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GrokTL;DR: PDF viewers are essential tools for developers seeking PDF viewing functionality in their apps. This blog explores some of the best React PDF Viewers available on the market.
Overview
PDF Viewers are components that allow users to view and interact with PDF documents. They offer navigation, zooming, text selection, search, and annotation tools. Viewers usually support clickable hyperlinks and include a toolbar.
The following are the best React PDF viewers for developers:
Syncfusion React PDF Viewer: Enterprise-grade PDF solution
The React PDF Viewer is a lightweight and modular component for viewing and printing PDF files. It provides an excellent viewing experience with core interactions such as zooming, scrolling, text searching, text selection, and text copying. The thumbnail, bookmark, hyperlink, and table of contents support provide easy navigation within and outside the PDF files.
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Key features
- PDF viewing:
- Supports viewing PDF documents directly in the browser.
- Offers a rich, responsive, interactive UI with smooth scrolling and zooming.
- Supports various page display options (single page, continuous scroll).
- Annotations:
- Provides tools for adding text, highlights, shapes (rectangle, circle), freehand drawing (ink), and stamps.
- Allows annotations to be edited, deleted, and saved for later use.
- Includes built-in support for importing and exporting annotations as JSON.
- Form filling:
- Enables users to interact with PDF form fields, such as text boxes, radio buttons, checkboxes, dropdowns, and signatures.
- Supports both manual and programmatic form field input.
- Text markup:
- Supports text highlights, underlines, strikethroughs, and squiggly annotations for marking up text in PDFs.
- Search and selection:
- Provides a built-in text-search feature with options for case-sensitive and whole-word searches.
- Allows text selection and copying.
- Document management:
- Offers features like page rotation, page navigation, and thumbnail previews.
- Supports printing of PDF documents directly from the viewer.
- Customizable toolbar:
- Offers a default toolbar with essential actions like open, save, print, download, search, and annotations.
- Allows customization of the toolbar and the addition of custom buttons.
- File format support:
- Primarily supports the PDF format, including PDF/A and digitally signed PDFs.
- Can handle complex PDFs with embedded images, fonts, and annotations.
- Server-side processing:
- Requires server-side support to handle PDF rendering and processing.
- Available server-side libraries include ASP.NET Core, ASP.NET MVC, and ASP.NET Web API.
- Cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility:
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- Compatible with modern browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari.
- Works across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
Enhance your React application with a powerful, feature-rich PDF Viewer that’s fast, customizable, and developer-friendly. Check out the live demo and explore the detailed documentation to get started quickly.
License: To obtain a free license for the PDF Viewer, check your eligibility and follow the steps outlined in how to get a community license and install it.
React-PDF: Lightweight PDF viewing for React
React-PDF is a React wrapper for PDF.js that makes it easy to integrate PDF viewing into React apps. It’s designed to be simple and flexible for developers who need a quick solution for displaying PDFs.
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Key features
- Page-by-page rendering: Efficiently renders PDF files by loading pages dynamically, which is ideal for large documents.
- Zooming and scaling: Supports zoom functionality, allowing users to view PDF files in different sizes.
- On-demand rendering: Pages are rendered on demand as users scroll through the document, improving performance when dealing with large PDFs.
- Interactive elements: Displays links, form fields, and images contained in PDFs.
Want a simple PDF solution for React? React-PDF makes it simple to display PDFs in your React applications with minimal setup. Explore the examples to see how easy it is to implement.
License: React-PDF is available under the MIT License, making it free to use and modify in commercial and personal projects.
PDFKit
PDFKit is a JavaScript library designed primarily for creating PDFs programmatically. It allows developers to generate PDFs from scratch rather than just viewing them.
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Key features
- PDF generation: You can create dynamic PDF documents from scratch and insert text, images, and graphics.
- Customization: Offers complete control over PDF generation, including custom page layouts, fonts, and styling.
- Cross-platform: Works in both Node.js and the browser.
- Annotations: Basic annotation support includes adding text, links, and form fields.
Ready to create dynamic PDFs? PDFKit gives you complete control to generate PDFs programmatically, making it perfect for creating custom layouts, fonts, and styling. Explore the demo here.
License: Distributed under the MIT License, making it free for commercial and noncommercial use.
pdfme: Minimalistic PDF creation tool
pdfme is a lightweight and simple library for creating and manipulating PDF documents. It is designed to be straightforward, making it easy for basic PDF generation and manipulation tasks.
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Key features
- PDF creation: Provides a simple API to create PDFs by adding text, images, and basic shapes.
- Basic annotations: Supports simple annotations like text highlights and comments.
- Lightweight: A minimalistic library designed to be easy to use with minimal setup.
Ready to try pdfme? Refer to the documentation.
License: Available under the MIT License, it’s free for personal and commercial use.
Nutrient: Premium PDF SDK for enterprise workflows
Nutrient is a premium PDF SDK that provides a full suite of features for working with PDFs. Unlike the other options, Nutrient offers full PDF editing capabilities beyond simple viewing and rendering.
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Key features
- Advanced editing: Provides tools for editing PDF documents, including text editing, form field creation, and adding images.
- Annotations: Extensive annotation support, including highlights, notes, and drawing tools.
- Text search and extraction: Features advanced search and text extraction capabilities.
- Customizable UI: The PDF Viewer’s interface is highly customizable to fit the look and feel of your app.
Ready to explore Nutrient? Take your PDF workflows to the next level with advanced editing capabilities and a fully customizable UI. Explore the live demo.
License: Nutrient is a commercial product, and you need to purchase a license to use it. However, they offer a free trial for evaluation.
Quick comparison
Choosing the right React PDF Viewer depends on the features you need, such as viewing capabilities, annotation tools, form handling, and customization options. The table below provides a side-by-side comparison of the top viewers covered in this blog to help you quickly identify the best fit for your project.
Comparison table
| Feature | Syncfusion React PDF Viewer | React-PDF | PDFKit | pdfme | Nutrient |
| Ease of integration | Moderate (Enterprise-level features) | Easy (React-specific) | Moderate (Requires coding for generation) | Easy (Simple API | Moderate (Enterprise SDK) |
| Performance | Excellent (Optimized for large files) | Good (Page-by-page rendering) | Good (Generation only) | Good (Lightweight) | Excellent (Optimized for complex workflows) |
| Advanced features | Yes (Annotations, form filling, digital signatures, printing) | Basic (Viewing only) | Basic (Annotations, form fields | Basic (Simple annotations | Yes (Annotations, editing, form handling) |
| Support availability | High (Commercial support, enterprise-grade) | Community-based | Community-based | Community-based | High (Commercial support) |
| Document collaboration | Yes (Annotations, signing) | No | No | No | Yes (Annotations, editing) |
| Ideal for lightweight apps | Yes (Enable only Viewing functionality for lightweight apps) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No (Enterprise-focused |
| Best for small teams | Yes (Free Community License for individuals and small businesses) | Yes (Free, minimal setup) | Yes (Free, minimal setup) | Yes (Free, minimal setup) | No |
| Best for enterprise projects | Yes (Advanced features, security, customization) | No | No | No | Yes (Enterprise workflows) |
| License | Commercial (Free Community License available) | MIT | MIT | MIT | Commercial |
Choosing the right React PDF Viewer
Selecting the right React PDF Viewer depends on your project’s complexity, performance needs, and feature requirements. Here’s a quick guide to help you decide:
Choose React-PDF if you need:
- A lightweight, open-source solution for basic PDF viewing.
- Minimal setup and easy integration with React.
Choose PDFKit if you need:
- Programmatic PDF generation rather than viewing.
- Full control over layout, fonts, and styling for custom PDFs.
Choose pdfme if you need:
- A simple, template-based PDF creation tool.
- Lightweight library for quick PDF generation tasks.
Choose Nutrient if you need:
- Advanced PDF editing and enterprise-level workflows.
- Extensive annotation tools and customizable UI.
Choose Syncfusion React PDF Viewer if you need:
- Enterprise-grade features like annotations, form filling, digital signatures, and printing.
- Optimized performance for large files and complex PDFs.
- Customization and branding options for toolbar and UI.
- Dedicated support and frequent updates for stability and security.
FAQs
Q1: What about licensing are these tools free?
A. Open-source libraries are usually free under licenses like MIT, while enterprise-grade solutions may require a commercial license, but Syncfusion React PDF Viewer offer community editions.
Q2: Do these viewers work across devices and browsers?
A. Most modern PDF viewers are designed to be responsive and compatible with major browsers and platforms, including desktop and mobile.
Q3: Does the viewer work with dynamic content or server-side rendering (SSR)?
A. Compatibility varies. Some libraries work well with SSR frameworks like Next.js, while others require client-side rendering. Always check documentation for SSR support.
Q4: How secure is PDF rendering in React apps?
A. Security depends on the library and hosting environment. Enterprise-grade solutions often include secure rendering and compliance features.
Q5: How do I debug rendering issues in React PDF viewers?
A. Check console errors, verify PDF file integrity, and ensure correct MIME type (application/pdf) when serving files.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading! In this blog, we’ve explored the top React PDF Viewer libraries and their capabilities, from lightweight viewing solutions to full-featured enterprise tools. Each option meets different needs:
- Syncfusion React PDF Viewer for comprehensive viewing, annotations, and form handling.
- React-PDF for simple, quick integration when you only need basic viewing.
- PDFKit and pdfme for developers focused on PDF generation rather than interactive viewing.
- Nutrient for advanced editing and high-end workflows.
When choosing the right PDF viewer, consider the complexity of your project, required features, and licensing model. Whether you need a lightweight viewer or a robust solution with annotations and forms, there’s a tool here to fit your requirements.
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