PDFOne .NET
Powerful all-in-one PDF library for .NET

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Home » Newsletter » March 2012

By V. Subhash

Gnostice PDFOne .NET is a versatile PDF SDK for add PDF-related features to .NET applications. PDFOne .NET can create, edit, view, print, encrypt, decrypt, merge, split, reorganize, bookmark, annotate, watermark, and stamp PDF documents. PDFOne can also process PDF forms or AcroForms - create, edit, fill, and flatten form fields. The API hides the complexity of the PDF format and enables developers to quickly implement sophisticated PDF features. PDFOne is entirely self-contained and is written in 100% managed code. It does not depend on external software such as Adobe PDF SDK, GhostScript or FreeType.

PDFOne supports .NET Framework v2 or later. You can use PDFOne .NET in Visual Studio versions 2005, 2008 and 2010. You can use it in ASP.NET and ASP.NET MVC Web applications too.

PDFOne Components

PDFOne .NET has four components.

• PDFDocument - This is a non-visual component. It represents a PDF document. You need to create an instance of this class to create a new PDF document or to read or modify an existing document. Creating a new PDF document from scratch is simple.

  // Create a new PDF document
  PDFDocument doc1 = new PDFDocument();  // automatically creates page 1
  
  // Write some text
  doc1.WriteText("Hello, world!", 2, 1);
  // Render an image
  doc1.DrawImage("sample_image.bmp", 5, 1);
  // Draw an ellipse shape
  doc1.DrawEllipse(1, 0.5f, 3, 1, false, true);
  
  // Save the document to file
  doc1.Save("sample_doc.pdf");
  
  // Close IO resources
  doc1.Close();
  

  
  Reading an existing PDF document is also simple.

  // Load an existing PDF document
  PDFDocument doc1 = new PDFDocument();
  
  Console.Out.Write("Please wait...");
  doc1.Load("sample_doc.pdf");
  
  // Print total number of pages page
  Console.Out.WriteLine(
     "\rFound " + doc1.GetPageCount().ToString() + " page(s)!");
  
  // Close IO resources
  doc1.Close();
  
  Console.In.ReadLine();
  

• PDFViewer - This is a visual interactive (Win-Forms) component. You can add it to a form to display a PDF document and allow the user to interact with the displayed document. By handling events exposed by the component, you can keep track of user activity and provide appropriate responses.
  

  PDF Viewer component in action

• PDFPrinter - This is a non-visual component. It enables you to natively print PDF documents.

  // Create a PDF printer object
  PDFPrinter PDFPrinter1 = new PDFPrinter();
  
  // Load an existing document
  PDFPrinter1.LoadDocument("sample_doc.pdf");
  
  // Select a printer
  PDFPrinter1.PrintOptions.PrinterName
      = (String) System.Drawing.Printing.PrinterSettings.InstalledPrinters[0];
  
  // Specify print settings
  PDFPrinter1.AutoCenter = true;
  PDFPrinter1.AutoRotate = true;
  PDFPrinter1.PageScaleType = PrintScaleType.None;
  PDFPrinter1.PrintOptions.PrintRange = 
    System.Drawing.Printing.PrintRange.Selection;
  
  // Select pages 2 and 4 for printing
  PDFPrinter1.SelectedPages = "2,4";
  
  // Start printing
  PDFPrinter1.Print();
  
  // Free IO resources
  PDFPrinter1.Dispose();
  

• PDFBookmarks - This visual component displays PDF bookmarks and allows end-users to interact with them. It can be integrated with a PDFViewer instance and allow end-users to navigate to destinations in displayed pages.

Other PDFOne Classes

In the assemblies of these components, you will find other PDFOne classes that you will need to use to implement various PDF features. Let us check a few of them.

• Gnostice.PDFOne.PDFFont: This class represents a font that can be used to render text on a PDF page. For example, you can pass an instance of this class as an argument to one of the overloaded WriteText() methods of PDFDocument or PDFPage.

  // Create a new PDF document
  PDFDocument doc1 = new PDFDocument();  // automatically creates page 1
  
  // Create an "Impact" font instance
  PDFFont fntHelvetica = new PDFFont(StdType1Font.Helvetica,       // name
                                     PDFFontStyle.Stroke_And_Fill, // style
                                     72);                          // size
  
  // Set fill color to yellow
  doc1.Brush.Color = Color.Yellow;
  // Set stroke color to red
  doc1.Pen.Color = Color.Red;
  doc1.Pen.Width = 1;
  
  // Render text on current page using Helvetica font
  doc1.WriteText("Hello, World!", fntHelvetica, 1, 1);
  
  // Save document to file
  doc1.Save("sample_doc.pdf");
  doc1.Close();
  

  
• Gnostice.PDFOne.PDFPage: This class represents a PDF page. You can create multiple instances of this class to add multiple pages to a PDFDocument instance. Similar to PDFDocument, this class has page-specific properties and methods that allow you to create new page elements and process existing page contents.

  // Create a "Tahoma" font instance
  PDFFont fntTahoma = new PDFFont(new Font("Tahoma", 24));
  // Create an "Impact" font instance
  PDFFont fntImpact = new PDFFont(new Font("Impact", 24));
  
  // Create a page
  PDFPage pg1 = new PDFPage(System.Drawing.Printing.PaperKind.B6Envelope);
  // Write text on page 1 using Tahoma font
  pg1.WriteText("This is page 1 (Envelope size) ", fntTahoma, 1, 1);
  
  // Create another page
  PDFPage pg2 = new PDFPage(System.Drawing.Printing.PaperKind.A4);
  // Write text on page 2 using Tahoma font
  pg2.WriteText("This is page 2 (A4 size)", fntTahoma, 1, 1);
  
  // Create a new PDF document
  PDFDocument doc1 = new PDFDocument();  // automatically creates page 1
  
  // Add the pages to the document
  doc1.AddPage(pg1);
  doc1.AddPage(pg2);
  
  /*
   * You can render text even after adding the
   * pages to the document
  */
  // Set first page as the current page
  doc1.CurrentPageNo = 1;
  // Render new text on page 1 using Impact font
  doc1.WriteText("One, two, buckle my shoe", fntImpact, 3, 3);
  // Set second page as the current page
  doc1.CurrentPageNo = 2;
  // Render new text on page 2 using Impact font
  doc1.WriteText("Three, four, knock on door ", fntImpact, 3, 3);
  
  // Save the document to file
  doc1.Save("sample_doc.pdf");
  
  // Close IO resources
  doc1.Close();
  

  
• Gnostice.PDFOne.PDFFormField: This abstract class represents a PDF form field. You create instances of its derived types to create various types of form fields.

  // Create a new PDF document
  PDFDocument doc1 = new PDFDocument();  // automatically creates page 1
  doc1.ApplyFormAppearances = true;
  
  PDFFormTextField tf = new PDFFormTextField(new RectangleF(1, 1, 2, 0.2f));
  tf.FieldName = "fld_Name";
  tf.BorderWidth = 1;
  tf.BorderColor = Color.Gray;
  tf.NameAsUnicode = false;
  tf.FieldValue = "John Doe";
  
  PDFFormListBox lb = new PDFFormListBox(new RectangleF(1, 2, 2, 0.5f));
  lb.FieldName = "fld_Country";
  lb.NameAsUnicode = false;
  lb.BorderWidth = 1;
  lb.BorderColor = Color.Gray;
  lb.AddItem("India");
  lb.AddItem("Germany");
  lb.AddItem("Russia");
  
  PDFFormPushButton pb = new PDFFormPushButton(new RectangleF(1, 3, 2, 0.4f));
  pb.FieldName = "fld_Submit";
  pb.NameAsUnicode = false;
  pb.NormalCaption = "Submit";
  pb.BorderWidth = 1;
  pb.BorderColor = Color.Gray;
  pb.ActionType = PDFFormFieldActionType.Submit_Action;
  pb.SubmitActionType = PDFSubmitActionType.HTTP_Post;
  pb.SubmitUrl = "http://www.gnostice.com/newsletters" +
                 "/demos/200804/forms_test.asp";
  
  doc1.AddFormField(tf);
  doc1.AddFormField(lb);
  doc1.AddFormField(pb);
  
  // Save document to file
  doc1.Save("sample_doc.pdf");
  doc1.Close();
  

  

By now, you would have had a good feel of the API. You are now ready to learn about all the things that can be accomplished with PDFOne. Please follow the links below for PDFOne features in greater detail.

What Can You Do With PDFOne .NET

• General I/O
  • Create PDF documents/forms from scratch
  • Read PDF documents/forms from files and streams
  • Save PDF documents/forms to files and streams
  • Launch, print, or e-mail document/forms after creation
• PDF Creation
  • Render text, shapes and images on pages
  • Specify opacity level for rendered text, shapes and images
  • Create form fields in desktop and Web applications
  • Create form fields with barcode data values
  • Add annotations, watermarks, bookmarks, page headers, footers
  • Add PDF actions to bookmarks [URI, go-to, remote go-to, launch, JavaScript, and named]
  • Insert any file in a document as an attachment
  • Add document properties [Title, Subject, Author, Keyword…]
  • Convert frames of a multi-page TIFF image to PDF pages
• PDF Enhancement
  • Add digital signatures to PDF documents
  • Encrypt/decrypt documents and specify document usage restrictions
  • Fill, modify, and flatten form fields
  • Edit and delete annotations, bookmarks
  • Embed, remove and replace fonts in the document
  • Overlay PDF pages
  • Rasterize PDF pages
  • Reorganize PDF pages [merge, split, insert]
  • Create a PDF document that automatically prompts for printing
  • Convert a document from one version to another
• PDF Processing
  • Parse PDF page elements [text, shapes, images, form fields, annotations & custom appearances]
  • Export page content as text, metafiles and raster images
  • Convert PDF pages as a multi-page TIFF image
  • Rasterize all PDF page content
  • Render page content on Graphics objects
  • Search text using literal strings and regular expressions
  • Redact text matches of literal strings and regular expressions
  • Redact text in specific page-regions
• PDF Rendering
  • Display PDF documents in desktop applications
  • Display interactive PDF bookmarks in desktop applications
  • Print pdf pages [whole document, page ranges, rotation, scaling]

Get PDFOne .NET Now

• Download PDFOne .NET Trial
• Buy PDFOne .NET registered version