# Getting Started with PDFKit

### Installation

Installation uses the [npm](http://npmjs.org/) package manager. Just type the
following command after installing npm.
    
    npm install pdfkit

### Creating a document

Creating a PDFKit document is quite simple. Just require the `pdfkit` module
in your CoffeeScript or JavaScript source file and create an instance of the
`PDFDocument` class.

    PDFDocument = require 'pdfkit'
    doc = new PDFDocument

### Adding pages

The first page of a PDFKit document is added for you automatically when you
create the document. Subsequent pages must be added by you. Luckily, it is
quite simple!
    
    doc.addPage()

You can also set some options for the page, such as it's size and orientation.

The `layout` property can be either `portrait` (the default) or `landscape`.
The `size` property can be either an array specifying `[width, height]` in PDF
points (72 per inch), or a string specifying a predefined size. All of the
standard paper sizes (and more) are predefined, so generally you can just use
the standard name of the paper size you want and it will just work. However, a
list of the predefined paper sizes can be seen [here](http://pdfkit.org/docs/paper_sizes.html). The
default paper size is `letter`.

Passing a page options object (as above) to the `PDFDocument` constructor will
set the default paper size and layout for every page in the document, which is
then overridden by individual options passed to the `addPage` method.

You can also set the page `margins` option to either a number to make them all
equal, or an object with `top`, `bottom`, `left` and `right` values.

* * *

### Setting document metadata

PDF documents can have various metadata associated with them, such as the
title, or author of the document. You can add that information by adding it to
the `doc.info` object, or by passing an info object into the document at
creation time.

Here is a list of all of the properties you can add to the document metadata.
According to the PDF spec, each property must have it's first letter
capitalized.

  * `Title` - the title of the document
  * `Author` - the name of the author
  * `Subject` - the subject of the document
  * `Keywords` - keywords associated with the document
  * `CreationDate` - the date the document was created (added automatically by PDFKit)
  * `ModDate` - the date the document was last modified

### Adding content

Once you've created a `PDFDocument` instance, you can add content to the
document. Check out the other sections to the left under "Documentation" to
learn about each type of content you can add.

### Saving the document

When you are ready to write the PDF document to a file, just call the `write`
method with a filename. If you want to send the document in response to an
HTTP request, or just need a string representation of the document, just call
the `output` method.

That's the basics! Now let's move on to PDFKit's powerful vector graphics
abilities.