**Show HN: LibPDF – The PDF Library for TypeScript that I Needed**

As a developer, there's nothing more frustrating than wrestling with a library that just doesn't deliver. That was the case with our team at Documenso when we were trying to work with JavaScript PDF libraries. We kept adding workarounds, patching up one problem here, hacking around another there. But eventually, we decided to take matters into our own hands and build what we actually needed: a modern PDF library for TypeScript that's clean, intuitive, and just plain works.

Introducing LibPDF – the PDF library for TypeScript that we've been using in production at Documenso with great success. We're excited to share it with the community, and we're confident that it will become your go-to tool for parsing, modifying, and generating PDFs. And don't worry about beta software worries – while LibPDF is still under active development, we consider it ready for real-world use, despite some limitations that we'll get into below.

So what drove us to create LibPDF? In a nutshell, our frustration with the JavaScript PDF ecosystem. We found ourselves constantly dealing with malformed xref tables, encrypted documents, and other quirks that just wouldn't go away. But with LibPDF, we've created a library that prioritizes opening your document over strict compliance. When standard parsing fails, we fall back to brute-force recovery, scanning the entire file to rebuild the structure. It's not perfect, but it gets the job done.

Of course, no PDF library is perfect, and LibPDF has its own set of limitations. Some features are still in development, including support for certain fonts and encryption methods. We're working hard to fill these gaps, but we want to be transparent about what's not yet implemented. Fortunately, most of these limitations don't affect typical use cases like form filling, signing, or document manipulation – so you can get started with LibPDF right away.

So who is behind LibPDF? We are the team at Documenso, an open-source alternative to DocuSign. We're passionate about making PDFs accessible and easy to work with, which is why we created LibPDF in the first place. And as an open-source project, we welcome contributions from anyone who wants to help make LibPDF even better.

Finally, a note on licensing: the src/fontbox/ directory of LibPDF is licensed under Apache-2.0, as it's derived from Apache PDFBox. The rest of the library is under our own license. Check out our contributing guide for details on how to get involved and make your mark on LibPDF.