Massoud Mazar

iTextSharp is a rich code library to create PDF and RTF output. Recently I decided to use it for a client and realized there are not much good code examples available on the internet. Even some of the code samples from its online tutorial wont run.

By doing a lot of try and error and with some help from other posts, I could get the desired output. It took me too much time to gather all this information and thought it may come handy to others. So I put together a sample web application which creates a PDF document and renders it to the client browser. Here is the code behind for the page:

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
     {
         protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
         {
             SendOutPDF(new CustomReports().CreatePDF("Title: Sample 1"));
         }
        /// 

         /// Sends a Stream of bytes to Client as a PDF file
         /// 
         /// Stream containing bytes
         protected void SendOutPDF(System.IO.MemoryStream PDFData)
         {
             // Clear response content & headers
             Response.Clear();
             Response.ClearContent();
             Response.ClearHeaders();
             Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
             Response.Charset = string.Empty;
             Response.Cache.SetCacheability(System.Web.HttpCacheability.Public);
             Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", 
                 "attachment; filename=" + Title.Replace(" ", "").Replace(":", "-") + ".pdf");
            Response.OutputStream.Write(PDFData.GetBuffer(), 0, PDFData.GetBuffer().Length);
             Response.OutputStream.Flush();
             Response.OutputStream.Close();
             Response.End();
         }
    }

The MemoryStream is generated by calling the CreatePDF() method in my CustomReports class. It's a very simple report of 30 lines of text, divided into 2 groups. A bookmark is created for each group to simplify navigation in large reports. It has custom multiline header and custom footer displaying "Page X of Y".

using System;
 using System.IO;
 using System.Data;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using System.Text;
using iTextSharp.text;
 using iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser;
 using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
namespace PDF_Tests
 {
     public class CustomReports
     {
        public MemoryStream CreatePDF(string Title)
         {
             MemoryStream PDFData = new MemoryStream();
             Document document = new Document(PageSize.LETTER, 50, 50, 80, 50);
             PdfWriter PDFWriter = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, PDFData);
             PDFWriter.ViewerPreferences = PdfWriter.PageModeUseOutlines;
            // Our custom Header and Footer is done using Event Handler
             TwoColumnHeaderFooter PageEventHandler = new TwoColumnHeaderFooter();
             PDFWriter.PageEvent = PageEventHandler;
            // Define the page header
             PageEventHandler.Title = Title;
             PageEventHandler.HeaderFont = FontFactory.GetFont(BaseFont.COURIER_BOLD, 10, Font.BOLD);
             PageEventHandler.HeaderLeft = "Group";
             PageEventHandler.HeaderRight = "1";
            document.Open();
            for (int i = 1; i <= 2; i++)
             {
                 // Define the page header
                 PageEventHandler.HeaderRight = i.ToString();
                if (i != 1)
                 {
                     document.NewPage();
                 }
                // New outline must be created after the page is added
                 AddOutline(PDFWriter, "Group " + i.ToString(), document.PageSize.Height);
                for (int j = 1; j <= 30; j++)
                 {
                     Table ItemTable = new Table(2);
                     ItemTable.TableFitsPage = true;
                     ItemTable.Width = 95;
                     ItemTable.Offset = 0;
                     ItemTable.Border = 0;
                     ItemTable.DefaultCellBorder = 0;
                     ItemTable.AddCell(new Cell(string.Format("blah blah {0} - {1} ...", i, j)));
                     document.Add(ItemTable);
                     document.Add(new Paragraph("\r\n"));
                 }
            }
            document.Close();
            return PDFData;
         }
        public void AddOutline(PdfWriter writer, string Title, float Position)
         {
             PdfDestination destination = new PdfDestination(PdfDestination.FITH, Position);
             PdfOutline outline = new PdfOutline(writer.DirectContent.RootOutline, destination, Title);
             writer.DirectContent.AddOutline(outline, "Name = " + Title);
         }
     }
 }

Header and footer are created using a PageEventHandler class:

using System;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using System.Text;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
 using iTextSharp.text;
namespace PDF_Tests
 {
     public class TwoColumnHeaderFooter :PdfPageEventHelper
     {
         // This is the contentbyte object of the writer
         PdfContentByte cb;
        // we will put the final number of pages in a template
         PdfTemplate template;
        // this is the BaseFont we are going to use for the header / footer
         BaseFont bf = null;
        // This keeps track of the creation time
         DateTime PrintTime = DateTime.Now;
        #region Properties
         private string _Title;
         public string Title
         {
             get { return _Title; }
             set { _Title = value; }
         }
         
         private string _HeaderLeft;
         public string HeaderLeft
         {
             get { return _HeaderLeft; }
             set { _HeaderLeft = value; }
         }
        private string _HeaderRight;
         public string HeaderRight
         {
             get { return _HeaderRight; }
             set { _HeaderRight = value; }
         }
        private Font _HeaderFont;
         public Font HeaderFont
         {
             get { return _HeaderFont; }
             set { _HeaderFont = value; }
         }
        private Font _FooterFont;
         public Font FooterFont
         {
             get { return _FooterFont; }
             set { _FooterFont = value; }
         }
         #endregion
        // we override the onOpenDocument method
         public override void OnOpenDocument(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
         {
             try
             {
                 PrintTime = DateTime.Now;
                 bf = BaseFont.CreateFont(BaseFont.HELVETICA, BaseFont.CP1252, BaseFont.NOT_EMBEDDED);
                 cb = writer.DirectContent;
                 template = cb.CreateTemplate(50, 50);
             }
             catch (DocumentException de)
             {
             }
             catch (System.IO.IOException ioe)
             {
             }
         }
         
         public override void OnStartPage(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
         {
             base.OnStartPage(writer, document);
            Rectangle pageSize = document.PageSize;
            if (Title != string.Empty)
             {
                 cb.BeginText();
                 cb.SetFontAndSize(bf, 15);
                 cb.SetRGBColorFill(50, 50, 200);
                 cb.SetTextMatrix(pageSize.GetLeft(40), pageSize.GetTop(40));
                 cb.ShowText(Title);
                 cb.EndText();
             }
            if (HeaderLeft + HeaderRight != string.Empty)
             {
                 PdfPTable HeaderTable = new PdfPTable(2);
                 HeaderTable.DefaultCell.VerticalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE;
                 HeaderTable.TotalWidth = pageSize.Width - 80;
                 HeaderTable.SetWidthPercentage(new float[] { 45, 45 }, pageSize);
                 
                 PdfPCell HeaderLeftCell = new PdfPCell(new Phrase(8, HeaderLeft, HeaderFont));
                 HeaderLeftCell.Padding = 5;
                 HeaderLeftCell.PaddingBottom = 8;
                 HeaderLeftCell.BorderWidthRight = 0;
                 HeaderTable.AddCell(HeaderLeftCell);
                PdfPCell HeaderRightCell = new PdfPCell(new Phrase(8, HeaderRight, HeaderFont));
                 HeaderRightCell.HorizontalAlignment = PdfPCell.ALIGN_RIGHT;
                 HeaderRightCell.Padding = 5;
                 HeaderRightCell.PaddingBottom = 8;
                 HeaderRightCell.BorderWidthLeft = 0;
                 HeaderTable.AddCell(HeaderRightCell);
                cb.SetRGBColorFill(0, 0, 0);
                 HeaderTable.WriteSelectedRows(0, -1, pageSize.GetLeft(40), pageSize.GetTop(50), cb);
             }
         }
        public override void OnEndPage(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
         {
             base.OnEndPage(writer, document);
            int pageN = writer.PageNumber;
             String text = "Page " + pageN + " of ";
             float len = bf.GetWidthPoint(text, 8);
            Rectangle pageSize = document.PageSize;
            cb.SetRGBColorFill(100, 100, 100);
            cb.BeginText();
             cb.SetFontAndSize(bf, 8);
             cb.SetTextMatrix(pageSize.GetLeft(40), pageSize.GetBottom(30));
             cb.ShowText(text);
             cb.EndText();
            cb.AddTemplate(template, pageSize.GetLeft(40) + len, pageSize.GetBottom(30));
             
             cb.BeginText();
             cb.SetFontAndSize(bf, 8);
             cb.ShowTextAligned(PdfContentByte.ALIGN_RIGHT, 
                 "Printed On " + PrintTime.ToString(), 
                 pageSize.GetRight(40), 
                 pageSize.GetBottom(30), 0);
             cb.EndText();
         }
        public override void OnCloseDocument(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
         {
             base.OnCloseDocument(writer, document);
            template.BeginText();
             template.SetFontAndSize(bf, 8);
             template.SetTextMatrix(0, 0);
             template.ShowText("" + (writer.PageNumber - 1));
             template.EndText();
         }
    }
 }