Building a 100% Client-Side Resume Builder with jsPDF (No Backend, No Sign-Up)

#javascript #webdev #tutorial #showdev

Job seekers pay $20–30/month for resume builders that are mostly client-side apps anyway. I wanted the same thing but without the subscription: a tool you open in a browser, fill in your details, and download a professional PDF — no account, no server, no data leaving your machine.

Here's how I built it, and the interesting problems along the way.

The constraint that shaped everything: no backend

The entire app is static files: one HTML page, some CSS, and small JS modules. PDF generation happens in the browser with jsPDF plus the autoTable plugin.

That constraint buys three things for free:

Privacy — your resume data never touches a server.
Offline — it works with WiFi off.
Zero hosting cost — it's static, so it deploys anywhere.

Generating the PDF

The core is surprisingly small. jsPDF gives you a canvas-like imperative API, and autoTable handles line-item sections with automatic pagination:

const doc = new jspdf.jsPDF({ orientation: 'portrait', unit: 'mm', format: 'a4' });
doc.setFontSize(18);
doc.text(contact.name, 105, y, { align: 'center' });
y += 8;
doc.setFontSize(9);
doc.text([contact.email, contact.phone, contact.location].join('  ·  '), 105, y, { align: 'center' });

The details that took actual time:

A4 vs US Letter — set the format in the jsPDF constructor; both supported.
Overflow to page 2 — track y position and call doc.addPage() when you exceed the page height.
Watermark for free tier — drawn conditionally based on ProManager.isPro().
Bullet points — use doc.splitTextToSize() to wrap long bullets within margins.

Live preview

Rather than a form that you submit and wait, the resume preview updates in real-time as you type. The preview is a styled HTML div rendered inside the app, so what you see is exactly what the PDF will look like (except for the actual PDF fonts).

The business experiment

I'm selling this the boring way: a $9 one-time purchase (via Creem, a merchant-of-record, so VAT is handled). The free demo generates 3 watermarked PDFs; the paid version is the same app, unlocked, delivered as a ZIP you own forever. No subscription, because charging monthly for a tool that runs entirely on your computer feels wrong.

Zety costs approximately $284/year. This is $9, once.