API Reference

@scaryterry/pdfium

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@scaryterry/pdfium

@scaryterry/pdfium is a TypeScript PDF platform built on Google PDFium.

It has two public surfaces:

1. Core API (@scaryterry/pdfium) for PDF read/write/render workflows in Node.js and browsers.
2. React viewer toolkit (@scaryterry/pdfium/react) for production viewer UIs (provider, viewer, toolbar, hooks, panels).

Who This Is For

• Teams building backend or frontend PDF workflows with one API.
• Teams that need a ready viewer, but still want low-level control when needed.
• Teams that want Node.js and browser support without switching libraries.

This project is not only a raw WASM wrapper and not only a viewer. It is both.

Install

pnpm add @scaryterry/pdfium

If you use React components, also install peer dependencies:

pnpm add react react-dom lucide-react

Choose Your Entry Point

• import { PDFium } from '@scaryterry/pdfium' for core document/page APIs.
• import { PDFiumProvider, PDFViewer } from '@scaryterry/pdfium/react' for React UI.
• import '@scaryterry/pdfium/worker' for worker entry modules.
• import wasmUrl from '@scaryterry/pdfium/pdfium.wasm?url' (bundlers that support asset URLs).

If you only need programmatic PDF processing, start with the core API. If you need a viewer UI quickly, start with the React toolkit.

Quick Start (Core API)

import { PDFium } from '@scaryterry/pdfium';
import { readFile } from 'node:fs/promises';

const pdfBytes = await readFile('document.pdf');

using pdfium = await PDFium.init();
using doc = await pdfium.openDocument(pdfBytes);
using page = doc.getPage(0);

console.log('pages:', doc.pageCount);
console.log('first page text length:', page.getText().length);

const rendered = page.render({ scale: 2 });
console.log('rgba bytes:', rendered.data.length, 'size:', rendered.width, 'x', rendered.height);

Quick Start (React Viewer)

Create an app worker entry:

src/pdfium.worker.ts

import '@scaryterry/pdfium/worker';

Then wire provider + viewer:

import wasmUrl from '@scaryterry/pdfium/pdfium.wasm?url';
import { PDFiumProvider, PDFViewer } from '@scaryterry/pdfium/react';

const workerUrl = new URL('./pdfium.worker.ts', import.meta.url).toString();

export function App({ pdfBytes }: { pdfBytes: ArrayBuffer }) {
  return (
    <PDFiumProvider
      wasmUrl={wasmUrl}
      workerUrl={workerUrl}
      initialDocument={{ data: pdfBytes, name: 'document.pdf' }}
    >
      <div style={{ height: '100vh' }}>
        <PDFViewer />
      </div>
    </PDFiumProvider>
  );
}

Verify in 60 Seconds

• Core path: PDFium.init() succeeds and you can open a document.
• React path: PDFiumProvider mounts with valid workerUrl and wasmUrl/wasmBinary.
• Rendering path: first page renders to RGBA or the viewer shows page 1.

Runtime Requirements

• Node.js: >=22
• Browsers: modern browsers with WebAssembly, Worker, and ArrayBuffer
• Module format: ESM

WASM/Worker Rules

• Node core API: PDFium.init() works directly (WASM auto-load).
• Browser core API: provide wasmUrl or wasmBinary.
• React provider: provide workerUrl and (wasmUrl or wasmBinary).

Optional Native Backend (Node.js)

For faster Node workloads, install a platform package and request native mode:

import { PDFium } from '@scaryterry/pdfium';

const pdfium = await PDFium.init({ useNative: true });

Platform packages:

pnpm add @scaryterry/pdfium-darwin-arm64
pnpm add @scaryterry/pdfium-darwin-x64
pnpm add @scaryterry/pdfium-linux-x64-gnu
pnpm add @scaryterry/pdfium-linux-arm64-gnu
pnpm add @scaryterry/pdfium-win32-x64-msvc

Documentation

• Docs site: https://jacquesg.github.io/pdfium/
• Introduction: https://jacquesg.github.io/pdfium/
• Installation: https://jacquesg.github.io/pdfium/installation/
• React docs: https://jacquesg.github.io/pdfium/react/
• API reference: https://jacquesg.github.io/pdfium/api/
• Docs voice guide: docs/DOCS_VOICE_GUIDE.md

License

MIT