ReferenceError: Buffer is not defined

[shuaybi]

Why is the code using Buffer when running inside a browser?

When creating a PDFDocument I get the following error in the browser console:

pdfkit.js:441 Uncaught (in promise) ReferenceError: Buffer is not defined
at wordArrayToBuffer2 (pdfkit.js:441:3)
at Function.generateFileID (pdfkit.js:454:12)
at new PDFDocument2 (pdfkit.js:38748:29)

Seems to be coming from the module pdfkit.js

I am using version 3.4.4 of the library.

I am trying to generate pdf in the browser. Isn't Buffer only available in Node? Why is the code using Buffer when running inside a browser?

Using Chrome Browser: Version 124.0.6367.208 (Official Build) (arm64)

Workaround:

I installed buffer (npm install buffer) and then added the following to my index.js file:

window.Buffer = window.Buffer || require("buffer").Buffer;

[diegomura]

You probably need to install node polyfills

[oles]

First of all, thanks for all the work you've done on this project, @diegomura!

I'm doing some housekeeping of some dependencies, and at first glance, it seemed that a Buffer polyfill wasn't needed anymore, until I did some more research.

I started by checking the readme and the website, before I found something related at https://react-pdf.org/compatibility that mentions that __dirname may be an issue.

So I went ahead and tried to remove the Buffer polyfill, but I got the same error message as this issue and the newer #3225.

Then I found the PR by @carlobeltrame at #1891, which seemed to remove the necessity for any polyfills, i.e making it natively browser compatible.

However, in your heroic effort of migrating the layout package to TS at 481b536, it seems you re-added Buffer usage, which makes a Buffer polyfill needed again for browser compatibility.

And that is perfectly fine, it's just an inconvenience, and it makes me think it would be a useful to tell so on the compatibility page too, especially if it was added with the trade-offs in mind 👍

[oles]

I haven't done enough research on the Buffer usage in the code to be sure, but perhaps Uint8Array and instanceof Uint8Array would be suitable alternatives for some of it 🤔

[rodrigoverasantis]

Same warning here, using Vite
This is what works for me.

https://www.google.com/search?q=install+node+polyfills&ie=UTF-8