docx_creator

pub package Dart SDK License: MIT

A developer-first DOCX generation library for Dart. Create, parse, read, and edit Microsoft Word documents with a fluent API, HTML/Markdown parsers, and full OpenXML compliance.

✨ Features

Feature Description
🔧Fluent Builder API Chain methods to create documents quickly
🌐HTML Parser Convert HTML to DOCX with 141 CSS named colors
📝Markdown Parser Parse Markdown including tables and nested lists
📖DOCX Reader Load and edit existing .docx files
📕PDF Reader Parse PDF files to DOCX structure
📄PDF Export Export documents directly to PDF (pure Dart)
🎨Drawing Shapes 70+ preset shapes (rectangles, arrows, stars, etc.)
🖼️Images Embed local, remote, or base64 images (Inline & Floating)
📊Tables Styled tables, merged cells, borders, & conditional styles
📋Lists Bullet, numbered, and nested lists (9 levels)
🔤Fonts Embed custom fonts with OOXML obfuscation
📄Sections Headers, footers, page orientation, backgrounds
📌Footnotes Full support for footnotes and endnotes
🧢Drop Caps Stylized drop caps for paragraph beginnings
🎨Theme Support Theme colors, tints, shades, and font themes
🧬Advanced Styling Proper inheritance from docDefaults and style hierarchy

📦 Installation

Add to your pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  docx_creator: ^1.0.9

Then run:

dart pub get

🚀 Quick Start

Hello World

import 'package:docx_creator/docx_creator.dart';

void main() async {
  // Create a simple document
  final doc = docx()
    .h1('Hello, World!')
    .p('This is my first DOCX document.')
    .build();

  // Save to file
  await DocxExporter().exportToFile(doc, 'hello.docx');
}

From HTML

final htmlContent = '''
<h1>Report Title</h1>
<p>This is a <b>bold</b> and <i>italic</i> paragraph.</p>
<ul>
  <li>Item 1</li>
  <li>Item 2</li>
</ul>
''';

final elements = await DocxParser.fromHtml(htmlContent);
final doc = DocxBuiltDocument(elements: elements);
await DocxExporter().exportToFile(doc, 'from_html.docx');

From Markdown

final markdown = '''
# Project Report

## Summary
This is **important** information.

- Task 1: Complete
- Task 2: In Progress
''';

final elements = await MarkdownParser.parse(markdown);
final doc = DocxBuiltDocument(elements: elements);
await DocxExporter().exportToFile(doc, 'from_markdown.docx');

📖 Documentation

Table of Contents

  1. Builder API
  2. Text Formatting
  3. Lists
  4. Tables
  5. Images
  6. Shapes & Drawings
  7. HTML Parser
  8. Markdown Parser
  9. DOCX Reader & Editor
  10. DOCX Reader & Editor
  11. PDF Reader
  12. PDF Export
  13. Sections & Page Layout
  14. Font Embedding
  15. API Reference

PDF Export

Export documents directly to PDF with the PdfExporter. This is a pure Dart implementation with no native dependencies.

Basic Usage

import 'package:docx_creator/docx_creator.dart';

// Create a document
final doc = docx()
  .h1('PDF Export Demo')
  .p('This document will be exported to PDF.')
  .bullet(['Feature 1', 'Feature 2', 'Feature 3'])
  .build();

// Export to PDF file
await PdfExporter().exportToFile(doc, 'output.pdf');

// Or get as bytes
final pdfBytes = PdfExporter().exportToBytes(doc);

From HTML or Markdown

// From HTML
final html = '<h1>Title</h1><p>Content with <b>bold</b>.</p>';
final htmlDoc = DocxBuiltDocument(elements: await DocxParser.fromHtml(html));
await PdfExporter().exportToFile(htmlDoc, 'from_html.pdf');

// From Markdown
final md = '# Title\n\nParagraph with **bold**.';
final mdDoc = DocxBuiltDocument(elements: await MarkdownParser.parse(md));
await PdfExporter().exportToFile(mdDoc, 'from_markdown.pdf');

Supported Features

Feature Support
Headings (H1-H6) ✅
Bold/Italic ✅
Underline/Strikethrough ✅
Custom Font Sizes ✅
Superscript/Subscript ✅
Text Colors ✅
Background Colors ✅
Text Alignment ✅
Bullet Lists ✅
Numbered Lists ✅
Tables ✅
Images (PNG) ✅
Page Sizes (A4, Letter) ✅
Multi-page ✅

Builder API

The DocxDocumentBuilder provides a fluent interface for document creation:

final doc = DocxDocumentBuilder()
  // Headings
  .h1('Title')
  .h2('Chapter')
  .h3('Section')
  
  // Paragraphs
  .p('Simple paragraph text')
  .p('Right-aligned', align: DocxAlign.right)
  
  // Lists
  .bullet(['Item 1', 'Item 2', 'Item 3'])
  .numbered(['Step 1', 'Step 2', 'Step 3'])
  
  // Tables
  .table([
    ['Header 1', 'Header 2'],
    ['Cell 1', 'Cell 2'],
  ])
  
  // Special elements
  .pageBreak()
  .hr()  // Horizontal rule
  .quote('Blockquote text')
  .code('print("Hello");')
  
  .build();

Short vs Full Method Names

Short Full Description
h1(text) heading1(text) Heading level 1
h2(text) heading2(text) Heading level 2
h3(text) heading3(text) Heading level 3
p(text) text(content) Paragraph
bullet(items) addList(DocxList) Bullet list
numbered(items) addList(DocxList) Numbered list
hr() divider() Horizontal rule

Text Formatting

Create rich text with DocxText and DocxParagraph:

final doc = DocxDocumentBuilder()
  .add(DocxParagraph(children: [
    // Basic formatting
    DocxText('Bold ', fontWeight: DocxFontWeight.bold),
    DocxText('Italic ', fontStyle: DocxFontStyle.italic),
    DocxText('Underline ', decoration: DocxTextDecoration.underline),
    DocxText('Strikethrough', decoration: DocxTextDecoration.strikethrough),
  
    // Colors
    DocxText('Red text ', color: DocxColor.red),
    DocxText('Custom color ', color: DocxColor('#FF6600')),
    DocxText('With background ', shadingFill: 'FFFF00'),
  
    // Font size
    DocxText('Large text', fontSize: 24),
  
    // Superscript/Subscript
    DocxText('E=mc'),
    DocxText('2', isSuperscript: true),
    DocxText(' H'),
    DocxText('2', isSubscript: true),
    DocxText('O'),
  
    // Highlighting
    DocxText('Highlighted', highlight: DocxHighlight.yellow),
  
    // Hyperlinks
    DocxText('Click here', 
      href: 'https://example.com',
      color: DocxColor.blue,
      decoration: DocxTextDecoration.underline),
  ]))
  
  // Paragraph with specific line spacing
  .add(DocxParagraph(
    children: [DocxText('Exact Spacing')],
    lineSpacing: 240,       // 12 pt
    lineRule: 'exact',      // 'auto', 'exact', 'atLeast'
  ))
  .build();

Available Colors

// Predefined colors
DocxColor.black, DocxColor.white, DocxColor.red, DocxColor.blue,
DocxColor.green, DocxColor.yellow, DocxColor.orange, DocxColor.purple,
DocxColor.gray, DocxColor.lightGray, DocxColor.darkGray, DocxColor.cyan,
DocxColor.magenta, DocxColor.pink, DocxColor.brown, DocxColor.navy,
DocxColor.teal, DocxColor.lime, DocxColor.gold, DocxColor.silver

// Custom hex colors
DocxColor('#FF5722')
DocxColor('4285F4')  // # is optional

Lists

Simple Lists

// Bullet list
.bullet(['First item', 'Second item', 'Third item'])

// Numbered list
.numbered(['Step 1', 'Step 2', 'Step 3'])

Nested Lists

final nestedList = DocxList(
  style: DocxListStyle.disc,
  items: [
    DocxListItem.text('Level 0 - First', level: 0),
    DocxListItem.text('Level 1 - Nested', level: 1),
    DocxListItem.text('Level 2 - Deep', level: 2),
    DocxListItem.text('Level 1 - Back', level: 1),
    DocxListItem.text('Level 0 - Root', level: 0),
  ],
);

docx().add(nestedList).build();

List Styles

DocxListStyle.disc       // • Solid disc (default)
DocxListStyle.circle     // ◦ Circle
DocxListStyle.square     // ▪ Square
DocxListStyle.dash       // - Dash
DocxListStyle.arrow      // → Arrow
DocxListStyle.check      // ✓ Checkmark
DocxListStyle.decimal    // 1, 2, 3
DocxListStyle.lowerAlpha // a, b, c
DocxListStyle.upperAlpha // A, B, C
DocxListStyle.lowerRoman // i, ii, iii
DocxListStyle.upperRoman // I, II, III

Tables

Simple Table

.table([
  ['Name', 'Age', 'City'],
  ['Alice', '25', 'New York'],
  ['Bob', '30', 'Los Angeles'],
])

Styled Table

final styledTable = DocxTable(
  rows: [
    DocxTableRow(cells: [
      DocxTableCell(
        children: [DocxParagraph(children: [
          DocxText('Header', fontWeight: DocxFontWeight.bold, color: DocxColor.white)
        ])],
        shadingFill: '4472C4',  // Blue background
        verticalAlign: DocxVerticalAlign.center,
      ),
      // More cells...
    ]),
    // More rows...
  ],
);

Images

import 'dart:io';

// From file
final imageBytes = await File('logo.png').readAsBytes();
final doc = docx()
  .add(DocxImage(
    bytes: imageBytes,
    extension: 'png',
    width: 200,
    height: 100,
    align: DocxAlign.center,
  ))
  .build();

// Inline image in paragraph
.add(DocxParagraph(children: [
  DocxText('See image: '),
  DocxInlineImage(bytes: imageBytes, extension: 'png', width: 50, height: 50),
  DocxText(' above.'),
]))

Shapes & Drawings

Create DrawingML shapes with 70+ presets:

// Basic shapes
DocxShapeBlock.rectangle(
  width: 200,
  height: 60,
  fillColor: DocxColor.blue,
  outlineColor: DocxColor.black,
  outlineWidth: 2,
  text: 'Click Me',
  align: DocxAlign.center,
)

DocxShapeBlock.ellipse(width: 100, height: 100, fillColor: DocxColor.green)
DocxShapeBlock.circle(diameter: 80, fillColor: DocxColor.red)
DocxShapeBlock.triangle(width: 100, height: 100, fillColor: DocxColor.yellow)
DocxShapeBlock.star(points: 5, fillColor: DocxColor.gold)
DocxShapeBlock.diamond(width: 80, fillColor: DocxColor.purple)
DocxShapeBlock.rightArrow(width: 100, height: 40, fillColor: DocxColor.blue)
DocxShapeBlock.leftArrow(width: 100, height: 40, fillColor: DocxColor.red)

// Inline shapes in paragraph
.add(DocxParagraph(children: [
  DocxShape.circle(diameter: 30, fillColor: DocxColor.red),
  DocxText(' Red circle '),
  DocxShape.star(points: 5, fillColor: DocxColor.gold),
  DocxText(' Gold star'),
]))

Shape Presets

Over 70 preset shapes including: rect, ellipse, triangle, diamond, star4, star5, star6, rightArrow, leftArrow, upArrow, downArrow, heart, lightning, flowChartProcess, flowChartDecision, and many more.

HTML Parser

Supported HTML Tags

Tag Output
<h1> - <h6> Headings
<p> Paragraph
<b>, <strong> Bold
<i>, <em> Italic
<u> Underline
<s>, <del> Strikethrough
<mark> Highlight
<sup> Superscript
<sub> Subscript
<a href=""> Hyperlink
<code> Inline code
<pre> Code block
<ul>, <ol> Lists
<table> Tables
<img> Images
<blockquote> Blockquote
<hr> Horizontal rule
<br> Line break
<div>, <span> Containers with styles

Supported CSS Properties

color: red;                    /* Text color */
color: #FF5722;               /* Hex color */
color: dodgerblue;            /* CSS named color (141 supported) */
background-color: yellow;      /* Background/shading */
font-size: 16px;              /* Font size */
font-weight: bold;            /* Bold */
font-style: italic;           /* Italic */
text-align: center;           /* Alignment */
text-decoration: underline;   /* Underline/strikethrough */

CSS Named Colors

All 141 W3C CSS3 Extended Color Keywords are supported:

<span style="color: dodgerblue;">DodgerBlue</span>
<span style="color: mediumvioletred;">MediumVioletRed</span>
<span style="color: darkolivegreen;">DarkOliveGreen</span>
<span style="color: papayawhip;">PapayaWhip</span>

Including grey/gray variations: grey, darkgrey, lightgrey, etc.

Example

final html = '''
<div style="background-color: #f0f0f0; padding: 10px;">
  <h1 style="color: navy;">Report Title</h1>
  <p>This is <span style="color: red; font-weight: bold;">important</span> text.</p>
  <table border="1">
    <tr style="background-color: #4472C4; color: white;">
      <th>Name</th>
      <th>Status</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Task 1</td>
      <td style="background-color: lightgreen;">Complete</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</div>
''';

final elements = await DocxParser.fromHtml(html);

Markdown Parser

Supported Syntax

Markdown Output
# Heading H1-H6
**bold** Bold
*italic* Italic
~~strike~~ Strikethrough
[text](url) Links
`code` Inline code
``` Code blocks
- item Bullet list
1. item Numbered list
> quote Blockquote
--- Horizontal rule
` a
[ ] / [x] Task lists

Nested Lists

- Level 1
    - Level 2
        - Level 3
    - Level 2
- Level 1

Nested lists are automatically converted to multi-level Word lists with proper indentation.

Tables with Alignment

| Left | Center | Right |
|:-----|:------:|------:|
| L    | C      | R     |

DOCX Reader & Editor

Loading an Existing Document

// From file path
final doc = await DocxReader.load('existing.docx');

// From bytes
final bytes = await File('existing.docx').readAsBytes();
final doc = await DocxReader.loadFromBytes(bytes);

Accessing Elements

for (final element in doc.elements) {
  if (element is DocxParagraph) {
    for (final child in element.children) {
      if (child is DocxText) {
        print('Text: ${child.content}');
        print('Bold: ${child.fontWeight == DocxFontWeight.bold}');
        print('Color: ${child.color?.hex}');
      }
    }
  } else if (element is DocxTable) {
    print('Table with ${element.rows.length} rows');
  } else if (element is DocxList) {
    print('List with ${element.items.length} items');
  }
}

Modifying and Re-Saving

// Load document
final doc = await DocxReader.load('report.docx');

// Modify elements
final modifiedElements = <DocxNode>[];
for (final element in doc.elements) {
  if (element is DocxParagraph) {
    // Find and replace text
    final newChildren = element.children.map((child) {
      if (child is DocxText) {
        return DocxText(
          child.content.replaceAll('OLD', 'NEW'),
          fontWeight: child.fontWeight,
          color: child.color,
        );
      }
      return child;
    }).toList();
    modifiedElements.add(DocxParagraph(children: newChildren));
  } else {
    modifiedElements.add(element);
  }
}

// Add new content
modifiedElements.add(DocxParagraph.text('Added on: ${DateTime.now()}'));

// Create new document preserving metadata
final editedDoc = DocxBuiltDocument(
  elements: modifiedElements,
  // Preserve original document properties
  section: doc.section,
  stylesXml: doc.stylesXml,
  numberingXml: doc.numberingXml,
);

// Save
await DocxExporter().exportToFile(editedDoc, 'report_edited.docx');

Round-Trip Pipeline

// Load → Parse → Modify → Export
final original = await DocxReader.load('input.docx');

// All formatting, lists, tables, shapes are preserved
final elements = List<DocxNode>.from(original.elements);

// Add new content
elements.add(DocxParagraph.heading2('New Section'));
elements.add(DocxParagraph.text('Content added programmatically.'));

// Export with preserved metadata
final output = DocxBuiltDocument(
  elements: elements,
  stylesXml: original.stylesXml,
  numberingXml: original.numberingXml,
);

await DocxExporter().exportToFile(output, 'output.docx');

PDF Reader

Convert PDF documents into editable DocxBuiltDocument objects or extract content programmatically.

Basic Usage

// Load PDF
final pdf = await PdfReader.load('input.pdf');

// Convert to DOCX
final doc = pdf.toDocx();

// Save as DOCX
await DocxExporter().exportToFile(doc, 'converted.docx');

Content Extraction

You can also access the extracted elements directly:

final pdf = await PdfReader.load('input.pdf');

print('Pages: ${pdf.pageCount}');
print('PDF Version: ${pdf.version}');

// Iterate over extracted elements
for (final element in pdf.elements) {
  if (element is DocxParagraph) {
    print(element.text);
  } else if (element is DocxImage) {
    print('Image: ${element.width}x${element.height}');
  }
}

// Get all text
print(pdf.text);

Supported Features

  • Text Extraction: Preserves paragraphs, fonts, sizes, and colors.
  • Formatting: Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough.
  • Layout: Groups text into paragraphs based on position.
  • Images: Extracts embedded images/XObjects.
  • Tables: Basic table structure detection (beta).
  • Metadata: Page count, page size, PDF version.

Sections & Page Layout

final doc = DocxDocumentBuilder()
  .section(
    orientation: DocxPageOrientation.portrait,
    pageSize: DocxPageSize.a4,
    backgroundColor: DocxColor('#F0F8FF'),
    header: DocxHeader(children: [
      DocxParagraph.text('Company Name', align: DocxAlign.right),
    ]),
    footer: DocxFooter(children: [
      DocxParagraph.text('Page 1', align: DocxAlign.center),
    ]),
  )
  .h1('Document Title')
  .p('Content...')
  .build();

Multi-Section Documents

docx()
  .p('Portrait section content')
  .addSectionBreak(DocxSectionDef(
    orientation: DocxPageOrientation.portrait,
  ))
  .p('Landscape section content')
  .addSectionBreak(DocxSectionDef(
    orientation: DocxPageOrientation.landscape,
  ))
  .build();

Footnotes & Endnotes

Add academic citations and notes programmatically:

final doc = docx()
  .p('This statement needs a citation.')
  .addFootnote(DocxFootnote(
    footnoteId: 1,
    content: [
      DocxParagraph.text('Source: Official Documentation, 2024.'),
    ],
  ))
  .p('Unexpected finding.')
  .addEndnote(DocxEndnote(
    endnoteId: 1,
    content: [
      DocxParagraph.text('Further investigation required.'),
    ],
  ))
  .build();

Note: IDs must be unique. Word handles re-numbering automatically, but you must provide improved internal IDs for linking.

Font Embedding

Embed custom fonts with OOXML-compliant obfuscation:

import 'dart:io';

final fontBytes = await File('fonts/Roboto-Regular.ttf').readAsBytes();

final doc = DocxDocumentBuilder()
  .addFont('Roboto', fontBytes)
  .add(DocxParagraph(children: [
    DocxText('Custom font text', fontFamily: 'Roboto'),
  ]))
  .build();

.build();


> **Note:** Fonts are automatically obfuscated per the OpenXML specification.
> **High Fidelity:** When reading existing documents, `docx_creator` preserves embedded fonts byte-for-byte, ensuring exact visual fidelity during round-trip edits.

---

## API Reference

### DocxDocumentBuilder

| Method                              | Parameters                   | Description          |
| ----------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | -------------------- |
| `h1(text)`                        | `String text`              | Add H1 heading       |
| `h2(text)`                        | `String text`              | Add H2 heading       |
| `h3(text)`                        | `String text`              | Add H3 heading       |
| `heading(level, text)`            | `DocxHeadingLevel, String` | Add heading at level |
| `p(text, {align})`                | `String, DocxAlign?`       | Add paragraph        |
| `bullet(items)`                   | `List<String>`             | Add bullet list      |
| `numbered(items)`                 | `List<String>`             | Add numbered list    |
| `table(data, {hasHeader, style})` | `List<List<String>>`       | Add table            |
| `pageBreak()`                     | -                            | Add page break       |
| `hr()`                            | -                            | Add horizontal rule  |
| `quote(text)`                     | `String`                   | Add blockquote       |
| `code(code)`                      | `String`                   | Add code block       |
| `add(node)`                       | `DocxNode`                 | Add any node         |
| `addFont(name, bytes)`            | `String, Uint8List`        | Embed font           |
| `section({...})`                  | Various                      | Set page properties  |
| `build()`                         | -                            | Build document       |

### DocxExporter

| Method                      | Parameters                    | Description  |
| --------------------------- | ----------------------------- | ------------ |
| `exportToFile(doc, path)` | `DocxBuiltDocument, String` | Save to file |
| `exportToBytes(doc)`      | `DocxBuiltDocument`         | Get as bytes |

### DocxReader

| Method                   | Parameters    | Description         |
| ------------------------ | ------------- | ------------------- |
| `load(path)`           | `String`    | Load from file path |
| `loadFromBytes(bytes)` | `Uint8List` | Load from bytes     |

### DocxParser

| Method               | Parameters | Description             |
| -------------------- | ---------- | ----------------------- |
| `fromHtml(html)`   | `String` | Parse HTML to nodes     |
| `fromMarkdown(md)` | `String` | Parse Markdown to nodes |

### MarkdownParser

| Method              | Parameters | Description             |
| ------------------- | ---------- | ----------------------- |
| `parse(markdown)` | `String` | Parse Markdown to nodes |

---

## Troubleshooting

### Common Issues

**Q: Fonts don't display correctly in Word**

A: Ensure the font is embedded using `addFont()`. Embedded fonts are obfuscated per OpenXML spec.

**Q: Images don't appear**

A: Verify image bytes are valid and extension matches format (`png`, `jpg`, `gif`).

**Q: Lists don't have bullets/numbers**

A: Ensure you're using the fluent API (`bullet()`, `numbered()`) or properly structured `DocxList` with `DocxListItem`.

**Q: Colors look wrong**

A: Use 6-digit hex codes without # prefix for `shadingFill`. For `DocxColor`, you can use `#RRGGBB` or plain `RRGGBB`.

---

## Examples

See the `example/` directory for comprehensive examples:

- [`manual_builder_example.dart`](example/manual_builder_example.dart) - All builder API features
- [`html_parser_example.dart`](example/html_parser_example.dart) - HTML to DOCX
- [`markdown_parser_example.dart`](example/markdown_parser_example.dart) - Markdown to DOCX
- [`reader_editor_example.dart`](example/reader_editor_example.dart) - Read, edit, save workflow

---

## License

MIT License - see [LICENSE](LICENSE) for details.

## Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please read our contributing guidelines and submit PRs to the main repository.

Libraries

docx_creator
docx_creator - A developer-first DOCX generation library