iText in Action

Second Edition
Bruno Lowagie 1T3XT

Devoxx templates

Adding buttons as place holder

Mark tabs as annotations

Combining speakers and talks

Generating the complete guide

Chapters on itextpdf.com

Examples on SourceForge (SVN)

Part 1: Creating PDF from scratch

Chapter 1: Introducing PDF and iText
Chapter 2: Using iTexts basic building blocks
Chapter 3: Adding content at absolute positions
Chapter 4: Organizing content in tables
Chapter 5: Table, cell and page events

10

Part 2: Manipulating existing PDFs

Chapter 6: Working with existing PDFs
Chapter 7: Making documents interactive
Chapter 8: Filling out interactive forms

DEMO 1: XML Forms Architecture

Data in the form of XML

Using an XML Schema Definition

Creating a dynamic XFA form

Importing an XSD

Rearranged fields

Dynamic XFA form

Dynamic XFA form with data

Part 3: Essential iText Skills

Chapter 9: Integrating iText in your web apps
Chapter 10: Using color and images
Chapter 11: Choosing the right font
Chapter 12: Protecting your PDF

Part 4: Under the hood

Chapter 13: PDFs inside-out
Chapter 14: The imaging model
Chapter 15: Page content and structure
Chapter 16: PDF streams

BOOK DEMO 2: Parsing PDF

Parsing PDF
PdfTextExtractor.getTextFromPage(reader, i)

RenderListener
beginTextBlock()
renderText(TextRenderInfo info)
endTextBlock()

Generic tag event:

public void renderText(TextRenderInfo

renderImage(ImageRenderInfo info)
renderInfo) {
System.out.print("<");
System.out.print(renderInfo.getText());
System.out.print(" @ (");
System.out.print(
renderInfo.getBaseline()
.getStartPoint().get(0));
System.out.print(", ");
System.out.print(
renderInfo.getBaseline()
.getStartPoint().get(1));
System.out.print(") l: ");
System.out.print(
renderInfo.getBaseline()
.getLength());
System.out.println(">");
}

Parsing content streams

Showing the TextRenderInfo

Structure in PDF

Tagged PDF to XML

Take the file moby.xml
Convert it to moby.pdf
create a RoleMap
parse the structure
parse the content

Convert tagged PDF to XML

BOOK DEMO 3: PDF and Flash

Creating a movie calendar in Flash

Calendar in Action in HTML

Online XML data available

http://flex.itextpdf.org/fff/day_2011-10-12.xml

Crossdomain.xml
http://flex.itextpdf.org/crossdomain.xml

Calendar in Action in PDF

Guest Demo
iText for map printing
Joachim Van der Auwera
GeoSparc

Introducing Geomajas
World's first open source all-java web mapping
framework
Using Spring framework, Google Web Toolkit
(GWT) and best-of-bread spatial open source
Fully modular
Showcase on
http://apps.geomajas.org/showcase-beta/

Need for better Web map printing

HTML print is flawed
Bad resolution
No control over layout
No control over vector graphics
Not reproducible across browsers

Choice for PDF

Pixel-level reproducibility
Portable and exchangeable
Vector support
Resolution control

Why iText
Open source
2D graphics API
Fast and robust

Design decisions
Component model to support layout control,
editability and extensibility
Client-side editing and print preview
Server-side template rendering and persistence

Problem: drawing vector layers

PdfContentByte allows pen movements:
private void drawPathContent(Coordinate[] coord) {
pdfContentByte.moveTo(
origX + (float) coord[0].x,
origY + (float) coord[0].y);
for (int i = 1; i < coord.length; i++) {
pdfContentByte.lineTo(
origX + (float) coord[i].x,
origY + (float) coord[i].y);
}
}

Fill according to even/uneven rule

template.closePathEoFillStroke();

Problem: drawing tile-based raster layers

Using JAI to create a large mosaic image first
ParameterBlock pbMosaic = new ParameterBlock();
pbMosaic.add(MosaicDescriptor.MOSAIC_TYPE_OVERLAY);
for (RenderedImage renderedImage : images) {
pbMosaic.addSource(renderedImage);
}
RenderedOp mosaic = JAI.create(
"mosaic", pbMosaic,
new RenderingHints(JAI.KEY_IMAGE_LAYOUT,imageLayout));

Convert to iText image by first streaming to

bytes and calling factory method:
Image img = Image.getInstance(byte[])

Draw with PdfContentByte addImage()

Problem: transparent color styles

PDF supports complex transparency model
iText graphic state holds pen state:
private void setFill(Color color) {
// Color and transparency
PdfGState state = new PdfGState();
state.setFillOpacity(color.getAlpha() / 255f);
state.setBlendMode(PdfGState.BM_NORMAL);
template.setGState(state);
template.setColorFill(color);
}

Don't forget to enclose in

PdfContentByte.save/restoreState() pair !

Further things to explore

GeoPDF
3D object mapping
Multi-page reports