Introduction

VuePDF is a client-side component for Vue 3 that allows you to flexibly render PDF pages within your project. This library wraps pdf.js library so all main features of pdf.js are supported by VuePDF as well.

Installation

npm i @tato30/vue-pdf
yarn add @tato30/vue-pdf

Basic Usage

The most basic usage is as simple as import the VuePDF and usePDF and use them on your project :)

<script setup>
import { VuePDF, usePDF } from '@tato30/vue-pdf'

const { pdf } = usePDF('sample.pdf')
</script>

<template>
  <VuePDF :pdf="pdf" />
</template>

Minimal Build

If you want to trim the bundle size and handle the PDF worker configuration on your own, you can use the minimal entry point. This version leaves the worker setup entirely in your hands, which is useful when the worker file must be hosted somewhere else or bundled separately.

import { GlobalWorkerOptions } from 'pdfjs-dist'
import { VuePDF, usePDF } from '@tato30/vue-pdf/minimal'

GlobalWorkerOptions.workerSrc = 'https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/build/pdf.worker.min.mjs'

const { pdf } = usePDF('sample.pdf')

Be sure to set GlobalWorkerOptions.workerSrc before calling usePDF, otherwise the worker will fail to load.

[!IMPORTANT] Version of worker script must match with pdfjs-dist version.

Working With Layers

Text and Annotations

This component supports text selection and annotation interaction by enabling them with text-layer and annotation-layer props respectively, but for this layers renders correctly is necessary set some css styles, it can be done by importing default styles from @tato30/vue-pdf/style.css.

<script setup>
import { VuePDF, usePDF } from '@tato30/vue-pdf'
import '@tato30/vue-pdf/style.css'

const { pdf } = usePDF('sample.pdf')
</script>

<template>
  <VuePDF :pdf="pdf" text-layer annotation-layer />
</template>

XFA Forms

XFA forms also can be supported by enabling them from usePDF.

<script setup>
import { VuePDF, usePDF } from '@tato30/vue-pdf'
import '@tato30/vue-pdf/style.css'

const { pdf } = usePDF({
  url: '/xfa.pdf',
  enableXfa: true,
})
</script>

<template>
  <VuePDF :pdf="pdf" />
</template>

Annotation Editor Layer

VuePDF also exposes the pdf.js annotation editor layer, letting users create and edit FreeText, Highlight, Ink, Stamp, and other annotations directly in the viewer. To enable it, set the editor-layer prop, select an editor-type, and mount the corresponding editor parameters component inside the editors slot.

<script setup>
import { ref } from 'vue'
import { VuePDF, usePDF, PDFFreeTextAnnotation } from '@tato30/vue-pdf'
import '@tato30/vue-pdf/style.css'

const { pdf } = usePDF('sample.pdf')
const editorType = ref(3)
</script>

<template>
  <VuePDF :pdf="pdf" text-layer annotation-layer editor-layer :editor-type="editorType">
    <template #editors>
      <PDFFreeTextAnnotation color="#2196F3" :fontSize="20" />
    </template>
  </VuePDF>
</template>

Server-Side Rendering

VuePDF is a client-side library, so if you are working with a SSR framework like nuxt, surely it will throw an error during the building stage, if that is the case, you could wrap VuePDF in some sort of "client only" directive or component, also usePDF should be wrapped.

Supporting Non-Latin characters

If you are looking for display non-latin text or you are getting a warning like:

Warning: Error during font loading: CMapReaderFactory not initialized, see the useWorkerFetch parameter

you will probably need to copy the cmaps directory from node_modules/pdfjs-dist to your project's public directory, don't worry about no having pdfjs-dist it's installed alongside vue-pdf package.

.
├─ node_modules
│  ├─ pdfjs-dist
│  │  └─ cmaps    <--- Copy this directory
├─ src
├─ public         
|  ├─ *cmaps*     <--- Paste it here!
├─ package.json
|  ...

With that made the cmaps will be available on relative path /cmaps/, now you need the tell usePDF uses that cmaps url:

const { pdf } = usePDF({
  url: pdfsource,
  cMapUrl: '/cmaps/',
})

Supporting legacy browsers

If you need to support legacy browsers you could use any polyfill to patch modern functions, but this workaround only works on the main thread, the worker that runs in other thread will not get reached by any polyfills you apply.

This package embed and configure the pdf.js worker for you but in case you need to support legacy environments you will need to configure the legacy worker by adding this code:

<script setup lang="ts">
+ import * as PDFJS from 'pdfjs-dist'; 
+ import LegacyWorker from 'pdfjs-dist/legacy/build/pdf.worker.min?url'; 
import { VuePDF, usePDF } from '@tato30/vue-pdf';

+ PDFJS.GlobalWorkerOptions.workerSrc = LegacyWorker 

const { pdf } = usePDF(/** */)
</script>

Just be aware to set the legacy worker before use usePDF.

Common issues

Promise.withResolvers

Promise.withResolvers is not a function

That throws because Promise.withResolvers is a relative "new feature" of JavaScript's Promises, even if almost all browsers support it, in NodeJS this feature was fully included on version v22 as a base feature. To solve this issue consider updating node version if you are currently using a lower one.

Top-level await is not available in the configured target environment

[!ERROR] Top-level await is not available in the configured target environment ("chrome87", "edge88", "es2020", "firefox78", "safari14" + 2 overrides)

This error is more related to ESBuild settings instead of compatibility matters, Top-level await is (as usually) a "new feature" of the JavaScript definition, practically all browsers support it and was included on NodeJS since v14.

To solve this issue you will need to add this settings on vite.config:

optimizeDeps: {
  esbuildOptions: {
    supported: {
      'top-level-await': true,
    },
  },
},
esbuild: {
  supported: {
    'top-level-await': true,
  },
}

Scanned JPEG PDFs render blank pages or missing wasm url

If you load a PDF that only contains scanned images (often generated by office scanners) and see warnings such as JpxImage#instantiateWasm: UnknownErrorException: Ensure that the wasmUrl API parameter is provided or Unable to decode image "img_p0_1", then the OpenJPEG WebAssembly bundle is missing. Provide the wasmUrl option so pdf.js can fetch the required decoder assets:

const { pdf } = usePDF({
  url: '/documents/sample.pdf',
  wasmUrl: 'https://unpkg.com/[email protected]/wasm/',
})

If your application runs offline, copy node_modules/pdfjs-dist/wasm into public/wasm (or any static folder) and point wasmUrl to that relative path, for example /wasm/.

[!IMPORTANT] Version of wasm script must match with pdfjs-dist version.

Contributing

Any idea, suggestion or contribution to the code or documentation are very welcome.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/TaTo30/vue-pdf.git
# Change to code folder
cd vue-pdf
# Install node_modules
npm install
# Run code with hot reload
npm run dev
# Run docs
npm run dev:docs