As developers ourselves, we faced many issues such as browser incompatibility and customizability while trying to render a PDF document or working with PDF libraries. Having faced issues using PDF libraries, we want the solution to be flexible for React.js developers and teams. More importantly, the technical document must be easy to use!
For the full feature set, visit React PDF Kit Features.
Here’s how to get started with React PDF Kit in your React.js project:
Here are the basic system requirements to run the React PDF Viewer component:
If you are working with a React framework such as Next.js (App Router and Pages Router) or Gatsby, React PDF can run smoothly as long as you are using React 18 and above.
React PDF also works well with other React.js UI libraries such as MUI, Ant Design and Chakra UI.
Although React PDF Kit can run on most JavaScript module bundlers, it is more vigorously tested on Vite and Webpack.
Remark:
- If using TypeScript, it requires >= TypeScript 4.6.
Starting from @react-pdf-kit/viewer@^2.0.0, we officially support PDF.js 5 and default to PDF.js 5.4.530.
As newer PDF.js versions rely on more modern browser APIs, minimum supported browser versions have changed. Please review the compatibility details below before choosing a PDF.js version.
React PDF Kit v2.0.0 defaults to PDF.js 5.4.530.
| Chrome | Firefox | Edge | Safari | Safari iOS | Chrome Android |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 126+ | 126+ | 126+ | 18.4+ | 18.4+ | 126+ |
If you need broader browser compatibility, you can continue using PDF.js 4.10.38, which supports:
| Chrome | Firefox | Edge | Safari | Safari iOS | Chrome Android |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 119+ | 115+ | 115+ | 17.4+ | 17.4+ | 126+ |
To change the version of PDF.js used, refer to Dependency Override guide.
There are a few ways you can install React PDF Kit, namely bun, npm, pnpm or yarn.
bun add @react-pdf-kit/viewer
bunTo clear cache, try running bun pm cache rm to remove cache in the global cache directory. If the error remains, try executing the following steps:
rm bun.lockb
rm -R node_modules
npm install @react-pdf-kit/viewer
yarn add @react-pdf-kit/viewer
pnpm add @react-pdf-kit/viewer
For more information on how to use different package managers, please visit our installation guide.
The following structure demonstrates how to build a React PDF viewer by importing and assembling components. This modular approach gives you the flexibility to customize the viewer as needed.
<RPConfig> {/* Configuration license and pdfjs-dist worker */}
<RPTheme> {/* Theme customization (optional) */}
<RPProvider> {/* Viewer context provider */}
<RPLayout toolbar> {/* Provide the default toolbar structure */}
<RPPages /> {/* Render the actual PDF content */}
</RPLayout>
</RPProvider>
</RPTheme>
</RPConfig>
Remark: For more information on each component, please refer to Component.
The most basic usage of React PDF viewer needs four components, namely: RPConfig, RPProvider, RPLayout, and RPPages.
Here’s how to implement a basic PDF viewer in a React application:
import { RPProvider, RPLayout, RPPages, RPConfig } from '@react-pdf-kit/viewer'
const App = () => {
return (
<RPConfig>
<RPProvider src="https://cdn.codewithmosh.com/image/upload/v1721763853/guides/web-roadmap.pdf">
<RPLayout toolbar style=>
<RPPages />
</RPLayout>
</RPProvider>
</RPConfig>
)
}
export default App
The PDF viewer will automatically adjust to fit its container’s dimensions. You can control the size by setting the style prop on RPLayout. For more information on using React PDF, visit our basic usage guide
You may also check out our Starter Toolkit for examples to get you started.
To enhance React PDF Kit further, we offer built-in hooks and props that let you fine-tune functionality, adjust appearance, and integrate custom behaviors into your application.
For detailed usage, refer to our Documentation.
React PDF Kit supports multiple languages out of the box. Pass a locale JSON file to RPConfig to translate all viewer text:
import zhCN from './localization/zh_CN.json'
<RPConfig localization={zhCN}>
{/* ... */}
</RPConfig>
We ship locale files for English, Italian, Portuguese, Thai, and Chinese (Simplified). You can also create your own – see the Localization Guide for the full list of translation keys and instructions on adding a new language. If you’ve created a locale we don’t support yet, feel free to open a PR to share it with the community!
Here are some sample projects to get started on React PDF quickly:
Check out our latest release v2.4.0 (24 April 2026)
We are more than happy to help you. If you have any questions, run into any errors or face any problems, please feel free to create an issue in Issues or PM us directly in Twitter. Anything related to React PDF is on the table!
React PDF Kit is distributed under our proprietary license. Please refer to our License page file for more details.
If you would like to use React PDF commercially, please purchase a license from our website or reach out to us directly at https://www.react-pdf-kit.dev/contact-us.