pdf2html


> Convert PDF files to HTML, extract text, generate thumbnails, extract images, and extract metadata using Apache Tika and PDFBox

🚀 Features

- PDF to HTML conversion - Maintains formatting and structure
- Text extraction - Extract plain text content from PDFs
- Page-by-page processing - Process PDFs page by page
- Metadata extraction - Extract author, title, creation date, and more
- Thumbnail generation - Generate preview images from PDF pages
- Image extraction - Extract all embedded images from PDFs
- Buffer support - Process PDFs from memory buffers or file paths
- TypeScript support - Full type definitions included
- Async/Promise based - Modern async API
- Configurable - Extensive options for customization

📋 Prerequisites

- Node.js >= 12.0.0
- Java Runtime Environment (JRE) >= 8
- Required for Apache Tika and PDFBox
- Download Java

📦 Installation

$3

``bash
npm install pdf2html
`

$3

`bash
yarn add pdf2html
`

$3

`bash
pnpm add pdf2html
`

The installation process will automatically download the required Apache Tika and PDFBox JAR files. You'll see a progress indicator during the download.

🔧 Basic Usage

$3

`javascript
const pdf2html = require('pdf2html');
const fs = require('fs');

// From file path
const html = await pdf2html.html('path/to/document.pdf');
console.log(html);

// From buffer
const pdfBuffer = fs.readFileSync('path/to/document.pdf');
const html = await pdf2html.html(pdfBuffer);
console.log(html);

// With options
const html = await pdf2html.html(pdfBuffer, {
maxBuffer: 1024 1024 10, // 10MB buffer
});
`

$3

`javascript
// From file path
const text = await pdf2html.text('path/to/document.pdf');

// From buffer
const pdfBuffer = fs.readFileSync('path/to/document.pdf');
const text = await pdf2html.text(pdfBuffer);
console.log(text);
`

$3

`javascript
// From file path
const htmlPages = await pdf2html.pages('path/to/document.pdf');

// From buffer
const pdfBuffer = fs.readFileSync('path/to/document.pdf');
const htmlPages = await pdf2html.pages(pdfBuffer);
htmlPages.forEach((page, index) => {
console.log(Page ${index + 1}:, page);
});

// Get text for each page
const textPages = await pdf2html.pages(pdfBuffer, {
text: true,
});
`

$3

`javascript
// From file path or buffer
const metadata = await pdf2html.meta(pdfBuffer);
console.log(metadata);
// Output: {
// title: 'Document Title',
// author: 'John Doe',
// subject: 'Document Subject',
// keywords: 'pdf, conversion',
// creator: 'Microsoft Word',
// producer: 'Adobe PDF Library',
// creationDate: '2023-01-01T00:00:00Z',
// modificationDate: '2023-01-02T00:00:00Z',
// pages: 10
// }
`

$3

`javascript
// From file path
const thumbnailPath = await pdf2html.thumbnail('path/to/document.pdf');

// From buffer
const pdfBuffer = fs.readFileSync('path/to/document.pdf');
const thumbnailPath = await pdf2html.thumbnail(pdfBuffer);
console.log('Thumbnail saved to:', thumbnailPath);

// Custom thumbnail options
const thumbnailPath = await pdf2html.thumbnail(pdfBuffer, {
page: 1, // Page number (default: 1)
imageType: 'png', // 'png' or 'jpg' (default: 'png')
width: 300, // Width in pixels (default: 160)
height: 400, // Height in pixels (default: 226)
});
`

$3

`javascript
// From file path
const imagePaths = await pdf2html.extractImages('path/to/document.pdf');
console.log('Extracted images:', imagePaths);
// Output: ['/absolute/path/to/files/image/document1.jpg', '/absolute/path/to/files/image/document2.png', ...]

// From buffer
const pdfBuffer = fs.readFileSync('path/to/document.pdf');
const imagePaths = await pdf2html.extractImages(pdfBuffer);

// With custom output directory
const imagePaths = await pdf2html.extractImages(pdfBuffer, {
outputDirectory: './extracted-images', // Custom output directory
});

// With custom buffer size for large PDFs
const imagePaths = await pdf2html.extractImages('large-document.pdf', {
outputDirectory: './output',
maxBuffer: 1024 1024 10, // 10MB buffer
});
`

💻 TypeScript Support

This package includes TypeScript type definitions out of the box. No need to install @types/pdf2html.

$3

`typescript
import * as pdf2html from 'pdf2html';
// or
import { html, text, pages, meta, thumbnail, extractImages, PDFMetadata, PDFProcessingError } from 'pdf2html';

async function convertPDF() {
try {
// All methods accept string paths or Buffers
const htmlContent: string = await pdf2html.html('document.pdf');
const textContent: string = await pdf2html.text(Buffer.from(pdfData));

// Full type safety for options
const thumbnailPath = await pdf2html.thumbnail('document.pdf', {
page: 1, // number
imageType: 'png', // 'png' | 'jpg'
width: 300, // number
height: 400, // number
});

// TypeScript knows the shape of metadata
const metadata: PDFMetadata = await pdf2html.meta('document.pdf');
console.log(metadata['pdf:producer']); // string | undefined
console.log(metadata.resourceName); // string | undefined
} catch (error) {
if (error instanceof pdf2html.PDFProcessingError) {
console.error('PDF processing failed:', error.message);
console.error('Exit code:', error.exitCode);
}
}
}
`

$3

`typescript
// Input types - all methods accept either file paths or Buffers
type PDFInput = string | Buffer;

// Options interfaces
interface ProcessingOptions {
maxBuffer?: number; // Maximum buffer size in bytes
}

interface PageOptions extends ProcessingOptions {
text?: boolean; // Extract text instead of HTML
}

interface ThumbnailOptions extends ProcessingOptions {
page?: number; // Page number (default: 1)
imageType?: 'png' | 'jpg'; // Image format (default: 'png')
width?: number; // Width in pixels (default: 160)
height?: number; // Height in pixels (default: 226)
}

// Metadata structure with common fields
interface PDFMetadata {
'pdf:PDFVersion'?: string;
'pdf:producer'?: string;
'xmp:CreatorTool'?: string;
'dc:title'?: string;
'dc:creator'?: string;
resourceName?: string;
[key: string]: any; // Allows additional properties
}

// Error class
class PDFProcessingError extends Error {
command?: string; // The command that failed
exitCode?: number; // The process exit code
}
`

$3

Full IntelliSense support in VS Code and other TypeScript-aware editors:

- Auto-completion for all methods and options
- Inline documentation on hover
- Type checking at compile time
- Catch errors before runtime

$3

`typescript
import { PDFProcessor, utils } from 'pdf2html';

// Using the PDFProcessor class directly
const html = await PDFProcessor.toHTML('document.pdf');

// Using utility classes
const { FileManager, HTMLParser } = utils;
await FileManager.ensureDirectories();

// Type guards
function isPDFProcessingError(error: unknown): error is pdf2html.PDFProcessingError {
return error instanceof pdf2html.PDFProcessingError;
}

// Generic helper with proper typing
async function processPDFSafely(operation: () => Promise, fallback: T): Promise {
try {
return await operation();
} catch (error) {
if (isPDFProcessingError(error)) {
console.error(PDF operation failed: ${error.message});
}
return fallback;
}
}

// Usage
const pages = await processPDFSafely(
() => pdf2html.pages('document.pdf', { text: true }),
[] // fallback to empty array
);
`

⚙️ Advanced Configuration

$3

By default, the maximum buffer size is 2MB. For large PDFs, you may need to increase this:

`javascript
const options = {
maxBuffer: 1024 1024 50, // 50MB buffer
};

// Apply to any method
await pdf2html.html('large-file.pdf', options);
await pdf2html.text('large-file.pdf', options);
await pdf2html.pages('large-file.pdf', options);
await pdf2html.meta('large-file.pdf', options);
await pdf2html.thumbnail('large-file.pdf', options);
`

$3

Always wrap your calls in try-catch blocks for proper error handling:

`javascript
try {
const html = await pdf2html.html('document.pdf');
// Process HTML
} catch (error) {
if (error.code === 'ENOENT') {
console.error('PDF file not found');
} else if (error.message.includes('Java')) {
console.error('Java is not installed or not in PATH');
} else {
console.error('PDF processing failed:', error.message);
}
}
`

🏗️ API Reference

$3

Converts PDF to HTML format.

- input string | Buffer - Path to the PDF file or PDF buffer
- options object (optional)
- maxBuffer number - Maximum buffer size in bytes (default: 2MB)
- Returns: Promise - HTML content

$3

Extracts text from PDF.

- input string | Buffer - Path to the PDF file or PDF buffer
- options object (optional)
- maxBuffer number - Maximum buffer size in bytes
- Returns: Promise - Extracted text

$3

Processes PDF page by page.

- input string | Buffer - Path to the PDF file or PDF buffer
- options object (optional)
- text boolean - Extract text instead of HTML (default: false)
- maxBuffer number - Maximum buffer size in bytes
- Returns: Promise - Array of HTML or text strings

$3

Extracts PDF metadata.

- input string | Buffer - Path to the PDF file or PDF buffer
- options object (optional)
- maxBuffer number - Maximum buffer size in bytes
- Returns: Promise