Setup PDF.js in a website

You can choose to use a pre-built version of PDF.js or build PDF.js from source.

Pre-built PDF.js

With npm

Add dependencies to your project:

npm install pdfjs-dist node-ensure --save

Simple usage example:

require('pdfjs-dist');
var fs = require('fs');
var data = new Uint8Array(fs.readFileSync('helloworld.pdf'));
PDFJS.getDocument(data).then(function (pdfDocument) {
  console.log('Number of pages: ' + pdfDocument.numPages);
});

Depending on APIs you are trying to use, you may need stuff some DOM APIs. See more complex example at https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/blob/master/examples/node/getinfo.js.

With Webpack

Add dependencies to your project:

npm install pdfjs-dist entry-loader --save-dev

To use the library in your project add require('pdfjs-dist') in your file requires and normally build your project.

See complete example at https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/tree/master/examples/webpack

From examples

When the source code of PDF.js changes, the online demo is automatically updated. The source of all demo files can easily be accessed at https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/tree/gh-pages. These files can also be uploaded to your server to use PDF.js to display PDF files from your website.

1. Download https://github.com/mozilla/pdf.js/archive/gh-pages.zip.

2. Extract the ZIP file (a directory called "pdf.js-gh-pages" will be created).

3. Copy the following directories to your website:

   • pdf.js-gh-pages/build/
   • pdf.js-gh-pages/web/
     The web/ directory contains a 1 MB PDF file called "compressed.tracemonkey-pldi-09.pdf". This file is only used as an example for the demo and can safely be removed.

4. If you want to open a PDF from your website with PDF.js, simply link to the viewer and pass the location of the PDF file. For example:

   <a href="/web/viewer.html?file=%2Fyourpdf.pdf">Open yourpdf.pdf with PDF.js</a>

Build PDF.js from source

After cloning PDF.js, you can build PDF.js from source by running node make generic in Git Bash or another terminal. This will create the built PDF.js in the build folder, which you can upload to your server. Note that you must include compatibility.js in order to support browsers like IE8+.