Engine comparison

Same Arabic invoice. Five PDF engines.

Counts below come from verify-textlayer.py (pypdf) — the same script wired into ArabDoc CI. Pass requires zero presentation forms and non-zero base Arabic. Be fair: with a real Arabic font, some libraries (e.g. react-pdf, DomPDF) can pass that numeric check and still mangle shaping, table direction, or copy order — use the screenshots and paste samples. jsPDF + reshaper often scores 0/0 (no real Arabic in the text layer at all).

Text layer (the part PNG review cannot see)

What the correct line should be

Zoomed failure crops

Same regions, 2× screenshots — failures should be obvious without zooming the full page.

Ligatures / letter joining

Header + seller name. Detached glyphs vs joined Naskh/Sans shaping.

Table column order

Line-item table. First logical column should be rightmost in RTL.

Latin isolation

IDs, emails, iPad 11", +12.4% — must not jump to the wrong side.

Side by side

jsPDF + arabic-reshaper + bidi-js

FAIL base Arabic: 0 presentation forms: 0 → PASS on forms

Raw extractor output (pdfjs text layer), not a reading-order transcription. Word order may look wrong for Arabic; we score codepoints (presentation forms U+FB50–FEFF), not display order. Prefer downloading the PDF and copying from a real viewer if you want the browser’s BiDi reordering.

Raw extractor sample þ”þôþ’þóþ®þ¿ þ“þ-þ“þ-þŽþ þ˜þàþß þ“þ®þóþ°þ þßþ•6 2 0 2 - 1 2 4 8 0 þâþ×þ- — þ”þôþ’þóþ®þ¿ þ“þ-þîþ—þŽþÓ - V N I — þªþóþþÒþèþ¼þßþ• þÒþ»þîþßþ•þ”þôþäþÜþßþ•þ“þªþ£þîþßþ• þ®þÌþ³þòþûþäþŸþùþ•þñþîþèþ³ þºþôþ§þ®þ—þ•þŽþ´þ³þ†þäþßþ• þ”þ×þŽþ‘ — þâþàþÌþ˜þßþ• þ”þ¼þèþã þÙþ•þ®þ˜þ·þ• ) a s . e l p m a x e @ t r o p p u s (21 0581 00222þ”þôþ£þîþß þ“þ°þìþŸþƒ 1 1 þ¯þŽþìþŸ d a P i " þ”þôþ’þóþ-þªþ˜þßþ• þ•þŽþËþŽþØþàþß8 9942 29991þ”þóþ-þŽþ¸þ˜þ³þ• þ•þŽþãþªþ§ þ”þäþÈþçþƒ þÂþ‘þ- L M A S / O S S þÝþŽþœþ˜þãþûþ• þ®þóþ-þŽþØþ—þí04 054 000814 . 2 1 + þ®þôþÐþ˜þßþ• — þ± .þ- 8 . 0 2 2 Copy raw sample Download jspdf.pdf

@react-pdf/renderer (direction: rtl)

PASS base Arabic: 199 presentation forms: 0 → PASS on forms

Raw extractor output (pdfjs text layer), not a reading-order transcription. Word order may look wrong for Arabic; we score codepoints (presentation forms U+FB50–FEFF), not display order. Prefer downloading the PDF and copying from a real viewer if you want the browser’s BiDi reordering.

Raw extractor sample فاتورة رضيبيةرشكة نخبة الجزيرة للتجارةفاتورة ر Copy raw sample Download react-pdf.pdf

pdfmake + Noto Naskh Arabic

FAIL base Arabic: 0 presentation forms: 0 → PASS on forms

Raw extractor output (pdfjs text layer), not a reading-order transcription. Word order may look wrong for Arabic; we score codepoints (presentation forms U+FB50–FEFF), not display order. Prefer downloading the PDF and copying from a real viewer if you want the browser’s BiDi reordering.

Raw extractor sample ورةف ات رتب يةض ركةش  ب ةخن  ت رةالخ رخارةلليورةف ات  رتبي ةض— رفمINV-2026-08421 — البرت دbilling@nukhbat-jazira.saفالصب  الوضف  الكمية شعرالوخدة الا=خمالي ي صرختوي شب B راك ياش  صةمب علم الي—  ن افة  ششاتGالمو(support@example.sa)12 1850 22200 ةاGخ هرلوخي ة  خ هارiPad 11"  اعاتللقدرت بي ةالي 8 2499 19992 دمات خ ارت ةشاشي رنط  مةظ اGنSSO / SAML ارت رقوتاليالامي40 450 18000المخ موع:69220.8 ر.س— +12.4% / -0.22 Copy raw sample Download pdfmake.pdf

DomPDF (PHP, DejaVu, dir=rtl)

PASS base Arabic: 165 presentation forms: 0 → PASS on forms

Raw extractor output (pdfjs text layer), not a reading-order transcription. Word order may look wrong for Arabic; we score codepoints (presentation forms U+FB50–FEFF), not display order. Prefer downloading the PDF and copying from a real viewer if you want the browser’s BiDi reordering.

Raw extractor sample ةيبيرض ةروتافةراجتلل ةريزجلا ةبخن ةكرشbilling@nukhbat-jazira.sa ديربلا — INV-2026-08421 مقر — ةيبيرض ةروتاففنصلا فصولا ةيمكلا رعسةدحولا يلامجإلايونس صيخرت تاسسؤملا ةقاب — ملعتلا ةصنم كارتشا(support@example.sa) 12 1850 22200ةيحول ةزهجأ ةيبيردتلا تاعاقلل "iPad 11 زاهج 8 2499 19992تامدخةيراشتسا لاثتمالا ريراقتو SSO / SAML ةمظنأ طبر 40 450 18000— +12.4% س.ر 69220.8 :عومجملا Copy raw sample Download dompdf.pdf

ArabDoc (Chromium + ToUnicode NFKC)

PASS base Arabic: 535 presentation forms: 0 → PASS on forms

Raw extractor output (pdfjs text layer), not a reading-order transcription. Word order may look wrong for Arabic; we score codepoints (presentation forms U+FB50–FEFF), not display order. Prefer downloading the PDF and copying from a real viewer if you want the browser’s BiDi reordering.

Raw extractor sample ةيبي رض ةروتافرةاجتلل ةريزجلا ةبخن ةكرشضايرلا ،دهف كلملا قيرطضايرلا310123456700003 :يبيرضلا مقرلاbilling@nukhbat-jazira.sa :ديربلاةروتافلا مقرINV-2026-08421اردصإلا خيراتم 04-08-2026 - ـه 1448/02/21ديروتلا خيراتم 03-08-2026 - ـه 1448/02/20عئابلاةراجتلل ةري زجلا ةبخن ةكرشضايرلا ،دهف كلملا قيرط310123456700003 :يبيرضلا مقرلايرتشملاتامولعملا ةينقتل ةيمقرلا قفأ ةسسؤمضايرلا ،ايلعلا يحضايرلا300987654300003 :يبيرضلا مقرلافانصألا ليصافتفصولا / فنصلافنصلا زمرةيمكلا(س.ر) ةدحولا رعس(س.ر) يلامجإلا(support@example.sa) تاسسؤملا ةقاب — ملعتلا ةصنم كارتشاSKU-1121,850.0022,200.00ةيبيردتلا تاعاقلل "11 iPad زاهجSKU-282,499.0019,992.00لاثتمالا ريراقتو SAML / SSO ةمظنأ طبرSKU-340450.0018,000.00ةبيرضلا لبق عومجملا60,192.00 س.ر(٪15) ةفاضملا ةميقلا ةبيرض9,028.80 س.رةبي رضلا لماش يلامجإلا69,220.80 س.ر310123456700003 :عئابلل يبيرضلا مقرلا :تاظحالم.ةينيتاللا صوصنلا لزعو ،لودجلا ةدمعأ ،ةحفصلا هاجتا نم يرصبلا ققحتلل — ArabDoc ةطساوب أشنُم دنتسم Copy raw sample Download arabdoc.pdf

Reproduce

From a clone of the ArabDoc repo, run the benchmark package to regenerate these numbers and this page. Setup details (including a live API target) are in the repository README / benchmark/README.md.

cd benchmark
npm install
npm run benchmark

Generated 2026-08-08T07:13:42.669Z · payload benchmark/payload.json