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Getting Started with TypeScript

This guide walks you through editing your first PDF with PDFDancer, from scratch.

What You'll Build​

By the end of this guide, you'll have a working TypeScript script that:

  • Opens a PDF file
  • Finds and replaces text
  • Saves the modified PDF

Prerequisites​

You need Node.js 20 or higher installed on your computer.

Check your Node.js version:

node --version

If you see v20.x.x or higher, you're good to go.

Don't have Node.js? Download it from nodejs.org.

Step 1: Create a Project Folder​

Open your terminal and create a new folder for your project:

mkdir my-pdf-project
cd my-pdf-project

Step 2: Initialize the Project​

Initialize a new Node.js project:

npm init -y

Step 3: Install PDFDancer​

Install the PDFDancer SDK:

npm install pdfdancer-client-typescript

Step 4: Get a Sample PDF​

You need a PDF file to work with. Either:

  • Use any PDF you already have
  • Create a simple one with Google Docs or Word

Place your PDF in the project folder and name it input.pdf.

Step 5: Write Your First Script​

Create a file called edit-pdf.ts with this code:

import {PDFDancer} from 'pdfdancer-client-typescript';

async function main() {
    // Open the PDF (no API token needed for anonymous access)
    const pdf = await PDFDancer.open('input.pdf');

    // Find paragraphs matching a pattern
    const page = pdf.page(1);
    const paragraphs = await page.selectParagraphsMatching('Hello');

    // Replace the text if found
    if (paragraphs[0]) {
        await paragraphs[0].edit()
            .replace('Hello World!')
            .apply();
    }

    // Save the result
    await pdf.save('output.pdf');

    console.log('Done! Check output.pdf');
}

main().catch(console.error);

What this does:

  1. Opens input.pdf
  2. Looks for any paragraph matching "Hello" on page 1
  3. Replaces that paragraph's text with "Hello World!"
  4. Saves the result as output.pdf

Step 6: Run It​

Run your script with tsx:

npx tsx edit-pdf.ts

You should see Done! Check output.pdf and find a new file called output.pdf in your folder.

What's Next?​

Now that you have PDFDancer working: