PDF-LIB

PDF-LIB

PDF-LIB is an open-source JavaScript PDF library for Node and the browser that allows creating, modifying, inspecting, parsing and optimizing PDF files. It provides an easy API for working with PDFs.
PDF-LIB image
pdf documents editing

PDF-LIB: Open-Source JavaScript PDF Library for Node and Browser

An open-source JavaScript library for creating, modifying, inspecting, parsing and optimizing PDF files in Node and the browser with an easy API.

What is PDF-LIB?

PDF-LIB is an open-source JavaScript library for working with PDF files. It allows you to:

  • Create PDFs from scratch in Node.js and the browser
  • Modify existing PDFs by adding/editing/removing pages, changing content, compressing, splitting, cropping, reformatting, etc.
  • Inspect PDF metadata and content in detail
  • Parse PDF files into usable JavaScript objects
  • Optimize PDF files by reducing size and improving performance

PDF-LIB provides an easy-to-use API for complete PDF manipulation and optimization. It works in Node.js and modern browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Key features include:

  • 100% JavaScript - no native dependencies
  • Supports PDF 1.3 - 1.7
  • Robust content addition/editing including text, images, vector graphics
  • Industry leading file size optimization
  • Form filling, PDF digital signatures
  • Powerful PDF parsing capability
  • Works with Uint8Arrays for memory efficiency
  • Modular architecture
  • Commercial friendly Apache 2.0 license

PDF-LIB makes it easy to fully control PDF files in any JavaScript environment. It's lightweight, robust and dependency-free. An excellent choice for complete PDF manipulation.

PDF-LIB Features

Features

  1. Create, inspect and modify PDF documents
  2. Split, merge, rotate, crop and transform pages
  3. Add or edit text, images, links, outlines and metadata
  4. Extract images and text from PDF files
  5. Optimize PDF files by reducing size and fixing issues
  6. Supports PDF forms, annotations, templates and more
  7. Works in Node.js and modern web browsers

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Open source and free to use

Easy to use JavaScript API

Good documentation and examples

Active development and maintenance

Supports latest PDF features and standards

Good performance and small output file sizes

Modular architecture

Cons

Limited to JavaScript environments only

Not as full-featured as some paid libraries

Requires learning PDF structure and syntax

Lacks some advanced PDF features like digital signatures

Browser support requires modern browsers


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