How to create a PDF file in Node.js

Today we will show you how to create a PDF file in Node.js. In this article, we will show you two different methods for PDF creation.

The first approach creates a PDF file and saves it in the folder, whereas the second way creates a PDF file and sends it to the API response.

Checkout more articles on Node.js

1. Setup node project using express

To construct a REST API, we'll use the express framework in Node.js. If you don't know how to design a REST API in Node.js using the express framework, please see the link below.

Create REST API in Node.js

server.js

var express = require('express'),
    app = express(),
    port = process.env.PORT || 4000;

// request handlers
app.get('/', (req, res) => {
    res.send('Welcome to the first Node.js Tutorial! - Clue Mediator');
});

app.listen(port, () => {
    console.log('Server started on: ' + port);
});

2. Install the package

Here, we will use the PDFKit npm package to create a PDF. Run the following command to install the package.

npm i pdfkit

3. Generate a PDF and store it in folder

Make sure you have an image file named `sample.jpg` in the `upload` folder before use the following code.

const PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');
const fs = require('fs');

const doc = new PDFDocument();

doc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('pdf-example.pdf'));

doc.fontSize(27)
  .text('This is sample PDF', 100, 100);

doc.image('upload/sample.jpg', {
  fit: [400, 400],
  align: 'center',
  valign: 'center'
});

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

doc.addPage()
  .fillColor('blue')
  .text('Click here to visit the cluemediator.com website', 100, 100)
  .link(100, 100, 300, 27, 'https://www.cluemediator.com/');

doc.end();

4. Create a PDF and send it to the response

In this method, we will create a PDF and just have to pipe res to the document instance.



const PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');

app.get('/view-pdf', (req, res) => {

  const lorem = `Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.`;

  const doc = new PDFDocument();

  // the following line is the one you're looking for
  doc.pipe(res);

  // draw some text
  doc.fontSize(25).text('Here is some vector graphics...', 100, 80);

  // some vector graphics
  doc.save()
    .moveTo(100, 150)
    .lineTo(100, 250)
    .lineTo(200, 250)
    .fill('#FF3300');

  doc.circle(280, 200, 50).fill('#6600FF');

  // an SVG path
  doc.scale(0.6)
    .translate(470, 130)
    .path('M 250,75 L 323,301 131,161 369,161 177,301 z')
    .fill('red', 'even-odd')
    .restore();

  // and some justified text wrapped into columns
  doc.text('And here is some wrapped text...', 100, 300)
    .font('Times-Roman', 13)
    .moveDown()
    .text(lorem, {
      width: 412,
      align: 'justify',
      indent: 30,
      columns: 2,
      height: 300,
      ellipsis: true
    });

  doc.end();

  res.writeHead(200, {
    'Content-Type': 'application/pdf',
  });
});

5. Output

Let’s combine all the code together and see how it looks.

server.js

const express = require('express'),
  app = express(),
  port = process.env.PORT || 4000;

const PDFDocument = require('pdfkit');
const fs = require('fs');

app.get('/view-pdf', (req, res) => {

  const lorem = `Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum. Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.`;

  const doc = new PDFDocument();

  // the following line is the one you're looking for
  doc.pipe(res);

  // draw some text
  doc.fontSize(25).text('Here is some vector graphics...', 100, 80);

  // some vector graphics
  doc.save()
    .moveTo(100, 150)
    .lineTo(100, 250)
    .lineTo(200, 250)
    .fill('#FF3300');

  doc.circle(280, 200, 50).fill('#6600FF');

  // an SVG path
  doc.scale(0.6)
    .translate(470, 130)
    .path('M 250,75 L 323,301 131,161 369,161 177,301 z')
    .fill('red', 'even-odd')
    .restore();

  // and some justified text wrapped into columns
  doc.text('And here is some wrapped text...', 100, 300)
    .font('Times-Roman', 13)
    .moveDown()
    .text(lorem, {
      width: 412,
      align: 'justify',
      indent: 30,
      columns: 2,
      height: 300,
      ellipsis: true
    });

  doc.end();

  res.writeHead(200, {
    'Content-Type': 'application/pdf',
  });
});

app.get('/generate-pdf', (req, res) => {

  const doc = new PDFDocument();

  doc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('pdf-example.pdf'));

  doc.fontSize(27)
    .text('This is sample PDF', 100, 100);

  doc.image('upload/sample.jpg', {
    fit: [400, 400],
    align: 'center',
    valign: 'center'
  });

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

  doc.addPage()
    .fillColor('blue')
    .text('Click here to visit the cluemediator.com website', 100, 100)
    .link(100, 100, 160, 27, 'https://www.cluemediator.com/');

  doc.end();
  res.send('PDF generated!');
});

app.listen(port, () => {
  console.log('Server started on: ' + port);
});

Run the following command and hit two different end points (`http://localhost:4000/generate-pdf` & `http://localhost:4000/view-pdf`) in the browser to create a PDF file.

node server.js

I hope you find this article helpful.
Thank you for reading. Happy Coding..!! 🙂

Demo & Source Code

GitHub Repository