ComPDF Generation is part of the KDAN ecosystem. It is an open-source PDF document generation SDK built for developers and enterprise systems that need to automate contracts, invoices, reports, certificates, and other business documents, balancing output quality, integration efficiency, and a clear path to commercial deployment.
- If ComPDF Generation helps your project, we'd love your ⭐ Star on GitHub.
- If you have questions, suggestions, or real-world use cases to discuss, feel free to reach out through Issues and Discussions.
Why ComPDF Generation • Core Capabilities • Quick Start • Commercial Upgrade • Use Cases • Comparison • License • Support
ComPDF Generation is designed to improve integration speed and template reusability for business document generation workflows. With a visual template editor and real-time preview, teams can create templates and test document output with zero-code support. API access is also available, making it easy to build automated, template-driven document workflows.
- Built for contracts, invoices, reports, certificates, and other business documents
- Supports HTML-template-based PDF generation
- No document generation quota, with multithreaded processing for higher batch efficiency
- Helps AI agents generate documents while reducing token usage
- Open-sourced under AGPL for fast evaluation and prototyping
- Offers a commercial license for seamless production and enterprise deployment
| Module | Description |
|---|---|
| Generate PDF from HTML templates | Create PDFs from HTML templates and support multithreaded batch document generation |
| Template editor | Design contracts, invoices, reports, and certificate templates visually with zero-code support |
| Template management | Reuse and manage templates to reduce repetitive development work |
| Preview with templates and JSON data | Test templates and review final PDF output before delivery |
| Supported Template Elements | ComPDF Generation provides essential PDF generation capabilities, from text, tables, and images to dynamic variables, conditional logic, PDF forms, and visual templates, enabling flexible document automation for complex business workflows. |
- Docker Desktop on Windows or macOS, or Docker Engine with the Docker Compose plugin on Linux
- Access to pull the
compdfkit/compdf-app:1.0.0image from Docker Hub
Clone the repository and enter the project directory:
git clone https://github.com/ComPDFKit/compdf-generation.git
cd compdf-generationThe project includes a trial license in .env.example. Copy and rename this file to .env before deployment to use the trial license. PDFs generated with the trial license include a watermark.
For production use without the trial watermark, replace COMPDF_LICENSE_KEY with a formal license. Contact sales to obtain one. Use the command for your operating system to copy the environment file:
# Windows PowerShell
Copy-Item .env.example .env# macOS or Linux
cp .env.example .envStart the services:
docker compose up -d --build
docker compose psWhen compdf-app becomes healthy, open http://localhost:8090. If you deploy to a remote Linux server, open the same address from a browser that can access the server's 8090 port.
Before starting the services, you can configure the following variables in .env:
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
COMPDF_LICENSE_KEY |
Required | A ComPDF License Key with PDF Generation or HTML-to-PDF permissions. The trial key in .env.example adds a watermark to generated PDFs. |
COMPDF_IMAGE_PLATFORM |
linux/amd64 |
Platform used by the compdf-app image. Change only if the image supports the target deployment platform. |
NODE_IMAGE |
node:22-bookworm-slim |
Node.js image used to build the multi-stage Docker image for the Web and API services. |
APP_PORT |
8090 |
Port exposed for the ComPDF Generation Web UI and API. Change it if 8090 is already in use. |
COMPDF_TIMEOUT_MS |
120000 |
Maximum time in milliseconds for the Web/API services to wait for the ComPDF engine. Increase this for large or complex templates. |
TEMPLATE_STORAGE_DIR |
./data/templates |
Host directory used to persist HTML templates, JSON data sources, and metadata. Use an absolute path if you need a fixed storage location. |
docker compose ps
docker compose logs --tail=100 compdf-generation compdf-appBoth services should be running, and compdf-app must be healthy before PDF generation is available. If the service needs to be accessed from other devices, allow inbound TCP traffic on APP_PORT (default 8090) in the server firewall or security group.
- Create a new template in the template list and enter its name and description.
- Open the template editor and write the HTML content.
- Add JSON data as needed, then save the template.
- Generate the PDF in the editor, and the browser will download the file.
Templates are stored in TEMPLATE_STORAGE_DIR, which defaults to ./data/templates. Rebuilding the application container does not remove this data.
Need production deployment, watermark-free output, or enterprise support? Upgrade to the commercial edition.
| Capability | Open-Source Edition | Commercial Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Document generation API | ✅ | ✅ |
| HTML template design and import | ✅ | ✅ |
| Template management | ✅ | ✅ |
| Batch generation | ✅ | ✅ |
| Export without watermark | Watermarked | No watermark |
| Production use | Not recommended | ✅ |
| SLA / technical support | Community support | Dedicated support |
| License | AGPL v3 | Commercial License |
- Automated contract generation: Draft and populate sales contracts, procurement agreements, service terms, and more to shorten signing cycles.
- Automated invoices and financial documents: Connect business data to generate VAT invoices, settlement forms, statements, and other financial documents with fewer manual errors.
- Batch report generation: Produce monthly reports, quarterly reports, and analytical reports at scale for high-frequency business workflows.
- Certificate and proof document generation: Quickly create employment certificates, academic certificates, qualification documents, and other standardized proof documents.
- PDF output for internal systems: Integrate with CRM, ERP, OA, and other enterprise systems to export forms, approvals, and business documents on demand.
| Dimension | ComPDF Generation | Other PDF Libraries |
|---|---|---|
| Positioning | Business document generation with easy, scenario-based template customization | Low-level PDF capability wrappers |
| Document generation | Batch generation with no output quota | Usually subject to certain limitations |
| Scenario focus | Contracts / invoices / reports / certificates | General drawing and layout |
| Templating | Zero-code visual HTML template editing, with import and reuse support | Requires custom development |
| Commercial path | Seamless upgrade to a commercial edition | Expansion often needs to be built independently |
- The open-source portion of this project is released under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0.
- If you need to use it in a closed-source commercial project, formal production environment, or enterprise delivery scenario, please apply for a commercial License.
- See the LICENSE file in this repository for details.
If you have any questions or suggestions, you are welcome to:
- Submit an Issue
- Join the Discussions
- Contact the ComPDF team for a commercial License
If ComPDF Generation helps your project, we'd love your ⭐ Star.
Built by the ComPDF team.
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