iOS Tutorial Reading and Writing PDF Documents

Erel · Dec 17, 2014

iOS has built-in support for reading and writing PDF documents.

The Canvas object allows us to display existing PDF documents and to create new PDF documents.

Displaying a PDF document

First we need to load the PDF file. This is done with PDFDocument object:

B4X:

Dim pdf As PDFDocument
pdf.Initialize(File.DirAssets, "example.pdf")

The next step is to draw one of the pages with Canvas.DrawPDF:

B4X:

cvs.DrawPDF(pdf, 1, cvs.TargetRect)

The line above draws the first page of the document we previously loaded into the specified rectangle. In this case we draw it to cvs.TargetRect which is a rectangle with the same size as the view's size.
Note that the first page number is 1.

That's it. A simple PDF reader example is attached. You need to add a PDF file to the Files folder in order to run it.

Creating a new PDF document

The Canvas object also allows us to create new PDF documents. Instead of drawing to a View, the Canvas draws to a PDF file.

B4X:

Dim pcvs As Canvas
pcvs.InitializePDF(File.DirDocuments, "1.pdf", 612, 792)

The line above creates a new canvas object that will draw to the specified file with the given width and height. Note that 612 x 792 is the standard document size.

You can now use the standard Canvas methods to draw to the file.

There are two important points:
1. You can create new pages by calling Canvas.NextPDFPage.
2. You must call Canvas.Release when you are done drawing.

Erel · Aug 16, 2016

It is better to post it in the wishlist forum.

drponciano · Nov 11, 2016

Kind of embarrassed for this question but, how could I zoom in and out the pdf file read in example?

Erel · Nov 13, 2016

Use WebView to show the PDF. It supports zooming.

drponciano · Nov 14, 2016

Thanks Erel. Now, with webview I cannot see the page. A very, very simple example of pdf webview is available?

Just Sorry for my lack of knowledge but...I'm learning. ha ha ha

Erel · Nov 15, 2016

Please start a new thread for this in the questions forum.

Descartex · May 17, 2017

Has someone an example of how to create a pdf file from a layout??
I'm becoming mad without success...
Thank you in advance.

Descartex · May 17, 2017

After 3 hours working on it, finally i got it.
I share my solution if someone find it helpful.

B4X:

Dim PDFPanel As Panel
PDFPanel.Initialize("PDFPanel")
PDFPanel.Width=612dip
PDFPanel.Height=792dip
PDFPanel.LoadLayout("PDFLayout")
Dim PDFCanvas As Canvas
PDFCanvas.InitializePDF(File.DirDocuments,"test.pdf",612,792)
For Each v As View In PDFPanel.GetAllViewsRecursive
    Dim Rect As Rect
    Select True
        Case v Is ImageView
            Dim iv As ImageView
            iv=v
            iv.ContentMode=iv.MODE_FIT
            Rect.Initialize(iv.Left,iv.Top,iv.Left+315,iv.Top+75) 'The size i need
            PDFCanvas.DrawView(iv,Rect)
        Case v Is Label
            Dim lab As Label
            lab=v
            Rect.Initialize(lab.Left,lab.Top,lab.Left+lab.Width,lab.Top+lab.Height)
            PDFCanvas.DrawView(lab,Rect)
            Log(lab.Text&"-"&lab.Top&"-"&lab.Left)
    End Select
Next
PDFCanvas.Release

Thank you anyway.

iOS Tutorial Reading and Writing PDF Documents

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