How to build a React.js file viewer: PDF, image, MS Office

In this blog post, learn how to build a React file viewer using the Nutrient Web SDK. You’ll open and view PDF, image, and Office files directly in your web browser using client-side processing (no server required).

You can check out the demo to see it in action.

Opening and rendering multiple file formats in the browser

Nutrient Web SDK brings support for PDF, image, and Office formats to your application, without you or your users needing any MS Office software, MS Office licenses, or third-party open source software. The technology works by converting an image (JPG, PNG, and TIFF) or Office document (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) to PDF directly in the browser. The resulting PDF is then rendered in our JavaScript viewer.

Unlocking more capabilities

By converting an image or Office document to PDF using client-side JavaScript, you have the option to support a rich array of additional document functionality, such as:

• Text editing — Edit text directly in the displayed Office document.

• Page manipulation — Organize documents by adding, removing, or rearranging pages.

• Annotations — Boost collaboration by adding text highlights, comments, or stamps.

• Adding signatures — Draw, type, or upload a signature directly to an Office document.

Requirements to get started

To get started, you’ll need:

• The latest version of Node.js(opens in a new tab).
• A package manager compatible with npm. This post contains usage examples for Yarn(opens in a new tab) and the npm(opens in a new tab) client (installed with Node.js by default).

Setting up a new React project with Vite

1. To get started, create a new React project using Vite:

# Using Yarn
yarn create vite nutrient-react-example --template react

# Using npm
npm create vite@latest nutrient-react-example -- --template react

2. Change to the created project directory:

cd nutrient-react-example

Adding Nutrient to your project

1. Add the Nutrient dependency:

yarn add @nutrient-sdk/viewer

npm install --save @nutrient-sdk/viewer

2. The Nutrient Web SDK loads its WebAssembly and supporting files from a local path, so you need to copy them to the public folder. Start by installing the required copy plugin:

npm install -D rollup-plugin-copy

Then, update your Vite configuration (vite.config.ts) to copy the SDK’s asset files during build:

import { defineConfig } from 'vite';
import react from '@vitejs/plugin-react';
import copy from 'rollup-plugin-copy';

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    copy({
      targets: [
        {
          src:
            'node_modules/@nutrient-sdk/viewer/dist/nutrient-viewer-lib',
          dest: 'public/',
        },
      ],
      hook: 'buildStart',
    }),
    react(),
  ],
});

Displaying a document

Nutrient supports the following file formats:

• PDF, PDF/A (1, 2, 3)
• DOCX, DOC, DOTX, DOCM
• XLSX, XLS, XLSM
• PPTX, PPT, PPTM
• TIFF, TIF (including multipage)
• PNG, JPEG, JPG

1. Add your document to the public directory. You can use our demo PowerPoint document as an example.

2. Now that everything is set up, you’ll render a PDF using the Nutrient SDK.

Basic usage in App.tsx:

import { useEffect, useRef } from 'react';

function App() {
  const containerRef = useRef(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    const container = containerRef.current;
    let cleanup = () => {};

    (async () => {
      const NutrientViewer = (await import('@nutrient-sdk/viewer'))
        .default;

      // Unload any previous instance.
      NutrientViewer.unload(container);

      if (container && NutrientViewer) {
        NutrientViewer.load({
          container,
          document: 'slides.pptx', // The document to load.
          baseUrl: `${window.location.protocol}//${
            window.location.host
          }/${import.meta.env.PUBLIC_URL ?? ''}`,
        });
      }

      cleanup = () => {
        NutrientViewer.unload(container);
      };
    })();

    return cleanup;
  }, []);

  return (
    <div
      ref={containerRef}
      style={{ height: '100vh', width: '100vw' }}
    />
  );
}

export default App;

3. Start the app and run it in your default browser:

# Using Yarn
yarn dev

# Using npm
npm run dev

A note about fonts

In client-side web applications for Microsoft Office-to-PDF conversion, Nutrient addresses font licensing constraints through font substitutions, typically replacing unavailable fonts with their equivalents — like Arial with Noto. For precise font matching, you can provide your own fonts, embed them into source files, or designate paths to your .ttf fonts for custom solutions.

Adding even more capabilities

Once you’ve deployed your viewer, you can start customizing it to meet your specific requirements or easily add more capabilities. To help you get started, here are some of our most popular React guides:

• Instant synchronization
• Document assembly
• Page manipulation
• Editor
• Forms
• Signatures
• Redaction
• Document security

Conclusion

In this blog post, you learned how to create a React file viewer using Nutrient Web SDK. It enables opening and viewing PDF, image, and Office files directly in the browser using client-side processing. No server is required.

If you’re looking for a way to render your documents in your web application, then Nutrient Web SDK is a great option. It’s a powerful and flexible library that can help you provide your users with a seamless and enjoyable experience.

To get started, you can either:

• Start your free trial to test out the library and see how it works in your application.
• Launch our demo to see the viewer in action.

FAQ