Create

allows you to generate PDF via JSON

Create a new PDF file based on JSON input with optional form definition/data.
Repeatedly add pages to an existing PDF file serving an incremental PDF generation approach.
Append to content of specific pages.
Include page headers and footers.
Include boxes, images, text, tables.
Create a PDF form by including date fields, text fields, checkboxes, radio button groups, comboboxes and listboxes.
Supports Unicode / pdfcpu user fonts (installed Open/TrueType fonts).
Use layout guides and visible crop/content box through out the layout process.
Choose your preferred layout coordinate system.

Usage

pdfcpu create inFileJSON [ inFile ] outFile [flags]

Common Flags

Arguments

name	description	required
inFileJSON	JSON input file	yes
inFile	PDF input file, use `-` to read from stdin	no
outFile	PDF output file, use `-` to write to stdout	yes

Local image access

The following policy applies to local images in JSON create, JSON form fill, and JSON/CSV form multifill, including CSV @img(...) columns.

CLI configuration

The CLI allows local images beneath the working directory by default. Image paths are relative to that directory, not to the JSON or CSV file’s location. To select a different asset directory, add this setting to your config.yml:

localImageRoot: /srv/pdf-assets

An image source such as "src": "logos/company.png" then reads /srv/pdf-assets/logos/company.png. The configured root may be an absolute directory or a directory relative to the process’s working directory. An empty setting keeps the CLI default. See Configuration for config file locations and selection.

Go API configuration

An empty conf.LocalImageRoot disables local images in the Go API. Enable them by selecting an asset directory in the configuration passed to the create or form-fill API:

conf := model.NewStatelessConfiguration()
conf.LocalImageRoot = "/srv/pdf-assets"

Image paths are relative to this root. The input JSON or CSV cannot change the caller’s access policy. LocalImageRoot is an additive configuration field; existing function signatures are unchanged.

Path restrictions and errors

Image sources must be relative paths beneath the selected root.

Rejected paths and files:

Absolute and drive-qualified paths.
Parent-directory components (..).
Symlinks that escape the allowed root.
Non-regular files, including directories and FIFOs.
Paths containing colons or NUL characters.

Backslashes are treated as path separators. These restrictions apply after resolving named images and file/directory aliases.

Error behavior:

An access denial returns an error from the API and fails the CLI command.
Within an allowed root, ordinary missing or invalid images retain their existing placeholder behavior.

Migrating existing input

An older input might reference an image like this:

{"src": "../../testdata/resources/logo.png"}

Select the intended testdata directory as the allowed root. Set localImageRoot for the CLI or conf.LocalImageRoot for the Go API.
Change the image source to a path relative to that root:
```
{"src": "resources/logo.png"}
```

The repository’s JSON/CSV samples use this layout.

For an absolute image path, follow the same steps: select its asset directory as the root, then rewrite the source relative to that directory.

Security boundaries

Use a dedicated asset directory when processing untrusted input, and control its contents. Directory confinement does not prevent access through hard links or mounted filesystems inside that directory. Operating-system permissions still apply, and this policy does not bound the duration of filesystem I/O.

HTTP(S) images retain their existing network policy. Offline mode controls network access independently and does not disable allowed local images. JavaScript/WASM builds do not support confined local image loading.

Further Reference

$ pdfcpu create --help

and

pdfcpu/pkg/testdata/json/*
pdfcpu/pkg/samples/create/*

Create a PDF and write it to stdout:

$ pdfcpu create invoice.json - \
   | aws s3 cp - s3://acme-billing/invoice.pdf

Overlay generated content onto a streamed input PDF:

$ aws s3 cp s3://acme-forms/template.pdf - \
   | pdfcpu create overlay.json - - \
   | aws s3 cp - s3://acme-forms/template-filled.pdf