littlepdf

Minimal PDF creation library. <400 LOC, zero dependencies, makes real PDFs.

npm install littlepdf

Why littlepdf?

Ultra-lightweight. We removed TTF fonts, PNG/SVG, HTML-to-PDF, forms, encryption, and compression. What's left is the 95% use case: put text and images on a page.

Build with it

Invoices, receipts, reports, shipping labels, tickets, certificates, contracts, data exports

Features

| Feature | Description | |---------|-------------| | Text | Helvetica, any size, hex colors, align left/center/right | | Shapes | Rectangles and lines | | Images | JPEG (photos, logos, signatures) | | Pages | Multiple pages, custom sizes | | Markdown | Convert markdown to PDF with headers, lists, rules |

Not included

Custom fonts, PNG/GIF/SVG, vector graphics, forms, encryption, compression, HTML-to-PDF

Need those? Use jsPDF or pdf-lib.

Quick start

import { pdf } from 'littlepdf'
import { writeFileSync } from 'fs'

const doc = pdf()

doc.page((ctx) => {
  ctx.rect(50, 700, 200, 40, '#2563eb')           // blue rectangle
  ctx.text('Hello PDF!', 60, 712, 24, { color: '#ffffff' })
  ctx.line(50, 680, 250, 680, '#000000', 1)       // black line
})

writeFileSync('output.pdf', doc.build())

Add images

import { readFileSync } from 'fs'

doc.page((ctx) => {
  const logo = new Uint8Array(readFileSync('logo.jpg'))
  ctx.image(logo, 50, 700, 100, 50)
})

Measure text width

import { measureText } from 'littlepdf'

measureText('Hello', 12) // => 27.34 (points)

Markdown to PDF

import { markdown } from 'littlepdf'
import { writeFileSync } from 'fs'

const pdf = markdown(`
# Hello World

A minimal PDF from markdown.

## Features
- Headers (h1, h2, h3)
- Bullet lists
- Numbered lists
- Horizontal rules

---

Automatic word wrapping and pagination included.
`)

writeFileSync('output.pdf', pdf)

API

pdf()                                      // create document
doc.page(callback)                         // add page (612×792 default)
doc.page(width, height, callback)          // add page with custom size
doc.build()                                // returns Uint8Array

ctx.text(str, x, y, size, options?)        // options: { color, align, width }
ctx.rect(x, y, w, h, fill)                 // filled rectangle
ctx.line(x1, y1, x2, y2, stroke, width?)   // line
ctx.image(jpegBytes, x, y, w, h)           // JPEG image

measureText(str, size)                     // text width in points
markdown(str, options?)                    // options: { width, height, margin }

Development

Setup

npm install

Build

npm run build

Run Example

npm run dev

Or directly with tsx:

npx tsx examples/example.ts

This will generate examples/example.pdf.

Publishing

To publish this package to npm:

1. Update package.json with your author info and repository URL
2. Build: npm run build
3. Publish: npm publish --access public

See PUBLISHING.md for detailed instructions.

License

MIT

littlepdf