pdfn

CLI for pdfn. Dev server with live preview and template scaffolding.

Installation

npm install -D pdfn

Commands

pdfn dev

Development server with live preview and hot reload.

npx pdfn dev           # Start on port 3456
npx pdfn dev --open    # Start and open browser

| Option | Default | Description | |--------|---------|-------------| | --port | 3456 | Server port | | --templates | ./pdfn-templates | Templates directory | | --open | false | Open browser on start | | --no-open | - | Don't open browser |

Server API:

POST /v1/generate   # HTML → PDF
GET  /health        # Health check

Use with generate() by setting PDFN_HOST:

PDFN_HOST=http://localhost:3456 node your-app.js

pdfn add

Add starter templates to your project.

npx pdfn add invoice            # Add invoice template
npx pdfn add invoice --tailwind # With Tailwind classes
npx pdfn add --list             # Show all templates

| Template | Description | |----------|-------------| | invoice | Professional invoice with itemized billing | | letter | US business correspondence | | contract | Legal service agreement | | ticket | Event admission ticket | | poster | Event poster (landscape) | | report | Sales report with charts (requires recharts) |

PDF Generation

For PDF generation, choose based on your infrastructure:

Option 1: Local dev server

Use pdfn dev for development with generate():

import { generate } from '@pdfn/react';

// Set PDFN_HOST=http://localhost:3456
const pdf = await generate(<Invoice />);

Option 2: Self-host with Puppeteer/Playwright

Use render() to get print-ready HTML, then convert with your own browser:

import { render } from '@pdfn/react';
import puppeteer from 'puppeteer';

const html = await render(<Invoice />);

const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.setContent(html, { waitUntil: 'networkidle0' });
await page.waitForFunction(() => window.PDFN?.ready === true);
const pdf = await page.pdf({ preferCSSPageSize: true, printBackground: true });
await browser.close();

Works with Puppeteer, Playwright, Browserless, @sparticuz/chromium, or any Chromium setup.

Option 3: pdfn Cloud

Let pdfn manage the browser infrastructure:

import { generate } from '@pdfn/react';

// Set PDFN_API_KEY=pdfn_live_...
const pdf = await generate(<Invoice />);

Get your API key at console.pdfn.dev.

All options produce identical PDFs — same templates, same output.

License

MIT