forme

PDF generation with JSX. Page breaks that actually work.

Why

Every PDF tool makes you choose: fight with CSS page breaks or use an editor that can't handle dynamic data. Forme is a layout engine built for pages. No headless browser. No Chrome. Renders in milliseconds. Runs anywhere Node runs.

Try it in the playground

Quick Start

npm install @formepdf/cli @formepdf/react @formepdf/core

import { Document, Page, View, Text } from '@formepdf/react';
import { renderDocument } from '@formepdf/core';

const pdf = await renderDocument(
  <Document>
    <Page size="Letter" margin={36}>
      <Text style={{ fontSize: 24, fontWeight: 'bold' }}>Invoice #2024-001</Text>
      <View style={{ flexDirection: 'row', justifyContent: 'space-between', marginTop: 24 }}>
        <Text>Widget Pro</Text>
        <Text>$49.00</Text>
      </View>
    </Page>
  </Document>
);

// pdf is a Uint8Array: save it, serve it, email it

Dev Server

npx forme dev invoice.tsx --data sample.json

Live preview with debug overlays. Click any element to inspect its computed styles.

VS Code Extension

Install Forme PDF Preview from the VS Code Marketplace.

• Live PDF preview in a webview panel
• Component tree in the sidebar with hover-to-highlight
• Inspector panel with box model, computed styles, and source navigation
• Click any element on the canvas to select it in the tree and inspector

Features

• Page-native layout: Content flows into pages, not onto an infinite canvas. Page breaks happen at the right place, every time.
• React components: Document, Page, View, Text, Image, Table. If you know React, you know Forme.
• Live preview: forme dev shows your PDF updating in real time as you edit.
• Click-to-inspect: Select any element in the browser or VS Code to see its box model, computed styles, and position.
• Debug overlays: Toggle bounding boxes, margins, and page break points.
• Fast: Rust engine compiled to WASM. Renders in milliseconds, not seconds.
• OpenType shaping: Real GSUB/GPOS shaping via rustybuzz. Ligatures (fi, ffi), kerning (AV), and contextual forms render correctly with custom fonts.
• Optimal line breaking: Knuth-Plass algorithm (the same one TeX uses) considers the entire paragraph to minimize awkward spacing. Falls back to greedy when needed.
• Hyphenation: Automatic hyphenation in 35+ languages. Set hyphens: 'auto' and a lang tag. Uses the hypher crate with language-specific dictionaries.
• BiDi text: Right-to-left text (Arabic, Hebrew) with automatic direction detection. Mixed LTR/RTL paragraphs reorder correctly. Set direction: 'rtl' or direction: 'auto'.
• CSS Grid: 2D grid layout with display: 'grid'. Fixed, fractional (fr), and auto track sizing. Explicit placement, auto-placement, column/row spanning, and row-level page breaks.
• Flex wrap + align-content: Flex containers wrap across pages correctly. align-content distributes wrapped lines (center, space-between, space-around, space-evenly, flex-end, stretch).
• Widow/orphan control: Text paragraphs never leave a single orphan line at the bottom of a page or a single widow line at the top. Configurable via minWidowLines and minOrphanLines.
• Table overflow: Table cells with content taller than a page are preserved across page breaks, not silently clipped.
• Absolute positioning: position: 'absolute' with top, right, bottom, left relative to the parent View.
• Column flex: justifyContent and alignItems work in both row and column directions.
• SVG: Inline SVG rendering with support for rect, circle, ellipse, line, polyline, polygon, and path elements.
• QR codes: Built-in <QrCode> component. Vector-based, crisp at any zoom level.
• Text overflow: textOverflow: 'ellipsis' truncates single-line text with "..." when it exceeds available width. Also supports 'clip'.
• Builtin Unicode support: Noto Sans is bundled - Cyrillic, Greek, and other non-Latin scripts work out of the box without registering fonts.
• Font fallback chains: fontFamily: "Inter, Helvetica" tries each font in order, falling back automatically.
• Custom fonts: TrueType font embedding with automatic subsetting.
• Links: Add href to any <Text>, <View>, <Image>, or <Svg> for clickable PDF links.
• Bookmarks: Add bookmark to any element for PDF outline entries. Navigate long documents from the bookmark panel.
• Inline text styling: Nest <Text> inside <Text> to bold a word, change colors mid-sentence, or apply strikethrough.
• Images: JPEG, PNG, and WebP with transparency support. alt text for accessibility.
• CSS shorthands: border: "1px solid #000", padding: "8 16", margin: [20, 40] — CSS-style shorthand strings and arrays parse automatically.
• Document language: <Document lang="en-US"> sets the PDF /Lang tag for accessibility.
• Dynamic page numbers: {{pageNumber}} and {{totalPages}} in any text element.
• Embedded data: Attach structured JSON to any PDF. Recipients can extract the original data programmatically — invoices carry their line items, reports carry their datasets.

Custom Fonts

Register TrueType fonts globally or per-document:

import { Font, Document, Text } from '@formepdf/react';
import { renderDocument } from '@formepdf/core';

// Global registration (works like react-pdf)
Font.register({
  family: 'Inter',
  src: './fonts/Inter-Regular.ttf',
});

Font.register({
  family: 'Inter',
  src: './fonts/Inter-Bold.ttf',
  fontWeight: 'bold',
});

const pdf = await renderDocument(
  <Document>
    <Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter', fontSize: 16 }}>
      Regular text
    </Text>
    <Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter', fontSize: 16, fontWeight: 'bold' }}>
      Bold text
    </Text>
  </Document>
);

Or pass fonts directly on the Document:

<Document fonts={[
  { family: 'Roboto', src: './fonts/Roboto-Regular.ttf' },
  { family: 'Roboto', src: './fonts/Roboto-Italic.ttf', fontStyle: 'italic' },
]}>

Font sources can be file paths, data URIs, or Uint8Array. Fonts are automatically subsetted — only glyphs used in the document are embedded.

Components

Component	Description
<Document>	Root element. title, author, lang, fonts, style.
<Page>	A page. size, margin (number, string, array, or edges).
<View>	Container. Flexbox layout. href, bookmark.
<Text>	Text content. Fonts, sizes, colors. href, bookmark.
<Image>	JPEG or PNG. href, alt. Aspect ratio preserved.
<Table>	Table with column definitions.
<Row>	Table row. header for repeating on page breaks.
<Cell>	Table cell. colSpan, rowSpan.
<Svg>	Inline SVG graphics. href, alt.
<QrCode>	QR code. data, size, color. Vector-based.
<Canvas>	Arbitrary vector drawing via draw callback.
<BarChart>	Bar chart. data, color, showGrid, showValues.
<LineChart>	Line chart. data, color, showDots, showArea.
<PieChart>	Pie/donut chart. data, innerRadius, showLabels.
<Watermark>	Rotated text behind page content. text, fontSize, color, angle.
<Fixed>	Repeating header or footer.
<PageBreak>	Force a page break.

Comparison

	Forme	react-pdf	Puppeteer
Page breaks	Page-native (widow/orphan aware)	Broken for 7 years	CSS page-break (fragile)
Table header repetition	Automatic on every page	Not built in	Inconsistent <thead>
Line breaking	Knuth-Plass optimal (TeX algorithm)	Greedy	Browser engine
Hyphenation	35+ languages, automatic	Via callback	Browser engine
Text shaping	OpenType GSUB/GPOS (ligatures, kerning)	Basic	Full browser shaping
BiDi text	RTL, mixed LTR/RTL, auto-detection	No	Full browser BiDi
CSS Grid	display: 'grid' with fr/auto/fixed tracks	No	Full CSS Grid
Live preview	Built-in dev server	Render to file	Run script, open file
Click-to-inspect	VS Code, Cursor, WebStorm	No	No
Render speed	~28ms (4-page report)	~100-500ms	~1-5s (Chrome boot)
Memory per render	No browser process (WASM)	~50-100MB	~50-200MB
SVG	Basic shapes and paths	Yes	Full browser SVG
Links	href prop on Text/View/Image/Svg	<Link> component	HTML <a> tags
Bookmarks	bookmark prop on any element	Yes	No
QR codes	Built-in <QrCode> component	No	Via HTML/JS libraries
Charts	Built-in BarChart, LineChart, PieChart	No	Via HTML/JS libraries
VS Code extension	Native sidebar panels	No	No
Canvas drawing	<Canvas draw={...}> for custom vector graphics	No	HTML Canvas (raster)
Watermarks	Built-in <Watermark> component	No	Manual positioning
Embedded data	Attach JSON to PDF, extract later	No	No
Text overflow	textOverflow: 'ellipsis'	No	CSS text-overflow
Font fallback	fontFamily: "Inter, Helvetica"	Single family only	Full CSS font stack
Custom fonts	TTF with OpenType shaping	Yes	Yes
Dependencies	None (WASM)	yoga-layout	Chrome/Chromium
Runs in-process	Yes	Yes	No (subprocess)

Templates

See the templates/ directory for production-ready examples:

• Invoice
• Product Catalog
• Receipt
• Report
• Shipping Label
• Typography
• Grid Dashboard
• Event Ticket

Documentation

Full docs at docs.formepdf.com

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome.

License

MIT