pdf-to-image-generator

Performant and lightweight Node.js library to convert PDF file to images. Designed with high focus on performance and developer experience.

Test/Feature	pdf-to-image-generator	pdf-to-png-converter	pdf-to-img
2-pages-pdf-with-forms	381ms	91% slower	115% slower
large-pdf-with-old-characters	13629ms	7% slower	31% slower
rich-pdf-with-images-form-text	14658ms	3% slower	22% slower
jpeg support	✔️	❌	❌
webp support	✔️	❌	❌
pausing flow	✔️	❌	❌
resume flow	✔️	❌	❌
stop flow	✔️	❌	❌
get number pages	✔️	❌	❌
get text content	✔️	❌	❌
progression event	✔️	❌	❌
class based API*	✔️	❌	❌

*A class-based API offers more flexibility, allowing for reusable instances and caching, which improves efficiency across multiple conversion processes.

Getting started

Package installation

Installation:

npm install pdf-to-image-generator

Documentation

Find the complete documentation here.

Example

// The path of your local PDF
const filePath = path.join(__dirname, '../my_document.pdf');
// Conversion options
const options: PDFToIMGOptions = {
  // the name of the folder where files will be rendered
  outputFolderName: 'upload',
  // controls scaling
  viewportScale: 2,
};

// Load the pdf file
const pdf = await new PDFToImage().load(filePath);

// Get the number of pages of the document
const numPages = pdf.document.numPages;

// Get the text content of the document
const textContent = await pdf.getTextContent();

setTimeout(() => {
  // Simulating a user pausing the conversion flows
  pdf.pause();

  setTimeout(async () => {
    // Resume conversion flows
    await pdf.resume();
  }, 500);
}, 500);

// Listen to a progression event
pdf.on('progress', (data) => {
  console.log(
    `Page: ${data.currentPage}. Total: ${data.totalPages}. Progression: ${data.progress}%`
  );
});

// Notification of end of conversion
pdf.on('end', (data) => {
  console.log('End of conversion.', data);
});

// Convert your PDF to image
const pdfConversion = await pdf.convert(options);
// Other conversion flows with the same pdf but different options...

// Remove generated images on disk
await pdf.removeGeneratedImagesOnDisk();

Developer experience

Focus on developer experience. Properties and methods are exhaustively documented and typed. Use your IDE's autocompletion or hover on properties and methods for help.

Next.js users

If you use my library in a Next.js project, please add the following code in your project:

import { GlobalWorkerOptions } from 'pdfjs-dist';
import pdfjsWorker from 'pdfjs-dist/build/pdf.worker.min.mjs';
GlobalWorkerOptions.workerSrc = new URL(pdfjsWorker, import.meta.url).toString();

// OR
const nextConfig = {
  experimental: {
    serverComponentsExternalPackages: ['pdf-to-image-generator'],
  },
  ...
}

Next.js optimizes dependencies by importing only the strictly necessary elements (aggressive tree shaking), which results in the removal of the worker from pdfjs-dist, a dependency used in my library. The second lines raises a Typescript error, which you can ignore. I'm not personnaly using Next.js, so if you find a better solution, please share it in the Discussion on Github.

File a bug, got a new idea, or want to contribute?

Feel free! Open a ticket.

Changelog

V0.0.3: API changes. Exposing the text content in a separate method. Width and height have been removed from the returned object of conversion.

V0.0.5: Exposing the name of the file in the getTextContent method.

V0.0.6: API changes, giving more flexibility and offering a cleaner way of options initialisation. Adding pausing, resume and stop methods to give more control over the conversion flow. Adding progression and end events.

V0.0.7: Removal of possible duplicate page index in the option provided by the user and adding verification.

V0.0.8: Addition of a method to remove generated images on disk. Addition of a getter for accessing the loaded pdf document and all its methods. Minor changes to the returned object of conversion.

V0.0.9: Bug path correction.

V1.0.0: Performance improvement and adding child process documentation.

V1.0.1: Bug correction, setting jpeg as default type, changing behavior if empty array of pages is passed (no action is taken) and adding tests.

V1.0.2: Removing node canvas dependency, adapting options.

V1.0.4: Improving DX for multiple conversions with option includeBufferContent.

V1.0.4: Removing unnecessary images writing, changing buffer content to asynchronous behaviour.

Discover others libraries

All libraries are permanently supported. Discover them here.