Why do you need our React PDF Viewer?
Building a React PDF viewer from scratch is complex due to challenges with rendering, navigation, annotations, performance, and security. Syncfusion simplifies this with an enterprise-ready viewer that allows you to display and render PDFs in React applications while providing advanced features such as React PDF annotation, high performance, and secure handling, resulting in faster development, a rich user experience, and reduced complexity.
Interact with PDFs in real time—highlight, annotate, fill out forms, and add signatures easily.
Install & Quick setup
Follow these three steps to integrate the PDF Viewer into your React application.
1
Install the PDF Viewer and theme packages
Install the Syncfusion React PDF Viewer package along with the required theme package using npm.
npm install @syncfusion/ej2-react-pdfviewer --save
npm install @syncfusion/ej2-tailwind3-theme --save2
Import the required CSS styles
Import the required Syncfusion React PDF Viewer CSS files to ensure proper layout and theme styling.
@import '../node_modules/@syncfusion/ej2-tailwind3-theme/styles/pdfviewer/index.css';3
Initialize the PDF Viewer component
Import and render the PDF Viewer component to start building instantly.
import { PdfViewerComponent, Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, LinkAnnotation, BookmarkView,
ThumbnailView, Print, TextSelection, Annotation, TextSearch, FormFields, FormDesigner,
PageOrganizer, Inject } from '@syncfusion/ej2-react-pdfviewer';
function App() {
return (
<PdfViewerComponent id="container"
documentPath="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/content/pdf/pdf-succinctly.pdf"
resourceUrl="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/dist/ej2-pdfviewer-lib">
<Inject services={[ Toolbar, Magnification, Navigation, Annotation, LinkAnnotation,
BookmarkView, ThumbnailView, Print, TextSelection, TextSearch,
FormFields, FormDesigner, PageOrganizer]}/>
</PdfViewerComponent>
);
}
export default App;Enterprise-ready PDF viewing power
High fidelity PDF rendering
Render PDFs with pixel-perfect accuracy across all browsers and devices. The React PDF Viewer preserves layout structure, fonts, vector graphics, and images exactly as designed, ensuring consistent visual quality for every document.
- Maintains full layout and font fidelity.
- Consistent rendering across browsers and platforms.
- Accurately renders vector graphics and complex elements.
- Preserves original fonts, styles, and typographic spacing.
- Displays images and embedded media without distortion.
- Supports precise zooming without loss of quality.
High performance PDF viewing for large documents
Built for speed and scalability, the React PDF Viewer efficiently handles both small files and large, complex PDFs. Pages load on demand to reduce memory usage while maintaining smooth scrolling and responsive interaction.
- Progressive and on-demand page loading.
- Smooth navigation through large PDF files.
- Optimized performance even on lower-end devices.
Flexible PDF export and print options
Extend document workflows with comprehensive export options built into the React PDF Viewer. Print documents, download PDFs with the latest updates, transfer annotation data, and export form responses directly from the viewer, enabling efficient document management and collaboration within your application.
- Print PDF documents with accurate layout and content fidelity.
- Download PDFs with annotations and form field updates applied.
- Export and import annotation data using JSON and XFDF formats.
- Extract form field data for processing and business workflows.
- Control printing and export actions based on application requirements.
Open password-protected PDFs
Protect sensitive documents with a secure architecture that keeps all PDF operations within the application. Control user actions to meet enterprise and compliance requirements.
- No data leaves the application by default
- Password protected PDF support
- Control permissions for printing, copying, downloading, and editing
- Application-level compliance support for HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC 2® Type 2
AI-assisted React PDF Viewer for faster insights
The Syncfusion React PDF Viewer brings AI assistance to PDF workflows, enabling document understanding, automated form filling, insight extraction, and sensitive data protection.
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Smart summarizer: Generate concise summaries that highlight key insights and important sections instantly.
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Smart redaction: Identify and automatically redact confidential content with AI assistance, helping protect sensitive information.
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Smart form filling: Automatically detect and fill form fields using AI-assisted data recognition from document context.
Comprehensive PDF Viewer capabilities
PDF annotation tools
Enable document review and collaboration within React applications. Add annotations, comments, highlights, and markups to review PDF content without leaving the application.
Form design and filling
Design and fill interactive PDF forms with text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, and dropdowns. Edit and save form data in real time to streamline data collection workflows.
Page organization
Organize and manage PDF documents with intuitive page-level editing tools. Rearrange, insert, delete, or rotate pages to create a seamless and efficient document workflow.
Redaction
Protect sensitive information in PDF documents using built-in redaction tools. Permanently remove text, images, or regions to meet compliance and data security requirements.
Text search and selection
Find specific words or phrases instantly using full-text search, helping users locate information within large files. Select and copy text from PDFs to improve content accessibility.
PDF navigation
Navigate to any page, browse document sections through bookmarks, and preview content with thumbnails. Use table of contents or hyperlinks to access relevant information instantly.
Accessibility and global readiness
WCAG-compliant viewer
Fully adheres to WCAG standards, offering features such as keyboard navigation, ARIA labels, and high-contrast themes to support users with disabilities.
Multilingual and RTL support
Provides complete localization capabilities, including right-to-left (RTL) rendering, for seamless adaptation to global languages and regional workflows.
Screen reader compatibility
Ensures all PDF content, form fields, and controls are accessible to screen readers, delivering an inclusive experience for all users.
UI customization & extensibility
Experience a React PDF Viewer designed for developers that offers flexible UI customization and extensible APIs to adapt the viewer to your application’s needs.
- Extend functionality using robust APIs to tailor workflows and control viewer behavior.
- Integrate with local storage or cloud platforms like Azure Blob Storage and Amazon S3 using robust APIs.
- Leverage comprehensive documentation and enterprise-grade support to accelerate development and scaling.
Industry-specific use cases
The React PDF Viewer is tailored to meet the unique requirements of various industries, enabling professionals across sectors to securely view, annotate, and manage PDF documents with confidence.
No credit card required.
Healthcare
Enable secure viewing and review of patient records, lab reports, and consent documents within healthcare applications. Support privacy-focused and compliance driven workflows while maintaining accuracy and controlled access to sensitive medical information.
Legal and compliance
Support contract review, case management, and regulatory documentation by embedding secure PDF viewing into legal and compliance systems. Enable controlled access, document review, and approval workflows for compliance-sensitive environments.
Education and e-learning
Enhance digital learning platforms by allowing educators and learners to interact with academic materials such as course documents, research papers, and e-books directly within web applications.
Finance and banking
Streamline financial document workflows by enabling secure review and validation of statements, invoices, and audit documents. Support enterprise and regulatory requirements within internal and customer-facing financial systems.
AI-assisted development
Build modern PDF viewer features powered by AI faster
Build interactive PDF viewing applications faster with Syncfusion AI tools that turn requirements into flexible document experiences.
Agent Skills
Create accurate PDF Viewer code with Syncfusion Agent Skills for faster development.
Example Prompt Show me how to load a PDF file in Syncfusion PDF Viewer for React.
MCP Server
Generate accurate PDF Viewer code with AI that configures and debugs code directly in your IDE.
Example Prompt Show me how to create a PDF Viewer component in React and load a document.
Trusted by the world’s leading companies
See Why Developers Love Syncfusion
These real-time stories show the impact of our PDF Viewer SDK
The best way to showcase our commitment is through the experiences and stories of those who have used our PDF Viewer.
Endless possibilities with one viewer
From building dashboards, and managing legal documents, to delivering e-learning content, the React PDF Viewer ensures smooth, interactive document handling. Join over 1M developers who trust Syncfusion® for secure, enterprise-grade PDF rendering, annotation, and form filling. Discover why it consistently outperforms competing solutions in real-world performance benchmarks.
No credit card required.
React PDF Viewer FAQ
If you’re new to the React PDF Viewer or have questions, our FAQs will help you explore its features and capabilities.
What is the React PDF Viewer?
A React PDF Viewer is a UI component that lets developers embed PDF rendering, navigation, and interaction—such as viewing, annotating, and form filling—directly inside a React application, without relying on the browser’s native PDF plugin or external tools like Adobe Acrobat. Syncfusion’s React PDF Viewer implements this with an enterprise-ready architecture, adding high-performance rendering, security controls, and extensibility for production applications.
Can I customize the React PDF Viewer to match my application’s UI and workflows?
Yes. The React PDF Viewer provides flexible APIs for customizing the viewer UI, toolbar, behavior, and interactions, allowing teams to align PDF workflows with application-specific requirements and branding.
Can the React PDF Viewer handle large and complex PDF documents?
Yes. The React PDF Viewer is optimized for large and complex PDFs, using progressive loading and efficient rendering to maintain smooth interaction and stable performance in production environments.
Is the React PDF Viewer compatible with other frameworks and platforms?
While optimized for React, it follows consistent API patterns and is part of a broader ecosystem supporting multiple frameworks, enabling teams to maintain consistency across applications.
How do I get started with the Syncfusion React PDF Viewer?
You can get started by reviewing the official documentation, exploring live samples, and following step-by-step integration guides to embed the PDF Viewer into your React application.
Can I perform text search in PDF documents?
Yes, the React PDF Viewer provides powerful text search in PDF capabilities, allowing users to quickly find and highlight specific words or phrases within large documents.
Can I design or create PDF forms in the React PDF Viewer?
Yes, the React PDF Viewer supports designing and creating PDF forms using its built-in form designer feature. It allows you to add and customize form fields such as text boxes, checkboxes, and signature fields, either programmatically or through the user interface. You can also configure validation rules and set default values as needed.
Can users verify digital signatures in PDFs?
Advanced signature operations—such as verifying certificate authenticity or validating full document integrity—rely on the Syncfusion PDF Library for server-side or additional processing, rather than being handled solely by the React PDF Viewer component.
What design customization options are available in the React PDF Viewer?
The React PDF Viewer provides extensive design customization options including toolbar customization, theme support, layout adjustments, and integration with CSS frameworks. Developers can tailor the UI to match their application’s branding.
Does the viewer support saving filled forms or edited PDFs?
Yes, users can save PDFs with filled form data, annotations, and signatures applied. This can be done locally or sent to a server for storage or further processing.
Which npm package do I install, and what’s the bundle size?
Install the component and a theme package: npm install @syncfusion/ej2-react-pdfviewer @syncfusion/ej2-tailwind3-theme –save. Import the theme CSS, then render PdfViewerComponent with resourceUrl pointing at the PDF Viewer library bundle — the viewer needs it to render pages.
How does React PDF Viewer handle large PDF files?
The viewer loads pages progressively and on demand, so only visible pages are rendered and held in memory. Memory use stays roughly flat as page count grows rather than scaling with document length, which is what allows long documents to stay responsive on lower-end devices.
Is React PDF Viewer suitable for production and enterprise applications?
The Syncfusion React PDF Viewer enables developers to embed secure, high performance PDF viewing and interaction directly into React applications. It is designed for enterprise and production environments where reliability, scalability, and control are essential.
How does the React PDF Viewer compare to other PDF viewer solutions?
Many popular React PDF solutions, such as react-pdf and pdf.js, are open-source libraries focused primarily on rendering and basic navigation, requiring developers to build annotation, form-filling, security, and UI customization capabilities on their own. The Syncfusion React PDF Viewer differs by providing these as built-in, production-ready features—enterprise-level performance, security, extensibility, and long-term support—so teams can deliver full document workflows without assembling and maintaining these capabilities themselves.
Is the React PDF Viewer secure and compliant?
Security is a core design principle at Syncfusion. All PDF operations run within the application by default, and it supports application-level compliance with regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC 2® Type 2 for handling sensitive documents.
What developer resources are available for the React PDF Viewer?
Comprehensive documentation, code samples, API references, demos, and community forums are available to help developers evaluate, integrate, and extend the React PDF Viewer efficiently.
Does the React PDF Viewer support PDF annotation?
Yes, the React PDF Viewer includes rich PDF annotation tools such as highlight, underline, strikethrough, shapes, freehand drawing, and comments, enabling efficient document review and collaboration.
Does the React PDF Viewer support form filling?
Yes, the React PDF Viewer supports filling out interactive PDF forms (AcroForms). Users can enter data into text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons, and dropdowns directly within the viewer and save or submit the completed form.
Does the React PDF Viewer support digital signatures and signature verification?
Yes. The React PDF Viewer supports adding and displaying electronic signatures (drawn, typed, or image-based) as well as digital signatures (certificate-based) directly within the viewer, and it can indicate whether an existing signature appears valid or has been modified.
Advanced signature operations, such as verifying certificate authenticity or validating full document integrity, rely on the Syncfusion PDF Library for server-side or additional processing, rather than being handled solely by the React PDF Viewer component.
Is it possible to edit PDF content in the React PDF Viewer?
The React PDF Viewer lets you edit a document’s supplementary content rather than its underlying page content. This includes adding and modifying annotations (highlights, shapes, freehand drawing, comments), filling or updating form field values, applying redactions, and reorganizing pages (reordering, inserting, deleting, or rotating). It does not modify the original text or images embedded in a PDF page.
To edit that underlying content—such as changing existing text, images, or page layout—use the Syncfusion JavaScript PDF Library, which is built for programmatic PDF creation and content editing.
Can I customize the toolbar for specific features like form filling or signatures?
Yes, the React PDF Viewer allows you to customize the toolbar based on your application requirements. You can enable or disable features such as form filling, annotations, signatures, and download or print options. Additionally, you can add custom toolbar buttons to implement your own functionality and further tailor the user experience.
Is the React PDF Viewer free?
No, the React PDF Viewer component is a commercial product and requires a paid license. However, a free community license is available for companies and individuals with less than $1 million USD in annual gross revenue, five or fewer developers, and ten or fewer total employees.
Does React PDF Viewer work with React 19 and Next.js?
Yes. React 19 is supported from Syncfusion React components version 29.1.33 onward. In Next.js, render the viewer in a client component — add ‘use client’, or import it dynamically with ssr: false — since it relies on browser APIs that aren’t available during server rendering.
Resources
Learn more about our React PDF Viewer
Explore demos, KB articles, and documentation to get the most out of our PDF Viewer.
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