Serve Assets

The @cesdk/node package bundles the core WASM engine files directly. No additional setup is required to initialize the engine and use its APIs.

For rendering-only workflows (loading existing scenes and exporting to PDF, PNG, or video), the engine loads scene-referenced assets directly from their embedded URLs. You only need to configure asset paths if you want to self-host font fallback files or emoji assets.

Understanding Asset Categories#

The imgly-assets.zip contains directories organized by function:

Engine-Level Assets#

The engine uses additional assets for font fallback (Unicode character coverage) and emoji rendering. By default, these are loaded from https://cdn.img.ly/assets/v4. When you configure the basePath setting for your engine, font fallback files and the emoji font are automatically loaded from that location:

• Font fallback files — Used when text contains characters not covered by the selected font. Located at {basePath}/fonts/font-{index}.ttf.
• Emoji font — The default emoji font (NotoColorEmoji.ttf). Located at {basePath}/emoji/NotoColorEmoji.ttf.

The fonts/ and emoji/ directories are already included in the imgly-assets.zip download. When you set up self-hosted assets and configure basePath, ensure these directories are present at your basePath location.

Self-Hosting Assets#

Using Local Filesystem#

Use Node.js pathToFileURL() to load assets directly from disk:

import CreativeEngine from '@cesdk/node';
import path from 'path';
import { pathToFileURL } from 'url';

const engine = await CreativeEngine.init({
  license: 'YOUR_CESDK_LICENSE_KEY',
  baseURL: pathToFileURL(path.resolve(`./cesdk-assets/${CreativeEngine.version}`)).href + '/'
});

// Use the engine for processing
// ...

// Clean up when done
engine.dispose();

The file:// protocol loads assets directly from the filesystem without network overhead.

Using Your Own CDN#

If you prefer serving assets from your own CDN:

import CreativeEngine from '@cesdk/node';

const engine = await CreativeEngine.init({
  license: 'YOUR_CESDK_LICENSE_KEY',
  baseURL: `https://cdn.yourdomain.com/cesdk/${CreativeEngine.version}/`
});

Troubleshooting#

File URL Formatting#

When using file:// URLs:

• Use path.resolve() to get absolute paths
• URLs must end with a trailing slash for directories
• Always use pathToFileURL() from the url module instead of string concatenation

API Reference#