Develop Reference

Create Multi-page Index File(TOC) for merged pdf using itext library in java

How can I write a multi-page ToC to the end of a PDF consisting of merged documents, using iTextSharp?
The answer to Create Index File(TOC) for merged pdf using itext library in java explains how to create a ToC page when merging PDFs (catalogued in the iTextSharp book http://developers.itextpdf.com/examples/merging-pdf-documents/merging-documents-and-create-table-contents#795-mergewithtoc.java). Code in this answer is based on those examples.
However it only works if the ToC is 1 page long. If the content becomes longer, then it repeats itself on the same page rather than spanning into the next page.
Trying to add the link directly to the text via:
ct.Add(new Chunk("link").SetLocalGoto("p1"))
causes an exception ("Cannot add Annotations, not enough pages in document").
Can anyone explain a method that will allow me to append multiple pages of content to a PDF when merging them (the more general the approach, the better). Is there a way to write into the document using Document.Add() instead of having to copy in template pages and write on the top of them?
(Note, code is in c#)

This answer is based on the example from the iTextSharp documentation, but converted to C#.
To make the added text span multiple pages, I found I could use ColumnText.HasMoreText(ct.Go()) to tell me if there was more text than could fit on the current page. You can then save the current page, re-create a new page template, and move the columntext to the new page. Below this is in a function called CheckForNewPage:
private bool CheckForNewPage(PdfCopy copy, ref PdfImportedPage page, ref PdfCopy.PageStamp stamp, ref PdfReader templateReader, ColumnText ct)
{
if (ColumnText.HasMoreText(ct.Go()))
{
//Write current page
stamp.AlterContents();
copy.AddPage(page);
//Start a new page
ct.SetSimpleColumn(36, 36, 559, 778);
templateReader = new PdfReader("template.pdf");
page = copy.GetImportedPage(templateReader, 1);
stamp = copy.CreatePageStamp(page);
ct.Canvas = stamp.GetOverContent();
ct.Go();
return true;
}
return false;
}
This should be called each time text is added to the ct variable.
If CheckForNewPage returns true you can then increment the page count, and reset the y variable to the top of the new page so that link annotation is in the correct place on the new page.
e.g.
var tocPageCount = 0;
var para = new iTextSharp.text.Paragraph(documentName);
ct.AddElement(para);
ct.Go();
if (CheckForNewPage(context, copy, ref page, ref stamp, ref tocReader, ct))
{
tocPageCount++;
y = 778;
}
//Add link annotation
action = PdfAction.GotoLocalPage(d.DocumentID.ToString(), false);
link = new PdfAnnotation(copy, TOC_Page.Left, ct.YLine, TOC_Page.Right, y, action);
stamp.AddAnnotation(link);
y = ct.YLine;
This creates the pages correctly. The below code adapts the end of ToC2 example for re-ordering the pages, in order to handle more than 1 page.
var rdr = new PdfReader(baos.toByteArray());
var totalPageCount = rdr.NumberOfPages;
rdr.SelectPages(String.Format("{0}-{1}, 1-{2}", totalPageCount - tocPageCount +1, totalPageCount, totalPageCount - tocPageCount));
PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(rdr, new FileStream(outputFilePath, FileMode.Create));
stamper.Close();
By re-using the CheckForNewPage function, you should be able to add any content to new pages you create, and have it span multiple pages. If you don't need the annnotations you call CheckForNewPage in a loop at the end of adding all your content (just don't call ct.Go() beforehand).

iTextSharp adds white chunk at the top of the page when importing a PDF

I have a small Problem using iTextSharp and C#.
Context:
I download PDFs and merge them into one huge.
Problem:
On every page the first couple centimeters are just White and the pdf I Import starts after that White chunk.
The end of every page is correct. There is no overlapping or missing objects/text - which you would assume since it has to deal with less space. I think it might get stretched vertically.
So the Import works fine, but it always adds a few centrimeters of White on the top of every page.
It feels like a top-margin. But I can't seem to fix it.
Any ideas?
I appreciate your help. Thanks a lot.
public void method()
{
// needed variables for the pdf-merging part
fs = new FileStream(Variables.destinationFile, FileMode.Create);
writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, fs);
doc.Open();
doc.SetPageSize(PageSize.A4);
doc.SetMargins(0f, 0f, 0f, 0f);
pdfContent = writer.DirectContent;
byte[] result;
int numPages;
foreach (Tuple<string, string, int> currentTuple in someArray)
try
{
result = client.DownloadData(new Uri(adress + currentTuple.Item1 + ".pdf"));
// read and add the pages to the output file
reader = new PdfReader(result);
numPages = reader.NumberOfPages;
for (int i = 1; i < numPages + 1; i++)
{
doc.NewPage();
page = writer.GetImportedPage(reader, i);
pdfContent.AddTemplate(page, 1f, 0, 0, 1f, 0, 0);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
}
}
doc.Close();
writer.Close();
fs.Close();
}
p.s. why does it always delete my "hi there"? :)

You are using the wrong method to merge documents. Your method throws away all interactivity and does not respect page sizes (which explains the problem you are reporting). Please tell me where you got the inspiration for merging documents this way, so that I can go and spank the person responsible for the example you were using ;-)
The correct way of concatenating documents is explained in chapter 6 of my book.
You can find some more examples here:
ITextSharp PdfCopy use examples
copy pdf form with PdfCopy not working in itextsharp 5.4.5.0
Merge PDFs iTextSharp
itextsharp PdfCopy and landscape pages
...
As you can see, your question has been answered many times before on StackOverflow, in the sense that many people have been using the correct way to merge documents (using PdfCopy) instead of doing it the wrong way (using PdfWriter and AddTemplate()).
In your comment, you say that the method AddPage() doesn't exist in PdfCopy. Let's take a look at the most recent version of that class: PdfCopy.cs
I clearly see:
/**
* Add an imported page to our output
* #param iPage an imported page
* #throws IOException, BadPdfFormatException
*/
public virtual void AddPage(PdfImportedPage iPage) {
Note that recent versions also have an AddDocument() method:
virtual public void AddDocument(PdfReader reader) {
Using this method, you no longer have to loop over all the pages, but you can add all the pages of the PDF being read by PdfReader at once.
If you only want to add a selection of pages, you can use:
virtual public void AddDocument(PdfReader reader, List<int> pagesToKeep) {
Please do not use unofficial versions! The official version can be downloaded here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/itextsharp/files/itextsharp/
iText Group does not take any responsibility regarding old versions of iTextSharp, nor can we be held responsible for forks of our software.

How to add a PDF form field (or a text) and link in the page bottom of a page of an existing PDF document using iTextSharp?

I have an existing PDF document named as aa.pdf. This PDF document has 3 pages. I'd like to add a PDF form field (or a text) at the page bottom of the first page in aa.pdf using iTextSharp.
Meanwhile, I also hope that the PDF form field added (or the text added) can link into another page of aa.pdf. For example, after I click the PDF form field (or the text) located in the first page of aa.pdf,this PDF document skips into the second page.
How can I realize the aboved functionalities using iTextSharp?
Thanks.

To create links within a PDF you use a PdfAction which can be set on a Chunk which can optionally be added to a Paragraph. There are several different types of actions that you can choose from, the two that you are probably interested in are the NEXTPAGE action and/or the GotoLocalPage action. The first item does what it says and goes to the next page. This one is nice because you don't have to worry about figuring out what page number you are on. The second item allows you to specify the specific page number to go to. In its simplest form you can do:
Chunk ch = new Chunk("Go to next page").SetAction(new PdfAction(PdfAction.NEXTPAGE));
This creates a Chunk that you can add in whatever way you want. When working with an existing PDF there's several different ways to add text to a page. One way it to use a ColumnText object which has a method called SetSimpleColumn that allows you to define a simple rectangle that you can add elements to.
Lastly, PDF readers don't automatically treat links differently within a PDF except to give a different cursor when hovering. More specifically, unlike a webpage where hyperlinks are turned a different color, PDFs don't change the color of links unless you tell them to, so this should be kept in mind when creating them. Also, when modifying a PDF you generally never want to overwrite the existing PDF during the process because that would be writing to something that your reading from. Sometimes it works, more often then not it breaks, sometimes subtly. Instead, write to a second file and when you are completely done, erase the first file and rename the second file.
The code below is a full working C# 2010 WinForms app targeting iTextSharp 5.1.2.0. The first part of the code creates a sample PDF called "aa.pdf" on the desktop. If you already have that file you can comment this section out but its in here so others can reproduce this example. The second part creates a new file called "bb.pdf" based on "aa.pdf". It adds two text links to the bottom of the first page. The first link advances the PDF to just the next page while the second link advances the PDF to a specific page number. See the comments in the code for specific implementation details.
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using iTextSharp.text;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
namespace WindowsFormsApplication1 {
public partial class Form1 : Form {
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
}
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
//Files that we'll be working with
string inputFile = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop), "aa.pdf");
string outputFile = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Desktop), "bb.pdf");
//Create a standard PDF to test with, nothing special here
using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(inputFile, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None)) {
using (Document doc = new Document(PageSize.LETTER)) {
using (PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, fs)) {
doc.Open();
//Create 10 pages with labels on each page
for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++) {
doc.NewPage();
doc.Add(new Paragraph(String.Format("This is page {0}", i)));
}
doc.Close();
}
}
}
//For the OP, this is where you would start
//Declare some variables to be used later
ColumnText ct;
Chunk c;
//Bind a reader to the input file
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(inputFile);
//PDFs don't automatically make hyperlinks a special color so we're specifically creating a blue font to use here
iTextSharp.text.Font BlueFont = FontFactory.GetFont("Arial", 12, iTextSharp.text.Font.NORMAL, iTextSharp.text.BaseColor.BLUE);
//Create our new file
using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(outputFile, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None)) {
//Bind a stamper to our reader and output file
using (PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(reader, fs)) {
Chunk ch = new Chunk("Go to next page").SetAction(new PdfAction(PdfAction.NEXTPAGE));
//Get the "over" content for page 1
PdfContentByte cb = stamper.GetOverContent(1);
//This example adds a link that goes to the next page
//Create a ColumnText object
ct = new ColumnText(cb);
//Set the rectangle to write to
ct.SetSimpleColumn(0, 0, 200, 20);
//Add some text and make it blue so that it looks like a hyperlink
c = new Chunk("Go to next page", BlueFont);
//Set the action to go to the next page
c.SetAction(new PdfAction(PdfAction.NEXTPAGE));
//Add the chunk to the ColumnText
ct.AddElement(c);
//Tell the system to process the above commands
ct.Go();
//This example add a link that goes to a specific page number
//Create a ColumnText object
ct = new ColumnText(cb);
//Set the rectangle to write to
ct.SetSimpleColumn(200, 0, 400, 20);
//Add some text and make it blue so that it looks like a hyperlink
c = new Chunk("Go to page 3", BlueFont);
//Set the action to go to a specific page number. This option is a little more complex, you also have to specify how you want to "fit" the document
c.SetAction(PdfAction.GotoLocalPage(3, new PdfDestination(PdfDestination.FIT), stamper.Writer));
//Add the chunk to the ColumnText
ct.AddElement(c);
//Tell the system to process the above commands
ct.Go();
}
}
this.Close();
}
}
}

How to create multiple copies documents with iText

I'm using iText to generate a PDF document that consists of several copies of almost the same information.
E.g.: An invoice. One copy is given to the customer, another is filed and a third one is given to an accountant for book-keeping.
All the copies must be exactly the same except for a little piece of text that indicates who is the copy to (Customer, Accounting, File, ...).
There are two possible scenarios (I don't know if the solution is the same for both of them):
a) Each copy goes in a different page.
b) All the copies goes in the same page (the paper will have cutting holes to separete copies).
There will be a wrapper or helper class which uses iText to generate the PDF in order to be able to do something like var pdf = HelperClass.CreateDocument(DocuemntInfo info);. The multiple-copies problem will be solved inside this wrapper/helper.
What does iText provides to accomplish this? Do I need to write each element in the document several times in different positions/pages? Or does iText provide some way to write one copy to the document and then copy it to other position/page?
Note: It's a .Net project, but I tagged the question with both java and c# because this qustion is about how to use iText properly the answer will help both laguage developers.

If each copy goes on a different page, you can create a new document and copy in the page multiple times. Using iText in Java you can do it like this:
// Create output PDF
Document document = new Document(PageSize.A4);
PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document, outputStream);
document.open();
PdfContentByte cb = writer.getDirectContent();
// Load existing PDF
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(templateInputStream);
PdfImportedPage page = writer.getImportedPage(reader, 1);
// Copy first page of existing PDF into output PDF
document.newPage();
cb.addTemplate(page, 0, 0);
// Add your first piece of text here
document.add(new Paragraph("Customer"));
// Copy second page of existing PDF into output PDF
document.newPage();
cb.addTemplate(page, 0, 0);
// Add your second piece of text here
document.add(new Paragraph("Accounting"));
// etc...
document.close();
If you want to put all the copies on the same page, the code is similar but instead of using zeroes in addTemplate(page, 0, 0) you'll need to set values for the correct position; the numbers to use depend on the size and shape of your invoice.
See also iText - add content to existing PDF file — the above code is based on the code I wrote in that answer.

Here's how I see this working.
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader( templatePDFPath );
Document doc = new Document();
PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.createInstance( doc, new FileOutputStream("blah.pdf" ) );
PdfImportedPage inputPage = writer.getImportedPage( reader, 1 );
PdfDirectContent curPageContent = writer.getDirectContent();
String extraStuff[] = getExtraStuff();
for (String stuff : extraStuff) {
curPageContent.saveState();
curPageContent.addTemplate( inputPage /*, x, y*/ );
curPageContent.restoreState();
curPageContent.beginText();
curPageContent.setTextMatrix(x, y);
curPageContent.setFontAndSize( someFont, someSize );
// the actual work:
curPageContent.showText( stuff );
curPageContent.EndText();
// save the contents of curPageContent out to the file and reset it for the next page.
doc.newPage();
}
That's the bare minimum of work on the computer's part. Quite Efficient, and it'll result in a smaller PDF. Rather than having N copies of that page, with tweaks, you have one copy of that page that's reused on N pages, with little tweaks on top.
You could do the same thing, and use the "x,y" parameters in addTemplate to draw them all on the same page. Up to you.
PS: you'll need to figure out the coordinates for setTextMatrix in advance.

You could also use PDfCopy Or PDfSmartCopy to do this.
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader("Path\To\File");
Document doc = new Document();
PdfCopy copier = new PdfCopy(doc, ms1);
//PdfSmartCopy copier = new PdfSmartCopy(doc, ms1);
doc.Open();
copier.CloseStream = false;
PdfImportedPage inputPage = writer.GetImportedPage(reader, 1);
PdfContentByte curPageContent = writer.DirectContent;
for (int i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
copier.AddPage(inputPage);
}
doc.Close();
ms1.Flush();
ms1.Position = 0;
The difference between PdfCopy and PdfSmartCopy is that PdfCopy copies the entire PDF for each page, while PdfSmartCopy outputs a PDF that internally contains only one copy and all pages reference it, resulting in a smaller file and less bandwidth on a network, however it uses more memory on the server and takes longer to process.

Quickly adding a cover page to a pre-linearized PDF for streaming to browser?

Question 298829 describes how linearizing your PDFs lets them stream page-by-page into the user's browser, so the user doesn't have to wait for the whole document to download before starting to view it. We have been using such PDFs successfully, but now have a new wrinkle: We want to keep the page-by-page streaming, but we also want to insert a fresh cover page at the front of the PDF documents each time we serve them up. (The cover-page will have time-sensitive information, such as the date, so it's not practical to include the cover page in the PDFs on disk.)
To help with this, are there any PDF libraries that can quickly append a cover page to a pre-linearized PDF and yield a streamable, linearized PDF as output? What's of the greatest concern is not the total time to merge the PDFs, but how soon we can start streaming part of the merged document to the user.
We were trying to do this with itextsharp, but it turns out that library can't output linearized PDFs. (See http://itext.ugent.be/library/question.php?id=21) Nonetheless, the following ASP.NET/itextsharp scratch code demonstrates the sort of API we're thinking of. In particular, if itextsharp always output linearized PDFs, something like this might already be the solution:
public class StreamPdf : IHttpHandler
{
public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
{
context.Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
RandomAccessFileOrArray ramFile = new RandomAccessFileOrArray(#"C:\bigpdf.pdf");
PdfReader reader1 = new PdfReader(ramFile, null);
Document doc = new Document();
// We'll stream the PDF to the ASP.NET output
// stream, i.e. to the browser:
PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, context.Response.OutputStream);
writer.Open();
doc.Open();
PdfContentByte cb = writer.DirectContent;
// output cover page:
BaseFont bf = BaseFont.CreateFont(BaseFont.HELVETICA, BaseFont.CP1252, BaseFont.NOT_EMBEDDED);
Font font = new Font(bf, 11, Font.NORMAL);
ColumnText ct = new ColumnText(cb);
ct.SetSimpleColumn(60, 300, 600, 300 + 28 * 15, 15, Element.ALIGN_CENTER);
ct.AddText(new Phrase(15, "This is a cover page information\n", font));
ct.AddText(new Phrase(15, "Date: " + DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() + "\n", font));
ct.Go();
// output src document:
int i = 0;
while (i < reader1.NumberOfPages)
{
i++;
// add next page from source PDF:
doc.NewPage();
PdfImportedPage page = writer.GetImportedPage(reader1, i);
cb.AddTemplate(page, 0, 0);
// use something like this to flush the current page to the
// browser:
writer.Flush();
s.Flush();
context.Response.Flush();
}
doc.Close();
writer.Close();
s.Close();
}
}
}
Ideally we're looking for a .NET library, but it would be worth hearing about any other options as well.

You could try GhostScript, I think its possible to stitch PDF's together but dont know about linearizing when it comes to PDF. I have a C# GhostScript Wrapper that can be used with the GhostScript dll directly, I am sure this can be modified to Merge PDFs. contact details at: redmanscave.blogspot.com