jsPDF is a client-side JavaScript library for creating PDFs with a manual drawing API. PDF4.dev is an HTML-to-PDF platform with a template editor, visual editor, and REST API. Here's how they compare.
Updated March 2026
This comparison is published by PDF4.dev. We aim for accuracy but acknowledge our perspective.
The fundamental difference between jsPDF and PDF4.dev is how you define your document. With jsPDF, you position every element using x/y coordinates: doc.text(20, 30, "Hello"). You manually calculate where each line, table cell, and image goes. Page breaks require tracking the current Y position and calling addPage() at the right moment.
PDF4.dev renders standard HTML and CSS. You write a template the same way you build a web page, with headings, tables, flexbox layouts, and web fonts. Chromium handles the rendering, so page breaks, text wrapping, and layout work automatically.
// jsPDF: manual coordinate-based layout
import { jsPDF } from "jspdf";
const doc = new jsPDF();
// Position every element manually
doc.setFontSize(24);
doc.text("Invoice #001", 20, 30);
doc.setFontSize(12);
doc.text("Company: Acme Corp", 20, 50);
doc.text("Date: 2026-03-16", 20, 60);
// Draw a line
doc.setDrawColor(200);
doc.line(20, 65, 190, 65);
// Table? Manual cell-by-cell drawing
doc.text("Item", 20, 75);
doc.text("Qty", 100, 75);
doc.text("Price", 150, 75);
doc.text("Widget", 20, 85);
doc.text("10", 100, 85);
doc.text("$150.00", 150, 85);
// Page break? Manual check
if (currentY > 270) {
doc.addPage();
currentY = 20;
}
doc.save("invoice.pdf");
// 50+ lines for a simple invoice...<!-- PDF4.dev: standard HTML/CSS -->
<h1>Invoice #{{invoice_number}}</h1>
<p>Company: {{company}}</p>
<p>Date: {{date}}</p>
<hr />
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>Item</th><th>Qty</th><th>Price</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
{{#each items}}
<tr>
<td>{{name}}</td>
<td>{{qty}}</td>
<td>{{price}}</td>
</tr>
{{/each}}
</tbody>
</table>
<!-- Page breaks, fonts, layout: all CSS -->
<!-- Send data via API, get PDF back -->jsPDF is a solid choice when client-side generation is a hard requirement and your documents are simple:
But once you need complex layouts, tables with headers that repeat across pages, branded templates with custom fonts, or dynamic data from an API, the manual coordinate approach becomes painful quickly. That is exactly the problem PDF4.dev solves: write HTML, send data, get a PDF back.
Create an account in 5 minutes, design your template with HTML/CSS, and generate PDFs via API.