react-pdf-cropper

A blazing fast, customizable PDF cropper for React. Drag, resize, crop, watermark, preview, and download any region of any PDF—right from your web app.

✨ Features

• 🖼 Drag, resize, and move the selection box with mouse or touch—just like an image editor.

• 💡 Works with any PDF renderer: drop into react-pdf-viewer, your own PDF.js setup, or any HTML canvas-based viewer.

• ⚡ Zero dependency screenshot: Crops directly from PDF.js canvas, no html2canvas needed, no lag.

• 🪄 Add your logo or watermark to any cropped image.

• 💾 Instant download utility: Save your crop with one click.

• 🧩 Fully UI-agnostic: Hide built-in buttons, add your own controls anywhere.

• 🤲 Hooks & external control: All actions (crop, cancel, download) available outside the cropbox.

• 🚀 Production-ready: Used in real-world news, content, and SaaS workflows.

📦 Installation

npm install react-pdf-cropper
# or
yarn add react-pdf-cropper

🚀 Quick Example

With react-pdf-viewer

import React, { useRef, useState, useCallback } from "react";
import { Worker, Viewer } from "@react-pdf-viewer/core";
import { defaultLayoutPlugin } from "@react-pdf-viewer/default-layout";
import PDFCropperOverlay, { handleDownload, CropPreviewButton, CancelCropButton } from "react-pdf-cropper";
import "@react-pdf-viewer/core/lib/styles/index.css";
import "@react-pdf-viewer/default-layout/lib/styles/index.css";

function App() {
  const containerRef = useRef();
  const [pdfFile, setPdfFile] = useState("/sample.pdf");
  const [croppedImage, setCroppedImage] = useState(null);
  const [page, setPage] = useState(1);
  const [isCropping, setIsCropping] = useState(false);
  const [handlers, setHandlers] = useState({});

  // Cropper overlay gives you crop/cancel handlers for your own buttons
  const getHandlers = useCallback((handlers) => setHandlers(handlers), []);

  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={() => setIsCropping(true)} disabled={isCropping}>
        Start Cropping
      </button>
      {isCropping && (
        <>
          <CancelCropButton onClick={handlers.stopCropping} />
          <CropPreviewButton onClick={handlers.handleSaveClick} />
        </>
      )}
      <div ref={containerRef} style={{ position: "relative", width: 800, height: 900 }}>
        <Worker workerUrl="https://unpkg.com/pdfjs-dist@3.11.174/build/pdf.worker.min.js">
          <Viewer
            fileUrl={pdfFile}
            plugins={[defaultLayoutPlugin()]}
            onPageChange={e => setPage(e.currentPage + 1)}
          />
        </Worker>
        <PDFCropperOverlay
          containerRef={containerRef}
          isCropping={isCropping}
          setIsCropping={setIsCropping}
          currentPage={page}
          onCrop={setCroppedImage}
          getHandlers={getHandlers}
          showDefaultButtons={false}  // Use your own buttons!
        />
      </div>
      {croppedImage && (
        <>
          <img src={croppedImage} alt="Cropped" style={{ maxWidth: 400, border: "1px solid #ddd" }} />
          <button onClick={() => handleDownload(croppedImage)}>
            Download Cropped Image
          </button>
        </>
      )}
    </div>
  );
}

export default App;

🧩 API Reference

<PDFCropperOverlay />

Exported Buttons

• <CropPreviewButton onClick={...} /> — Use in your own UI to trigger crop/preview.

• <CancelCropButton onClick={...} /> — Use in your own UI to cancel cropping.

Utility

• handleDownload(imageDataUrl, filename = "cropped-image.png") — Instantly download the cropped image.

🎨 Customization

• External UI:

  Pass showDefaultButtons={false} to hide the cropbox’s own buttons and use the exported buttons in your layout.

• Watermark:

  Add watermarkImage="/logo.png" and tweak watermarkProps as needed.

• Styling:

  Tweak cropbox and buttons in your own CSS or fork to change cropbox design.

📁 Example Project

A full-featured example React app is included in the example/ folder of this repo.

• Open it, run npm install, then npm run dev.

• Try cropping, previewing, downloading, and watermarking on any PDF (don't forget to install the package first).

There is an example video in the public folder for your reference as well.

💡 FAQ

Q: Does this support touch/mobile?

A: Yes! All drag, resize, and crop actions are available via mouse and touch.

Q: Do I need to use react-pdf-viewer?

A: No! Any PDF viewer that renders to a canvas (from PDF.js) will work, as long as you pass a ref to the container with the canvas.

Q: Is html2canvas used?

A: No. Cropping works directly on the PDF.js-rendered canvas, so it’s much faster and sharper.

Q: Can I style the crop box?

A: Yes—either with your own CSS, or by modifying the CroppingBox component.

Q: Can I use my own crop/cancel buttons?

A: Yes! Just hide the built-in ones and use the exported <CropPreviewButton /> and <CancelCropButton />, passing the handlers from getHandlers.

Q: How do I add a watermark?

A: Pass a watermark image and optionally watermarkProps (opacity, tiling, etc).

🛠️ Contributing

PRs and issues are very welcome!

1. Fork this repo

2. Add features or fixes in a branch

3. Add/adjust an example in example/ if needed

4. PRs should be clear and well-commented.

👤 Author

Made by Shivam Kumar >_<

GitHub | LikedIn

📑 License

MIT — Free for personal, commercial, and open-source use.

Questions?

Open an issue or ping me on GitHub.

Enjoy cropping PDFs with React! 🎉