Tutorial

iText is a Java library originally created by Bruno Lowagie which allows to create PDF, read PDF and manipulate them. The following tutorial will show how to create PDF files with iText. This tutorial assumes that you have basis Java and Eclipse knowledge.

iText has a hierarchical structure. The smallest text unit is a "Chunk" which is a String with a pre-defined font. A "Phrase" combines several Chunks and allows to define line spacing. "Paragraph" is a subclass of "Phrase" and allows to define more layout attributes, e.g. margins. The class "Anchor" is a subclass of "Paragraph" and serves as the basis for hyperlinks in the generated PDF.

Download the iText core binary from the webpage http://sourceforge.net/projects/itext/ . The download contains one jar which is required if you want to use iText.

Create a new Java project "de.vogella.itext.write" with the package "de.vogella.itext.write". Create a folder "lib" and put the iText library (jar file) into this folder. Add the jar to your classpath.

Create the following class "FirstPdf.java" . I assume that the coding is pretty much self-explaining. I tried to add lots of comments to make it easier to understand. For more complex examples have a look at the iText Homepage .

			
package de.vogella.itext.write;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.util.Date;

import com.itextpdf.text.Anchor;
import com.itextpdf.text.BadElementException;
import com.itextpdf.text.BaseColor;
import com.itextpdf.text.Chapter;
import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.DocumentException;
import com.itextpdf.text.Element;
import com.itextpdf.text.Font;
import com.itextpdf.text.List;
import com.itextpdf.text.ListItem;
import com.itextpdf.text.Paragraph;
import com.itextpdf.text.Phrase;
import com.itextpdf.text.Section;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;


public class FirstPdf {
	private static String FILE = "c:/temp/FirstPdf.pdf";
	private static Font catFont = new Font(Font.FontFamily.TIMES_ROMAN, 18,
			Font.BOLD);
	private static Font redFont = new Font(Font.FontFamily.TIMES_ROMAN, 12,
			Font.NORMAL, BaseColor.RED);
	private static Font subFont = new Font(Font.FontFamily.TIMES_ROMAN, 16,
			Font.BOLD);
	private static Font smallBold = new Font(Font.FontFamily.TIMES_ROMAN, 12,
			Font.BOLD);

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		try {
			Document document = new Document();
			PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream(FILE));
			document.open();
			addMetaData(document);
			addTitlePage(document);
			addContent(document);
			document.close();
		} catch (Exception e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}

	// iText allows to add metadata to the PDF which can be viewed in your Adobe
	// Reader
	// under File -> Properties
	private static void addMetaData(Document document) {
		document.addTitle("My first PDF");
		document.addSubject("Using iText");
		document.addKeywords("Java, PDF, iText");
		document.addAuthor("Lars Vogel");
		document.addCreator("Lars Vogel");
	}

	private static void addTitlePage(Document document)
			throws DocumentException {
		Paragraph preface = new Paragraph();
		// We add one empty line
		addEmptyLine(preface, 1);
		// Lets write a big header
		preface.add(new Paragraph("Title of the document", catFont));

		addEmptyLine(preface, 1);
		// Will create: Report generated by: _name, _date
		preface.add(new Paragraph(
				"Report generated by: " + System.getProperty("user.name") + ", " + new Date(), //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$
				smallBold));
		addEmptyLine(preface, 3);
		preface.add(new Paragraph(
				"This document describes something which is very important ",
				smallBold));

		addEmptyLine(preface, 8);

		preface.add(new Paragraph(
				"This document is a preliminary version and not subject to your license agreement or any other agreement with vogella.de ;-).",
				redFont));

		document.add(preface);
		// Start a new page
		document.newPage();
	}

	private static void addContent(Document document) throws DocumentException {
		Anchor anchor = new Anchor("First Chapter", catFont);
		anchor.setName("First Chapter");

		// Second parameter is the number of the chapter
		Chapter catPart = new Chapter(new Paragraph(anchor), 1);

		Paragraph subPara = new Paragraph("Subcategory 1", subFont);
		Section subCatPart = catPart.addSection(subPara);
		subCatPart.add(new Paragraph("Hello"));

		subPara = new Paragraph("Subcategory 2", subFont);
		subCatPart = catPart.addSection(subPara);
		subCatPart.add(new Paragraph("Paragraph 1"));
		subCatPart.add(new Paragraph("Paragraph 2"));
		subCatPart.add(new Paragraph("Paragraph 3"));

		// Add a list
		createList(subCatPart);
		Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph();
		addEmptyLine(paragraph, 5);
		subCatPart.add(paragraph);

		// Add a table
		createTable(subCatPart);

		// Now add all this to the document
		document.add(catPart);

		// Next section
		anchor = new Anchor("Second Chapter", catFont);
		anchor.setName("Second Chapter");

		// Second parameter is the number of the chapter
		catPart = new Chapter(new Paragraph(anchor), 1);

		subPara = new Paragraph("Subcategory", subFont);
		subCatPart = catPart.addSection(subPara);
		subCatPart.add(new Paragraph("This is a very important message"));

		// Now add all this to the document
		document.add(catPart);

	}

	private static void createTable(Section subCatPart)
			throws BadElementException {
		PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(3);

		// t.setBorderColor(BaseColor.GRAY);
		// t.setPadding(4);
		// t.setSpacing(4);
		// t.setBorderWidth(1);

		PdfPCell c1 = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Table Header 1"));
		c1.setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_CENTER);
		table.addCell(c1);

		c1 = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Table Header 2"));
		c1.setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_CENTER);
		table.addCell(c1);

		c1 = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Table Header 3"));
		c1.setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_CENTER);
		table.addCell(c1);
		table.setHeaderRows(1);

		table.addCell("1.0");
		table.addCell("1.1");
		table.addCell("1.2");
		table.addCell("2.1");
		table.addCell("2.2");
		table.addCell("2.3");

		subCatPart.add(table);

	}

	private static void createList(Section subCatPart) {
		List list = new List(true, false, 10);
		list.add(new ListItem("First point"));
		list.add(new ListItem("Second point"));
		list.add(new ListItem("Third point"));
		subCatPart.add(list);
	}

	private static void addEmptyLine(Paragraph paragraph, int number) {
		for (int i = 0; i < number; i++) {
			paragraph.add(new Paragraph(" "));
		}
	}
}

		

The resulting pdf should look like the following.

Paragraph allows to set the alignment and the indentation. For this example create project "de.vogella.itext.position" similar to the previously created ones. Create the following class "PositionPdf.java".

			
package de.vogella.itext.position;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.Element;
import com.itextpdf.text.Paragraph;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

public class PositionPdf {
	private static String FILE = "PositionPdf.pdf";

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		try {
			Document document = new Document();
			PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream(FILE));
			document.open();
			// Left
			Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph("This is right aligned text");
			paragraph.setAlignment(Element.ALIGN_RIGHT);
			document.add(paragraph);
			// Centered
			paragraph = new Paragraph("This is centered text");
			paragraph.setAlignment(Element.ALIGN_CENTER);
			document.add(paragraph);
			// Left
			paragraph = new Paragraph("This is left aligned text");
			paragraph.setAlignment(Element.ALIGN_LEFT);
			document.add(paragraph);
			// Left with indentation
			paragraph = new Paragraph(
					"This is left aligned text with indentation");
			paragraph.setAlignment(Element.ALIGN_LEFT);
			paragraph.setIndentationLeft(50);
			document.add(paragraph);

			document.close();
		} catch (Exception e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}

}

		

iText allows to read existing pdf's and include them into your own pdf. The following example will create page 2 of the previous example and create a new document with this page.

Create a new Java project "de.vogella.itext.readpdf" with the package "de.vogella.itext.read". Create a folder "lib" and put the iText library (jar file) into this folder. Add the jar to your classpath. Create the following class "ReadAndUsePdf.java".

			
package de.vogella.itext.read;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.DocumentException;
import com.itextpdf.text.Image;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfImportedPage;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfReader;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

public class ReadAndUsePdf {
	private static String INPUTFILE = "c:/temp/FirstPdf.pdf";
	private static String OUTPUTFILE = "c:/temp/ReadPdf.pdf";

	public static void main(String[] args) throws DocumentException,
			IOException {
		Document document = new Document();

		PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document,
				new FileOutputStream(OUTPUTFILE));
		document.open();
		PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(INPUTFILE);
		int n = reader.getNumberOfPages();
		PdfImportedPage page;
		// Go through all pages
		for (int i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
			// Only page number 2 will be included
			if (i == 2) {
				page = writer.getImportedPage(reader, i);
				Image instance = Image.getInstance(page);
				document.add(instance);
			}
		}
		document.close();

	}

}

		

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