Creating PDF in Java using iText - Header, Footer, Table, Phrase, Page Events

iText is one of the best libraries to automate creation and manipulation of PDFs in your application. In this post, I will explain how to create a basic PDF with a Header, Footer, Table, Phrase. This code also contains the usage of PageEvents.

Step-wise procedure to create PDF in Java using iText:

1. Download iText Libray from here and include it in your Project

2. Write this code and modify it according to your requirements

import com.lowagie.text.DocumentException;

import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfPageEventHelper;

import com.lowagie.text.Document;

import com.lowagie.text.Element;

import com.lowagie.text.Font;

import com.lowagie.text.FontFactory;

import com.lowagie.text.PageSize;

import com.lowagie.text.Paragraph;

import com.lowagie.text.Phrase;

import com.lowagie.text.Rectangle;

import com.lowagie.text.pdf.BaseFont;

import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfPTable;

import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

public class ITextUtil extends PdfPageEventHelper {

/** * Declare variable of type BaseFont */

public BaseFont helv;

/** Creates a new instance of ITextUtil*/

public ITextUtil() { }

/* This method will create a PDF using iText library and will return the string containing the filepath of the PDF created and its name(or an error message in case of an exception) */

public String generateITextPDF(String filePath) {

// step1

Document document = new Document(PageSize.A4, 30, 30, 120, 100);

boolean isException = false; String message = "";

try {

// step2

PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream( filePath + "iText.pdf"));

writer.setPageEvent(new ITextUtil());

// step3

document.open();

//generate the table

document.add(getYourSpecialTable());

} catch (Exception de) {

de.printStackTrace();

isException = true;

message = "Problem. Please close the PDF if its already open.";

} finally {

//Close the document object

document.close();

if (isException == false) {

//if there has been no exception print the success message

message = "filePath=" + filePath + "iText.pdf&file=iText.pdf";

} return message;

}

}

/* This is an overridden method that is called at the end of the page */

@Override

public void onEndPage(PdfWriter writer, Document document) {

try {

Rectangle page = document.getPageSize();

//we will print the header using the code below

PdfPTable headTable = getHeader(writer);

//total width of the table is set

headTable.setTotalWidth(page.width() - document.leftMargin() - document.rightMargin());

//the table is printed at the spcific location

headTable.writeSelectedRows(0, -1, document.leftMargin(), 800, writer.getDirectContent());

//we will print the footer using the code below

PdfPTable footTable = getFooterSignatures();

footTable.setTotalWidth(page.width() - document.leftMargin() - document.rightMargin());

footTable.writeSelectedRows(0, -1, document.leftMargin(), document.bottomMargin() + 20,     writer.getDirectContent());

} catch (DocumentException ex) {

ex.printStackTrace();

}

}

private PdfPTable getFooterSignatures() throws DocumentException {

Font fontStyleFooters = FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 9, Font.BOLD);

//the following code will create a table with 2 columns

PdfPTable footTable = new PdfPTable(2);

//now we set the widths of each of the columns

footTable.setWidths(new int[]{50, 50});

//set the width of the table

footTable.setWidthPercentage(100);

//set the padding

footTable.getDefaultCell().setPadding(2);

//the border width is set below. it can be any floating point value

//you could use 0.5f for a thin border that gives a good look to the table

//since we are using 0 border width, the border wont apppear on this particular table

footTable.getDefaultCell().setBorderWidth(0);

//below we set the alignment of the cell values

//each time you change the alignment, it applies to all the cells coming after it

footTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_LEFT);

//the following line will add a cell to the table with value "Signature1"

//notice fontStyleFooters? that is the font that we created in the beginning of this method

footTable.addCell(new Phrase("Signature1", fontStyleFooters));

//this cell will be blank. Yes! we can directly type in a string too above, but in order to

//use special fonts for special cell values, we are using a Phrase above

footTable.addCell("");

footTable.addCell("\n");

footTable.addCell("\n");

footTable.addCell(new Phrase("Signature2", fontStyleFooters)); footTable.addCell(new Phrase("Signature3", fontStyleFooters));

return footTable;

}

private PdfPTable getHeader(PdfWriter writer) throws DocumentException {

PdfPTable headTable = new PdfPTable(3);

headTable.setWidths(new int[]{15, 60, 25}); headTable.setWidthPercentage(100); headTable.getDefaultCell().setPadding(2); headTable.getDefaultCell().setBorderWidth(1);

headTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_CENTER);

headTable.getDefaultCell().setVerticalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE);

headTable.addCell("Something 1"); headTable.addCell("Something 2"); headTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_LEFT); headTable.getDefaultCell().setVerticalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_UNDEFINED); headTable.addCell(new Phrase(" Something3.1\n Something3.2\n Something3.3\n Something3.4\n Page\t" + writer.getPageNumber() + "\t Something3.5.1\n", FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 9, Font.BOLD)));

headTable.getDefaultCell().setBorderWidth(0); headTable.getDefaultCell().setColspan(3); headTable.addCell(""); headTable.addCell(getYourNameInHeader()); return headTable;

}

private PdfPTable getYourSpecialTable() throws DocumentException { PdfPTable specialTable = new PdfPTable(6); specialTable.setWidths(new int[]{63, 10, 5, 10, 5, 7});

specialTable.setWidthPercentage(100); specialTable.getDefaultCell().setPadding(2);

Font fontStyleHeaders = FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 9, Font.BOLD);

specialTable.getDefaultCell().setColspan(1); specialTable.getDefaultCell().setBorderWidth(0.5f); specialTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_LEFT); //the following code will print the header row of the table specialTable.addCell("Header1"); specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Header2", fontStyleHeaders)); specialTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_RIGHT); specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Header3", fontStyleHeaders)); specialTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_LEFT); specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Header4", fontStyleHeaders)); specialTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_RIGHT); specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Header5", fontStyleHeaders)); specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Header6", fontStyleHeaders));

Font fontStyleCells = FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 7, Font.NORMAL);

//this for loop should print 100 rows of the table

for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) { specialTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_LEFT); specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Cell 1"+ i, fontStyleCells));

specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Cell 2"+ i, fontStyleCells)); specialTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_RIGHT); specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Cell 3"+ i, fontStyleCells)); specialTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_LEFT); specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Cell 4"+ i, fontStyleCells)); specialTable.getDefaultCell().setHorizontalAlignment(Element.ALIGN_RIGHT); specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Cell 5"+ i, fontStyleCells));

specialTable.addCell(new Phrase("Cell 6"+ i, fontStyleCells));

}

return specialTable;

}

private PdfPTable getYourNameInHeader() throws DocumentException { PdfPTable headerTable = new PdfPTable(3);

headerTable.setWidths(new int[]{35, 35, 30});

headerTable.setWidthPercentage(100);

headerTable.getDefaultCell().setPadding(2); headerTable.getDefaultCell().setBorderWidth(0);

headerTable.addCell(new Phrase("Name: My Name", FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 9, Font.BOLD)));

headerTable.addCell(new Phrase("Company: My Company", FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 9, Font.BOLD)));

headerTable.addCell(new Phrase("Designation: My Designation", FontFactory.getFont(FontFactory.HELVETICA, 9, Font.BOLD))); return headerTable; }

}

You could also download the sample java code from here: ItextUtil.java