# prawnpdf/prawn

Fast, Nimble PDF Writer for Ruby

Repository: https://github.com/prawnpdf/prawn
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/prawn
Homepage: https://prawnpdf.org
Language: Ruby
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: ruby, pdf-generator, prawn, pdf
Last push: 2026-04-18T13:34:36+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 58/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 78, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 6725, "days_push": 137, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4820, forks 696 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:00.516420+00:00)

## What it is
Prawn is a pure Ruby library for programmatically generating PDF documents, offering vector drawing, text rendering, image embedding, and encryption. It is a flexible low-level PDF writer rather than an HTML-to-PDF converter or reporting tool.

## Use cases
- generate pdf invoices from ruby
- create pdf reports programmatically
- draw vector graphics in a pdf
- embed true type fonts in pdf documents
- add password protection to generated pdfs
- render utf-8 and right-to-left text in pdfs
- add headers footers and page numbers to pdf documents

## When to choose
- you need fine-grained programmatic control over PDF layout and drawing in Ruby
- you need internationalized text with UTF-8, RTL, and fallback font support
- you want a pure Ruby solution that runs on any Ruby implementation including JRuby
- you need PDF encryption or password protection

## When to avoid
- you need to convert HTML or CSS to PDF
- you want a turnkey reporting or publishing toolchain
- you are not working in Ruby

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: pdf, templating, internationalization, cryptography
- domain: pdf, files, web-development, developer-tools
- platform: ruby, jvm, cross-platform
- tags: pdf-generation, pure-ruby, vector-drawing, font-embedding, document-layout

## Member repositories
- prawnpdf/prawn (main) score 58

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:00.516420+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:18:32.478407+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/prawnpdf/prawn (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:00.516420+00:00, sha 26e3fc31385b)
  - homepage: https://prawnpdf.org (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:30.989291+00:00, sha 0eca43a42545)
  - site_page: https://prawnpdf.org/docs/prawn/2.5.0 (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:30.991730+00:00, sha a1e260634ce8)
  - site_page: https://prawnpdf.org/docs/ttfunk/1.8.0 (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:30.995695+00:00, sha d7bdcc38cf8f)
  - site_page: https://prawnpdf.org/docs/pdf-core/0.10.0 (fetched 2026-08-29T09:01:30.997276+00:00, sha b56f26d65a7b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.