pdfmake

PDF document generation library for server-side and client-side usage in pure JavaScript.

Check out the playground and examples.

Features

• line-wrapping,
• text-alignments (left, right, centered, justified),
• numbered and bulleted lists,
• tables and columns
  • auto/fixed/star-sized widths,
  • col-spans and row-spans,
  • headers automatically repeated in case of a page-break,
• images and vector graphics,
• convenient styling and style inheritance,
• page headers and footers:
  • static or dynamic content,
  • access to current page number and page count,
• background-layer,
• page dimensions and orientations,
• margins,
• custom page breaks,
• font embedding,
• support for complex, multi-level (nested) structures,
• table of contents,
• helper methods for opening/printing/downloading the generated PDF,
• setting of PDF metadata (e.g. author, subject).

Documentation

Documentation URL: https://pdfmake.github.io/docs/

Building from sources version 0.2.x

using npm:

git clone --branch 0.2 https://github.com/bpampuch/pdfmake.git
cd pdfmake
npm install
npm run build

using yarn:

git clone --branch 0.2 https://github.com/bpampuch/pdfmake.git
cd pdfmake
yarn
yarn run build

Deployment (FlowAccount Fork)

Prerequisites

Before deploying, ensure you have:

• Node.js >= 18
• npm authentication configured for FlowAccount organization
• Proper access rights to publish @flowaccount/pdfmake package

NPM Authentication

Configure your npm authentication token:

npm login

Or set up your .npmrc file with your authentication token:

# ~/.npmrc or project .npmrc
//registry.npmjs.org/:_authToken=YOUR_NPM_TOKEN

Staging Deployment

Deploy a pre-release version for staging/testing:

npm run publish:staging

What this does:

1. Builds the project (npm run build)
2. Runs all tests (npm run test)
3. Automatically bumps version to next prerelease (e.g., 0.2.20-staging.1 → 0.2.20-staging.2)
4. Publishes to npm with staging tag
5. Package published as @flowaccount/pdfmake@staging

Install staging version:

npm install @flowaccount/pdfmake@staging

View staging versions:

npm view @flowaccount/pdfmake versions --tag staging

Production Deployment

Deploy a stable production release:

Step 1: Version Bump (choose one)

Patch version (bug fixes: 0.2.20 → 0.2.21):

npm run version:patch

Minor version (new features, backward compatible: 0.2.20 → 0.3.0):

npm run version:minor

Major version (breaking changes: 0.2.20 → 1.0.0):

npm run version:major

Step 2: Commit and Tag

git add package.json
git commit -m "chore: bump version to $(node -p "require('./package.json').version")"
git tag v$(node -p "require('./package.json').version")

Step 3: Publish to Production

npm run publish:production

What this does:

1. Builds the project (npm run build)
2. Runs all tests (npm run test)
3. Publishes to npm with latest tag (default)
4. Package published as @flowaccount/pdfmake@latest

Step 4: Push Changes and Tags

git push origin main
git push origin --tags

Install production version:

npm install @flowaccount/pdfmake
# or specific version
npm install @flowaccount/[email protected]

Local Development Publishing

For testing npm package locally with Verdaccio or similar local registry:

npm run publish:local

This publishes to http://localhost:4872 with a timestamp-based version.

Deployment Checklist

• [ ] All tests passing (npm test)
• [ ] Code linted (npm run lint)
• [ ] Build successful (npm run build)
• [ ] CHANGELOG.md updated with changes
• [ ] Version bumped appropriately
• [ ] Git commit and tag created
• [ ] Package published successfully
• [ ] Git changes pushed to remote
• [ ] Release notes added on GitHub (optional)
• [ ] Team notified of new release

Troubleshooting

Permission Denied Error:

npm ERR! code E403
npm ERR! 403 403 Forbidden - PUT https://registry.npmjs.org/@flowaccount%2fpdfmake

Solution: Ensure you're logged in with an account that has publish rights to @flowaccount organization.

Version Already Exists:

npm ERR! code E409
npm ERR! 409 Conflict - PUT https://registry.npmjs.org/@flowaccount%2fpdfmake

Solution: Bump the version number and try again.

Build or Test Failures: If publish:staging or publish:production fails, the publish is automatically aborted. Fix the issues and retry.

Version Management

Current version format: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH[-PRERELEASE]

• Production versions: 0.2.20, 0.2.21, 0.3.0
• Staging versions: 0.2.20-staging.1, 0.2.20-staging.2
• Local versions: 0.2.20-local.1730123456

To check current published versions:

npm view @flowaccount/pdfmake versions
npm view @flowaccount/pdfmake dist-tags

License

MIT

Authors

• @bpampuch (founder)
• @liborm85

pdfmake is based on a truly amazing library pdfkit (credits to @devongovett).

Thanks to all contributors.

FlowAccount Customizations (Fork Notes)

This fork extends pdfmake 0.2.x with FlowAccount-specific features and behavior.

1. Remote Image URLs (Browser & Node)

You can now reference HTTP(S) image URLs directly in your docDefinition.images map or inline image properties.

Browser usage (helper auto-fetch):

pdfMake.createPdf(docDefinition).download(); // remote image URLs resolved before layout

Node usage (async prefetch):

const printer = new PdfPrinter(fonts);
await printer.resolveRemoteImages(docDefinition); // fetch & embed as data URLs
const pdfDoc = await printer.createPdfKitDocumentAsync(docDefinition, options);
pdfDoc.pipe(fs.createWriteStream('out.pdf'));
pdfDoc.end();

Errors while fetching images are swallowed (image omitted) so a bad URL will not abort PDF generation.

2. Dynamic Header/Footer Height Measurement

If your header or footer function returns variable-height content, the layout engine performs a preliminary measurement pass and adjusts pageMargins.top / pageMargins.bottom so body content starts after real header/footer height.

3. Vertical Alignment in Table Cells & Layers

Table cells and layered content can specify verticalAlign: 'top'|'middle'|'bottom' (same values as legacy implementation). Markers are inserted to compute and realign content after row height is known.

4. Layers

Any node can include layers: [ nodeA, nodeB, ... ]. Layers share the same starting Y position; the tallest layer determines consumed height. Useful for overlaying backgrounds/watermarks behind foreground text without manual positioning.

5. Remark Table Transformation

Legacy pattern: when docStructure[2][0] contains a remark table and is immediately followed by a detail node, these two nodes are transformed into added header rows inside the remark table for consistent page-break behavior.

6. footerBreak Logic

Nodes marked with footerBreak: true after the first such node are skipped (prevents duplicate footer sections when custom flows generate repeated fragments).

7. Async API Additions

printer.resolveRemoteImages(docDefinition, timeoutMs?) – fetch remote images and inline them.

printer.createPdfKitDocumentAsync(docDefinition, options) – async variant ensuring remote images (and any future async preprocessing) are complete before layout.

8. Development Helpers

Hot reload (playground) via npm run dev:play (nodemon + webpack watch) – see dev-playground/README.md.

9. Testing

Added unit tests covering remote image resolution and legacy layout customizations (tests/layoutBuilder_legacy_custom.spec.js).

10. Caveats

• Dynamic header/footer measurement is a heuristic single-pass; if header/footer height depends on total page count, final heights might differ slightly.
• Remote image fetching uses global fetch; ensure Node >= 18 or polyfill fetch in earlier runtimes.