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

• 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

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

npm install pdf2html

yarn add pdf2html

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.

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 });

// 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);

// 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, });

// 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 // }

// 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) });

// 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 });

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

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); } } }

// 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 }

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

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<T>(operation: () => Promise<T>, fallback: T): Promise<T> { 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 );

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

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);

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

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); } }

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<string> - HTML content

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<string> - Extracted text

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<string[]> - Array of HTML or text strings

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<object> - Metadata object

Generates a thumbnail image from PDF.

• input string | Buffer - Path to the PDF file or PDF buffer
• options object (optional)
  • page number - Page to thumbnail (default: 1)
  • imageType string - 'png' or 'jpg' (default: 'png')
  • width number - Thumbnail width (default: 160)
  • height number - Thumbnail height (default: 226)
  • maxBuffer number - Maximum buffer size in bytes
• Returns: Promise<string> - Path to generated thumbnail

If automatic download fails (e.g., due to network restrictions), you can manually download the dependencies:

1. Create the vendor directory:

   mkdir -p node_modules/pdf2html/vendor

2. Download the required JAR files:

   cd node_modules/pdf2html/vendor # Download Apache PDFBox wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/pdfbox/2.0.34/pdfbox-app-2.0.34.jar # Download Apache Tika wget https://archive.apache.org/dist/tika/3.2.0/tika-app-3.2.0.jar

3. Verify the files are in place:

   ls -la node_modules/pdf2html/vendor/ # Should show both JAR files

1. "Java is not installed"

   • Install Java JRE 8 or higher
   • Ensure java is in your system PATH
   • Verify with: java -version

2. "File not found" errors

   • Check that the PDF path is correct
   • Use absolute paths for better reliability
   • Ensure the file has read permissions

3. "Buffer size exceeded"

   • Increase maxBuffer option
   • Process large PDFs page by page
   • Consider splitting very large PDFs

4. "Download failed during installation"

   • Check internet connection
   • Try manual installation (see above)
   • Check proxy settings if behind firewall

Enable debug output for troubleshooting:

DEBUG=pdf2html node your-script.js

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

• Apache Tika - Content analysis toolkit
• Apache PDFBox - PDF manipulation library

• Production: Apache Tika 3.2.0, Apache PDFBox 2.0.34
• Development: See package.json for development dependencies

Made with ❤️ by the pdf2html community