FAQ
Answers to common questions about licensing, capabilities, frameworks and troubleshooting.
Licensing
Is it free for commercial use?
Yes. React PDF Viewer is released under the MIT License: you can use it in commercial and personal projects without a fee. PDF.js, which it uses, is Apache-2.0 licensed; the package’s NOTICE file lists third-party attributions.
Do I need to credit the project?
Keep the copyright and license notice when you redistribute the package’s code, as the MIT License requires. No credit in your app’s UI is needed.
Capabilities
Can users edit, annotate, sign or fill in forms?
No. The viewer displays documents. Links are interactive; form fields and other annotations are not. See Links.
Can it show several pages at once?
layout="continuous" scrolls through all pages. For spreads or custom layouts, use the headless building blocks.
Does it work on phones?
Yes. Below 960px the viewer switches to a compact layout, and the toolbar collapses actions into a More actions menu when space runs out. See Toolbar.
Does it work with React Native?
No. It renders with the DOM and canvas APIs of web browsers.
Frameworks and setup
Does it work with server rendering?
Yes. The entry points start with 'use client' and touch no browser globals at import time; the server renders the loading state. See Next.js.
Why does the console mention a CDN?
Without configuration the PDF.js worker and assets load from jsDelivr, pinned to your installed version. Self-host them for production; see PDF.js configuration.
Troubleshooting
My PDF from another domain doesn’t load.
The server must send CORS headers for your origin. See Authenticated requests.
The document reloads on every render.
A binary source (Blob, File, ArrayBuffer) is being created during render. Keep it in state; see Document sources.
My labels don’t update or re-render constantly.
Define the labels object at module scope or memoise it; see Labels and locale.