Creating a complex PDF

The Hello, World example showed simple steps to create a PDF document using C# and Aspose.PDF. In this article, we will take a look at creating a more complex document with C# and Aspose.PDF for .NET. As an example, we’ll take a document from a fictitious company that operates passenger ferry services. Our document will contain a image, two text fragments (header and paragraph), and a table. To build such a document, we will use DOM-base approach. You can read more in section Basics of DOM API.

If we create a document from scratch we need to follow certain steps:

1. Instantiate a Document object. In this step we will create an empty PDF document with some metadata but without pages.
2. Add a Page to the document object. So, now our document will have one page.
3. Add a Image to the Page.
4. Create a TextFragment for header. For the header we will use Arial font with font size 24pt and center alignment.
5. Add header to the page Paragraphs.
6. Create a TextFragment for description. For the description we will use Arial font with font size 24pt and center alignment.
7. Add (description) to the page Paragraphs.
8. Create a table, add table properties.
9. Add (table) to the page Paragraphs.
10. Save a document “Complex.pdf”.

The following code snippet also work with Aspose.PDF.Drawing library.

private static readonly string dataDir = "..\\..\\..\\Samples\\";

// Initialize document object
Document document = new Document();
// Add page
Page page = document.Pages.Add();

// Add image
var imageFileName = dataDir + "logo.png";
page.AddImage(imageFileName, new Rectangle(20, 730, 120, 830));

// Add Header
var header = new TextFragment("New ferry routes in Fall 2020");
header.TextState.Font = FontRepository.FindFont("Arial");
header.TextState.FontSize = 24;
header.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Center;
header.Position = new Position(130, 720);
page.Paragraphs.Add(header);

// Add description
var descriptionText = "Visitors must buy tickets online and tickets are limited to 5,000 per day. Ferry service is operating at half capacity and on a reduced schedule. Expect lineups.";
var description = new TextFragment(descriptionText);
description.TextState.Font = FontRepository.FindFont("Times New Roman");
description.TextState.FontSize = 14;
description.HorizontalAlignment = HorizontalAlignment.Left;
page.Paragraphs.Add(description);

// Add table
var table = new Table
{
    ColumnWidths = "200",
    Border = new BorderInfo(BorderSide.Box, 1f, Color.DarkSlateGray),
    DefaultCellBorder = new BorderInfo(BorderSide.Box, 0.5f, Color.Black),
    DefaultCellPadding = new MarginInfo(4.5, 4.5, 4.5, 4.5),
    Margin =
    {
        Bottom = 10
    },
    DefaultCellTextState =
    {
        Font =  FontRepository.FindFont("Helvetica")
    }
};

var headerRow = table.Rows.Add();
headerRow.Cells.Add("Departs City");
headerRow.Cells.Add("Departs Island");
foreach (Cell headerRowCell in headerRow.Cells)
{
    headerRowCell.BackgroundColor = Color.Gray;
    headerRowCell.DefaultCellTextState.ForegroundColor = Color.WhiteSmoke;
}

var time = new TimeSpan(6, 0, 0);
var incTime = new TimeSpan(0, 30, 0);
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
    var dataRow = table.Rows.Add();
    dataRow.Cells.Add(time.ToString(@"hh\:mm"));
    time=time.Add(incTime);
    dataRow.Cells.Add(time.ToString(@"hh\:mm"));
}

page.Paragraphs.Add(table);

document.Save(dataDir + "Complex.pdf");