LibPDF.js: The Complete TypeScript PDF Solution

If you’ve ever needed to read, edit, or generate PDFs in a JavaScript environment, you’ve probably chased your tail through a maze of libraries: - PDF.js is excellent for rendering but forces you to the browser. - pdf‑lib has a slick API but struggles with the quirks of real‑world PDFs. - pdfkit will generate PDFs but won’t read them.

Enter LibPDF.js – a modern, browser‑and‑server‑ready PDF engine written entirely in TypeScript. Designed by Documenso, an open‑source DocuSign alternative, it fills the gaps left by the other libraries: it opens every PDF the web can throw at it, offers a clean API, and supports the full PDF feature set you’ll need for production.

What Can LibPDF.js Do?

Why this matters – The combination of leniency, a clean API, and a full feature set means you can build enterprise‑grade e‑signature or document‑generation workflows without reinventing the wheel.

Installation & Quick Start

# npm
npm install @libpdf/core

# bun
bun add @libpdf/core

import { PDF } from "@libpdf/core";

// Load a PDF from a buffer
const pdf = await PDF.load(fileBytes);

// Simple read
const pages = pdf.getPages();
console.log(`Document has ${pages.length} pages.`);

// Create a brand‑new PDF
const newPdf = PDF.create();
const page = newPdf.addPage({ size: "letter" });
page.drawText("Hello, World!", { x: 50, y: 700, fontSize: 24 });

// Signing example
import { P12Signer } from "@libpdf/core";
const signer = await P12Signer.create(certificateBytes, "certPassword");
const signed = await pdf.sign({ signer, reason: "I approve this doc" });

API Highlights

High‑Level API

• PDF – Load, merge, create, and write documents.
• PDFPage – Manipulate individual pages (draw text, images, annotations).
• PDFForm – Read, populate, or flatten form fields.

Low‑Level API

• PdfDict, PdfArray, PdfStream – Full control if you need to touch the raw PDF structure.

Why LibPDF.js Over Others?

If you need a library that just works with real‑world PDFs while offering a smooth developer experience, LibPDF.js wins.

Community & Contribution

The repository is actively maintained on GitHub with 717 stars, 19 forks, and a growing contributor base. Documentation lives at https://libpdf.dev, and the core library is published to npm as @libpdf/core.

• Contributing guide – See CONTRIBUTING.md in the repo. Bug fixes, feature requests, and documentation improvements are always welcome.
• Roadmap – Upcoming work includes signature verification, support for TrueType Collections, and rendering support in browsers.

Practical Use Cases

1. E‑signature platforms – Quickly add PAdES support and incremental signing.
2. Document generation – Generate PDFs from templates, populate forms, embed fonts and images.
3. PDF analytics – Extract text with layout information for search or indexing.
4. Compliance workflows – Merge documents, apply encryption, and flatten forms.

Final Thoughts

LibPDF.js brings the power of PDF manipulation to modern JavaScript developers with a TypeScript‑first experience. Whether you’re building a legal‑tech stack, a custom billing system, or a simple PDF viewer, it provides the tools you need without the friction of other libraries.

Try it today – npm install the package, run the quick‑start snippets, and see how fast you can get started with robust PDF handling.