Our take
Newless than six months old and changing fast- Activity
- 53
- Community
- 42
- Issues
- 60
- Pull requests
- 39
- Slower to merge pull requests than 86% of the projects we track
pdfcn is a promising, actively changing React PDF component collection, but its young age and lack of published releases make it worth evaluating in your own rendering workflow before relying on it for production documents.
Good fit if
- You build in React and want customizable PDF components built on Takumi or Forme.
- You value shadcn/ui-style component installation and owning the copied code.
- You are comfortable evaluating a new project that has recent development activity and multiple contributors, but no published release history yet.
Look elsewhere if
- Your application does not use React or requires a PDF workflow outside the Takumi and Forme options described by the project.
- You need a project with a published release track or documented test suite before adoption.
- Your runtime cannot meet the stated Node.js version requirement.
All health signals
| Last commit | 2026-10-15 (6 days ago) |
|---|---|
| Commits, last 90 days | 100+ |
| Releases, last 12 months | 0 |
| Contributors | 11 (top contributor: 71% of commits) |
| Issues closed, last 90 days | 19 (typically closed in 9 days) |
| Pull requests merged, last 90 days | 21 (typically merged in 4 days) |
| Project age | 2 months |
Checked on 2026-10-21 with the GitHub API.
Overview
pdfcn is a collection of ready-to-use, customizable PDF components for React, built on Takumi and Forme and designed to work with shadcn/ui. It gives developers a way to compose PDFs from React components and blocks rather than starting each document layout from scratch.
The project offers two rendering bases and examples such as tables, forms, charts, invoices, and reports. Components can be copied into an application and customized there. See the documentation for setup and component details.
Key Features
- Choose between Takumi and Forme as PDF rendering bases.
- Compose documents from focused React components and renderer primitives.
- Use ready-made components and blocks for tables, forms, charts, invoices, and reports.
- Customize component props and shared themes, with code owned in the application.
- Preview components and blocks in the documentation.
- Follow a registry format and CLI workflow compatible with shadcn/ui.
Use Cases
- React developers creating invoices who want a reusable starting layout they can adapt to their product.
- Teams generating reports with tables and charts that benefit from composing documents out of smaller components.
- Developers building form-based PDF documents who want to customize the source code rather than treat a PDF renderer as a fixed template.
- shadcn/ui users who prefer adding and tailoring components through a familiar registry and CLI workflow.
What you need
Detected in the repository
- Node.js >=20.9.0 (from package.json)
- Automated checks on GitHub Actions
License in plain words
MITpermissive
- Commercial use: yes
- Modify and redistribute: yes
- You must keep: the copyright and license notice
- Share your changes: no
A summary, not legal advice: the LICENSE file is what applies.
Getting Started
Start with the installation guide for the documented setup workflow. pdfcn requires Node.js 20.9.0 or later. See the README for project details.
Alternatives
- maroto: Maroto generates structured PDFs in Go with a row-and-column layout, while pdfcn provides reusable React PDF components built on Takumi and Forme.
| Project | Language | License | Stars | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pdfcn | TypeScript | MIT | 3k | New |
| maroto | Go | MIT | 2.8k | Active |
Considerations
The repository is new and changing quickly: it has recent commit activity, but no releases in the past year, and the project has not yet established a long release history. Its contributor base is not concentrated in one person, and recent issues and pull requests have been handled with relatively short median turnaround times. The supplied project facts report no test suite, so teams should verify the components and generated PDFs against their own requirements. The project is MIT-licensed; review the license when incorporating its code.
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