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D3.js VS pdflayer

Compare D3.js VS pdflayer and see what are their differences

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D3.js logo D3.js

D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. D3 helps you bring data to life using HTML, SVG, and CSS.

pdflayer logo pdflayer

Free, powerful HTML to PDF API supporting both URL and raw HTML conversion. Unlimited document size, lightning-fast and compatible PHP, Python, Ruby, etc.
  • D3.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-11

D3 allows you to bind arbitrary data to a Document Object Model (DOM), and then apply data-driven transformations to the document. For example, you can use D3 to generate an HTML table from an array of numbers. Or, use the same data to create an interactive SVG bar chart with smooth transitions and interaction.

D3 is not a monolithic framework that seeks to provide every conceivable feature. Instead, D3 solves the crux of the problem: efficient manipulation of documents based on data. This avoids proprietary representation and affords extraordinary flexibility, exposing the full capabilities of web standards such as HTML, SVG, and CSS. With minimal overhead, D3 is extremely fast, supporting large datasets and dynamic behaviors for interaction and animation. D3’s functional style allows code reuse through a diverse collection of official and community-developed modules.

  • pdflayer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-23

D3.js features and specs

  • Powerful Visualization
    D3.js allows for the creation of highly customized and interactive data visualizations, harnessing the full power of web standards like SVG, Canvas, and HTML.
  • Data Binding
    It offers robust support for data-driven transformations and binding, enabling intuitive connections between data sets and DOM elements.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    A large and active community contributes to tutorials, plugins, and tools, which can significantly simplify the development process.
  • Flexibility
    D3.js is highly flexible, providing low-level manipulation capabilities without being tied to any specific chart types or patterns.
  • Performance
    It is highly optimized for performance, allowing for efficient rendering of complex visualizations even with large data sets.

Possible disadvantages of D3.js

  • Steep Learning Curve
    D3.js has a steep learning curve due to its low-level nature and requires a solid understanding of JavaScript, DOM manipulation, and data concepts.
  • Complexity
    Creating complex visualizations can be time-consuming and require a significant amount of custom code, making it less approachable for quick, simple tasks.
  • Browser Compatibility
    Although widely supported, some D3.js features may have inconsistent behavior across different browsers, requiring additional testing and debugging.
  • Documentation
    While extensive, D3.js documentation can be challenging for beginners to navigate and understand, causing misunderstandings and slower development times.
  • Dependency Management
    The library itself is modular, but managing dependencies and integrating D3.js with other JavaScript frameworks or libraries can sometimes be problematic.

pdflayer features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    pdflayer offers a simple and user-friendly API, making it easy for developers to integrate PDF generation into their applications.
  • High-Quality PDFs
    The service is capable of generating high-quality PDFs that maintain the integrity of the original content.
  • Customizable
    pdflayer provides a range of customization options, including custom headers, footers, and watermarking.
  • Multiple Formats
    It supports HTML to PDF conversion, which is useful for applications that need to convert web content into PDF documents.
  • Free Tier
    Offers a free plan with a limited number of conversions, which is great for small projects or initial testing.
  • Security
    pdflayer uses HTTPS encryption to ensure the security of your data during transfer.

Possible disadvantages of pdflayer

  • Cost
    While there is a free tier, the more advanced features and higher usage plans can become relatively expensive.
  • Learning Curve for Customization
    Although the basic features are easy to use, customizing the output PDFs to a high degree may require a bit of a learning curve.
  • Rate Limits
    The free tier and lower-cost plans have rate limits, which might not be sufficient for high-volume applications.
  • Limited Offline Capabilities
    As a cloud service, pdflayer requires internet connectivity for PDF generation, which might not be suitable for offline-first applications.
  • Dependency on External Service
    Relying on an external service means that any downtime or issues with pdflayer's servers can directly affect your application's ability to generate PDFs.
  • Feature Limitations
    Compared to other, more mature PDF libraries, pdflayer might lack some advanced features that power users may require.

Analysis of D3.js

Overall verdict

  • Yes, D3.js is a highly regarded library for data visualization in the web development community.

Why this product is good

  • Flexibility: D3.js provides incredible flexibility in creating complex and interactive visualizations with web standards (SVG, HTML, and CSS).
  • Customization: It allows for high levels of customization, which lets developers create unique and detailed visualizations tailored to their specific needs.
  • Community and Ecosystem: D3.js has a large, active community and a rich ecosystem of plugins and extensions conducive to learning and integration.
  • Data Binding: Offers powerful ways to manipulate documents based on data; the data-driven approach simplifies dynamic interaction creation.
  • Performance: Efficiently manipulates DOM elements and performs well with large datasets if used correctly.

Recommended for

  • Data Scientists and Analysts looking to create custom, interactive visualizations.
  • Web Developers who need to incorporate complex data visualizations into applications.
  • Educators and Researchers presenting data in an engaging way.
  • Anyone needing to build bespoke visualizations that are not possible with off-the-shelf solutions.

Analysis of pdflayer

Overall verdict

  • Pdflayer is a good option for businesses and developers looking for a reliable PDF conversion API. It stands out for its ease of use and versatility, especially if you require customizable output PDFs. However, the 'goodness' of the service might depend on specific needs such as pricing, features, and the level of required customization.

Why this product is good

  • Pdflayer is a service that provides an API for converting HTML and URLs to PDF documents. It's known for its ease of integration, reliability, and scalability. It offers a straightforward REST API which supports a wide array of customization options for generating PDFs. It caters to users who need automated PDF generation integrated directly into their applications or workflows.

Recommended for

  • Developers needing a flexible PDF generation API
  • Businesses seeking to automate document generation
  • Organizations requiring integration of PDF conversion into web applications
  • Users looking for a scalable and reliable PDF generation service

D3.js videos

Data Visualization with D3.js - Full Tutorial Course

More videos:

  • Review - Let's learn D3.js - D3 for data visualization (full course)

pdflayer videos

No pdflayer videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to D3.js and pdflayer)
Charting Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
PDF Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Data Visualization
100 100%
0% 0
HTML To PDF
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare D3.js and pdflayer

D3.js Reviews

6 JavaScript Charting Libraries for Powerful Data Visualizations in 2023
Depending on your requirements, the best JavaScript library is D3.js, as it’s by far the most customizable. However, it’s also really complex and difficult to master. Plus, it’s not as compatible with TypeScript as it is with JavaScript, which can be off-putting for some developers. If you’d prefer a less complex library that you can use with TypeScript, ECharts, and...
Source: embeddable.com
15 JavaScript Libraries for Creating Beautiful Charts
When we think of charting today, D3.js is the first name that comes up. Being an open source project, D3.js definitely brings many powerful features that were missing in most of the existing libraries. Features like dynamic properties, Enter and Exit, powerful transitions, and syntax familiarity with jQuery make it one the best JavaScript libraries for charting. Charts in...
Top 20 Javascript Libraries
D3 stands for Data-Driven Documents. With D3, you can apply data-driven transformations to DOM objects. The keyword with D3 is ‘data-driven,’ which means documents are manipulated depending on the data received. Data can be received in any format and bound with DOM objects. D3 is very fast and supports dynamic behavior for animation and interactions. There are plenty of...
Source: hackr.io
20+ JavaScript libraries to draw your own diagrams (2022 edition)
D3.js is a JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Right now, I would say is the most popular library of its kind.
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Another open source tool, D3.js is a JavaScript library for creating custom data visualizations in a web browser. Commonly known as D3, which stands for Data-Driven Documents, it uses web standards, such as HTML, Scalable Vector Graphics and CSS, instead of its own graphical vocabulary. D3's developers describe it as a dynamic and flexible tool that requires a minimum amount...

pdflayer Reviews

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, D3.js seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 167 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

D3.js mentions (167)

  • IO Devices and Latency
    Do you mean something for data visualization, or tricks condensing large data sets with cursors? https://d3js.org/ Best of luck =3. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • 2024 Nuxt3 Annual Ecosystem Summary🚀
    Document address: D3.js Official Document. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    D3.js: One of the most popular JavaScript visualization libraries. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • What are npm Peer Dependencies and how to use them?
    A Dependency is an npm package that our code depends on in order to be able to run. Some popular packages that can be added as dependencies are lodash, D3, and chartjs. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Introducing RacingBars 📊
    RacingBars is an open-source, light-weight (~45kb gzipped), easy-to-use, and feature-rich javascript library for bar chart race, based on D3.js. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
View more

pdflayer mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of pdflayer yet. Tracking of pdflayer recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing D3.js and pdflayer, you can also consider the following products

Chart.js - Easy, object oriented client side graphs for designers and developers.

PDFShift - Convert any HTML documents to high-fidelity PDF using a single POST request

Plotly - Low-Code Data Apps

DocRaptor - As the only API powered by the Prince HTML-to-PDF engine, DocRaptor provides the best support for complex PDFs with powerful support for headers, page breaks, page numbers, flexbox, watermarks, accessible PDFs, and much more

Highcharts - A charting library written in pure JavaScript, offering an easy way of adding interactive charts to your web site or web application

PDFCrowd - Pdfcrowd is a Web/HTML to PDF online service. Convert HTML to PDF online in the browser or in your PHP, Python, Ruby, .NET, Java apps via the REST API.