3 posts tagged with "server-side"

If your Node.js app needs to generate or modify PDFs, pdf-lib is worth a look. It is one of several Node.js PDF libraries, each with different trade-offs. PDF‑lib is a pure JavaScript library for creating and modifying PDF documents. Unlike many alternatives, PDF-lib doesn't rely on native dependencies, making it lightweight and easy to integrate into any Node.js project. This guide covers PDF generation with PDF-lib in Node.js – from basic documents to invoices and forms.

PDFKit is a JavaScript library that generates PDF documents programmatically in Node.js. It works without converting HTML – you build documents from scratch using a canvas-like API for vector graphics, text, images, and tables. This guide covers PDFKit setup, text styling, custom fonts, colors, images, tables, invoice generation, Express.js integration, and document security.

Many server-side applications need to generate PDFs – invoices, reports, statements, certificates. PDFMake is one of the most popular Node.js PDF generation libraries: it works without native dependencies, uses a declarative JSON syntax for document definitions, and runs in both browser and server environments.

This guide covers PDFMake setup in Node.js, document structure, tables, images, watermarks, Express.js integration, and a full invoice example.