jsx-pdf

This library allows you to generate PDFs using a react-like JSX syntax.

import { createElement, createRenderer } from 'jsx-pdf';

const render = createRenderer();

const pdf = render(
  <document>
    <content>This will appear in my PDF!</content>
  </document>,
);

this.headers['Content-Type'] = 'application/pdf';
this.body = pdf;

The library is a thin layer built on top of pdfmake. It currently supports a subset of pdfmake's features; most of the time, simply translating tags and attributes into pdfmake document definition format.

Quick start

yarn add jsx-pdf babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx@^6.0.0

Ensure babel is set up for your project and your .babelrc or equivalent contains

{
  "plugins": [
    [
      "transform-react-jsx",
      {
        "pragma": "createElement"
      }
    ]
  ]
}

Code away! See the examples below.

You can also run our example Koa app by running yarn demo and opening http://localhost:3000 in your browser. This should download a PDF in your browser. Check the console logs for additional information.

Components

Similar to modern front-end frameworks, you can define your own components using declarative syntax.

Basic example:

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const Greeting = ({ name }) => <text>Hello, {name}!</text>;

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <Greeting name="Bob" />
    </content>
  </document>
);

List example:

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const GroupGreeting = ({ names }) => (
  <stack>{names.map(name => <Greeting name={name} />)}</stack>
);

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <GroupGreeting names={['Bob', 'Alice']} />
    </content>
  </document>
);

Inline If example:

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const Signature = () => <text>JSX-PDF, Inc.</text>;

const SignedGreeting = ({ name }) => (
  <stack>
    {name && <Greeting name={name} />}
    <Signature />
  </stack>
);

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <SignedGreeting />
    </content>
  </document>
);

Inline If-Else example:

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const AnonymousGreeting = () => <text>We don't know you.</text>;

const SignedGreeting = ({ name }) => (
  <stack>
    {name ? <Greeting name={name} /> : <AnonymousGreeting />}
    <Signature />
  </stack>
);

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <SignedGreeting />
    </content>
  </document>
);

Element variable example:

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const SignedGreeting = ({ name }) => {
  let greeting;

  if (name) {
    greeting = <Greeting name={name} />;
  } else {
    greeting = <AnonymousGreeting />;
  }

  return (
    <stack>
      {greeting}
      <Signature />
    </stack>
  );
};

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <SignedGreeting />
    </content>
  </document>
);

Styling

Styling can be done by adding appropriate attributes to tags. It's often helpful for readability to group style-related attributes together and use the spread syntax.

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const Greeting = ({ name }) => {
  const styles = {
    italics: true,
    fontSize: 10,
  };

  return <text {...styles}>Hello, {name}!</text>;
};

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <Greeting name="Bob" />
    </content>
  </document>
);

Context

Each component has access to global context and can update it if necessary.

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const AllowedUsersProvider = (attributes, context, updateContext) => {
  updateContext({
    allowedUsers: ['Alice'],
  });

  return attributes.children[0];
};

const SecureGreeting = ({ name }, { allowedUsers }) =>
  allowedUsers.includes(name) ? (
    <text>Hello, {name}!</text>
  ) : (
    <text>You are not allowed.</text>
  );

const doc = (
  <AllowedUsersProvider>
    <document>
      <content>
        <SecureGreeting name="Bob" />
      </content>
    </document>
  </AllowedUsersProvider>
);

Document primitives

This section describes basic elements provided by the library. More information about supported attributes and advanced examples can be found here.

Top elements

Each document has to be enclosed within document tag with nested content, and optional header and footer.

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const doc = (
  <document>
    <header>Greeting</header>
    <content>Hello, Bob!</content>
    <footer>JSX-PDF, Inc.</footer>
  </document>
);

Paragraphs

Paragraphs are defined using text tag.

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <text>
        This sentence will be rendered as one paragraph,

        even though there are

        line


        breaks.
      </text>
      <text>This is another paragraph.</text>
    </content>
  </document>
);

In order to apply styling to a group of paragraphs, they can be wrapped with a stack tag.

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <stack color="red">
        <text>First red parahraph.</text>
        <text>Second red parahraph.</text>
      </stack>
      <text color="blue">Blue parahraph.</text>
    </content>
  </document>
);

Columns

Elements nested in columns tag will be stacked horizontally.

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <columns columnGap={10}>
        <column width={100}>Fixed width column</column>
        <column width="10%">Percentage width column</column>
        <column width="auto">
          Column that adjusts width based on the content
        </column>
        <column width="*">Column that fills the remaining space</column>
      </columns>
    </content>
  </document>
);

Lists

Both ordered and unordered lists are supported.

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const docWithOrderedList = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <ol reversed start={10} separator={['(', ')']} type="lower-roman">
        <text>Item 1</text>
        <text>Item 2</text>
        <text>Item 3</text>
      </ol>
    </content>
  </document>
);

const docWithUnorderedList = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <ul color="blue" markerColor="red" type="square">
        <text>Item 1</text>
        <text>Item 2</text>
        <text>Item 3</text>
      </ul>
    </content>
  </document>
);

Tables

table tag provides a simple way of creating table layouts.

const leftCellStyle = {
  color: 'grey',
};

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <table widths={[100, '*', 'auto']} headerRows={1} layout="headerLineOnly">
        <row>
          <cell>Fixed width column</cell>
          <cell>Column that fills the remaining space</cell>
          <cell>Column that adjusts width based on the content</cell>
        </row>
        <row>
          <cell {...leftCellStyle}>Cell 1.1</cell>
          <cell>Cell 1.2</cell>
          <cell>Cell 1.3</cell>
        </row>
        <row>
          <cell {...leftCellStyle}>Cell 2.1</cell>
          <cell>Cell 2.2</cell>
          <cell>Cell 2.3</cell>
        </row>
      </table>
    </content>
  </document>
);

Images

image supports JPEG and PNG formats.

import { createElement } from 'jsx-pdf';

const doc = (
  <document>
    <content>
      <image src="/home/bob/photos/Bob.png" width={150} height={150} />
    </content>
  </document>
);

API

createRenderer

A factory function that optionally takes fonts and default document style as parameters and returns a render function.

fontDescriptors

While the library uses OpenSans as a default font, additional fonts can be passed to the factory. Font paths have to be absolute.

const render = createRenderer({
  fontDescriptors: {
    Roboto: {
      normal: '/home/bob/fonts/Roboto-Regular.ttf',
      bold: '/home/bob/fonts/Roboto-Medium.ttf',
      italics: '/home/bob/fonts/Roboto-Italic.ttf',
      bolditalics: '/home/bob/fonts/Roboto-MediumItalic.ttf'
    }
  }
}

defaultStyle

The library defaults to using OpenSans 12pt, which can be overridden in the factory function.

const render = createRenderer({
  defaultStyle: {
    font: 'Roboto',
    fontSize: 14
  }
}

createElement

This function converts JSX to object representation. Every time JSX syntax is used, the function has to be made available. The functionality depends the babel plugin babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx (or equivalent), and Babel must be set up in the project in order to transpile the JSX correctly.

Example .babelrc file:

{
  "presets": [
    [
      "env",
      {
        "targets": {
          "node": "6"
        }
      }
    ]
  ],
  "plugins": [
    [
      "transform-react-jsx",
      {
        "pragma": "createElement"
      }
    ]
  ]
}

Disclaimer

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

License

By contributing to this project, you agree that your contributions will be licensed under its MIT license.

mtlewis / jsx-pdf