Develop Reference

Copying the whole content of the PDF File to the temporary file?

Basically, I did ask already a question regarding on how to edit PDF File. But it seems that I need to pay a lot of money to achieve what I want. But here is the problem first,
I have a PDF Template containing a plain text like this {{Fullname}} like a placeholder and should be replaced with a certain value. Now, as I've said earlier, Editing the PDF File is a mess and tough because if it's not, I already saw a solution online for free.
Now, here is my Idea, What if I get the whole content of this template file and replace the placeholder with a certain value then create a new PDF File with the same content but the placeholder is already replaced?
I am trying to figure out this problem and here is my solution:
string destinationFile = Path.GetTempFileName();
string text = File.ReadAllText(sourceFile);
text = text.Replace("{{Fullname}}", "John Doe");
// Create a new PDF document
Document document = new Document();
PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, new FileStream(destinationFile, FileMode.Create));
document.Open();
// Add the text to the document
document.Add(new Paragraph(text));
// Close the document
document.Close();
Currently, I am using iTextSharp and does not meet what I expected. So, my question is, Is it possible to get all the content of the PDF File and modify it to create a new one? If yes, How?

After using PdfStamper my custom fonts are replaced to Arial

I have an app in C# with itextsharp that gets some PDF templates, fill some fields and export a flattened version.
Those PDF templates have some custom fonts, one font that I'm using it's DINPro-Regular.otf but after I replace the text and save it my font is being replaced to an Arial font.
I've read other threads but I couldn't find something that solve my case..
My code is:
// Open existing PDF
var pdfReader = new PdfReader(existingFileStream);
// PdfStamper, which will create
var stamper = new PdfStamper(pdfReader, newFileStream);
var form = stamper.AcroFields;
// Set some info
form.SetField("part_number", part.PartNumber.ToUpper());
...
// "Flatten" the form so it wont be editable/usable anymore
stamper.FormFlattening = true;
stamper.Close();
pdfReader.Close();
I've tried to add those lines as well but didn't make any difference:
form.GenerateAppearances = false;
stamper.FreeTextFlattening = true;
Original PDF
Generated PDF
So if anyone had a similar problem or have a clue how to solve it will be very appreciated.

Encrypt PDF document using iTextSharp

I want to make my PDF document protected by not allowing fill in and copy from it. I am using iTextSharp for this. I have following code:
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(document, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(PASSWORD));
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
using (PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(reader, ms))
{
stamper.SetEncryption(
null,
Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(PASSWORD),
PdfWriter.ALLOW_PRINTING,
PdfWriter.ENCRYPTION_AES_128);
}
}
reader.Close();
When the document is generated I use that code to encrypt the document. But later when I open the document in Adobe Reader (tested on 9 and 11) and check the 'File > Properties > Security' their are no restrictions applied on fill in and copy of the document and their status is Allowed.
Is there any issue in that code?

According to the ITextSharp documentation for PdfStamper, the second parameter to this method is an output stream representing the destination for the encrypted PDF document data. The code you show in the question simply disposes the MemoryStream after you setup the encryption so any changes this code could apply to your PDF document will never be saved to disk or otherwise be available outside your application.

Appending PDFs to generated PDF using iTextSharp

I am generating a pdf using iTextSharp. If certain properties are true then I also want to insert an existing pdf with static content.
private byte[] GeneratePdf(DraftOrder draftOrder)
// create a pdf document
var document = new Document();
// set the page size, set the orientation
document.SetPageSize(PageSize.A4);
// create a writer instance
var pdfWriter = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, new FileStream(file, FileMode.Create));
document.Open();
if(draftOrder.hasProperty){
//add these things to the pdf
var textToBeAdded = "<table><tr>....</table>";
}
FormatHtml(document, textToBeAdded , css);
if(someOtherProperty){
//add static pdf from file
document.NewPage();
var reader = new PdfReader("myPath/existing.pdf");
PdfImportedPage page;
for(var i = 0; i < reader.NumberOfPages; i++){
//It's this bit I don't really understand
//**how can I add the page read to the document being created?**
}
I can load the pdf from the source but when I iterate over the pages I can't seem to be able to add them to the document I am creating.
Cheers

Please read http://manning.com/lowagie2/samplechapter6.pdf
If you don't mind losing all interactivity, you can get the template from the writer object with the GetImportedPage() method and add it to the document with AddTemplate ().
This question has been answered many times on StackOverflow and you'll notice that I always warn about some dangers: you need to realize that the dimensions of the imported page can be different from the page size you initially defined. Because of this invisible parts of the imported page can become visible; visible parts can become invisible.
I'd prefer adding the extra page in a second ho using PdfCopy, but maybe that's just me.

Fill PDF Form with Itextsharp

I am trying to fill up a form with ITextsharp, and trying out the following code to get all the fields in the pdf:
string pdfTemplate = #"c:\Temp\questionnaire.pdf";
PdfReader pdfReader = new PdfReader(pdfTemplate);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var de in pdfReader.AcroFields.Fields)
{
sb.Append(de.Key.ToString() + Environment.NewLine);
}
But the foreach loop is always null count. Do I need to do something to file itself as I have tried the example from here and it works fine... this is an example of pdf I am trying to fill
any ideas?
Edit ::

As it turned out, the PDF "form" to fill in actually wasn't a form (in PDF terms) at all. Thus, your have two choices:
You add the text to the page contents directly using hardcoded or configured "field" positions and dimensions as described by #tschmit007 in comments to his answer.
You add actual PDF form fields to your PDF to generate a true PDF form which you take as template to fill in later.
You can add actual form fields either using some graphical tool allowing that, e.g. Adobe Acrobat, or you can use iText(Sharp). Have a look at chapter 8 of iText in Action — 2nd Edition and the samples available here for Java and here for .Net.
Those samples mostly add form fields to newly generated PDF documents. You can virtually use the same code, though, for adding form fields to a PdfStamper which exposes its inner PdfWriter using stamper.getWriter() in Java and the stamper.Writer in C#. Instead of writer.addAnnotation(field) you have to use stamper.addAnnotation(field, page), though.

try:
using (FileStream outFile = new FileStream("result.pdf", FileMode.Create)) {
PdfReader pdfReader = new PdfReader("file.pdf");
PdfStamper pdfStamper = new PdfStamper(pdfReader, outFile);
AcroFields fields = pdfStamper.AcroFields;
//rest of the code here
//fields.SetField("n°1", "value");
//...
pdfStamper.Close();
pdfReader.Close();
}