@mcp-z/mcp-pdf

MCP server for creative PDF generation. AI agents and users work together to create anything from simple documents to artistic masterpieces—all powered by PDFKit.

Why This Exists

PDFs shouldn't be boring. This server gives AI agents the power to generate professional documents, creative projects, and everything in between. Color emoji support (😀 🎉 🚀), full Unicode (你好 مرحبا Привет), and direct PDFKit access mean the only limit is imagination.

Projects range from Bob Ross-style paintings and space-themed documents to practical invoices and resumes. It's for professionals and fun seekers alike.

Features

• Creative Freedom - Colors, shapes, positioning, emoji—build anything
• Pure JavaScript - No native dependencies, works everywhere
• Emoji & Unicode - Color emoji as images, full international text support
• Three Tools - Simple text, advanced layouts, or JSON Resume format
• PDFKit Wrapper - Minimal abstraction over PDFKit's powerful API

Installation

npm install -g @mcp-z/mcp-pdf

Or use directly:

npx @mcp-z/mcp-pdf

Quick Start

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@mcp-z/mcp-pdf"]
    }
  }
}

Security Model

This server writes PDFs to a sandboxed directory to prevent path traversal attacks:

• Default location: ~/.mcp-pdf/
• Custom location: Set PDF_OUTPUT_DIR environment variable
• Filename sanitization: Blocks .., /, and unsafe characters
• No path parameters: Tools accept only filenames, not full paths

All generated PDFs are written to the configured output directory with sanitized filenames.

Custom Output Directory

To override the default location, set the PDF_OUTPUT_DIR environment variable:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pdf": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@mcp-z/mcp-pdf"],
      "env": {
        "PDF_OUTPUT_DIR": "/Users/yourname/Documents/PDFs"
      }
    }
  }
}

Where to Find This Server

Published on multiple MCP registries and package managers:

• npm - @mcp-z/mcp-pdf
• MCP Official Registry - io.github.kmalakoff/mcp-pdf
• Smithery - One-click install via Smithery CLI
• Awesome MCP Servers - Community curated list (pending approval)
• Cline Marketplace - Built-in to Cline IDE (coming soon)
• GitHub Repository - Source code and issues

What You Can Create

• Professional - Resumes, invoices, reports, certificates
• Creative - Flyers, posters, artistic documents, themed designs
• Practical - Letters, notices, forms, documentation
• Experimental - Bob Ross paintings, space themes, progressive effects
• Anything - If it's a PDF, you can build it

Examples

1. Simple Text Document

Start simple with plain text:

create-simple-pdf({
  filename: "letter.pdf",
  text: "Dear Customer,\n\nThank you for your business.\n\nBest regards,\nACME Corp",
  title: "Customer Thank You"
})

2. Styled Document with Colors

Add visual style with colors and formatting:

create-pdf({
  filename: "notice.pdf",
  content: [
    {
      type: "heading",
      text: "Community Notice",
      fontSize: 24,
      color: "#2C5F8D",
      align: "center"
    },
    {
      type: "text",
      text: "Pool maintenance scheduled for this weekend.",
      fontSize: 12,
      moveDown: 2
    },
    {
      type: "text",
      text: "Questions? Contact the front desk.",
      color: "#666666"
    }
  ]
})

3. Certificate with Shapes

Combine shapes and text for visual impact:

create-pdf({
  filename: "certificate.pdf",
  pageSetup: {
    backgroundColor: "#FFF8DC"
  },
  content: [
    // Gold border
    {
      type: "rect",
      x: 50,
      y: 50,
      width: 512,
      height: 692,
      strokeColor: "#DAA520",
      lineWidth: 3
    },
    // Title
    {
      type: "heading",
      text: "Certificate of Achievement",
      fontSize: 32,
      color: "#DAA520",
      align: "center",
      y: 200
    },
    // Recipient
    {
      type: "text",
      text: "Presented to",
      fontSize: 14,
      align: "center",
      moveDown: 2
    },
    {
      type: "heading",
      text: "Alex Quantum",
      fontSize: 28,
      color: "#003366",
      align: "center"
    }
  ]
})

4. Professional Resume

Handle complex structured data with JSON Resume:

generate-resume-pdf({
  filename: "john-doe-resume.pdf",
  resume: {
    basics: {
      name: "John Doe",
      label: "Software Engineer",
      email: "john@example.com",
      phone: "(555) 123-4567",
      summary: "Experienced software engineer with 5+ years building scalable web applications.",
      location: {
        city: "San Francisco",
        region: "CA"
      }
    },
    work: [
      {
        name: "Tech Corp",
        position: "Senior Software Engineer",
        startDate: "2021-03",
        highlights: [
          "Built real-time notification system",
          "Reduced API response time by 60%",
          "Mentored 5 junior engineers"
        ]
      }
    ],
    skills: [
      {
        name: "Languages",
        keywords: ["TypeScript", "JavaScript", "Python"]
      }
    ]
  }
})

Creative Possibilities

This tool has been used to create:

• Bob Ross-style paintings - Layered shapes with colors creating landscape art
• Space-themed documents - Stars, gradients, and cosmic effects
• Apartment notices - Creative community announcements with visual flair
• Progressive effects - Font tapering, color gradients, animated-style layouts

The examples above show practical starting points, but agents can combine shapes, colors, positioning, and text to create virtually anything. The create-pdf tool provides direct access to PDFKit's capabilities.

Available Tools

generate-resume-pdf

Generate professional resumes from JSON Resume format.

Parameters:

• filename (string, optional) - Filename for the PDF (defaults to "resume.pdf")
• resume (object, required) - JSON Resume schema

Resume Schema Sections:

• basics - Name, contact, summary, location
• work - Work experience with highlights
• education - Degrees and institutions
• projects - Personal/professional projects
• skills - Skills grouped by category
• awards, certificates, languages, volunteer, publications, interests, references

See the resume example above for structure.

---

create-simple-pdf

Create basic text PDFs quickly.

Parameters:

• filename (string, optional) - Filename for the PDF (defaults to "document.pdf")
• text (string, required) - Text content
• title (string, optional) - Document metadata title

---

create-pdf

Advanced PDF creation with full layout control.

Parameters:

• filename (string, optional) - Filename for the PDF (defaults to "document.pdf")
• title (string, optional) - Document metadata
• author (string, optional) - Document metadata
• pageSetup (object, optional) - Page configuration
• content (array, required) - Content items

Page Setup:

pageSetup: {
  size: [612, 792],  // [width, height] in points (default: Letter)
  margins: { top: 72, bottom: 72, left: 72, right: 72 },
  backgroundColor: "#FFFFFF"
}

Content Types:

Text & Headings:

{
  type: "text",  // or "heading"
  text: "Content here",
  fontSize: 12,
  bold: true,
  color: "#000000",
  align: "left",  // "left", "center", "right", "justify"
  x: 100,  // optional positioning
  y: 200,
  oblique: 15,  // italic slant in degrees
  characterSpacing: 1,
  moveDown: 1,  // spacing after (line heights)
  underline: true,
  strike: true
}

Shapes:

// Rectangle
{
  type: "rect",
  x: 50,
  y: 50,
  width: 200,
  height: 100,
  fillColor: "#FF0000",
  strokeColor: "#000000",
  lineWidth: 2
}

// Circle
{
  type: "circle",
  x: 300,  // center X
  y: 400,  // center Y
  radius: 50,
  fillColor: "#00FF00",
  strokeColor: "#000000",
  lineWidth: 1
}

// Line
{
  type: "line",
  x1: 100,
  y1: 100,
  x2: 500,
  y2: 100,
  strokeColor: "#0000FF",
  lineWidth: 2
}

Images & Pages:

// Image
{
  type: "image",
  imagePath: "/path/to/image.png",
  width: 200,
  height: 150,
  x: 100,  // optional positioning
  y: 200
}

// Page Break
{
  type: "pageBreak"
}

Emoji & Unicode Support

Color Emoji ✅

True color emoji render as inline PNG images:

{
  "basics": {
    "name": "John Doe 👨‍💻",
    "summary": "Developer 💻 passionate about clean code ✨"
  }
}

Emoji like 😀 🎉 🚀 👋 appear in full color. The emoji font (NotoColorEmoji.ttf) downloads automatically on install.

Unicode ✅

Full international text support:

• CJK: Chinese (你好), Japanese (こんにちは), Korean (안녕하세요)
• Scripts: Arabic (مرحبا), Cyrillic (Привет), Hebrew, Thai
• Symbols: Greek (Ξ Δ Ω), geometric (△ ○ ◆), dingbats (✓ ✗ ➤)

Resources

• PDFKit Documentation - Full PDFKit API reference
• JSON Resume Schema - Resume format documentation
• JSON Resume Editor - Online resume builder

Requirements

Node.js >= 16

License

MIT

Development & Deployment

Publishing a New Version

Two-command deployment:

# 1. Bump version (auto-syncs package.json → server.json)
npm version patch  # or: minor, major

# 2. Deploy to all registries (requires 2FA code)
npm run deploy <your-2fa-code>

This script automatically:

• ✅ Builds the package
• ✅ Publishes to npm
• ✅ Pushes to GitHub
• ✅ Updates MCP Official Registry

Manual submissions after deployment:

• 🔲 Smithery: https://smithery.ai/new (if major changes)
• 🔲 mcpservers.org: https://mcpservers.org/submit (one-time)

Automatic updates (no action needed):

• ⏳ PulseMCP: Auto-discovers from npm within 24-48 hours

Registry Status

Check where the package is published:

• npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@mcp-z/mcp-pdf
• MCP Official: https://modelcontextprotocol.io/registry
• GitHub: https://github.com/mcp-z/mcp-pdf
• Smithery: https://smithery.ai/server/@mcp-z/mcp-pdf
• PulseMCP: https://www.pulsemcp.com/servers
• Awesome MCP: https://mcpservers.org/