react-native-pdf-editor

A React Native wrapper around a PoDoFo fork for creating, editing, and digitally signing PDFs (PAdES B-B/B-T/B-LT/B-LTA) on iOS and Android.

It's still in alpha, API set may change drastically.

Features

• 📄 Document editing - create, open, save; page add/remove/rotate/resize/reorder, merge/split via appendPagesFrom/appendPageRangeFrom/insertPageFrom; standard-14 fonts, custom/embedded TTF fonts via loadFont/loadFontFromBuffer, images, vector shapes via PdfPainter
• 🖊️ Annotations & form fields - highlight/freetext/stamp/ink/link annotations; text box & checkbox AcroForm fields
• 🔒 Encryption - AES-256 owner/user passwords with per-permission flags (print, copy, fill-and-sign, ...)
• ✍️ Signer-agnostic PAdES signing - a plain Signer interface (getCertificateChain/sign/timestamp) drives signing, so YubiKey, an HSM, GoTrust, a cloud KMS, or an in-memory dev key are all pluggable without the core library knowing which
• ⏱️ Full PAdES baseline ladder - B-B, B-T (RFC3161 timestamp), B-LT (DSS/LTV), B-LTA (archival timestamp) via signPdf
• 🖼️ Page rendering & text extraction - renderPageToBitmap (Core Graphics / PdfRenderer) returns a zero-copy ArrayBuffer; extractText for content-stream text (with regex search)
• 🧩 Two entry points - react-native-pdf-editor for document/painting/forms, react-native-pdf-editor/signing for everything signing-related, kept separate so apps that only edit PDFs don't pull in signing concepts they don't need
• 🆕 New Architecture only - built as a Nitro Module, C++ core on iOS, Kotlin on Android

Platform support

Android and iOS are not at parity - this is a deliberate, documented consequence of what's actually bindable on each platform today, not an oversight. iOS binds Nitro's C++ layer directly to PoDoFo's core; Android binds Kotlin to the already-published podofo-android JNI wrapper, which exposes a narrower surface (confirmed by reading its actual source before every phase).

| Feature | Android | iOS | | ---------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------- | | Document create/open/save, page add/remove | Full | Full | | Page rotate/resize/reorder, merge/split | Full (build-verified) | Full (build-verified) | | Painter (text/images/shapes), annotations | Full | Full | | Custom/embedded TTF fonts (from a file path) | Full (pixel-verified) | Full (build-verified) | | Custom/embedded TTF fonts (from an in-memory buffer) | Full (build-verified) | Full (build-verified) | | AcroForm fields (text box, checkbox) | Full | Full | | Radio/combo/list-box/signature fields, flattening | Not bound | Not bound | | Encryption | Full | Full | | Signing (B-B/B-T/B-LT/B-LTA) | Full, except rootCertificate (throws - see below) | Full | | Page rendering, text extraction | Full (compiles + build-verified; not pixel-tested on-device this session) | Full (pixel-verified) |

PdfSigningSessionOptions.rootCertificate throws UnsupportedOperationException on Android: the published PoDoFoWrapper constructor has no root-certificate parameter at all.

Requirements

| | Minimum | | ------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | React Native | 0.79+ with the New Architecture enabled (Nitro Modules requirement) | | iOS | 15.1+ | | Android | minSdkVersion 26 (the published podofo-android AAR's own manifest requires it) |

Installation

npm install @doko/react-native-pdf-editor react-native-nitro-modules
# or
yarn add @doko/react-native-pdf-editor react-native-nitro-modules
# or
pnpm add @doko/react-native-pdf-editor react-native-nitro-modules

react-native-nitro-modules is required as this library relies on Nitro Modules.

If your app's minSdkVersion is below 26, raise it (e.g. via expo-build-properties's android.minSdkVersion in an Expo-managed app) - PoDoFo's own Android manifest requires it, and the manifest merger will fail otherwise.

Quick start

import { PdfDocument, renderPageToBitmap } from '@doko/react-native-pdf-editor';

const doc = PdfDocument.create();
// or open an existing file: const doc = await PdfDocument.open('/path/to/existing.pdf');
// (pass a password as a second argument if it's encrypted)
const page = doc.createPage(612, 792);

const painter = page.createPainter();
const font = doc.getStandard14Font('Helvetica');
// or embed your own: const font = doc.loadFont('/path/to/font.ttf');
painter.setFont(font, 24);
painter.drawText('Hello from react-native-pdf-editor!', 50, 700);
painter.finishDrawing();

await doc.save('/path/to/output.pdf');

const bitmap = await renderPageToBitmap({
  path: '/path/to/output.pdf',
  pageIndex: 0,
});
// bitmap.data is a zero-copy ArrayBuffer, RGBA8888, bitmap.width x bitmap.height

Signing lives on its own entry point:

import { signPdf, createSigner } from '@doko/react-native-pdf-editor/signing';

const signer = createSigner({
  keyAlgorithm: 'RSA',
  certificateChain: [/* base64 DER, leaf-first */],
  rawSign: async (payloadBase64, algorithm) => {
    // back this with whatever holds the private key: an in-memory dev key
    // via react-native-quick-crypto, a PKCS#11 C_Sign, YubiKit PIV, an HSM,
    // GoTrust, a cloud KMS, ... - see the Signer interface for the shape.
    return mySign(payloadBase64, algorithm);
  },
});

await signPdf(signer, {
  inputPath: '/path/to/output.pdf',
  outputPath: '/path/to/signed.pdf',
  conformanceLevel: 'B-B',
});

More usage (forms, annotations, encryption, text extraction, PAdES B-T/B-LT/B-LTA) is demonstrated in example/src/App.tsx.

Example app

A runnable example app is included in example/ (Expo, exercises document creation, painting, saving, rendering, and text extraction end to end).

pnpm install
pnpm example start

Then press a for Android or i for iOS.

Contributing

• Development workflow
• Sending a pull request
• Code of conduct

License

MIT

Made with create-react-native-library