Add Pages

This guide covers adding and managing pages when creating PDF documents from scratch using PDFiumDocumentBuilder.

Prerequisites

Familiarity with Create Document guide

Creating Pages

Use addPage() on PDFiumDocumentBuilder to create new pages:

using pdfium = await PDFium.init();
using builder = pdfium.createDocument();

// Add a page with default dimensions (US Letter)
const page = builder.addPage();

Page Dimensions

By default, pages are created with US Letter dimensions (612 × 792 points = 8.5 × 11 inches).

// Custom dimensions
const page = builder.addPage({
  width: 595,   // A4 width in points
  height: 842,  // A4 height in points
});

Common Page Sizes

Size	Width (points)	Height (points)	Inches
US Letter	612	792	8.5 × 11
US Legal	612	1008	8.5 × 14
A4	595	842	8.27 × 11.69
A5	420	595	5.83 × 8.27
A3	842	1191	11.69 × 16.54

Landscape Orientation

Swap width and height for landscape:

// Landscape US Letter
const page = builder.addPage({
  width: 792,
  height: 612,
});

Adding Multiple Pages

Sequential Page Creation

using pdfium = await PDFium.init();
using builder = pdfium.createDocument();

const font = builder.loadStandardFont('Helvetica');

// Create 5 pages
for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
  const page = builder.addPage();
  page.addText(`Page ${i + 1}`, 72, 720, font, 24);
}

const pdfBytes = builder.save();

Pages with Different Sizes

using builder = pdfium.createDocument();

// Cover page (US Letter)
const cover = builder.addPage({ width: 612, height: 792 });
cover.addText('Cover Page', 200, 400, font, 36);

// Content pages (A4)
for (let i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
  const page = builder.addPage({ width: 595, height: 842 });
  page.addText(`Chapter ${i + 1}`, 72, 780, font, 18);
}

// Appendix (US Legal)
const appendix = builder.addPage({ width: 612, height: 1008 });
appendix.addText('Appendix', 72, 950, font, 18);

Page Count

Access the current page count:

console.log(`Document has ${builder.pageCount} pages`);

Deleting Pages

Remove pages by index using deletePage():

// Delete the second page (index 1)
builder.deletePage(1);

Deleting Multiple Pages

// Delete pages 3, 5, and 7 (indices 2, 4, 6)
// Delete in reverse order to maintain correct indices
const indicesToDelete = [6, 4, 2];
for (const index of indicesToDelete) {
  builder.deletePage(index);
}

Common Patterns

Document with Cover and Content

async function createDocumentWithCover(
  title: string,
  chapters: string[],
) {
  using pdfium = await PDFium.init();
  using builder = pdfium.createDocument();

  const font = builder.loadStandardFont('Helvetica');
  const boldFont = builder.loadStandardFont('Helvetica-Bold');

  // Cover page
  const cover = builder.addPage();
  cover.addText(title, 150, 450, boldFont, 36);
  cover.addText('Generated Document', 200, 400, font, 14);

  // Table of contents
  const toc = builder.addPage();
  toc.addText('Table of Contents', 72, 720, boldFont, 18);

  let tocY = 680;
  chapters.forEach((chapter, i) => {
    toc.addText(`${i + 1}. ${chapter}`, 90, tocY, font, 12);
    tocY -= 20;
  });

  // Chapter pages
  for (const chapter of chapters) {
    const page = builder.addPage();
    page.addText(chapter, 72, 720, boldFont, 18);
    page.addText('Chapter content goes here...', 72, 680, font, 12);
  }

  return builder.save();
}

Multi-page Report

async function createReport(data: ReportData[]) {
  using pdfium = await PDFium.init();
  using builder = pdfium.createDocument();

  const font = builder.loadStandardFont('Helvetica');
  const boldFont = builder.loadStandardFont('Helvetica-Bold');

  const itemsPerPage = 20;
  const totalPages = Math.ceil(data.length / itemsPerPage);

  for (let pageNum = 0; pageNum < totalPages; pageNum++) {
    const page = builder.addPage();

    // Header
    page.addText('Monthly Report', 72, 750, boldFont, 18);
    page.addText(`Page ${pageNum + 1} of ${totalPages}`, 480, 750, font, 10);

    // Content
    const startIndex = pageNum * itemsPerPage;
    const pageData = data.slice(startIndex, startIndex + itemsPerPage);

    let y = 700;
    for (const item of pageData) {
      page.addText(`${item.name}: ${item.value}`, 72, y, font, 11);
      y -= 16;
    }

    // Footer
    page.addText(`Generated: ${new Date().toLocaleDateString()}`, 72, 36, font, 8);
  }

  return builder.save();
}

Business Card (Small Page)

async function createBusinessCard() {
  using pdfium = await PDFium.init();
  using builder = pdfium.createDocument();

  const font = builder.loadStandardFont('Helvetica');
  const boldFont = builder.loadStandardFont('Helvetica-Bold');

  // Business card: 3.5" × 2"
  const page = builder.addPage({
    width: 252,   // 3.5 * 72
    height: 144,  // 2 * 72
  });

  page.addText('Jane Smith', 18, 100, boldFont, 14);
  page.addText('Software Engineer', 18, 82, font, 10);
  page.addText('jane@example.com', 18, 50, font, 8);
  page.addText('+44 20 1234 5678', 18, 38, font, 8);

  return builder.save();
}

Complete Example

import { PDFium } from '@scaryterry/pdfium';
import { promises as fs } from 'fs';

async function createMultiPageDocument() {
  using pdfium = await PDFium.init();
  using builder = pdfium.createDocument();

  const font = builder.loadStandardFont('Helvetica');
  const boldFont = builder.loadStandardFont('Helvetica-Bold');

  // Page 1: Title page (US Letter)
  const titlePage = builder.addPage();
  titlePage.addRectangle(0, 0, 612, 792, {
    fill: { r: 30, g: 60, b: 90, a: 255 },
  });
  titlePage.addText('Annual Report 2024', 150, 450, boldFont, 32);

  // Page 2: Executive Summary (US Letter)
  const summaryPage = builder.addPage();
  summaryPage.addText('Executive Summary', 72, 720, boldFont, 18);
  summaryPage.addText('Key highlights from the year...', 72, 680, font, 12);

  // Pages 3-5: Content pages (A4 for international readers)
  for (let i = 1; i <= 3; i++) {
    const contentPage = builder.addPage({ width: 595, height: 842 });
    contentPage.addText(`Section ${i}`, 72, 780, boldFont, 16);
    contentPage.addText(`Content for section ${i}...`, 72, 750, font, 11);
  }

  // Page 6: Appendix (US Legal for detailed tables)
  const appendixPage = builder.addPage({ width: 612, height: 1008 });
  appendixPage.addText('Appendix: Detailed Data', 72, 950, boldFont, 18);

  console.log(`Created document with ${builder.pageCount} pages`);

  const pdfBytes = builder.save();
  await fs.writeFile('multi-page-report.pdf', pdfBytes);
}

createMultiPageDocument();