A simple java library for creating pdfs

Here is a free, lightweight, simple to use library that sits on top of the iText library and which helps you quickly create PDF documents with java code.

I've created this library for my own applications and was toying with what to do with the library. After listening to Taking Notes Episode 86 I have decided to give it away and make it open source. After all, I'd found this useful so someone else might. So here I am, a guy sitting at a desk writing code, throwing it at a wall.

What is iText ?

If you've not heard of iText, it's a comprehensive open source Java library that you can use to create and manipulate PDF documents. You can use it to do pretty much anything from creating a regular document, to reports to creating maps and bar charts.

Why did you create another layer on iText ?

In the course of using the library I found that there were some simple and common things that I always wanted to do that were a little more complicated than I'd like. Things like adding page numbers, or calculating margins when you change the page orientation.

So I started adding a layer that would shield me from that complexity for the simple documents that I needed to create.

My library is fairly simplistic, for example, I only support Helvetica, Times Roman and Courier fonts. I only supports A4 and Letter page sizes. I didn't want to rewrite the entire iText library, just provide a little quicker access to the stuff I would need to change on a regular basis.

If you need to create A4 (or Letter) Pdf documents that are either Landscape or Portrait. If you need to have a header with an image and footers with page numbers and If you need to include paragraphs and tables with basic fonts and formatting (such a bold, italics and colors) then this library might help you.

If you have much more complex requirements then you should probably look at using iText directly or using one of the many Pdf libraries that are available.

However, if this almost meets your needs and hits that sweet spot, like it did for me, then it will save a bit of time. If it is almost what you need, then you have access to the source code to make your own variation.

Show me how I can use it

A simple example and the result.

/*

* Create a config object to contain file location and

* some meta data settings

*/

config = new PdfDocumentConfig("Example 3","example3.pdf","examples");

config.setReportSubject("Example 3 - Image banner");

config.setReportAuthor("Scius and iText");

/*

* Creating a header image

*/

headerImage = new HeaderImage();

headerImage.addImage(new String("examples/top.jpg"));

headerImage.setImageScale(HeaderImage.IMAGE_PAGE_SCALE, true);

/*

* Create a layout, size, orientation, margins, header and footer

*/

layout = new LayoutElement(

LayoutElement.PAGESIZE_A4,

LayoutElement.ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT,

20,20,10,10,100,100

);

// add the image to the layout

layout.setHeaderImage(headerImage);

/*

* Create the PDF content, the data written to the PDF

*/

data = new PdfData();

data.add(new ParagraphElement("Hello World"));

/*

* Create a instance of the PDF Document writer, using

* the config, data and layout

*/

pdf = new PdfDocument(config, data, layout);

/*

* generate the document

*/

pdf.createDocument();

A more complicated example and the result

/*

* Create a config object to contain file location and

* some meta data settings.

*/

config = new PdfDocumentConfig("Example 5","example5.pdf","examples");

config.setReportSubject("Example 4 - Tables");

config.setReportAuthor("Scius and iText");

/*

* Creating a header image.

*/

headerImage = new HeaderImage();

headerImage.addImage(new String("examples/top.jpg"));

headerImage.setImageScale(HeaderImage.IMAGE_PAGE_SCALE, true);

/*

* Set the default style and page numbers style.

*/

Style defaultStyle = new Style("default",Style.TYPEFACE_TIMES_ROMAN,15);

// styles for the table

Style tableStyle = new Style("default", Style.TYPEFACE_HELVETICA, 10);

tableStyle.setColor(Color.BLUE);

Style tableHeaderStyle = new Style("default", Style.TYPEFACE_HELVETICA, 10);

tableHeaderStyle.setDecoration(Style.DECORATION_BOLD);

tableHeaderStyle.setBackgroundColour(192, 192, 192);

Style stylePageNumbers = new Style("pagenumbers", Style.TYPEFACE_TIMES_ROMAN, 15);

stylePageNumbers.setAlign(Style.ALIGN_RIGHT);

/*

* Create a two column footer.

*/

footer = new FooterTwoColumns(50,50);

footer.setLeftColumn(new CellElement("Example 4"));

footer.setRightColumn(new CellElement("",stylePageNumbers));

footer.setStyle(defaultStyle);

footer.setPageNum(new PageNumbersElement(stylePageNumbers));

footer.includePageNumbers(true,FooterTwoColumns.PAGE_NUMBERS_RIGHT);

/*

* Create a layout, size, orientation, margins, header and footer

*/

layout = new LayoutElement(

LayoutElement.PAGESIZE_A4,

LayoutElement.ORIENTATION_PORTRAIT,

20,20,10,10,100,100

);

layout.setHeaderImage(headerImage);

layout.setFooter(footer);

/*

* Create the PDF content, the data written to the PDF.

*/

data = new PdfData();

data.add(new ParagraphElement("Hello World", defaultStyle));

data.add(new ParagraphElement("table of authors\n\n", defaultStyle));

// add tabular information

TableElement table = new TableElement(3);

// define the column widths

float[] wd = {50f, 25f,25f};

table.setColumnWidths(wd);

// start adding data

RowElement row = new RowElement();

row.addCell(new CellElement("Author",tableHeaderStyle));

CellElement ce = new CellElement("Book Details",tableHeaderStyle);

ce.setCellspan(2);

row.addCell(ce);

table.AddRow(row);

RowElement row2 = new RowElement();

row2.addCell(new CellElement("Bruno Lowgie", tableStyle));

row2.addCell(new CellElement("iText in Action", tableStyle));

row2.addCell(new CellElement("http://www.lowagie.com/iText",tableStyle));

table.AddRow(row2);

RowElement row3 = new RowElement();

row3.addCell(new CellElement("Bruce Eckel", tableStyle));

row3.addCell(new CellElement("Thinking in Java", tableStyle));

row3.addCell(new CellElement("http://mindview.net/Books/TIJ4",tableStyle));

table.AddRow(row3);

// add the table to the data transfer object

data.add(table);

/*

* Create a instance of the PDF Document writer, using

* the config, data and layout.

*/

pdf = new PdfDocument(config, data, layout);

/*

* creates the pdf document file.

*/

pdf.createDocument();

Where can I get it ?

Here...

What's in the zip file ?

The zip file contains;

• A source folder, complete with 5 examples.
  
• A library folder with my library (scius-pdfdoc-beta6.jar) and the iText jar,
• A doc folder with a document that describes the library and how to get started with it in eclipse,
  
• A javadoc foder with the javadoc for the source code.

What's next ?

If I get enough interest then I'll write a step by step guide, similar to the eclipse one, showing you how to using the library in Notes and Domino.