bagme - boxes and glue made easy

bagme is a Go library that renders HTML/CSS to PDF using the boxes and glue typesetting engine. It implements TeX's line-breaking and page-breaking algorithms, so you get high-quality typesetting with almost no effort.

Ready-to-run examples (HTML → PDF, accessible PDF/UA, tables, positioned snippets, multi-page documents) live in the boxesandglue-examples repository.

Installation

go get github.com/boxesandglue/bagme

Render a complete HTML document

Use RenderPages for automatic page breaks, @page margins, and multi-page output:

package main

import (
    "log"

    "github.com/boxesandglue/bagme/document"
)

func main() {
    d, err := document.New("output.pdf")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    d.AddCSS(`
        @page { size: A4; margin: 2cm; }
        body { font-family: serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.4; }
        h1 { page-break-before: always; }
    `)
    if err := d.RenderPages(`
        <h1>Chapter 1</h1>


In olden times when wishing still helped one, there lived a king
        whose daughters were all beautiful...



        <h1>Chapter 2</h1>


Close by the king's castle lay a great dark forest, and under an
        old lime-tree in the forest was a well...


    `); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    if err := d.Finish(); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

Place HTML snippets at exact positions

Use OutputAt for precise placement on a page (labels, forms, letterheads):

package main

import (
    "log"

    "github.com/boxesandglue/bagme/document"
    "github.com/boxesandglue/boxesandglue/backend/bag"
)

func main() {
    d, err := document.New("out.pdf")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    d.AddCSS(`body { font-family: serif; font-size: 12pt; }`)

    ps, _ := d.PageSize()
    w := ps.ContentWidth
    x := ps.MarginLeft
    y := ps.Height - ps.MarginTop

    d.OutputAt("<h1>Hello, World!</h1>

Placed at exact coordinates.

", w, x, y)
    d.Finish()
}

Features

• Automatic page breaks with CSS @page rules
• page-break-before / page-break-after (always, avoid)
• Page margin boxes (@top-center, @bottom-right, etc.) for headers/footers
• CSS styling: fonts, colors, margins, padding, borders (rounded), backgrounds
• Tables with colspan/rowspan, borders, and cell backgrounds
• Ordered and unordered lists
• Images (PDF, PNG) and inline SVG
• OpenType features and variable fonts via font-feature-settings / font-variation-settings
• TeX-quality line breaking (Knuth-Plass algorithm)
• Heading extraction for table of contents generation
• Pure Go — no C dependencies, no browser, single binary

Limitations

• Limited CSS support compared to a full browser engine
• No floats or flexbox/grid layout

Examples

Source + rendered PDF + preview PNG for every entry in boxesandglue-examples/bagme:

Ecosystem

bagme is part of a broader ecosystem of PDF, typesetting and publishing technologies.

Explore the constellation →

Contact

Contact: gundlach@speedata.de

License: New BSD License

Status: Beta — API may change.

Mastodon: boxesandglue@typo.social