@pdfluent/node

Enterprise PDF SDK for Node.js, powered by a native Rust engine via napi-rs. Supports rendering, text extraction, forms, annotations, redaction, encryption, digital signatures, and PDF/A compliance validation.

Installation

npm install @pdfluent/node

Pre-built binaries are provided for:

| Platform | Architecture | |---|---| | macOS | x64, arm64 | | Linux (glibc) | x64, arm64 | | Linux (musl) | x64 | | Windows | x64 |

Quick start

const { PdfDocument } = require('@pdfluent/node');
const fs = require('fs');

const data = fs.readFileSync('document.pdf');
const doc = PdfDocument.open(data);

console.log(`Pages: ${doc.pageCount}`);
console.log(`Title: ${doc.info().title}`);

// Extract text from page 0
const text = doc.extractText(0);
console.log(text);

// Save after mutations
doc.save('output.pdf');

Async (recommended for servers)

const data = await fs.promises.readFile('document.pdf');
const doc = await PdfDocument.openAsync(data);

const text = await doc.extractTextAsync(0);
const render = await doc.renderPageAsync(0, { dpi: 150 });
// render.data — Buffer with RGBA pixels; render.width / render.height

Open from file path

const { openPdf } = require('@pdfluent/node');
const doc = openPdf('/path/to/document.pdf');

Features

• Rendering — rasterise pages to RGBA pixels at any DPI, generate thumbnails
• Text extraction — plain text per page or structured TextBlockInfo[] with coordinates
• Text search — returns page indices containing the query string
• Forms (AcroForm) — enumerate, read, and write field values
• Annotations — read existing annotations, add highlight / freetext
• Redaction — permanently remove text by search term
• Encryption — encrypt with AES-256, decrypt password-protected PDFs
• Digital signatures — validate existing signatures
• Bookmarks — read the document outline
• PDF/A compliance — validate against levels 1a/1b through 3a/3b/3u
• Async API — Promise-based worker-thread execution; no event-loop blocking
• TypeScript — full .d.ts declarations with JSDoc included

API reference

PdfDocument

Factory methods

| Method | Description | |---|---| | PdfDocument.open(data: Buffer) | Open synchronously from a Buffer | | PdfDocument.openAsync(data: Buffer) | Open on a worker thread | | PdfDocument.openWithPassword(data, password) | Open a password-protected PDF | | openPdf(path: string) | Convenience wrapper — open from file path |

Metadata & structure

const info = doc.info(); // { title, author, subject, keywords, creator, producer }
const outline = doc.bookmarks(); // BookmarkItem[]
const geo = doc.pageGeometry(0); // { width, height, rotation }

Rendering

// Synchronous
const result = doc.renderPage(0, { dpi: 150 });
// result.data — Buffer (RGBA), result.width, result.height

// Async (worker thread)
const result = await doc.renderPageAsync(0, { dpi: 300 });

// All pages in parallel
const pages = await doc.renderAll({ dpi: 72 });

// Thumbnail
const thumb = await doc.thumbnail(0, 256); // max 256 px on longest side

RenderOpts: { dpi?, background?, width?, height? }

Text extraction

const text = doc.extractText(0); // plain string
const blocks = doc.extractTextBlocks(0); // TextBlockInfo[] with x/y/fontSize
const hits = doc.searchText('invoice'); // number[] of page indices

Forms (AcroForm)

const fields = doc.formFields(); // FormFieldInfo[]
// fields[0] → { name, fieldType, value, readOnly }

const value = doc.getFieldValue('Address.Street');
doc.setFieldValue('Address.Street', '123 Main St');
doc.save('filled.pdf');

Annotations

const annots = doc.annotations(0); // AnnotationInfo[]

doc.addAnnotation(
  0,           // page index
  'highlight', // type: highlight | freetext | note | underline | strikeout | squiggly
  [100, 200, 300, 220], // rect [x0, y0, x1, y1] in PDF user-space points
  'Important'  // optional content
);
doc.save('annotated.pdf');

Redaction

const report = doc.redactText('John Doe'); // all pages
// report → { matchesFound, areasRedacted, pagesAffected }
doc.save('redacted.pdf');

Encryption

// Encrypt — saved copy is AES-256 protected; in-memory doc is unchanged
doc.encrypt('protected.pdf', 'secret');

// Decrypt — works on a doc opened with openWithPassword
doc.decrypt('plain.pdf');

Digital signatures

const sigs = doc.validateSignatures();
// sigs[0] → { status, fieldName, signer, timestamp, reason }

PDF/A compliance

// Per-document
const report = doc.validatePdfa('2b');
// report → { compliant, errorCount, warningCount, issues[] }

// Or as a module-level function (opens the file internally)
const { validatePdfa } = require('@pdfluent/node');
const report = validatePdfa('document.pdf', '2b');

Valid levels: "1a", "1b", "2a", "2b", "2u", "3a", "3b", "3u".

PdfPage

Obtain a page handle with doc.page(index). Provides the same render/text methods scoped to a single page.

const page = doc.page(0);
console.log(`${page.width} x ${page.height} pts`);

const pixels = await page.renderAsync({ dpi: 150 });
const text = page.text();
const blocks = page.textBlocks();
const annots = page.annotations();

Module-level functions

const { openPdf, mergePdfs, validatePdfa } = require('@pdfluent/node');

// Open from path
const doc = openPdf('/path/to/file.pdf');

// Merge multiple PDFs
mergePdfs(['a.pdf', 'b.pdf', 'c.pdf'], 'merged.pdf');

// Validate compliance
const report = validatePdfa('document.pdf', '2b');
console.log(report.compliant, report.errorCount);

Integration with Sharp

const sharp = require('sharp');
const result = doc.renderPage(0, { dpi: 150 });
await sharp(result.data, {
  raw: { width: result.width, height: result.height, channels: 4 }
}).png().toFile('page.png');

License

PDFluent Commercial License — free for evaluation; a valid license is required for production use.

• 30-day trial: https://pdfluent.com/trial
• Pricing: https://pdfluent.com/pricing
• Commercial terms: https://pdfluent.com/terms

Without a license key the SDK is fully functional; output PDFs carry an evaluation marker in /Producer metadata.

Links

• Documentation: https://pdfluent.com/docs
• Issues: https://pdfluent.com/support
• Built by Innovation Trigger BV