pdf-parse

Getting Started with v2 (Coming from v1)

// v1
// const pdf = require('pdf-parse');
// pdf(buffer).then(result => console.log(result.text));

// v2
const { PDFParse } = require('pdf-parse');
// import { PDFParse } from 'pdf-parse';

async function run() {
	const parser = new PDFParse({ url: 'https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf' });

	const result = await parser.getText();
	console.log(result.text);
}

run();

Features

• CJS, ESM, Node.js, and browser support.
• Can be integrated with React, Vue, Angular, or any other web framework.
• Command-line interface for quick PDF processing: CLI Documentation
• Security Policy
• Retrieve headers and validate PDF : getHeader
• Extract document info : getInfo
• Extract page text : getText
• Render pages as PNG : getScreenshot
• Extract embedded images : getImage
• Detect and extract tabular data : getTable
• Well-covered with unit tests
• Integration tests to validate end-to-end behavior across environments.
• See LoadParameters and ParseParameters for all available options.
• Examples: live demo, examples, tests and tests example folders.
• Supports: Next.js + Vercel, Netlify, AWS Lambda, Cloudflare Workers.

Installation

npm install pdf-parse
# or
pnpm add pdf-parse
# or
yarn add pdf-parse
# or
bun add pdf-parse

CLI Installation

For command-line usage, install the package globally:

npm install -g pdf-parse

Or use it directly with npx:

npx pdf-parse --help

For detailed CLI documentation and usage examples, see: CLI Documentation

Usage

getHeader — Node Utility: PDF Header Retrieval and Validation

// Important: getHeader is available from the 'pdf-parse/node' submodule
import { getHeader } from 'pdf-parse/node';

// Retrieve HTTP headers and file size without downloading the full file.
// Pass `true` to check PDF magic bytes via range request.
// Optionally validates PDFs by fetching the first 4 bytes (magic bytes).
// Useful for checking file existence, size, and type before full parsing.
// Node only, will not work in browser environments.
const result = await getHeader('https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf', true);

console.log(`Status: ${result.status}`);
console.log(`Content-Length: ${result.size}`);
console.log(`Is PDF: ${result.isPdf}`);
console.log(`Headers:`, result.headers);

getInfo — Extract Metadata and Document Information

import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
import { PDFParse } from 'pdf-parse';

const link = 'https://mehmet-kozan.github.io/pdf-parse/pdf/climate.pdf';
// const buffer = await readFile('reports/pdf/climate.pdf');
// const parser = new PDFParse({ data: buffer });

const parser = new PDFParse({ url: link });
const result = await parser.getInfo({ parsePageInfo: true });
await parser.destroy();

console.log(`Total pages: ${result.total}`);
console.log(`Title: ${result.info?.Title}`);
console.log(`Author: ${result.info?.Author}`);
console.log(`Creator: ${result.info?.Creator}`);
console.log(`Producer: ${result.info?.Producer}`);

// Access parsed date information
const dates = result.getDateNode();
console.log(`Creation Date: ${dates.CreationDate}`);
console.log(`Modification Date: ${dates.ModDate}`);

// Links, pageLabel, width, height (when `parsePageInfo` is true)
console.log('Per-page information:');
console.log(JSON.stringify(result.pages, null, 2));

getText — Extract Text

import { PDFParse } from 'pdf-parse';

const parser = new PDFParse({ url: 'https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf' });
const result = await parser.getText();
// to extract text from page 3 only:
// const result = await parser.getText({ partial: [3] });
await parser.destroy();
console.log(result.text);

For a complete list of configuration options, see:

• LoadParameters
• ParseParameters

Usage Examples:

• Parse password protected PDF: password.test.ts
• Parse only specific pages: specific-pages.test.ts
• Parse embedded hyperlinks: hyperlink.test.ts
• Set verbosity level: password.test.ts
• Load PDF from URL: url.test.ts
• Load PDF from base64 data: base64.test.ts
• Loading large files (> 5 MB): large-file.test.ts

getScreenshot — Render Pages as PNG

import { readFile, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
import { PDFParse } from 'pdf-parse';

const link = 'https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf';
// const buffer = await readFile('reports/pdf/bitcoin.pdf');
// const parser = new PDFParse({ data: buffer });

const parser = new PDFParse({ url: link });

// scale:1 for original page size.
// scale:1.5 50% bigger.
const result = await parser.getScreenshot({ scale: 1.5 });

await parser.destroy();
await writeFile('bitcoin.png', result.pages[0].data);

Usage Examples:

• Limit output resolution or specific pages using ParseParameters
• getScreenshot({scale:1.5}) — Increase rendering scale (higher DPI / larger image)
• getScreenshot({desiredWidth:1024}) — Request a target width in pixels; height scales to keep aspect ratio
• imageDataUrl (default: true) — include base64 data URL string in the result.
• imageBuffer (default: true) — include a binary buffer for each image.
• Select specific pages with partial (e.g. getScreenshot({ partial: [1,3] }))
• partial overrides first/last.
• Use first to render the first N pages (e.g. getScreenshot({ first: 3 })).
• Use last to render the last N pages (e.g. getScreenshot({ last: 2 })).
• When both first and last are provided they form an inclusive range (first..last).

getImage — Extract Embedded Images

import { readFile, writeFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
import { PDFParse } from 'pdf-parse';

const link = new URL('https://mehmet-kozan.github.io/pdf-parse/pdf/image-test.pdf');
// const buffer = await readFile('reports/pdf/image-test.pdf');
// const parser = new PDFParse({ data: buffer });

const parser = new PDFParse({ url: link });
const result = await parser.getImage();
await parser.destroy();

await writeFile('adobe.png', result.pages[0].images[0].data);

Usage Examples:

• Exclude images with width or height <= 50 px: getImage({ imageThreshold: 50 })
• Default imageThreshold is 80 (pixels)
• Useful for excluding tiny decorative or tracking images.
• To disable size-based filtering and include all images, set imageThreshold: 0.
• imageDataUrl (default: true) — include base64 data URL string in the result.
• imageBuffer (default: true) — include a binary buffer for each image.
• Extract images from specific pages: getImage({ partial: [2,4] })

getTable — Extract Tabular Data

import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';
import { PDFParse } from 'pdf-parse';

const link = new URL('https://mehmet-kozan.github.io/pdf-parse/pdf/simple-table.pdf');
// const buffer = await readFile('reports/pdf/simple-table.pdf');
// const parser = new PDFParse({ data: buffer });

const parser = new PDFParse({ url: link });
const result = await parser.getTable();
await parser.destroy();

// Pretty-print each row of the first table
for (const row of result.pages[0].tables[0]) {
	console.log(JSON.stringify(row));
}

Exception Handling & Type Usage

import type { LoadParameters, ParseParameters, TextResult } from 'pdf-parse';
import { PasswordException, PDFParse, VerbosityLevel } from 'pdf-parse';

const loadParams: LoadParameters = {
	url: 'https://mehmet-kozan.github.io/pdf-parse/pdf/password-123456.pdf',
	verbosity: VerbosityLevel.WARNINGS,
	password: 'abcdef',
};

const parseParams: ParseParameters = {
	first: 1,
};

// Initialize the parser class without executing any code yet
const parser = new PDFParse(loadParams);

function handleResult(result: TextResult) {
	console.log(result.text);
}

try {
	const result = await parser.getText(parseParams);
	handleResult(result);
} catch (error) {
	// InvalidPDFException
	// PasswordException
	// FormatError
	// ResponseException
	// AbortException
	// UnknownErrorException
	if (error instanceof PasswordException) {
		console.error('Password must be 123456\n', error);
	} else {
		throw error;
	}
} finally {
	// Always call destroy() to free memory
	await parser.destroy();
}

Web / Browser

• Can be integrated into React, Vue, Angular, or any other web framework.
• Live Demo: https://mehmet-kozan.github.io/pdf-parse/
• Demo Source: reports/demo
• ES Module: pdf-parse.es.js UMD/Global: pdf-parse.umd.js
• For browser build, set the web worker explicitly.

CDN Usage

<!-- ES Module -->
<script type="module">

  import {PDFParse} from 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/pdf-parse@latest/dist/pdf-parse/web/pdf-parse.es.js';
  //// Available Worker Files
  // pdf.worker.mjs
  // pdf.worker.min.mjs
  // If you use a custom build or host pdf.worker.mjs yourself, configure worker accordingly.
  PDFParse.setWorker('https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/pdf-parse@latest/dist/pdf-parse/web/pdf.worker.mjs');

  const parser = new PDFParse({url:'https://mehmet-kozan.github.io/pdf-parse/pdf/bitcoin.pdf'});
  const result = await parser.getText();

  console.log(result.text)
</script>

CDN Options: https://www.jsdelivr.com/package/npm/pdf-parse

• https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/pdf-parse@latest/dist/pdf-parse/web/pdf-parse.es.js
• https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/pdf-parse@2.4.5/dist/pdf-parse/web/pdf-parse.es.js
• https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/pdf-parse@latest/dist/pdf-parse/web/pdf-parse.umd.js
• https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/pdf-parse@2.4.5/dist/pdf-parse/web/pdf-parse.umd.js

Worker Options:

• https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/pdf-parse@latest/dist/pdf-parse/web/pdf.worker.mjs
• https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/pdf-parse@latest/dist/pdf-parse/web/pdf.worker.min.mjs

Similar Packages

• pdf2json — Buggy, memory leaks, uncatchable errors in some PDF files.
• pdfdataextract — pdf-parse-based
• unpdf — pdf-parse-based
• pdf-extract — Non-cross-platform, depends on xpdf
• j-pdfjson — Fork of pdf2json
• pdfreader — Uses pdf2json
• pdf-extract — Non-cross-platform, depends on xpdf

Benchmark Note: The benchmark currently runs only against pdf2json. I don't know the current state of pdf2json — the original reason for creating pdf-parse was to work around stability issues with pdf2json. I deliberately did not include pdf-parse or other pdf.js-based packages in the benchmark because dependencies conflict. If you have recommendations for additional packages to include, please open an issue, see benchmark results.

Supported Node.js Versions(20.x, 22.x, 23.x, 24.x)

• Supported: Node.js 20 (>= 20.16.0), Node.js 22 (>= 22.3.0), Node.js 23 (>= 23.0.0), and Node.js 24 (>= 24.0.0).
• Not supported: Node.js 21.x, and Node.js 19.x and earlier.

Integration tests run on Node.js 20–24, see test_integration.yml.

Unsupported Node.js Versions (18.x, 19.x, 21.x)

Requires additional setup see docs/troubleshooting.md.

Worker Configuration & Troubleshooting

See docs/troubleshooting.md for detailed troubleshooting steps and worker configuration for Node.js and serverless environments.

• Worker setup for Node.js, Next.js, Vercel, AWS Lambda, Netlify, Cloudflare Workers.
• Common error messages and solutions.
• Manual worker configuration for custom builds and Electron/NW.js.
• Node.js version compatibility.

If you encounter issues, please refer to the Troubleshooting Guide.

Contributing

When opening an issue, please attach the relevant PDF file if possible. Providing the file will help us reproduce and resolve your issue more efficiently. For detailed guidelines on how to contribute, report bugs, or submit pull requests, see: contributing to pdf-parse