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].