# printpdf
[](https://github.com/fschutt/printpdf/actions/workflows/ci.yaml)
[](https://deps.rs/repo/github/fschutt/printpdf)
`printpdf` is a Rust library for creating PDF documents.
> [!IMPORTANT]
> HTML-to-PDF rendering is still experimental and WIP.
> In doubt, position PDF elements manually instead.
## Features
Currently, printpdf can only write documents, not read them.
- Pages, Bookmarks, link annotations
- Layers (Illustrator like layers)
- Graphics (lines, shapes, bezier curves, SVG content)
- Images (uses the `image` crate)
- Fonts with Unicode support (uses `allsorts` for font shaping)
- Minifying file size (auto-subsetting fonts)
- HTML-based layout system using `azul-layout` (for easy generation of tables / page layout)
- Advanced graphics - overprint control, blending modes, etc.
- Advanced typography - character / word scaling and spacing, superscript, subscript, etc.
- Embedding SVGs (uses `svg2pdf` crate internally)
See the WASM32 demo live at: https://fschutt.github.io/printpdf
## Writing PDF
### Basic example
```rust
use printpdf::*;
fn main() {
let mut doc = PdfDocument::new("My first PDF");
let page1_contents = vec![Op::Marker { id: "debugging-marker".to_string() }];
let page1 = PdfPage::new(Mm(10.0), Mm(250.0), page1_contents);
let pdf_bytes: Vec<u8> = doc
.with_pages(vec![page1])
.save(&PdfSaveOptions::default());
}
```
### Graphics
```rust
use printpdf::*;
fn main() {
let mut doc = PdfDocument::new("My first PDF");
let line = Line {
// Quadratic shape. The "false" determines if the next (following)
// point is a bezier handle (for curves)
// If you want holes, simply reorder the winding of the points to be
// counterclockwise instead of clockwise.
points: vec![
(Point::new(Mm(100.0), Mm(100.0)), false),
(Point::new(Mm(100.0), Mm(200.0)), false),
(Point::new(Mm(300.0), Mm(200.0)), false),
(Point::new(Mm(300.0), Mm(100.0)), false),
],
is_closed: true,
};
// Triangle shape
let polygon = Polygon {
rings: vec![vec![
(Point::new(Mm(150.0), Mm(150.0)), false),
(Point::new(Mm(150.0), Mm(250.0)), false),
(Point::new(Mm(350.0), Mm(250.0)), false),
]],
mode: PaintMode::FillStroke,
winding_order: WindingOrder::NonZero,
};
// Graphics config
let fill_color = Color::Cmyk(Cmyk::new(0.0, 0.23, 0.0, 0.0, None));
let outline_color = Color::Rgb(Rgb::new(0.75, 1.0, 0.64, None));
let mut dash_pattern = LineDashPattern::default();
dash_pattern.dash_1 = Some(20);
let extgstate = ExtendedGraphicsStateBuilder::new()
.with_overprint_stroke(true)
.with_blend_mode(BlendMode::multiply())
.build();
let page1_contents = vec![
// add line1 (square)
Op::SetOutlineColor { col: Color::Rgb(Rgb::new(0.75, 1.0, 0.64, None)) },
Op::SetOutlineThickness { pt: Pt(10.0) },
Op::DrawLine { line: line },
// add line2 (triangle)
Op::SaveGraphicsState,
Op::LoadGraphicsState { gs: doc.add_graphics_state(extgstate) },
Op::SetLineDashPattern { dash: dash_pattern },
Op::SetLineJoinStyle { join: LineJoinStyle::Round },
Op::SetLineCapStyle { cap: LineCapStyle::Round },
Op::SetFillColor { col: fill_color },
Op::SetOutlineThickness { pt: Pt(15.0) },
Op::SetOutlineColor { col: outline_color },
Op::DrawPolygon { polygon: polygon },
Op::RestoreGraphicsState,
];
let page1 = PdfPage::new(Mm(10.0), Mm(250.0), page1_contents);
let pdf_bytes: Vec<u8> = doc
.with_pages(vec![page1])
.save(&PdfSaveOptions::default());
}
```
### Images
- Images only get compressed in release mode. You might get huge PDFs (6 or more MB) in debug mode.
- To make this process faster, use `BufReader` instead of directly reading from the file.
- Scaling of images is implicitly done to fit one pixel = one dot at 300 dpi.
```rust
use printpdf::*;
fn main() {
let mut doc = PdfDocument::new("My first PDF");
let image_bytes = include_bytes!("assets/img/BMP_test.bmp");
let image = RawImage::decode_from_bytes(image_bytes).unwrap(); // requires --feature bmp
// In the PDF, an image is an `XObject`, identified by a unique `ImageId`
let image_xobject_id = doc.add_image(image);
let page1_contents = vec![
Op::UseXobject {
id: image_xobject_id.clone(),
transform: XObjectTransform::default()
}
];
let page1 = PdfPage::new(Mm(10.0), Mm(250.0), page1_contents);
let pdf_bytes: Vec<u8> = doc
.with_pages(vec![page1])
.save(&PdfSaveOptions::default());
}
```
### Fonts
```rust
use printpdf::*;
fn main() {
let mut doc = PdfDocument::new("My first PDF");
let roboto_bytes = include_bytes!("assets/fonts/RobotoMedium.ttf");
let font = ParsedFont::from_bytes(roboto_bytes).unwrap();
// If you need custom text shaping (uses the `allsorts` font shaper internally)
// let glyphs = font.shape(text);
// printpdf automatically keeps track of which fonts are used in the PDF
let font_id = doc.add_font(font);
let text_pos = Point {
x: Mm(10.0).into(),
y: Mm(100.0).into()
}; // from bottom left
let page1_contents = vec![
Op::SetLineHeight { lh: Pt(33.0) },
Op::SetWordSpacing { percent: 3000.0 },
Op::SetCharacterSpacing { multiplier: 10.0 },
Op::SetTextCursor { pos: text_pos },
// Op::WriteCodepoints { ... }
// Op::WriteCodepointsWithKerning { ... }
Op::WriteText {
text: "Lorem ipsum".to_string(),
font: font_id.clone(),
size: Pt(33.0)
},
Op::AddLineBreak,
Op::WriteText {
text: "dolor sit amet".to_string(),
font: font_id.clone(),
size: Pt(33.0)
},
Op::AddLineBreak,
];
let save_options = PdfSaveOptions {
subset_fonts: true, // auto-subset fonts on save
.. Default::default()
};
let page1 = PdfPage::new(Mm(10.0), Mm(250.0), page1_contents);
let pdf_bytes: Vec<u8> = doc
.with_pages(vec![page1])
.save(&save_options);
}
```
### Tables, HTML
For creating tables, etc. printpdf uses a basic layout system, similar to wkhtmltopdf
(although more limited in terms of features). It's good enough for basic page layouting,
book rendering and reports / forms / etc. Includes automatic page-breaking.
Since printpdf supports WASM, there is an interactive demo at
https://fschutt.github.io/printpdf - try playing with the XML.
See [SYNTAX.md](./SYNTAX.md) for the XML syntax description.
```rust
// needs --features="html"
use printpdf::*;
fn main() {
// See https://fschutt.github.io/printpdf for an interactive WASM demo!
let html = r#"
<html>
<!-- printpdf automatically breaks content into pages -->
<body style="padding:10mm">
<p style="color: red; font-family: sans-serif;" data-chapter="1" data-subsection="First subsection">Hello!</p>
<div style="width:200px;height:200px;background:red;" data-chapter="1" data-subsection="Second subsection">
<p>World!</p>
</div>
</body>
<!-- configure header and footer for each page -->
<head>
<header>
<h4 style="color: #2e2e2e;min-height: 8mm;">Chapter {attr:chapter} * {attr:subsection}</h4>
<p style="position: absolute;top:5mm;left:5mm;">{builtin:pagenum}</p>
</header>
<footer>
<hr/>
<footer/>
</head>
</html>
"#;
let options = XmlRenderOptions {
// named images to be used in the HTML, i.e. ["image1.png" => DecodedImage(image1_bytes)]
images: BTreeMap::new(),
// named fonts to be used in the HTML, i.e. ["Roboto" => DecodedImage(roboto_bytes)]
fonts: BTreeMap::new(),
// default page width, printpdf will auto-page-break
page_width: Mm(210.0),
// default page height
page_height: Mm(297.0),
};
let pdf_bytes = PdfDocument::new("My PDF")
.with_html(html, &options).unwrap()
.save(&PdfSaveOptions::default());
}
```
## Goals and Roadmap
The goal of printpdf is to be a general-use PDF library, such as
libharu or similar. PDFs generated by printpdf should always adhere
to a PDF standard, except if you turn it off. Currently, only the
standard `PDF/X-3:2002` is covered (i.e. valid PDF according to Adobe
Acrobat). Over time, there will be more standards supported. Checking a
PDF for errors is currently only a stub.
The following features aren't implemented yet:
- Clipping
- Open Prepress Interface
- Halftoning images, Gradients, Patterns
- Forms, annotations
- Conformance / error checking for various PDF standards
- Embedded Javascript
- Reading PDF
- Completion of printpdf wiki
The printpdf wiki is live at: https://github.com/fschutt/printpdf/wiki
Here are some resources I found while working on this library:
- [`PDFXPlorer`, shows the DOM tree of a PDF, needs .NET 2.0](http://www.o2sol.com/pdfxplorer/download.htm)
- [Official PDF 1.7 reference](https://opensource.adobe.com/dc-acrobat-sdk-docs/pdfstandards/pdfreference1.7old.pdf)
- [\[GERMAN\] How to embed unicode fonts in PDF](http://www.p2501.ch/pdf-howto/typographie/vollzugriff/direkt)
- [PDF X/1-a Validator](https://www.pdf-online.com/osa/validate.aspx)
- [PDF X/3 technical notes](http://www.pdfxreport.com/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=en:technote_pdfx_checks.pdf)
## License / Support
Library is licensed MIT.
You can donate (one-time or recurrent) at https://github.com/sponsors/fschutt. Thanks!