WhatsApp2PDF (Node.js)

Transform WhatsApp messages into beautiful, printable PDF documents (with TypeScript support).

Convert WhatsApp chat exports (Android & iOS) into professional PDF files with authentic WhatsApp styling, emoji support, themes, and media attachments. Perfect for preserving memories, creating archives, or sharing conversations.

🌟 Why WhatsApp2PDF?

• 📱 Universal Support - Works with both Android and iOS exports
• 🎨 Beautiful Themes - Light & Dark WhatsApp-authentic themes included
• 🔒 Privacy First - Optional privacy mode to hide sensitive information
• 🖼️ Media Included - Optionally embed images in your PDF
• 🌍 International - Full emoji and multi-language support (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
• ⚡ Lightning Fast - High-performance rendering for large chats
• 🛠️ Developer Friendly - CLI and programmatic API
• 📄 Professional Output - A4-sized PDFs ready to print or share

📦 Installation

Global (Recommended for CLI)

npm install -g whatsapp2pdf

Local (For Node.js projects)

npm install whatsapp2pdf

Requirements: Node.js 18.7 or higher

🚀 Quick Start

📋 CLI Usage

# Basic conversion
whatsapp2pdf chat.zip

# With options
whatsapp2pdf chat.zip -o my-chat.pdf --theme dark --images

# Full help
whatsapp2pdf --help

📋 CLI Options

| Option | Description | Default | |----------------------------|-------------------------|----------------| | --list-themes | Display built‑in themes | - | | -o, --output <file> | Output PDF path | Auto-generated | | -u, --main-user <name> | Set right‑side sender | First contact | | -p, --privacy | Hide contact names | true | | -i, --images | Include attachments | true | | -t, --theme <name> | Theme: light / dark | light | | --theme-path <json> | Load custom theme JSON | - | | -s, --start <YYYY-MM-DD> | Filter start date | - | | -e, --end <YYYY-MM-DD> | Filter end date | - | | -k, --keyword <word> | Keyword filter | - | | -v, --verbose | Debug info | - | | -h, --help | Show help | - | | -V, --version | Show version | - |

🛠️ Programmatic Usage

const WhatsApp2PDF = require("whatsapp2pdf");

// Simple conversion
await WhatsApp2PDF("./chat.zip")
    .output("chat.pdf")
    .convert();

// Advanced options
await WhatsApp2PDF("./chat.zip")
    .theme("dark")
    .mainUser("Your Name")
    .seal()              // Privacy mode
    .images()            // Include media
    .searchDate("2024-01-01", "2024-12-31")
    .output("chat.pdf")
    .convert();

🛠️ Methods

.output(path) - Set output PDF path
.theme(name|path|object) - Set theme
.mainUser(name) - Set right-side sender
.seal(enable) - Partially hide contact names
.images(enable) - Include media
.searchDate(start, end) - Filter by date
.searchKeyword(keyword) - Filter by keyword
.verbose(enable) - Enable debug logging
.parse() - Parse without generating PDF
.convert() - Generate PDF

🛠️ Static Methods

WhatsApp2PDF.listThemes() - Get available themes

🎨 Features

Multiple Themes

• ✅ Built-in Light & Dark themes
• ✅ Custom theme support (JSON)
• ✅ WhatsApp-authentic styling

Privacy Mode

• 🔒 Partially hide contact names (e.g., "Alice" → "Al***ce")
• 🔒 Chat messages remain visible
• 🔒 Perfect for demos and presentations

Search & Filter

• 🔍 Filter by date range
• 🔍 Search by keywords
• 🔍 Extract specific conversations

Media Support

• 🖼️ Images (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, HEIC, AVIF)

Multi-Language Support

• 🌍 Full emoji rendering
• 🇨🇳 Chinese (Simplified & Traditional)
• 🇯🇵 Japanese (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji)
• 🇰🇷 Korean (Hangul)

⚙ Architecture Diagram

[ CLI / API ]
      |
      v
+----------------+
|   Parser       |
|  chat.zip/txt  |
+----------------+
      |
      v
+----------------+
|  Renderer      |
| PDFKit + sharp |
+----------------+
      |
      v
   output.pdf

🎨 Themes

Built-in Themes

whatsapp2pdf --list-themes

Light Theme

{
  "background_color": "#EAE6DF",
  "background_image": "./light.png",
  "bubble": {
    "color": "#D9FDD3",
    "color_other": "#FFFFFF"
  },
  "fonts": {
    "color": "#111B21",
    "family": "Helvetica",
    "size": 14
  }
}

Dark Theme

{
  "background_color": "#0A1014",
  "background_image": "./dark.png",
  "bubble": {
    "color": "#144D37",
    "color_other": "#233138"
  },
  "fonts": {
    "color": "#F7F8FA",
    "family": "Helvetica",
    "size": 14
  }
}

Custom Themes

Theme JSON supports:

• background_color
• background_image (file / URL / base64)
• bubble styles
• fonts
• layout margins
• watermark

Use with:

whatsapp2pdf chat.zip --theme-path ./my-theme.json

🧪 Testing

npm test

🐛 Troubleshooting

Memory Issues (Large Chats)

node --max-old-space-size=4096 $(which whatsapp2pdf) chat.zip

Emoji Not Rendering

Install Noto Emoji font in assets/fonts/NotoEmoji.ttf

No Chat File Found

Ensure ZIP contains a file starting with "WhatsApp Chat" and ending with .txt

📊 Performance

• ⚡ Handles chats with 50K+ messages
• 🖼️ Processes hundreds of images
• 📦 Optimized memory usage
• 🚀 Fast multi-page rendering

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please see our GitHub repository.

📄 License

MIT © stlong5

⭐ Support This Project

If WhatsApp2PDF saves you time or helps preserve your memories:

• ⭐ Star on GitHub
• 🐛 Report Issues
• 💡 Request Features
• ☕ Sponsor

🔗 Links

• NPM Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/whatsapp2pdf
• GitHub: https://github.com/stlong5/whatsApp2pdf
• Documentation: View Full Docs

Made with ❤️ for preserving memories