How to create PDF document containing pages of different size

Introduction

The vast majority of the PDF files we encounter has all pages sized equally, so they use some predefined paper size, e.g. A4, Letter, or any custom size.  But what if you’d like to mix page sizes within the same document? Using Apitron PDF Kit for .NET component, you’ll able to produce documents containing pages sized any way you want.

There are three possible scenarios we’d like to cover:

1. Sizing pages using fixed layout API.
2. Sizing pages using flow layout API.
3. Producing PDF document using pages from separate documents. Using this method you create two or more documents containing pages of different size (or you already have them created), and combine them using merging technique or copying technique described in our blog.

The flow and fixed layout APIs are described in this article.

Sizing PDF pages using fixed layout API

For the fixed layout API it’s quite straightforward, you create new PDF page and specify its size in constructor. See the code below:

using (Stream outputStream = File.Create("document.pdf"))

{      

    // create new PDF document      

    using (FixedDocument pdfDocument = new FixedDocument())

    {                  

        // create page with width=300 and height=450

        pdfDocument.Pages.Add(new Page(new PageBoundary(new Boundary(0,0,300,450))));

        // create page with width=450 and height=300

        pdfDocument.Pages.Add(new Page(new PageBoundary(new Boundary(0, 0, 450, 300))));

        // save the result

        pdfDocument.Save(outputStream);                  

    }

}

Resulting PDF file is shown below:

Pic. 1 PDF document with mixed page sizes (fixed layout)

Sizing PDF pages using flow layout API

The code below shows how to handle page sizing in case of flow layout:

using (Stream outputStream = File.Create("document.pdf"))

{

    // output page size

    Boundary mediaBox = new Boundary(250, 350);

    // create document

    FlowDocument doc = new FlowDocument(){Margin = new Thickness(10)};

    // add style for text blocks

    doc.StyleManager.RegisterStyle("textblock",

new Style(){Font = new Font(StandardFonts.HelveticaBold,20)});

    // add new page event handler to handle page sizing

    doc.NewPage += (newPageArgs) =>{

                        // change size for every even page

                        if ((newPageArgs.Context.CurrentPage & 1) == 1)

                        {

                            newPageArgs.PageBoundary =

                            new PageBoundary(new Boundary(mediaBox.Height, mediaBox.Width));

                        }

                   };

    // add some content

    doc.Add(new TextBlock("page 1"));

    doc.Add(new PageBreak());

    doc.Add(new TextBlock("page 2"));

    // save the result

    doc.Write(outputStream, new ResourceManager(), new PageBoundary(mediaBox));

}

The resulting document looks as follows:

Pic. 2 PDF document with mixed page sizes (flow layout)

Conclusion

Using the techniques described in this article you can easily create documents with pages of any desired size. Apitron PDF Kit for .NET component is flexible and powerful enough to help you implement any PDF processing task without much effort. You can download it by the following link. This library is cross-platform, so you can create web, mobile and desktop applications not only for Windows-based devices, but also for iOS and Android using Xamarin and Mono.

The product is extensively documented, and its download package includes many ready to use samples demonstrating how to deal with most common PDF processing tasks. Read our free book, browse documentation or ask us a question if you need any help.

Downloadable version of this article can be found by the following link [PDF].

Converting PDF documents to PDF/A (C# sample)

Introduction

Converting existing PDF documents to PDF/A can be tricky sometimes because for storing the document in PDF/A format you have to significantly restructure the source document. It involves fonts embedding, colorspaces normalization and other techniques needed to produce PDF file conforming to the desired PDF/A standard version (there are PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-1b and a few more, where PDF/A-1a is the strictest version).

All these changes can’t be performed manually, and if you need to enable your apps handle PDF to PDF/A conversion you can use the Apitron PDF Kit for .NET component. This cross-platform library available for Windows, Windows Phone, Windows Store, Silverlight, Android and iOS (via Xamarin), and Mono provides you with an easy and convenient way for creating PDF and PDF/A documents.

The code

Here is the code for converting the PDF document to its PDF/A version:

using (Stream inputStream = File.Open("document.pdf", FileMode.Open),

    outputStream = File.Create("document_pdfa.pdf"))

{                             

    using (FixedDocument pdfDocument = new FixedDocument(inputStream, PdfStandard.PDFA))

    {                 

        // ... you can add or edit the contents of the PDF file here

        pdfDocument.Save(outputStream);                  

    }

}

The resulting document is shown below:

Pic. 1 Converted PDF/A document

Conclusion

Other topics related to PDF conversion and manipulation are covered in our blog and in the free book available for download from our website. The latest version of the Apitron PDF Kit is available by the following link. Contact us if you have any questions regarding our components and we’ll be happy to help you.

Downloadable version of this article can be found by the following link [PDF].

Create, manipulate and render PDF documents in Silverlight applications

Introduction

Apitron further extends the range of supported platforms and in addition to Windows, Windows Store, Windows Phone, OS X, iOS, & Android (via Xamarin) and Mono, it releases its PDF rendering and manipulation tools for Silverlight. So from now on, you’re able to use Apitron PDF Kit and Apitron PDF Rasterizer in your Silverlight applications.

All application types are supported: non trusted, trusted running out-of-browser and trusted in-browser apps.

Convert PDF to image in Silverlight application

Let’s create a simple Silverlight application and render PDF to image, here are the steps:

STEP 1: Creating the Silverlight project

Open Visual Studio and select Silverlight Application template, select the name for your project and click “OK”.

Pic. 1 Creating new Silverlight project

STEP 2: Creating web host project

You’ll be asked whether you want to create a web host project for you app. As we are going to use it for testing in browser, click “OK”.

Pic. 2 Create web site application serving as host

STEP 3: Adding the references

Download and unpack the rasterizer’s package and add the reference to the Silverlight assembly Apitron.PDF.Rasterizer.dll, it’s located in “[package folder]\Microsoft Silverlight”.

That’s all - the project is created, the reference to component added, and you can now start writing the code.

STEP 4: Adding the XAML

Open the MainPage.xaml and add the following markup:

<UserControl x:Class="RenderPDFToImage.MainPage"

    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"

    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"

    mc:Ignorable="d"

    d:DesignHeight="800" d:DesignWidth="800">

    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

        <Grid.RowDefinitions>

            <RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>

            <RowDefinition Height="*"/>

        </Grid.RowDefinitions>

        <StackPanel Orientation="Vertical">

            <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">

                <TextBlock Text="Render PDF to image sample" FontSize="18"

                   Margin="5,0,5,0"/>

                <TextBlock Text="" FontSize="18" Name="Mode"/>

            </StackPanel>

            <Button Content="Open PDF document for rendering..." Width="220" Grid.Row="0"

               Margin="5"

 Click="OnRenderPDF" HorizontalAlignment="Left"/>

        </StackPanel>

        <ScrollViewer HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" Grid.Row="1"

              Background="LightGray">

            <Image Name="PageImage" Stretch="None"/>

        </ScrollViewer>       

    </Grid>

</UserControl>

It defines the layout of the main app view, simply a button and an image inside the scroll viewer.

STEP 5: The code

Navigate to MainPage.xaml.cs and add the following code:

using System.IO;

using System.Windows;

using System.Windows.Controls;

using Apitron.PDF.Rasterizer;

using Apitron.PDF.Rasterizer.Configuration;

namespace RenderPDFToImage

{

    public partial class MainPage : UserControl

    {

        public MainPage()

        {

            InitializeComponent();

            Mode.Text = Application.Current.HasElevatedPermissions ? "(Trusted mode)" :

       "(Non trusted mode)";

        }

        private void OnRenderPDF(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

        {

            OpenFileDialog openFileDialog = new OpenFileDialog();

            openFileDialog.Filter = "*.pdf|*.pdf";

            if (openFileDialog.ShowDialog() == true)

            {

                using (Stream stream = openFileDialog.File.OpenRead())

                {

                    // open document and render its first page

                    using (Document doc = new Document(stream))

                    {

                        PageImage.Source = doc.Pages[0].Render(new Resolution(96, 96),

new RenderingSettings());

                    }

                }

            }           

        }

    }

}

Here we added the handler for button’s click event, and as you can see, we’re rendering the first page of the PDF document and updating the image inside the scroll viewer.

STEP 6: Turning on elevated trust

We’ll run our app as trusted in-browser first, so navigate to project properties and set this flag:

Pic. 3 Setting the "run as trusted in-browser" property

STEP 7: Viewing results

Hit “F5”, select the desired file by pressing the button, and enjoy the result:

Pic. 4 Rendered PDF page

Rendering PDF to image in partial trust mode

In trusted mode, the library is able to use system fonts for rendering, while in partial trust mode (if you unset the checkbox “Require elevated trust when running in-browser”) the library won’t have the access to them, and therefore, some files may become rendered wrongly.

In order for your application to function correctly in partial trust mode, you’ll have to register fonts which will be used as substitution during the rendering. Usually, these fonts come from embedded resources of your application.

Suppose we’d like to render the same file as in previous sample, in non-trusted mode:

Pic. 5 Rendered PDF file in non-trusted mode

You can see that text wasn’t rendered fine because the fonts couldn’t be found. Let’s fix it.

First of all, add the font file as an embedded resource to your project, I’ve chosen the DroidSansFallback.ttf for this experiment, it’s the font used on Android devices. You may use any desired font, respecting its copyright and usage license.

Secondly, add the following code to you MainPage.xaml.cs:

private void RegisterFonts()

{

    RasterizerSettings.RegisterUserFont(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().

       GetManifestResourceStream("RenderPDFToImage.DroidSansFallback.ttf"));

    RasterizerSettings.UserFontMappings.Add(

new KeyValuePair<string, string[]>("Droid Sans Fallback", new[] { "*" }));

}

And call this function before the actual PDF processing occurs. E.g. in MainPage ctor. It adds the font resource to library’s font cache and registers font mapping, in our case every not found font will be mapped to Droid Sans Fallback because we used “*” instead of font names list.  See the result:

Pic. 6 Rendering PDF in non-trusted Silverlight app

Create PDF in Silverlight application

STEPS 1-3: Preparation

Let’s create a simple “Hello world” Silverlight app that creates a PDF document using Apitron PDF Kit for .NET. Repeat the steps 1-3 from “Convert PDF to Image in Silverlight Application” section of this article. Assembly’s location is the same as well as the download link. Name this project “CreatePDFSample” for simplicity.

STEP 4: Adding the XAML

Open the MainPage.xaml and add the following markup:

<UserControl x:Class="CreatePDFSample.MainPage"

    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"

    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"

    xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"

    xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"

    mc:Ignorable="d"

    d:DesignHeight="400" d:DesignWidth="400">

    <Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">

        <StackPanel Margin="10">       

            <TextBlock Text="Create PDF sample" FontSize="18"/>

            <TextBox HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" TextWrapping="Wrap"

Text="Enter your text here" Height="200" Margin="0,5,0,5" Name="TextBox"/>

            <Button Content="Save to PDF..." Width="100" HorizontalAlignment="Left"

Click="OnSaveToPDFClick"/>

        </StackPanel>

    </Grid>

</UserControl>

STEP 5: The code

Navigate to MainPage.xaml.cs and add the following code:

using System.IO;

using System.Windows;

using System.Windows.Controls;

using Apitron.PDF.Kit;

using Apitron.PDF.Kit.FixedLayout.Resources;

using Apitron.PDF.Kit.FixedLayout.Resources.Fonts;

using Apitron.PDF.Kit.Styles;

using Font = Apitron.PDF.Kit.Styles.Text.Font;

using Style = Apitron.PDF.Kit.Styles.Style;

using TextBlock = Apitron.PDF.Kit.FlowLayout.Content.TextBlock;

using Thickness = Apitron.PDF.Kit.Styles.Thickness;

namespace CreatePDFSample

{

    public partial class MainPage : UserControl

    {

        public MainPage()

        {

            InitializeComponent();

        }

        private void OnSaveToPDFClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)

        {

            SaveFileDialog saveFile = new SaveFileDialog();

            saveFile.Filter = "*.pdf|*.pdf";

            if (saveFile.ShowDialog() == true)

            {

                // open stream for writing

                using (Stream outputStream = saveFile.OpenFile())

                {                   

                    ResourceManager resourceManager = new ResourceManager();

                    // create flow document

                    FlowDocument doc = new FlowDocument() {Margin = new Thickness(10)};

                    // register style for text block

                    doc.StyleManager.RegisterStyle("textblock",new Style(){

        Font = new Font(StandardFonts.HelveticaBold, 18), 

        Color = RgbColors.DarkBlue});

                    // add the text block with our text

                    doc.Add(new TextBlock(TextBox.Text));

                    // save document

                    doc.Write(outputStream,resourceManager );

                }

            }

        }

    }

}

This code uses flow layout API from Apitron PDF Kit to create a simple PDF document which contains text from our textblock. It defines a style for all textblocks in this document that uses the standard font Helvetica. If you were to use a non-standard font here, you’d have to run the app in elevated trust or map fonts as described in “Rendering PDF to image in partial trust mode” section.

STEP 5: Running the app

Hit “F5”, enter some text in text box, click the “Save to PDF…” button and select the output file name.  The resulting app’s screenshot is provided below:

Pic. 7 Create PDF application sample

STEP 6: Viewing results

That’s it. See the resulting doc:

Pic. 8 PDF file created using Apitron PDF Kit

Conclusion

Apitron PDF Kit and Apitron PDF Rasterizer, which are now available for Silverlight, are easy to use .NET PDF components offering rich API and high quality results. Your PDF processing applications can use the same PDF processing API and target multiple platforms at once. Create mobile, desktop, web, server apps using the same codebase, and reduce the time for support and maintenance.

Downloadable version of this article can be found by the following link [PDF].