pdf2thumbnail

Fast, flexible PDF thumbnail generation for Node.js. Convert PDF pages into images, merge them into a single strip, and optionally archive everything as a ZIP.

Requirements

ImageMagick CLI tools must be installed on your system.

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install imagemagick

Linux (apt):

sudo apt-get install imagemagick

Linux (yum):

sudo yum -y install ImageMagick

Supported Platforms

• Linux
• macOS

Installation

npm install pdf2thumbnail

Quick Start

import {writeThumbnails, getTotalNumberOfPages} from 'pdf2thumbnail';

// Generate thumbnails for all pages
const result = await writeThumbnails('report.pdf', './thumbnails');
console.log(result.thumbnailPaths); // ['./thumbnails/report_1.jpg', './thumbnails/report_2.jpg', ...]
console.log(result.mergedPath);     // './thumbnails/report.jpg'

// Get the total page count
const pages = await getTotalNumberOfPages('report.pdf');
console.log(pages); // 12

API

getTotalNumberOfPages(pdfPathOrDataUrl)

Returns the total number of pages in a PDF document.

Parameters

| Name | Type | Description | |------|------|-------------| | pdfPathOrDataUrl | string | Path to a PDF file, or a PDF encoded as a DataURL string. |

Returns Promise<number>

import {getTotalNumberOfPages} from 'pdf2thumbnail';

// From a file path
const totalFromFile = await getTotalNumberOfPages('/docs/report.pdf');

// From a DataURL
const totalFromDataUrl = await getTotalNumberOfPages('data:application/pdf;base64,...');

writeThumbnails(pdfPathOrDataUrl, outputDir, options?)

Generates thumbnail images for each page of a PDF document. Each page becomes an individual image. All thumbnails are also merged into a single vertically-stacked image. Optionally creates a ZIP archive.

Parameters

| Name | Type | Default | Description | |------|------|---------|-------------| | pdfPathOrDataUrl | string | | Path to a PDF file, or a DataURL string. | | outputDir | string | | Directory where thumbnails will be saved. Created automatically if it doesn't exist. | | options.width | number | 595 | Width of each thumbnail in pixels. Height is calculated automatically. | | options.quality | number | 100 | Image quality (1-100). | | options.format | string | 'jpg' | Output format (e.g. 'jpg', 'png'). | | options.xDensity | number | 288 | Horizontal resolution in DPI for PDF rasterization. | | options.yDensity | number | 288 | Vertical resolution in DPI for PDF rasterization. | | options.start | number | | Starting page number (1-based). | | options.end | number | | Ending page number (1-based). | | options.archive | boolean | false | Generate a ZIP archive of all thumbnails. | | options.background | string | '#fff' | Background color of the merged image. Accepts color names, hex, rgb(), etc. | | options.offset | number | 0 | Spacing in pixels between thumbnails in the merged image. |

Returns Promise<ThumbnailResult>

interface ThumbnailResult {
  thumbnailPaths: string[];  // Paths to individual page thumbnails
  mergedPath: string;        // Path to the merged image
  archivePath?: string;      // Path to the ZIP archive (when archive: true)
}

Examples

import {writeThumbnails} from 'pdf2thumbnail';

// All pages with default settings
const result = await writeThumbnails('presentation.pdf', './output');

// Custom quality and format
await writeThumbnails('presentation.pdf', './output', {
  width: 300,
  quality: 80,
  format: 'png',
});

// Specific page range (pages 2 through 5)
await writeThumbnails('presentation.pdf', './output', {
  start: 2,
  end: 5,
});

// With ZIP archive and custom merged image styling
const archived = await writeThumbnails('presentation.pdf', './output', {
  archive: true,
  background: '#f0f0f0',
  offset: 10,
});
console.log(archived.archivePath); // './output.zip'

Testing

npm test

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for release history.

Author

shumatsumonobu

• GitHub
• X

License

MIT