What is boxpdf?

boxpdf is a TypeScript library for generating PDF documents using a layout system similar to how flexbox works in web design. Instead of calculating exact positions yourself, you describe the document as nested boxes, vertical stacks, horizontal stacks, text blocks, images, lines, and tables, and the library figures out where everything goes, including word wrapping and multi-page flow. It is built on top of pdf-lib and runs in Node 18+, Cloudflare Workers, Deno, and browsers, with no native dependencies, no WASM, and no headless browser required. This makes it practical for server-side PDF generation in environments that restrict what code they can run. The layout primitives accept style options familiar to anyone who has used CSS: padding, margin, gap, flex grow and shrink weights, justify and align options, borders, background colors, and corner radii. The text node handles word wrapping automatically when given a width, and truncates with an ellipsis when you set a maximum line count. A table primitive supports fixed, auto, and fractional column widths, repeating header rows across pages, and per-cell styling. Multi-page documents can include per-page headers and footers, and streaming generation keeps memory bounded regardless of page count. Four built-in themes, cleanTheme, stripeTheme, editorialTheme, and brutalistTheme, provide pre-made color, spacing, and font settings. A CLI lets you scaffold single-file templates for receipts, boarding passes, resumes, order confirmations, and certificates. The core is approximately 7 KB minified, and the library ships a resource-only MCP server for use with AI agents. The project is written in TypeScript.