Media and documents · Comparison
pdf-lib vs @react-pdf/renderer vs Puppeteer
Three common ways to produce PDFs with JavaScript: draw on PDF pages directly, describe the document with React components, or print a real web page in a headless browser.
3 options · 8 questions side by side · updated
| Compare | pdf-lib | @react-pdf/renderer | Puppeteer |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | Draws text and images at coordinates | React components laid out with flexbox | Headless Chrome prints an HTML page |
| Best for | Filling forms and stamping templates | Invoices, reports and tickets from data | Exact copies of existing web pages |
| Layout | Manual positioning | Automatic wrapping and page breaks | Full HTML and CSS |
| Edits existing PDFs | Yes: merge, split, fill forms | No, creates new files only | No, creates new files only |
| Runs in | Browser, Node, Deno, React Native | Browser and Node | Node on a server with Chrome |
| Styling | Fonts, colours and shapes in code | A subset of CSS | Any CSS, including Tailwind |
| Weight | Small, pure JavaScript | Moderate, pure JavaScript | Heavy: downloads a full browser |
| Serverless | Works almost anywhere | Works in most functions | Needs a slimmed-down Chromium or a hosted service |
How to choose between pdf-lib, @react-pdf/renderer and Puppeteer
- Pick pdf-lib to fill, stamp, merge or split PDFs that already exist.
- Pick @react-pdf/renderer to generate structured documents such as invoices from data, in the browser or on a server.
- Pick Puppeteer when the PDF must match an HTML page exactly and you can run a headless browser.
The options
- pdf-libA JavaScript library for creating PDFs and editing existing ones: filling in forms, adding or copying pages, stamping text and images, and merging or splitting files.
- @react-pdf/rendererA library for generating PDF documents with React components, so invoices, reports and tickets are designed much like web pages and saved as real PDFs.
- PuppeteerTesting and qualityA Node.js library from Google's Chrome team for controlling Chrome or Firefox from code, often used for screenshots, PDFs, scraping and automation.
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