          <Page pageNumber={1} />
        </Document>
      );
    }
    
  • react-to-pdf:

    React Component to PDF with react-to-pdf

    import React from 'react';
    import ReactToPdf from 'react-to-pdf';
    
    const ref = React.createRef();
    
    const MyComponent = () => (
      <ReactToPdf targetRef={ref} filename='document.pdf'>
        {({ toPdf }) => <button onClick={toPdf}>Download PDF</button>}
      </ReactToPdf>
    );
    

How to Choose: jspdf vs html2pdf.js vs react-pdf vs react-to-pdf

  • jspdf:

    Select jsPDF if you require a feature-rich library for generating PDFs programmatically. It offers extensive customization, supports vector graphics, and allows for more complex PDF creation, making it suitable for applications that need detailed control over the PDF content.

  • html2pdf.js:

    Choose html2pdf.js if you need a simple solution for converting HTML content to PDF with minimal setup. It is ideal for quick implementations where you want to preserve the layout and styles of existing HTML elements.

  • react-pdf:

    Opt for react-pdf if you are working on a React application and need to render PDF documents within your app. It provides components for displaying PDFs, making it easy to integrate PDF viewing functionality directly into your React projects.

  • react-to-pdf:

    Use react-to-pdf if you want to convert specific React components to PDF. It is lightweight and easy to use, making it perfect for projects where you only need to generate PDFs from certain parts of your application.

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

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");

Security

We strongly advise you to sanitize user input before passing it to jsPDF!

For reporting security vulnerabilities, please see SECURITY.md.

Reading files from the local file system on node

When running under Node.js, jsPDF will restrict reading files from the local file system by default.

Strongly recommended: use Node's permission flags so the runtime enforces access:

node --permission --allow-fs-read=... ./scripts/generate.js

See Node's documentation for details. Note that you need to include all imported JavaScript files (including all dependencies) in the --allow-fs-read flag.

Fallback (not recommended): you can allow jsPDF to read specific files by setting jsPDF.allowFsRead in your script.

import { jsPDF } from "jspdf";

const doc = new jsPDF();
doc.allowFsRead = ["./fonts/*", "./images/logo.png"]; // allow everything under ./fonts and a single file

Warning: We strongly recommend the Node flags over jsPDF.allowFsRead, as the flags are enforced by the runtime and offer stronger security.

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.

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) 2010-2025 James Hall, https://github.com/MrRio/jsPDF (c) 2015-2025 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.