react-pdf
A React renderer that creates PDF files in the browser or on a server.
- Stars
- 16.8k
- Forks
- 1.3k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- TypeScript
- Last update
- 6 days ago
- Type
- Library
What it is
react-pdf (published as @react-pdf/renderer) lets developers describe a document with React components such as Document, Page, View and Text, then produces a PDF from it. It works in the browser, where a PDFViewer component can display the result, and in Node.js, where render can save the PDF to a file. It is useful when you want PDFs generated from the same component model as the rest of a React app.
- Render a multi-section A4 page with styled views and text
- Show a live PDF preview inside a web page with PDFViewer
- Save a generated document to a file on the server with ReactPDF.render
Great for
- React developers who need to generate PDF reports or invoices
- Teams that want PDF layouts written as reusable components
- Node.js projects that save generated PDFs to disk
- Browser apps that preview a PDF before download
Not ideal for
- People who only need to display an existing PDF, since the README points to a different project (wojtekmaj/react-pdf) for that
- Non-developers looking for a no-code PDF editor
- Projects not using React, since the library is a React renderer
How to get it
- 1
Install with a package manager
You'll need: Node.js · yarn or another npm-compatible package manager
Install the package
yarn add @react-pdf/renderer - 2
Run it
- Install the package with yarn add @react-pdf/renderer
- Define a document component using Document, Page, View and Text
- In the browser, wrap the document in PDFViewer to preview it
- In Node.js, call ReactPDF.render(<MyDocument />, path) to save a file
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Use StyleSheet.create to keep page and section styles in one place
- Use flexbox properties such as flexDirection and flexGrow for layout, as shown in the README example
- Use PDFViewer during development to check output before generating files
- Read the project homepage at react-pdf.org for the full API and guides
Downloads
Strengths
- Uses React components and StyleSheet, so familiar patterns carry over
- Supports both browser and Node.js rendering as described in the README
- Open source under the MIT license with a large community (about 16.8k stars)
Trade-offs
- The README is short and does not document every feature, so check the homepage for details
- The README's Node example uses an older ReactDOM.render API, so verify current usage against the docs
- Layout is driven by styles in the README example (flexbox-style), which may take time to learn for print layouts
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| react-pdf (this) | 16.8k | Library | intermediate | 6 days ago | React developers who need to generate PDF reports or invoices |
| jsPDF | 31.3k | Library | beginner | 5 days ago | Web developers who need to let users download a generated PDF from a page |
| pdfkit | 10.7k | Library | beginner | 4 days ago | Node.js developers who need to generate PDFs such as invoices or reports from application data |
| markitdown | 193k | Library | beginner | 9 days ago | Developers building LLM or text analysis pipelines that need document text |
| Semantic-UI | 51k | Library | beginner | 1.9 years ago | Front-end developers who want prebuilt UI components they can restyle with themes |
| bulma | 50k | Library | beginner | 2 months ago | Developers who want a quick, consistent styling baseline for a web page |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.