How to generate pixel perfect pdf documents using nodejs and jasper report?
I needed a way to produce dynamic pdf documents and reports from my nodejs backend server.
We can categorize solutions into 4 main category, this depends on how you design your document:
| # | Category | Desc |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | html based document |
design your document using html and then use tools to render and convert html page to pdf. Such tools are:
- html-pdf (145k weekly npm downloads) - html-to-pdfmake (24k weekly npm downloads) - pdf-creator-node (10k weekly npm downloads) - htmltopdf (less than 1k npm downloads) - html-to-pdf (less than 1k npm doanloads) - phantomjs headless |
| 2 | Microsoft word |
Using Microsoft word you can design your template document, generate final word document and then produce pdf from it.
- docxtemplater (41k npm downloads) |
| 3 | javascript code |
In this category, you can design your template using code with specific semantics then produce pdf documents from it.
- pdfmake (618K weekly npm downloads) |
| 4 | jasper report studio |
using Jaspersoft studio you can design you report. Then you can compile it using command line tools and generate pdf documents for your consumption.
- jasper studio and jasper report |
I had some success with category 4 using jasper way of designing documents and producing reports.
In next tutorials I will explain more details on how to use jasper reports to design and produce pdf documents.