TL;DR: We explore the top five free JavaScript PDF Viewers, their key features, plus their usability, customization options, and performance. Compare their capabilities to find the best fit for your needs.
Portable document format (PDF) is widely used for sharing documents while preserving formatting across different devices and platforms. A PDF Viewer is a tool for opening, viewing, and interacting with PDF files.
In this blog, we’ll explore the top five JavaScript PDF Viewers for developers that are available for free, in one form or another. They are:
The Syncfusion® JavaScript PDF Viewer is a control for viewing, annotating, and interacting with PDF documents. It is a part of the Syncfusion Essential® JS 2 library and is designed for modern web apps built with frameworks like Angular, React, Vue, and pure JavaScript.
Key features
-
PDF viewing:
- Supports viewing PDF documents directly in the browser.
- Offers a rich, responsive, and interactive UI with smooth scrolling and zooming.
- Supports various page display options, including single-page display and continuous scrolling.
-
Annotations:
- Provides tools for adding text, highlights, shapes, freehand drawing (ink), and stamps.
- Edit, delete, and save annotations for later use.
- Includes built-in support for importing and exporting annotations as JSON.
-
Form filling:
- Lets users fill and modify PDF form fields, such as text boxes, radio buttons, checkboxes, dropdowns, and signatures.
- Supports both manual and programmatic form field inputs.
-
Text markup:
- Supports text highlight, underline, strikethrough, and squiggly annotations for marking up text in a PDF.
- Add free text anywhere in a document and move, resize, remove, and edit it as needed.
-
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 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 and actions.
-
Support for several PDF formats:
- Supports many PDF formats, including PDF/A and digitally signed PDFs.
- Handles complex PDFs with embedded images, fonts, and annotations.
-
Server-side processing:
- Requires server-side support to handle PDF rendering and processing.
- Provides server-side libraries for ASP.NET Core, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web API, Node.js, and Java.
-
Cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility:
- Compatible with modern browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari.
- Works seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
Note: To explore the control’s complete features, refer to the JavaScript PDF Viewer documentation and GitHub demos.
Free license details
The JavaScript PDF Viewer is free to eligible individual developers and small businesses via the Syncfusion Community License.
To obtain a free license for the JavaScript PDF Viewer, refer to the KB article, How to get a Community License and install it. If your Community License request is rejected, you can use the 30-day free trial license.
Note: You can create only one ticket for a Community License request.
Register the license key
To register the license key in your project, follow the steps explained in this documentation.
Note: Use your Syncfusion account login credentials for both web and offline installers.
PDF.js
PDF.js is a popular open-source library developed by Mozilla to render PDF files directly in web browsers. It uses HTML5 and JavaScript to display PDFs, making it lightweight and client-side-driven, without relying on additional server-side components.
Key features
- Rendering PDFs in web browsers: PDF.js renders PDFs by using HTML5’s element and JavaScript, allowing users to view PDF documents directly in the browser without any third-party plugins like Adobe Reader.
- Client-side rendering: All the rendering happens on the client side, meaning no server-side components are necessary. This is efficient for web-based apps where users view PDFs frequently.
- Interactive elements: Supports basic interactive elements, such as internal and external links in the PDF file.
- Annotation support: Renders annotations like comments, highlights, and other PDF markup elements.
Free license details
PDF.js is distributed under the Apache License 2.0, which is a permissive open-source license. Here’s what the license entails:
-
Free for personal and commercial use:
- You can use, modify, and distribute the library in both personal and commercial projects without any charge.
- There are no royalties or license fees associated with using PDF.js.
-
Attribution:
- While the license is permissive, you must include an attribution notice in any derivative works or distributions. This means you must credit the original authors (Mozilla) when using PDF.js.
-
Modification:
- You are allowed to modify the code to fit your project’s needs. The source code is freely available on GitHub and can be adapted to any use case.
-
Distribution:
- You are free to distribute your modified versions of PDF.js as long as they follow the Apache License 2.0 distribution terms.
For more details, refer to the PDF.js website and GitHub repository .
Pdfvuer
Pdfvuer is a component for Vue.js apps that leverages Mozilla’s PDF.js library. It supports both Vue 2 and Vue 3, making it a versatile solution for Vue developers.
Key features
- Compatibility: Works with both Vue 2 and Vue 3.
- Customization: Allows for extensive customization to fit the needs of your app.
- Performance: Utilizes PDF.js for efficient rendering of PDF documents.
- Ease of use: Simple integration into Vue.js projects.
Free license details
Pdfvuer is distributed under the MIT License. For more details, please refer to its GitHub repository.
ngx-extended-pdf-viewer
ngx-extended-pdf-viewer is an Angular library designed to embed a PDF Viewer in Angular apps. It is highly customizable and has many advanced features that enhance PDF viewing, such as searching, text selection, printing, and more.
Key features
- Rendering PDF files: It allows for the smooth rendering of PDF documents within an Angular app.
- Search functionality: Users can search text inside the PDF file, and the results are highlighted.
- Pagination: It provides page navigation options (e.g., next, previous, and go-to page).
- Annotations: It supports adding annotations and comments to the PDF.
- Multiple PDF display modes: Includes single page, dual page, or scrolling display options.
licensing details
Like PDF.js, ngx-extended-pdf-viewer is distributed under the Apache License 2.0.
For more details, refer to the ngx-extended-pdf-viewer GitHub repository.
React-pdf
React-pdf is a widely used library for rendering PDF files in React apps. Like Pdfvuer and ngx-extended-pdf-viewer, it leverages Mozilla’s PDF.js for parsing and rendering PDF files. With React-pdf, you can easily render PDFs in your React app and control the display of full pages and individual elements.
Key features
- Page rendering: Render specific pages of a PDF or all pages.
- On-demand page loading: Load pages dynamically as the user scrolls or interacts with the document.
- Support for interactive elements: Render interactive elements in PDFs, such as hyperlinks.
- Zooming and scaling: Control the zoom level to scale the PDF as needed.
Free licensing details
Like Pdfvuer, React-PDF is available under an MIT License. This means you can use it for free, even on commercial projects, as long as you follow the MIT License conditions.
For more details, refer to the React-PDF GitHub repository.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading! In this blog, we’ve explored the top five free JavaScript PDF Viewers for developers. Choosing the right JavaScript PDF Viewer depends on your project needs. The Syncfusion Essential JS 2 PDF Viewer offers advanced features for free through the Community License, while PDF.js provides a lightweight, open-source solution. Pdfvuer, ngx-extended-pdf-viewer, and React-PDF are great framework-specific options for Vue, Angular, and React. Each tool has unique strengths, so explore its documentation to find the best fit for your app.
Top comments (0)