PDF to PDF Node.js Examples

These examples demonstrate common PDF to PDF API workflows in Node.js.

Basic examples

Multiple PDFs to PDF file

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// Create an API client instance.
var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

try {
    // Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/cover.pdf");
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf");
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/price.pdf");
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/contact.pdf");
} catch(why) {
    // Report the error.
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
client.convertToFile(
    "offer.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Multiple PDFs to PDF file via callback

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// Create an API client instance.
var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

try {
    // Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/cover.pdf");
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf");
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/price.pdf");
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/contact.pdf");
} catch(why) {
    // Report the error.
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// use predefined callback for saving to a file
var callbacks = pdfcrowd.saveToFile("offer.pdf");

// set custom error callback
callbacks.error = function(errMessage, statusCode) {
    // use predefined helper class for errors
    const error = new pdfcrowd.Pdfcrowd.Error(errMessage, statusCode);
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + error);
};

// Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
client.convert(callbacks);

Multiple in-memory PDFs to PDF file

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");
var fs = require("fs");

// Create an API client instance.
var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

try {
    // Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/cover.pdf"));
    client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/proposal.pdf"));
    client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/price.pdf"));
    client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/contact.pdf"));
} catch(why) {
    // Report the error.
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
client.convertToFile(
    "offer.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Join 2 in-memory PDFs together with 2 local PDF files to PDF file

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");
var fs = require("fs");

// Create an API client instance.
var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

try {
    // Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/cover.pdf"));
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf");
    client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/price.pdf"));
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/contact.pdf");
} catch(why) {
    // Report the error.
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
client.convertToFile(
    "offer.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Watermark a PDF file

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// Create an API client instance.
var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

try {
    // Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf");
    client.setPageWatermark("/path/to/watermark.pdf");
} catch(why) {
    // Report the error.
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
client.convertToFile(
    "company_offer.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Linearize a PDF file

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// Create an API client instance.
var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

try {
    // Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/path/to/not_linearized.pdf");
    client.setLinearize(true);
} catch(why) {
    // Report the error.
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
client.convertToFile(
    "linearized.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Get info about the current conversion

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");
var fs = require("fs");

// Create an API client instance.
var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

try {
    // Configure the conversion.
    client.setDebugLog(true);
    client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/cover.pdf"));
    client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/proposal.pdf"));
} catch(why) {
    // Report the error.
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
client.convertToFile(
    "offer.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
        
        // print URL pointing to the debug log for this request.
        console.log("Debug log url: " + client.getDebugLogUrl());
        
        // print number of conversion credits remaining in your account.
        console.log("Remaining credit count: " + client.getRemainingCreditCount());
        
        // print number of credits consumed for this conversion.
        console.log("Consumed credit count: " + client.getConsumedCreditCount());
        
        // print unique identifier assigned to this conversion job.
        console.log("Job id: " + client.getJobId());
        
        // print total number of pages in the output document.
        console.log("Page count: " + client.getPageCount());
        
        // print size of the output data in bytes.
        console.log("Output size: " + client.getOutputSize());
    });

PDF manipulation examples

Extract page 3 and all pages from 7 to the end from the PDF file

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// Create an API client instance.
var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

try {
    // Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/your-path-to/pdfs/13_pages.pdf");
    client.setAction("extract");
    client.setPageRange("3,7-");
} catch(why) {
    // Report the error.
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
client.convertToFile(
    "output.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Delete the first 3 pages and the 10th page from the PDF file

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// Create an API client instance.
var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

try {
    // Configure the conversion.
    client.addPdfFile("/your-path-to/pdfs/13_pages.pdf");
    client.setAction("delete");
    client.setPageRange("1-3,10");
} catch(why) {
    // Report the error.
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}

// Run the conversion and save the result to a file.
client.convertToFile(
    "output.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Split the PDF file into two separate files at the 10th page

var pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");
var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

try {
    client.addPdfFile("/your-path-to/pdfs/13_pages.pdf");
    client.setAction("extract");
    client.setPageRange("1-10");
    client.convertToFile("pages1-10.pdf");
    client.setPageRange("11-");
} catch(why) {
    console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + why);
    process.exit(1);
}
client.convertToFile(
    "pages11-end.pdf",
    function(err, fileName) {
        if (err) return console.error("PDFCrowd Error: " + err);
        console.log("Success: the file was created " + fileName);
    });

Express.js examples

Multiple PDFs to PDF in Express.js

"use strict";

const express = require("express");
const app = express();
const pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");

// The recommended method is POST.
app.post("/", (req, res) => {
    // Create an API client instance.
    var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

    // configure the callback to send a file in the HTTP response
    var callbacks = pdfcrowd.sendGenericHttpResponse(
        res, "application/pdf", "offer.pdf", "attachment");

    // configure the callback to send an error in the HTTP response
    callbacks.error = function(errMessage, statusCode) {
        res.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain');
        res.status(statusCode || 400);
        res.send(errMessage);
    }

    // Configure the conversion.
    try {
        client.addPdfFile("/path/to/cover.pdf");
        client.addPdfFile("/path/to/proposal.pdf");
        client.addPdfFile("/path/to/price.pdf");
        client.addPdfFile("/path/to/contact.pdf");
    } catch(why) {
        if(why instanceof pdfcrowd.Pdfcrowd.Error) {
            callbacks.error(why.toString(), why.getStatusCode());
        } else {
            callbacks.error(why);
        }
        return;
    }

    // Run the conversion.
    client.convert(callbacks);
});

module.exports = app;

Multiple in-memory PDFs to PDF in Express.js

"use strict";

const express = require("express");
const app = express();
const pdfcrowd = require("pdfcrowd");
var fs = require("fs");

// The recommended method is POST.
app.post("/", (req, res) => {
    // Create an API client instance.
    var client = new pdfcrowd.PdfToPdfClient("demo", "demo");

    // configure the callback to send a file in the HTTP response
    var callbacks = pdfcrowd.sendGenericHttpResponse(
        res, "application/pdf", "offer.pdf", "attachment");

    // configure the callback to send an error in the HTTP response
    callbacks.error = function(errMessage, statusCode) {
        res.set('Content-Type', 'text/plain');
        res.status(statusCode || 400);
        res.send(errMessage);
    }

    // Configure the conversion.
    try {
        client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/cover.pdf"));
        client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/proposal.pdf"));
        client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/price.pdf"));
        client.addPdfRawData(fs.readFileSync("/path/to/contact.pdf"));
    } catch(why) {
        if(why instanceof pdfcrowd.Pdfcrowd.Error) {
            callbacks.error(why.toString(), why.getStatusCode());
        } else {
            callbacks.error(why);
        }
        return;
    }

    // Run the conversion.
    client.convert(callbacks);
});

module.exports = app;