PDF libraries comparison

How @rozie-ui/pdf compares to the existing per-framework PDF.js wrappers. PDF.js (mozilla/pdf.js, shipped as pdfjs-dist) is the de-facto vanilla-JS PDF rendering engine, and it is framework-agnostic: every wrapper exists only to glue reactive state to PDF.js's imperative getDocument() / page.render() flow, configure the Web Worker, render the page canvas (and, for the good ones, the selectable text layer), and forward the page / load events. The result is a lopsided ecosystem: a deep, maintained React wrapper; decent Vue and Angular options; a thin Svelte story; and effectively nothing for Solid or Lit. Rozie ships one source to all six.

Research snapshot: 2026-06-08. Versions and the wrapper landscape move; treat them as of that date. Note @react-pdf/renderer is a different library — it generates PDFs from React components; it is not a viewer, so it's out of scope here.

The wrappers at a glance

Framework	PDF.js wrapper	Engine	Depth	Notes
React	react-pdf (wojtekmaj)	pdfjs-dist	deep	Mature, actively maintained, the obvious React pick.
Vue	vue-pdf-embed (+ @tato30/vue-pdf)	pdfjs-dist	moderate	Maintained, reasonable surface; less deep than react-pdf.
Angular	ng2-pdf-viewer	pdfjs-dist	moderate	Popular, widely used; maintenance has slowed (last publish 2024).
Svelte	svelte-pdf / community wrappers	pdfjs-dist	thin	Sparse surface, lower adoption, no text-layer story.
Solid	(none)	—	—	No dedicated PDF.js (or comparable) viewer wrapper.
Lit	(none)	—	—	No web-component viewer; PDF.js's own prebuilt viewer is an iframe-embedded app, not a component.
Rozie	@rozie-ui/pdf-*	pdfjs-dist v6	deep	One source → all six, same props / two-way page / events / handle / text layer.

react-pdf is an excellent, mature library — for a single-React app it's the obvious pick, and Rozie does not claim to out-feature it on React. vue-pdf-embed and ng2-pdf-viewer are likewise solid choices on their home framework. The wedge is the underserved targets: Svelte's options are thin (svelte-pdf is sparse, low-adoption, with no selectable-text-layer story), and Solid and Lit have nothing at all — a Lit dev's only "option" is embedding PDF.js's prebuilt viewer-app in an iframe, which is a whole application, not a component. Rozie gives all three underserved targets a real, consistent embeddable PDF viewer — the same one it produces for React — from a single definition, with one uniform API across all six.

Feature matrix

Cell legend: ✅ = documented out-of-the-box · ❌ = not supported / not present · ⚠️ = partial / consumer-glue-required / thin.

Capability	react-pdf	vue-pdf-embed	ng2-pdf-viewer	svelte-pdf	Solid (none)	Lit (none)	@rozie-ui/pdf
Mount from URL	✅	✅	✅	✅	hand-roll	hand-roll	✅ :src
Mount from data (Uint8Array / ArrayBuffer)	✅	✅	✅	⚠️	hand-roll	hand-roll	✅ :src (+ data: URL decode)
Two-way current page	⚠️ via state	⚠️ via prop	⚠️ [page] + (pageChange)	⚠️	—	—	✅ r-model:page (echo-guarded)
Continuous scroll (all pages)	✅	✅	✅	⚠️	—	—	✅ render-all-pages
Single-page mode	✅	✅	✅	✅	—	—	✅ (default)
Zoom	✅	✅	✅	⚠️	—	—	✅ :scale + zoom verbs
Rotation	✅	✅	✅	⚠️	—	—	✅ :rotation + rotate verbs
Selectable text layer	✅	✅	✅	❌	—	—	✅ text-layer (default on, CSS shipped)
Text find / search	⚠️ consumer-glue	⚠️ consumer-glue	⚠️ consumer-glue	❌	—	—	✅ find() / findNext / findPrev + coarse highlight + findresult event
Imperative handle	⚠️ via refs	⚠️ partial	⚠️ via methods	❌	hand-roll	hand-roll	✅ uniform 19-verb $expose
Password-protected PDFs	✅	✅	✅	⚠️	—	—	✅ :password + passwordrequest event
TypeScript	✅	✅	✅	⚠️	—	—	✅
One source → all 6 frameworks	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	✅

Where Rozie wins today

• One definition, six idiomatic packages — including the three frameworks the ecosystem underserves: Svelte (thin svelte-pdf, no text layer), Solid (nothing), and Lit (nothing but an iframe-embedded viewer-app). A Svelte dev today fights a sparse, low-adoption wrapper; a Solid or Lit dev hand-rolls the whole worker / getDocument / canvas / text-layer flow. Rozie hands all three a first-class PDF viewer with selectable text, page nav, zoom and rotation.
• A real two-way current page on all six — r-model:page (1-based) reads and drives which page renders in single mode, and in render-all-pages mode it reflects the scrolled-to page back via an IntersectionObserver (and the pagechange event), with an echo-guard so a consumer write and the scroll-spy don't fight. The incumbents surface the page via a one-way prop plus a separate change event; you wire the round-trip yourself.
• A selectable text layer that just works — text-layer is on by default and renders PDF.js's text spans over each page canvas so text is copyable / searchable. The required .textLayer CSS and the --scale-factor var ship with the component (via the :root {} engine-DOM escape hatch), so there's no extra CSS import. This is exactly what svelte-pdf lacks and what a hand-rolled Solid / Lit viewer rarely gets right.
• A uniform 19-verb imperative handle (getDocument / getPageCount / goToPage / nextPage / prevPage / setScale / zoomIn / zoomOut / fitWidth / fitPage / rotateCW / rotateCCW / getMetadata / getOutline / download / find / findNext / findPrev / clearFind) grabbed with each framework's native ref — identical on every target, versus "however this wrapper happens to expose things." The verbs drive the internal render state, so they work whether or not the consumer two-way-binds page.
• Built-in text find — find(query) scans every page's text, navigates to + coarse-highlights (span-level) the first match, returns the occurrence count, and emits a findresult event; findNext / findPrev cycle the matches and clearFind resets. It's the embeddable-component slice of PDF.js's viewer-app find, uniform on all six — the standalone wrappers leave document search as consumer glue over getTextContent().
• Zero-config worker — the #1 PDF.js integration friction is GlobalWorkerOptions.workerSrc. The worker-src prop defaults to the version-matched CDN copy, so the component renders with no setup; override it (:worker-src) for offline / CSP / bundled-worker builds. Standard-font data is wired the same way (:standard-font-data-url).
• getDocument() is always one hop from the raw engine, so the full pdfjs-dist API (annotation extraction, outline, metadata, custom render flows) is reachable on any target when the curated surface doesn't cover something.

What Rozie defers

This page concedes where the standalone wrappers and PDF.js's own viewer are genuinely ahead — that's what keeps the comparison credible, and it doubles as Rozie's own roadmap.

• Annotation layer / form fields (AcroForm). react-pdf and PDF.js's full prebuilt viewer render the annotation layer — links, widget annotations, and interactive AcroForm form fields. Rozie v1 renders the page canvas + the selectable text layer, not the annotation layer, so links aren't clickable and form fields aren't fillable inside the component. This is a meaningful piece of PDF.js (AnnotationLayer + the annotation storage / form value plumbing), deliberately deferred rather than half-shipped. Until then, getDocument() hands you the raw PDFDocumentProxy so you can drive the annotation layer yourself.
• Full search-UI chrome, thumbnails sidebar, print / presentation mode. Rozie now ships coarse find-in-document as a first-class handle (find / findNext / findPrev / clearFind + the findresult event + span-level highlight), but PDF.js's full prebuilt viewer application goes further — a search panel with match-case / whole-word / highlight-all options and precise sub-span match ranges, plus a thumbnail sidebar, print / download toolbars, and presentation mode. Rozie ships the embeddable viewer component, not the full viewer-app chrome. The underlying data is all reachable — getDocument() exposes the raw pdfjs document for a richer custom search / thumbnail / print UI — but Rozie doesn't bundle that chrome.
• Big-framework depth on the home framework. react-pdf is a mature, multi-year library with deep React-idiomatic ergonomics, broad edge-case handling, and a large user base; vue-pdf-embed and ng2-pdf-viewer are likewise well-worn on their own frameworks. On their home framework each exposes more accumulated polish than Rozie's curated prop set. Rozie's value is not "more than react-pdf on React" — it's the same idiomatic component on all six frameworks from one source, with the underserved Svelte / Solid / Lit getting a viewer they otherwise lack. For anything outside the curated surface, getDocument() hands you the raw engine on every target.
• @rozie-ui/pdf is 0.1.0. The surface (10 props / 7 events / 19-verb handle / two-way page model / selectable text layer / text find / single + continuous render modes) is stable and gate-verified, but it is younger than the multi-year incumbents.

Try it

The @rozie-ui/pdf showcase + API reference documents the @rozie-ui/pdf-* packages — one pre-compiled, per-framework install (npm i @rozie-ui/pdf-react pdfjs-dist, etc.). The PDF.js Web Worker auto-configures from the version-matched CDN, so there's nothing extra to import to render a PDF (override :worker-src for offline / CSP / bundled-worker builds). The showcase walks the two-way page binding, single vs render-all-pages modes, the selectable text layer, text find / search, zoom / rotation, password-protected PDFs, and the 19-verb imperative handle. The live demo runs the component across all six targets.

Cross-references

• PDF — showcase & API — the full @rozie-ui/pdf surface, quick starts, and recipes.
• PDF — live demo — the viewer running across all six targets.
• PdfViewer.rozie source on GitHub
• Cropper libraries comparison — the sibling engine-wrapper port.