Quick Start

Use this page when you want a first successful run before diving into the full guides.

What You Will Build

A Node.js script that opens a PDF and renders page 1.
A clear understanding of what changes in browser and React environments.

1. Install

pnpm add @scaryterry/pdfium

If you are building a React viewer, also install React peers:

pnpm add react react-dom lucide-react

2. Run a Core API Script (Node.js)

Create quick-start.ts:

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

async function main() {
  const pdfBytes = await readFile('document.pdf');

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

  console.log('Page count:', document.pageCount);
  console.log('First page text length:', page.getText().length);

  const { width, height, data } = page.render({ scale: 2 });
  console.log('Rendered image:', width, 'x', height, 'RGBA bytes:', data.length);
}

main().catch((error) => {
  console.error(error);
  process.exit(1);
});

Run it:

npx tsx quick-start.ts

3. Understand the Runtime Differences

Node core API: no extra WASM path setup needed.
Browser core API: pass wasmUrl or wasmBinary into PDFium.init(...).
React viewer: pass workerUrl and (wasmUrl or wasmBinary) into PDFiumProvider.

4. Browser Core API Example

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

const wasmBinary = await fetch('/pdfium.wasm').then((r) => r.arrayBuffer());
using pdfium = await PDFium.init({ wasmBinary });
using doc = await pdfium.openDocument(pdfArrayBuffer);
console.log(doc.pageCount);

5. React Viewer Next

React setup always requires worker + WASM wiring. Start with:

React overview
Installation for exact worker/asset wiring

Verify

Your quick start is healthy if:

Page count: prints a number.
Rendered image: prints width/height and RGBA byte length.
No INIT_WASM_* or worker timeout errors appear.

Resource Management Reminder

Most objects implement Symbol.dispose. Prefer using:

using page = document.getPage(0);

If you do not use using, call dispose() manually.