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Blurry output usually means the canvas does not contain enough pixels for the size at which jsPDF places it in the PDF. Set html2canvas’s scale deliberately, check the resulting canvas dimensions, and place the image at the intended PDF size without stretching it. This improves raster sharpness, but it does not turn the PDF’s text into resolution-independent, selectable text.
Why PDFs from jsPDF and html2canvas look blurry
In this workflow, html2canvas renders a representation of the page into a bitmap canvas. jsPDF then places that bitmap in the document. The canvas has a finite number of pixels; the PDF placement dimensions determine how large those pixels appear on the page. If a small canvas is enlarged to cover a large PDF area, text and fine details can look soft.
There are two separate questions to check: how many pixels html2canvas rendered, and how large jsPDF placed the resulting image. Increasing render scale adds source pixels. Changing the placement dimensions changes the image’s size in PDF units. One does not automatically correct a mismatch in the other.
Because this pipeline puts an image into the PDF, its text remains rasterized. Higher resolution can make that text look sharper at a given size, but it does not make it vector text or inherently searchable and selectable.
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Fix the resolution and placement in order
1. Inspect the canvas before changing settings
Log the canvas’s pixel dimensions after rendering. Compare them with the physical width and height you pass to pdf.addImage(). A CSS width or PDF placement width is not a substitute for having enough source pixels in the canvas.
console.log(canvas.width, canvas.height);Check the actual page or element being captured, not just the browser’s on-screen appearance. If the canvas dimensions are low relative to the area it must fill in the PDF, increase the render scale and test again.
2. Set html2canvas scale deliberately
The scale option controls render scale. Its default is window.devicePixelRatio, which can vary by device. Setting it explicitly makes the output more predictable across the devices you test. Start with a moderate value, such as 2, then inspect the PDF at its intended viewing or print size rather than assuming that the largest possible value is best.
Higher scale creates a larger canvas and uses more browser memory. Canvas dimension and area limits vary by browser and platform; an overly large canvas may be clipped or blank rather than simply sharper. Increase scale incrementally, especially for long pages.
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3. Place the image at the intended PDF size
Pass addImage() width and height in the units configured for the jsPDF document. Avoid enlarging a low-pixel canvas to cover a larger area than intended. If you need to preserve the image’s aspect ratio, calculate one dimension from the other rather than stretching width and height independently.
For example, if the canvas is canvas.width pixels wide and canvas.height pixels high, preserve that ratio when choosing the PDF dimensions: pdfHeight = pdfWidth * canvas.height / canvas.width. Choose pdfWidth to suit the page layout and the units used by your jsPDF document.
4. Check encoding only after the source resolution
Changing image format or quality can affect the encoded image, but it cannot restore detail that was missing from the canvas. If the output is soft, first verify the canvas pixel dimensions and PDF placement size. Then compare formats or quality settings only if encoding artifacts—not insufficient resolution—are the remaining problem.
Example: render a canvas and add it to a PDF
This is a starting configuration, not a guaranteed optimum for every page, browser, or PDF layout. It captures the element’s scroll dimensions, requests CORS-enabled images where the remote server permits them, and uses a scale of 2. The final width should match the layout you want in the PDF; the height below preserves the canvas aspect ratio.
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const canvas = await html2canvas(element, {
scale: 2,
windowWidth: element.scrollWidth,
windowHeight: element.scrollHeight,
useCORS: true
});
console.log("Canvas pixels:", canvas.width, canvas.height);
const image = canvas.toDataURL("image/png");
const pdfWidth = /* intended width in the jsPDF document's units */;
const pdfHeight = pdfWidth * canvas.height / canvas.width;
pdf.addImage(image, "PNG", x, y, pdfWidth, pdfHeight);Define element, pdf, x, y, and pdfWidth for your page and document configuration. The example uses the scroll dimensions for the capture window to help include the full element; it does not remove browser canvas limits or guarantee that every CSS feature will render identically to a browser screenshot.
When the problem is not resolution
Text or styling differs from the page
html2canvas reconstructs a representation from DOM properties and supports a subset of CSS; it does not take an actual browser screenshot. If the PDF has missing or incorrectly rendered styling, raising scale may only produce a sharper version of the wrong rendering. Check the affected CSS and consider whether an image-based DOM reconstruction meets your fidelity needs.
Remote images are missing
Cross-origin rules can prevent remote images from appearing or make canvas data unreadable. useCORS: true can help only when the image host sends an appropriate Access-Control-Allow-Origin header. Otherwise, a suitable proxy may be needed. A larger render scale does not solve a CORS restriction.
Output is clipped, partial, or blank
Do not diagnose every incomplete PDF as a sharpness problem. Canvas dimension and area limits differ by browser and platform, and a very large canvas can produce blank or partial output. Test long content separately and reduce the canvas size or use a paginated workflow if the capture exceeds reliable limits.
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Long pages, image quality, and text requirements
A single very tall canvas is convenient, but it is not always safe. Raising scale on a long page increases the pixel dimensions and memory demand further. Test representative long documents in the browsers and devices you support; do not assume that a scale value that works for a short page will work for an entire report.
If the document needs sharp, resolution-independent text, an image-based pipeline has a fundamental limit: its text is part of a bitmap. Decide whether the requirement is simply better-looking raster output at a particular page size, or text that remains crisp when zoomed and can be selected or searched. For the latter, investigate a rendering approach that preserves text rather than placing the whole page as an image. The available documentation does not establish the performance or capabilities of a particular alternative renderer.
For image elements inside the page, html2canvas exposes imageSmoothing and imageSmoothingQuality. CSS image-rendering can override global behavior unless forceImageQuality is enabled. These settings address resampling of image elements; they do not increase the overall pixel budget of the page canvas.
Troubleshooting checklist
| Symptom | What to check | Next action |
|---|---|---|
| Text and edges look uniformly soft | Canvas pixel dimensions versus the PDF placement size | Raise scale incrementally and avoid enlarging the placed image beyond the intended size. |
| PDF is blurry on one device but not another | Whether output relies on the default window.devicePixelRatio |
Set scale explicitly and compare output in the target browsers and devices. |
| PDF is blank or cuts off a long page | Canvas dimensions and area; limits vary by browser and platform | Reduce the capture size or paginate; test long content rather than raising scale further. |
| One or more remote images are absent | Cross-origin access and the image host’s CORS response | Try useCORS: true when the host allows it, or use a suitable proxy. |
| Elements look wrong even at high scale | Whether the CSS or DOM feature is supported by html2canvas | Treat it as a rendering-fidelity issue, not a pixel-density issue. |
| Images look resampled poorly while text is otherwise sharp | imageSmoothing, imageSmoothingQuality, and CSS image-rendering |
Adjust the smoothing behavior for the image elements; this will not add page-level pixels. |
Or skip the browser setup
If your goal is a website screenshot rather than a PDF generated from your own DOM and jsPDF pipeline, ScreenshotNeo offers a one-request screenshot API. It is not a fix for a blurry jsPDF PDF, and the example returns a screenshot image, not a PDF.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does increasing html2canvas scale make PDF text searchable?
No. It increases the resolution of the raster image; text remains image-based in this workflow.
Why does scale 2 still produce a blurry or incomplete PDF?
The canvas may still be stretched too far, or the issue may be unsupported CSS, cross-origin images, or browser canvas limits rather than scale.
Should I set scale to the highest value my device accepts?
No. Higher values increase canvas size and memory use, and browser limits vary. Increase incrementally and test the actual document and target browsers.
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