A brief tutorial on how to generate a PDF from a React component . Use case: Sometimes when you have a React project, you want to give users the ability to download an area of your application as PDF. For example, when you display charts based on data, a user should be able to export the chart as PDF. In this React tutorial, I want to show you how it works.
First, you have to declare a certain area in your application that should be downloadable as PDF by using a React ref :
Second, create a button with an event handler where you will implement the logic to download the part of the component as PDF:
Third, install the libraries called html2canvas and jspdf via your command line:
And fourth, use the library to draw the component on a canvas, to transform it into an image, and finally to transform it into a PDF:
Thatâs it. The code makes sure that the aspect ratio is preserved and that the image fits the width of the PDF. If you want to go a bit further and download an image instead of a PDF, then head over to this tutorial: How to create an image from a React component .