
react-pdf
Generates PDF documents using the React-PDF library (@react-pdf/renderer) with TypeScript and JSX. Use when creating PDFs, generating reports, invoices, forms, resumes, or any document that needs flexbox layout, SVG graphics, custom fonts, or professional typesetting. Prefer over Python PDF libraries (ReportLab, fpdf2) when layout complexity matters.
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Install
Works with every agent the skills CLI supports.
npx skills add https://github.com/trailofbits/skills-curated --skill react-pdf- 01
Install
Run the command in your project. The CLI asks which agents to install for.
- 02
Describe the task
Ask your agent for something this skill covers. It loads react-pdf automatically when relevant.
- 03
Review the result
The agent follows the SKILL.md steps, scripts and references bundled with the skill.
SKILL.md
The instructions your agent reads when the skill is triggered.
Generating PDFs with React-PDF
When to Use
- Generating PDF documents (reports, invoices, resumes, forms, certificates)
- Creating PDFs that need complex layouts (multi-column, grids, cards)
- Building PDFs with inline SVG graphics, charts, or icons
- Producing documents with custom Google Fonts or emoji
- Any PDF task where flexbox layout is easier than absolute coordinate math
When NOT to Use
- Reading or extracting text from existing PDFs — use
pdfplumberorpypdfinstead - Filling existing PDF forms — use Python
pypdforpdftk - Converting HTML to PDF — use Playwright or WeasyPrint instead
- Simple one-off text PDFs with no layout needs — a Python script may be simpler
CRITICAL REQUIREMENTS
- Fonts MUST be local files - Remote font URLs (http/https) do NOT work. Always download fonts to local files before using them.
- Wrap async code in IIFE - Top-level await causes errors. Always use
(async () => { ... })()pattern. - Disable hyphenation for custom fonts - Custom fonts lack hyphenation dictionaries and may
crash or break words incorrectly. Always call
Font.registerHyphenationCallback((word) => [word]);after registering custom fonts.
Files
{baseDir}/skills/react-pdf/references/google-fonts.txt- Metadata for ~65 popular Google Fonts with TrueType URLs. Each line is a font variant in tab-separated format:font name,style,category,weight,url.{baseDir}/skills/react-pdf/references/components.md- Full component API reference and supported CSS properties{baseDir}/skills/react-pdf/assets/example-template.tsx- Minimal working example demonstrating fixed footers, page numbers, and unbreakable content. Read this before starting to understand the basic patterns. Note: not all APIs are shown here — always refer to the docs and{baseDir}/skills/react-pdf/references/components.mdfor the full API.
Prerequisites
npm install react @react-pdf/renderer
npm install -D tsx @types/react
tsx runs TypeScript + JSX files directly via Node with no config — no tsconfig.json needed. It
uses esbuild under the hood and handles JSX transformation automatically.
Core Components
- Document: Root component (metadata, settings)
- Page: Individual pages (A4, Letter, or custom dimensions)
- View: Container component (similar to div)
- Text: Text content, supports nesting for inline styling
- Image: Embed images (JPG, PNG, base64)
- Link: Clickable hyperlinks (external or internal)
- Note: Annotation notes
- Canvas: Freeform drawing with pdfkit methods
- Svg: Vector graphics (Circle, Rect, Path, Line, Polygon, etc.)
- StyleSheet: Create reusable styles
For full component props and CSS properties, see references/components.md.
Basic Example
import React from "react";
import { Document, Page, Text, View, StyleSheet, renderToFile } from "@react-pdf/renderer";
const styles = StyleSheet.create({
page: { flexDirection: "column", backgroundColor: "#ffffff", padding: 40 },
title: { fontSize: 24, marginBottom: 20, fontWeight: "bold" },
text: { fontSize: 12, lineHeight: 1.5 },
});
const MyDocument = () => (
<Document>
<Page size="A4" style={styles.page}>
<View style={{ margin: 10, padding: 20 }}>
<Text style={styles.title}>Document Title</Text>
<Text style={styles.text}>Your content here</Text>
</View>
</Page>
</Document>
);
(async () => {
await renderToFile(<MyDocument />, "./output.pdf");
console.log("PDF saved!");
})();
Running Scripts
PDF generation scripts use JSX, which Node cannot run directly. Use tsx to execute them:
npx tsx my-document.tsx
npx tsx works without installing tsx globally — it downloads on demand. If tsx is installed as a
dev dependency (npm install -D tsx), it runs instantly without the npx download step.
Always wrap rendering in async IIFE:
// Good
(async () => {
await renderToFile(<MyDocument />, "./output.pdf");
})();
// Bad - top-level await may fail
await renderToFile(<MyDocument />, "./output.pdf");
Previewing PDFs
To visually inspect generated PDFs, convert pages to images. Try pdftoppm first (often
pre-installed), fall back to Python's PyMuPDF if unavailable.
Option 1: pdftoppm (poppler-utils) — preferred, no install needed in many environments:
pdftoppm -png -r 200 document.pdf preview
# → preview-1.png, preview-2.png, ...
Option 2: PyMuPDF (Python) — fallback if pdftoppm is not available:
pip install pymupdf
import fitz
doc = fitz.open("document.pdf")
for i, page in enumerate(doc):
pix = page.get_pixmap(dpi=200)
pix.save(f"page-{i+1}.png")
Rendering Methods
import { renderToFile, renderToBuffer } from "@react-pdf/renderer";
// To file
(async () => {
await renderToFile(<MyDocument />, "./document.pdf");
})();
// To buffer
(async () => {
const buffer = await renderToBuffer(<MyDocument />);
})();
Styling
Three methods: StyleSheet.create(), inline objects, or mixed arrays.
const styles = StyleSheet.create({ container: { padding: 20 } });
<View style={styles.container} />
<View style={{ padding: 20 }} />
<View style={[styles.container, { marginTop: 10 }]} />
Supported Units
pt (default, 72 DPI), in, mm, cm, %, vw, vh
Common Style Properties
{
// Flexbox
flexDirection: "row", justifyContent: "space-between", alignItems: "center",
flexWrap: "wrap", gap: 10,
// Box model
margin: 10, padding: 20, width: "100%", height: 200,
// Borders
borderWidth: 1, borderColor: "#333", borderRadius: 5, borderStyle: "solid",
// Colors
backgroundColor: "#f0f0f0", color: "#000", opacity: 0.8,
// Typography
fontSize: 12, fontWeight: "bold", fontFamily: "Helvetica", fontStyle: "italic",
lineHeight: 1.5, textAlign: "center", textDecoration: "underline",
textTransform: "uppercase", letterSpacing: 1,
// Position
position: "absolute", top: 0, left: 0, right: 0, bottom: 0, zIndex: 10,
// Transforms
transform: "rotate(45deg)", transformOrigin: "center",
}
Images
Local files are most reliable. Remote URLs may fail due to network/CORS issues.
import { Image } from '@react-pdf/renderer';
<Image src="./images/photo.jpg" style={{ width: 200, height: 150 }} />
<Image src={{ data: buffer, format: 'png' }} />
SVG files cannot be used as Image sources. Read the SVG source and recreate using react-pdf Svg components.
SVG Graphics
import { Svg, Circle, Rect, Path, Line, G, Defs, LinearGradient, Stop } from "@react-pdf/renderer";
<Svg width="200" height="200" viewBox="0 0 200 200">
<Defs>
<LinearGradient id="grad1" x1="0%" y1="0%" x2="100%" y2="0%">
<Stop offset="0%" stopColor="#3498db" />
<Stop offset="100%" stopColor="#9b59b6" />
</LinearGradient>
</Defs>
<Circle cx="100" cy="100" r="50" fill="url(#grad1)" />
<Rect x="10" y="10" width="50" height="50" fill="#e74c3c" />
<Path d="M10,50 Q50,10 90,50" stroke="#2ecc71" strokeWidth="2" fill="none" />
</Svg>;
Using Icons
Read SVG source from icon libraries and convert to react-pdf Svg components:
npm install lucide-static
import { Svg, Path, Rect } from "@react-pdf/renderer";
// Converted from lucide-static/icons/mail.svg
const MailIcon = ({ size = 12, color = "#888" }) => (
<Svg width={size} height={size} viewBox="0 0 24 24">
<Path d="m22 7-8.991 5.727a2 2 0 0 1-2.009 0L2 7" stroke={color} strokeWidth={2} fill="none" />
<Rect x="2" y="4" width="20" height="16" rx="2" stroke={color} strokeWidth={2} fill="none" />
</Svg>
);
Links and Navigation
<Link src="https://example.com"><Text>Visit website</Text></Link>
<View id="section-1"><Text>Target</Text></View>
<Link src="#section-1"><Text>Jump to Section 1</Text></Link>
Dynamic Content and Page Numbers
<Text render={({ pageNumber, totalPages }) => `Page ${pageNumber} of ${totalPages}`} />
Fixed Headers/Footers
<Page size="A4">
<View fixed style={{ position: "absolute", top: 20, left: 30, right: 30 }}>
<Text>Header</Text>
</View>
<View style={{ marginTop: 60, marginBottom: 60 }}>
<Text>Content</Text>
</View>
<Text
fixed
style={{ position: "absolute", bottom: 20, left: 30, right: 30, textAlign: "center" }}
render={({ pageNumber, totalPages }) => `Page ${pageNumber} of ${totalPages}`}
/>
</Page>
Page Breaks and Wrapping
<View break /> // Force page break
<View wrap={false}><Text>Keep together</Text></View> // Prevent breaking inside
<Text orphans={2} widows={2}>Long text...</Text> // Orphan/widow control
<View minPresenceAhead={100}><Text>Content</Text></View> // Min space before break
Custom Fonts
CRITICAL: All font sources MUST be local file paths. Remote URLs do not work.
import { Font } from "@react-pdf/renderer";
Font.register({
family: "Roboto",
fonts: [
{ src: "./fonts/Roboto-Regular.ttf", fontWeight: "normal" },
{ src: "./fonts/Roboto-Bold.ttf", fontWeight: "bold" },
{ src: "./fonts/Roboto-Italic.ttf", fontStyle: "italic" },
],
});
// Always disable hyphenation when using custom fonts
Font.registerHyphenationCallback((word) => [word]);
Built-in fonts: Courier, Helvetica, Times-Roman (each with Bold, Italic/Oblique variants)
Font weight values: thin (100), ultralight (200), light (300), normal (400), medium (500), semibold (600), bold (700), ultrabold (800), heavy (900)
Google Fonts
Use {baseDir}/skills/react-pdf/references/google-fonts.txt to find font URLs, then download locally:
# Find the font URL
grep "^Roboto" {baseDir}/skills/react-pdf/references/google-fonts.txt | grep "700" | grep "normal"
# Download
mkdir -p fonts
curl -sL "<url-from-grep>" -o fonts/Roboto-Bold.ttf
# Verify - must show "TrueType Font data"
file fonts/Roboto-Bold.ttf
If file shows "HTML document" or "ASCII text", the download failed. Try a different URL or search
GitHub for the font's official repo with TTF files.
Emoji
Emoji won't render in PDFs unless you register an emoji source. Install twemoji-emojis to get
local Twemoji PNG assets — no internet needed at render time.
npm install twemoji-emojis
import { Font } from "@react-pdf/renderer";
Font.registerEmojiSource({
format: "png",
url: "node_modules/twemoji-emojis/vendor/72x72/",
});
Then use emoji directly in Text: <Text>Hello</Text>
Other Features
// Canvas drawing
<Canvas style={{ width: 200, height: 200 }}
paint={(painter, w, h) => { painter.circle(w/2, h/2, 50).fill("#3498db"); }} />
// Annotation notes
<Note style={{ color: "yellow" }}>Annotation text</Note>
// Hyphenation
Font.registerHyphenationCallback((word) => [word]); // disable
// Debug mode - visualize boundaries
<View debug><Text debug>Debug text</Text></View>
// Document metadata
<Document title="My Doc" author="Author" subject="Report" language="en-US" pdfVersion="1.5" />
Best Practices
- Use
StyleSheet.create()— define styles once and reuse - Compress images before embedding, use
cache={true}for remote images - Test page breaks — content may flow differently than expected
- Prefer flexbox over absolute positioning
- Use
fixedprop for headers/footers on every page - Use
debug={true}to visualize element boundaries - Wrap rendering in try-catch blocks
Common Issues
Text overflow: <Text style={{ width: 200, maxLines: 3, textOverflow: "ellipsis" }}>...</Text>
Missing fonts: Download locally and register with local file paths. Remote URLs will NOT work.
Unexpected page breaks: Use wrap={false} to keep content together, or <View break /> to
force breaks.
FAQ
What does the react-pdf skill do?
Generates PDF documents using the React-PDF library (@react-pdf/renderer) with TypeScript and JSX. Use when creating PDFs, generating reports, invoices, forms, resumes, or any document that needs flexbox layout, SVG graphics, custom fonts, or professional typesetting. Prefer over Python PDF libraries (ReportLab, fpdf2) when layout complexity matters.
How do I install react-pdf?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/trailofbits/skills-curated --skill react-pdf in your project. The skills CLI detects the agents you use and copies the skill into the right folder. For Claude Code you can also place the skill folder at ~/.claude/skills/react-pdf/ (personal) or .claude/skills/react-pdf/ (project).
Which AI agents can use react-pdf?
Any agent that supports the open Agent Skills format (a folder with a SKILL.md file), including Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, OpenCode and more.
Is react-pdf safe to install?
No partner security audit is available yet. Skills can run commands and scripts, so read the SKILL.md and any bundled files before installing.
Who maintains react-pdf?
It is published by trailofbits in trailofbits/skills-curated. It has 85 recorded installs.
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