1. PDF Generation with iText Presented by Greg Holling

2. What is iText? Java/C# library  Open source Generates PDF on-the-fly Servlet- and JSP-friendly  PDF can be generated by a servlet Supports lots of PDF functionality  Bookmarks, watermarks  PDF forms  Digital signatures

3. The Good Mature Library Deep & broad PDF support Open Source Easy to create “preview” PDF from servlet/JSP Active user base & mailing list Training & consulting available Lots of online examples Book “iText in Action” (preview 2 nd edition)

4. The Bad Javadoc (and code comments) are often sparse Need the book to use iText effectively eBook costs $35, and has problems  Current edition is somewhat dated  New edition is incomplete (MEAP)  Explanations are buried in examples  Some information is difficult to find

5. The Ugly Multiple ways to accomplish something  Sort of like Unix, but...  Sometimes one works, and the other doesn't Responses on mailing list often begin with “did you read the book?”  Or the corollary: “That method isn't intended to be used that way...” Example: getYLine()  JavaDoc says “gets the Y Line”  Book: no description, only a source example

6. Background Goal: Brochures for community college students  Students create brochures  Admin customizes brochure look & feel  Pricing: Monthly subscription for college Web-based  Deployed on Windows Server 2003  Original plan: shrinkwrap Complex distribution and pricing Inexperienced sysadmins  Future: mobile deployment (students)

7. Software Stack JDK 1.6 + Servlet/JSP Tomcat 6.0.28 Apache Commons File Upload 1.2.1 itext 2.0.8 Jdom opencsv 2.1 jUnit 4.8.2 [tagsoup, htmlcleaner, flying saucer, mongoDB]

8. DEMO Student interface  Generated PDF Administrative interface  PDF preview

9. Two Different Worlds Display (esp. web)Print Color ModelRGBCMYK, Pantone Photo Representationjpg/tiff/pngjpg/eps Explicit Layout ControlNice to haveCritical FontsArial/Helvetica/WhateverHelvetica Bold, NOT Bold Helvetica PhotosHighly compressed (<100k)Uncompressed (1 MB+) SizesPointsDPI; point ~ 1/72” LeadingHuh???Depends on context WhitespaceDynamic layoutDesign element Graphics (e.g. dotted line)Whatever is thereVery precise segment length, endcap shape,... y=0Top of pageBottom of page

10. iText “Hello World” Cookie cutter steps:  Create a new Document object initializes margins, other generic properties  Create a PdfWriter associates a document with a file/stream Stream can be a ServletOutputStream  Open the document prepares for writing  Add content  Close the document

11. iText Key Classes Document – margins, orientation, etc. PdfReader – reads an existing PDF PdfWriter – low-level output  Can be written to BAOS / ServletOutputStream PdfContentByte - “layer”, for low-level output  Can be overlaid PdfStamper – add content to existing PDF PdfCopy – combine pages from PDF's

12. More Key Classes Element – logical element Chunk – StringBuffer containing font info Phrase – ArrayList of Chunk, includes Leading Paragraph – Phrases + newline + alignment List, ListItem – Bulleted list Anchor – Hypertext link ColumnText – a column of text & images PdfPTable / PdfPCell – a table

13. Fonts Two primary font classes:  BaseFont Font name, embedded?, font file name  Font Font size, other modifiers Font is used by most text-related classes  BaseFont is used by PdfWriter Font constructor takes a BaseFont or Font.FontFamily object  BaseFont for embedded fonts  FontFamily for predefined fonts

14. Predefined Fonts All PDF readers are required to handle these Readers may substitute a similar font  Helvetica => Arial, e.g.  Use embedded fonts to avoid substitution No space penalty for using these in PDF Fonts:  Courier, Helvetica, Symbol, Times, ZapfDingbats  Bold & Italic variants for all except ZapfDingbats

15. Leading Pronounced like “sledding” Origin: lead separator inserted above a line PDF (iText): spacing above a line of text Aliases: line spacing Note: 1 inch = 72 points (approx.) Note: Spacing before a paragraph is different than leading Can be specified in points or % of font size

16. Embedded Fonts Obtain font information from a file  Adobe Type 1 (.afm,.pfm,.pfb), TrueType (.ttf), OpenType (.otf)  OpenType gives the best cross-platform behavior Font file is specified in BaseFont constructor Increase PDF size  Only the glyphs used in PDF are embedded  Size increase may still be significant, esp. CJK Watch for licensing restrictions

17. Hypertext Links Can be included in PDF To create:  Create a Chunk with the appropriate font color  Chunk.setAction (new PdfAction(...));  Embed the Chunk in a Paragraph or other iText element

18. Graphics PdfContentByte can create rudimentary graphics  Line segments, solid or dashed Color, line end/cap style, dash style  Filled or unfilled polygons Fill color/tint can be specified All units are relative to the edge of the page stroke() renders the graphics  Nothing is rendered until stroke() is called NOTE: LineSeparator can be used for a horizontal line in the Document

19. iText and Java2D PdfTemplate.createGraphicsShapes() returns a Graphics2D object  Can be passed to a paint() method  The template object can be passed to PdfContentByte.addTemplate()  Allows arbitrary Java2D graphics in PDF AffineTransform can be passed to some iText methods:  addImage()  setTextMatrix()  Image/text scaling, rotation, trasformation

20. Images iText class: com.itextpdf.text.Image Image formats:  JPEG[2000], GIF, PNG, BMP, WMF, TIFF, JBIG2  Color models: RGB, CMYK NOTE: imageio throws an exception when reading CMYK images Operations: scaling, transparency, masking NOTE: Scaling doesn't reduce image quality or size  Just affects rendering  Big image files => big PDF's

21. ColumnText Logical column, positioned explicitly on the page Rectangular or complex shape Content is added top-to-bottom go() renders content  Nothing happens until go()  Can be used to make sure content will fit  go(true) simulates output  go(false) or go() renders content

22. PDF Preview in Servlet PdfWriter constructor takes an OutputStream argument  Can be any OutputStream  Including ServletOutputStream This allows servlet to generate a preview PDF  PdfWriter => ServletOutputStream Small PDF's only  temp file => ServletOutputStream More flexibility, can be used for larger files

23. PdfStamper Adds content to an existing PDF Can read and write stream or byte array  Allows chaining of PDF generation ops Content can be written on top or underneath Useful for:  Table of contents  “Page x of y” in header/footer  Watermarks or “Confidential” notation

24. General iText Cautions 72 points = 1” (approx) Units are float, not double Font + bold modifier ≠ bold font Spacing before paragraph ≠ leading Watch font licensing restrictions Images are automatically centered & resized if they reside in a PdfCell ∑ Image size => PDF size (approx)  Scaling images doesn't affect PDF size Beware HTML caching, especially IE

25. PDF Size Big issue for this project Two primary things affect PDF size:  Images scaling doesn't affect size/resolution  Embedded fonts First example PDF was 10 MB+  Rejected by email server  5+ second download Changing image size/resolution => 300k PDF Moral: Use small, low-res images

26. IE Browser Caching  GET requests only  Symptoms: page not cleared  Workaround: Use POST or HTTP headers Also consider session.invalidate() Note: doesn't help with tabs  JSP workaround: <% response.setHeader (“Cache-Control”, “no-cache”); response.setHeader (“Pragma”, “no-cache”); response.setDateHeader (“Expires”, -1); %>

27. References iText website:  http://www.itextpdf.com/ http://www.itextpdf.com/ Book:  http://www.itextpdf.com/book/ http://www.itextpdf.com/book/ Examples (from the book):  http://www.itextpdf.com/examples/index.php http://www.itextpdf.com/examples/index.php

28. Questions? Greg Holling 303/274-9001 greg@holling-co.com