lightweight-pdfv0.3.0

CASOON Open Source

Business PDFs from pure Rust.

lightweight-pdf builds invoices, quotes, reports and certificates from a fixed set of layout primitives – with its own PDF writer and TrueType subsetter, natively or as wasm32 inside a Cloudflare Worker.

cargo add lightweight-pdf
cargo install lightweight-pdf-cli
MITcrates.io 0.3.0wasm32-unknown-unknownPDF/A-3b · PDF/UA-1
Page 1 of the demo invoice down to the totals: logo, address block, invoice details, two positions and subtotal, VAT and total of EUR 535.50.
examples/demo_invoice.rs, rendered during this site's build · open the PDF
required third-party dependency (skrifa, for font parsing)
1
demo invoice PDF from this build, fonts subset and embedded
23.4 KiB
gzipped WASM module with fonts, measured with wrangler
590 KiB
per invoice, quote or report, native release build
~4 ms

What it does

Generated at build time

All examples →
$ lwpdf validate examples/invoice-template.json --data examples/invoice-data.json
ok: examples/invoice-template.json is valid
$ lwpdf render examples/invoice-template.json --data examples/invoice-data.json -o invoice.pdf
wrote invoice.pdf (10435 bytes)

Captured while this site was built: the lwpdf CLI validating and rendering the template from examples/. The PDF it wrote is in the showcase.

scripts/render-site-showcase.sh

Quickstart

Three steps from install to a first PDF. The full walkthrough lives in the documentation.

  1. Add the crate: cargo add lightweight-pdf.
  2. Build a Document from text, tables, rows, lists and images.
  3. Call render() and write the bytes wherever you need them – or skip Rust and render JSON with lwpdf.
Read the documentation
main.rsRust
use lightweight_pdf::*;

let mut doc = Document::new(PageFormat::A4)
    .margin(Margin::all(20.0))
    .footer(Footer::new(20.0, |ctx| {
        Text::new(format!("Page {} of {}", ctx.page, ctx.total_pages)).into()
    }));

doc.add(Text::new("Invoice").heading1());
doc.add(
    Table::new()
        .columns([TableColumn::flex(1.0), TableColumn::fixed(60.0).align(Align::End)])
        .header(["Item", "Amount"])
        .rows(vec![vec![Element::from("Consulting"), Element::from("1,200.00 USD")]]),
);

let bytes = doc.render().expect("render should succeed");
std::fs::write("invoice.pdf", bytes).unwrap();
terminalCLI
lwpdf render examples/invoice-template.json \
  --data examples/invoice-data.json -o invoice.pdf

New in v0.3.0

Changelog →

Frequently asked questions

Does lightweight-pdf depend on a typesetting engine or a headless browser?

No. It has its own PDF writer (objects, xref, streams) and its own TrueType subsetter – the only required third-party dependency is skrifa, for font parsing.

Can it run at the edge, e.g. in a Cloudflare Worker?

Yes. The crate builds as wasm32-unknown-unknown, CI gates the gzipped WASM size against a baseline, and examples/ has a Cloudflare Worker starter plus a browser playground.

Do I need to write Rust to generate a PDF?

No. Documents can be plain JSON, and templates resolve {{placeholders}} and $each rows against a data file – the lwpdf CLI renders, validates and inspects both without any Rust code.

Does it support compliance formats like PDF/A or ZUGFeRD?

Yes: PDF/A-3b, ZUGFeRD/Factur-X invoice XML embedding, and Tagged PDF/PDF-UA-1 output are each behind a Cargo feature and verified with veraPDF (ZUGFeRD also with Mustang).

How does pagination work for long documents?

A two-pass layout keeps "Page X of Y" stable, splits tables across pages with a repeating header, honours widow/orphan and keep-with-next rules, and fills a table of contents with real page numbers.