BDF

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BDF (Browser-specific Document Format) is a document format for previews that browsers can draw straight onto Canvas 2D. Its stable wire format is version 1.0.

Previewing a PDF, a Word file, or a CAD drawing in a browser usually means running a full office suite, or a headless browser, on the server. BDF's converters need neither: they're plain Go, and the same code also builds as WebAssembly, so it can convert inside the browser too. PDF, Office files (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, CSV, Parquet, Visio), InDesign (IDML), draw.io diagrams, CAD drawings (DXF, Jw_cad, SXF, CGM, HP-GL/2), circuit boards (Gerber, Excellon, KiCad), Illustrator, Photoshop, HTML, Markdown, EPUB, music (MML, MIDI, MusicXML, playable in the viewer), audio files (MP3, M4A, FLAC, Ogg, WAV, AIFF: their cover art, tags and lyrics, playable in the viewer) and font files all convert this way, and one renderer, running in a Web Worker, draws every one of them.

Try it — drop a file on the demo site; it converts and draws inside your browser, without being uploaded. Read the docs for why BDF exists, every format it reads, three sample server architectures, and how it's built.

Quick start

go run ./cmd/bdf generate report.pptx report.bdf   # convert
go run ./cmd/bdf ls report.bdf                     # inspect

npm ci && npm run demo                             # open it in a browser
# http://127.0.0.1:8765/examples/viewer/.out/?src=/report.bdf

Go 1.27+ and Node.js are needed to build from source; see Getting started for the rest, including converting from Go code directly.

For an npm integration, including server-converted BDF and browser conversion presets, see npm packages.

Layout

Path	Contents
*.go, converter/, encoding/, raster/, contrib/, internal/	The Go encoder/decoder, one converter package per input format, and the Parquet encoding of the tables of values a document holds
form/, vector/, text/	Filling templates of forms with data: Excel, Word and PowerPoint files with tags, PDFs with form fields, templates of pdfme, text files of the lines of continuous forms and receipts (QR codes and barcodes are image/barcode/); and writing documents as PDF files, tagged and PDF/A too, and as Markdown
packages/	The decoder, renderer, viewer surface and TinyGo-backed browser converter npm packages
examples/, site/	The demo viewer, four sample server architectures, and the site published on GitHub Pages
docs/	This documentation

See Repository layout for the full breakdown, and Building and testing for go test, browser integration tests, and regenerating fixtures.

License

MIT.

Fonts

The fonts in this repository have licenses of their own:

• STIX Two Math 2.13 b171 is embedded in the package image/formula, as the font formulas are laid out with. It is the file of the upstream release, unmodified (stipub/stixfonts, tag v2.13b171; image/formula/fonts/README.md has its SHA-256), under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. Copyright 2001-2021 The STIX Fonts Project Authors, with Reserved Font Name "TM Math". A program that imports formula holds this font.
• Bravura (music symbols, as a table in converter/internal/music/smufl) is under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. Copyright © 2015 Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, with Reserved Font Name "Bravura".
• M PLUS 1p digit outlines are included in image/barcode for the numbers below JAN/EAN/UPC bars, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
• NewStroke (KiCad's stroke font, in converter/kicad) is CC0.
• DejaVu Sans subsets (in fixture, for the sample document) are under the DejaVu Fonts License.
• The test fonts (subsets of M PLUS 1p, STIX Two Math and STIX Two Text) sit beside their licenses in testdata directories.

Fonts and licenses lists them with the fonts the demo site serves.