Getting Started

Let’s build a basic, scrollable PDF viewer in Svelte. This guide will walk you through the essential setup.

1. Installation

You’ll need a few packages to create a minimal viewer: the core library, the engine, and a few essential plugins.


npm install @embedpdf/core @embedpdf/engines @embedpdf/plugin-document-manager @embedpdf/plugin-viewport @embedpdf/plugin-scroll @embedpdf/plugin-render


pnpm add @embedpdf/core @embedpdf/engines @embedpdf/plugin-document-manager @embedpdf/plugin-viewport @embedpdf/plugin-scroll @embedpdf/plugin-render


yarn add @embedpdf/core @embedpdf/engines @embedpdf/plugin-document-manager @embedpdf/plugin-viewport @embedpdf/plugin-scroll @embedpdf/plugin-render


bun add @embedpdf/core @embedpdf/engines @embedpdf/plugin-document-manager @embedpdf/plugin-viewport @embedpdf/plugin-scroll @embedpdf/plugin-render

2. Create Your Viewer Component

The core of your viewer will be the <EmbedPDF> component, which manages the engine and plugins.

Here is a minimal PDFViewer component that loads a document from a URL and renders it in a vertically scrollable viewport.

PDFViewer.svelte


<script lang="ts">
import { usePdfiumEngine } from '@embedpdf/engines/svelte';
import { EmbedPDF } from '@embedpdf/core/svelte';
import { createPluginRegistration } from '@embedpdf/core';
 
// Import the essential plugins and their components
import { ViewportPluginPackage, Viewport } from '@embedpdf/plugin-viewport/svelte';
import {
  Scroller,
  ScrollPluginPackage,
  type RenderPageProps,
} from '@embedpdf/plugin-scroll/svelte';
import {
  DocumentManagerPluginPackage,
  DocumentContent,
} from '@embedpdf/plugin-document-manager/svelte';
import { RenderLayer, RenderPluginPackage } from '@embedpdf/plugin-render/svelte';
 
// 1. Initialize the engine with the Svelte store
const pdfEngine = usePdfiumEngine();
 
// 2. Register the plugins you need
const plugins = [
  createPluginRegistration(DocumentManagerPluginPackage, {
    initialDocuments: [{ url: 'https://snippet.embedpdf.com/ebook.pdf' }],
  }),
  createPluginRegistration(ViewportPluginPackage),
  createPluginRegistration(ScrollPluginPackage),
  createPluginRegistration(RenderPluginPackage),
];
</script>
 
{#if pdfEngine.isLoading || !pdfEngine.engine}
  <div class="loading-pane">
    Loading PDF Engine...
  </div>
{:else}
  <!-- 3. Wrap your UI with the <EmbedPDF> provider -->
  <div style="height: 500px;">
    <EmbedPDF engine={pdfEngine.engine} {plugins}>
      {#snippet children({ activeDocumentId })}
        {#if activeDocumentId}
          {@const documentId = activeDocumentId}
          <DocumentContent {documentId}>
            {#snippet children(documentContent)}
              {#if documentContent.isLoaded}
                {#snippet renderPage(page: RenderPageProps)}
                  <div
                    style:width="{page.width}px"
                    style:height="{page.height}px"
                    style:position="relative"
                  >
                    <!-- The RenderLayer is responsible for drawing the page -->
                    <RenderLayer {documentId} pageIndex={page.pageIndex} />
                  </div>
                {/snippet}
                <Viewport {documentId} style="background-color: #f1f3f5;">
                  <Scroller {documentId} {renderPage} />
                </Viewport>
              {/if}
            {/snippet}
          </DocumentContent>
        {/if}
      {/snippet}
    </EmbedPDF>
  </div>
{/if}
 
<style>
.loading-pane {
  display: flex;
  justify-content: center;
  align-items: center;
  height: 100%;
}
</style>

3. Render Your Component

Finally, import and use your new <PDFViewer /> component in your main application file.

App.svelte


<script lang="ts">
import PDFViewer from './PDFViewer.svelte';
</script>
 
<PDFViewer />

Interactive Example

When you run the code above, it will produce a functional, scrollable PDF viewer like the one shown here:

You now have a functional PDF viewer!

Next Steps

Discover how to add more features by Understanding Plugins.