mozilla/pdf.js · error · FormatError

No domain or range

Error message

No domain or range

What it means

Thrown inside PDFFunction.constructSampled (FunctionType 0) when either the /Domain or /Range array on the function dictionary is missing or not a pure numeric array. Both are required by the PDF spec to define the input and output dimensionality of a sampled (table-lookup) function; without them interpolation cannot be set up.

Source

Thrown at src/core/function.js:172

    }
    return function (src, srcOffset, dest, destOffset) {
      for (let i = 0, ii = fnArray.length; i < ii; i++) {
        fnArray[i](src, srcOffset, dest, destOffset + i);
      }
    };
  }

  static constructSampled(factory, fn, dict) {
    // See chapter 3, page 109 of the PDF reference
    function interpolate(x, xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax) {
      return ymin + (x - xmin) * ((ymax - ymin) / (xmax - xmin));
    }

    const domain = toNumberArray(dict.getArray("Domain"));
    const range = toNumberArray(dict.getArray("Range"));

    if (!domain || !range) {
      throw new FormatError("No domain or range");
    }

    const inputSize = domain.length / 2;
    const outputSize = range.length / 2;

    const size = toNumberArray(dict.getArray("Size"));
    const bps = dict.get("BitsPerSample");
    const order = dict.get("Order") || 1;
    if (order !== 1) {
      // No description how cubic spline interpolation works in PDF32000:2008
      // As in poppler, ignoring order, linear interpolation may work as good
      info("No support for cubic spline interpolation: " + order);
    }

    let encode = toNumberArray(dict.getArray("Encode"));
    if (!encode) {
      encode = [];
      for (let i = 0; i < inputSize; ++i) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 5903d58d58)

Solutions

1. Validate the PDF in Acrobat; if it works there, report the file to pdf.js maintainers as the constructor may need a fallback.
2. If generating PDFs, always emit both /Domain and /Range as flat numeric arrays of even length for every type-0 function.
3. Catch FormatError around render and skip the affected page/annotation.
4. Run the PDF through qpdf --check to detect missing required function entries.

Example fix

// generating a sampled function: always include Domain and Range
/* before
<< /FunctionType 0 /Domain [0 1] /Size [256] /BitsPerSample 8 /DataSource (...) >>
*/
// after
<< /FunctionType 0 /Domain [0 1] /Range [0 1 0 1 0 1] /Size [256] /BitsPerSample 8 /DataSource (...) >>

function hasSampledFunctionDomainRange(dict) {
  const d = dict.getArray?.('Domain');
  const r = dict.getArray?.('Range');
  return Array.isArray(d) && Array.isArray(r) &&
    d.every(Number.isFinite) && r.every(Number.isFinite) &&
    d.length % 2 === 0 && r.length % 2 === 0;
}

function isNumberArrayOfEvenLength(arr) {
  return Array.isArray(arr) && arr.length % 2 === 0 &&
    arr.every(x => typeof x === 'number' && Number.isFinite(x));
}

try { await page.render({ canvasContext }).promise; }
catch (err) {
  if (err?.name === 'FormatError' && /No domain or range/.test(err.message)) {
    console.warn('Malformed sampled function; degrading page.');
  } else throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: A FunctionType 0 dictionary that lacks /Domain or /Range, or where one resolves to a non-number array (e.g. contains refs to non-numeric objects). Reached when rendering gradients, Indexed color spaces, or shading patterns that reference a sampled function.

Common situations: Corrupt/truncated PDFs, or PDFs produced by tools that omit Range on sampled functions. Encountered while opening specific test files known to have malformed CalRGB/Indexed lookups.

Related errors

• Unknown function type: ${typeNum}
• No domain
• No domain.
• Bad domain for stiched function
• No range.

AI-assisted analysis of mozilla/pdf.js@5903d58d58 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/21a5c6e9447cc67d. Report an issue: GitHub.