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Getting Started

Installation​

npm install pdfnova    # npm
pnpm add pdfnova       # pnpm
yarn add pdfnova       # yarn
bun add pdfnova        # bun

Open a PDF​

pdfnova accepts URLs, ArrayBuffer, Uint8Array, File, Blob, or base64 data URIs:

import { PDFDocument } from "pdfnova/lite";

// From URL
const doc = await PDFDocument.open("/report.pdf");

// From ArrayBuffer
const buffer = await fetch("/report.pdf").then((r) => r.arrayBuffer());
const doc = await PDFDocument.open(buffer);

// From File input
const file = fileInput.files[0];
const doc = await PDFDocument.open(file);

// From base64
const doc = await PDFDocument.open("data:application/pdf;base64,JVBERi...");

Render a Page​

const page = doc.getPage(0);
const canvas = document.getElementById("pdf-canvas") as HTMLCanvasElement;
await page.render(canvas, { scale: 2 });

Extract Text​

const text = page.getText();
console.log(text);
const results = doc.search("quarterly revenue");
for (const match of results) {
  console.log(`Page ${match.pageIndex + 1}: "${match.text}" at char ${match.charIndex}`);
}

Document Info​

console.log(doc.pageCount);    // 42
console.log(doc.metadata);     // { title, author, subject, ... }
console.log(doc.outline);      // OutlineItem[] (bookmarks tree)

Cleanup​

Always close documents when done to free WASM memory:

doc.close();

Or use using (TypeScript 5.2+):

using doc = await PDFDocument.open("/report.pdf");
// doc.close() called automatically when scope exits

Password-Protected PDFs​

const doc = await PDFDocument.open(encryptedPdf, {
  password: "secret123",
});

Authenticated URLs​

const doc = await PDFDocument.open(
  "https://api.example.com/documents/123/download",
  {
    headers: { Authorization: "Bearer eyJ..." },
    credentials: "include",
  },
);

Custom WASM URL​

By default, pdfnova loads the PDFium WASM from jsDelivr CDN. To self-host:

const doc = await PDFDocument.open(data, {
  wasmUrl: "https://cdn.example.com/pdfium.wasm",
});

Copy the binary from node_modules/@embedpdf/pdfium/dist/pdfium.wasm to your static assets.

Next Steps​