PdfDocumentProcessor.CreateEmptyDocument(String, PdfSaveOptions, PdfCreationOptions) Method

Creates an empty PDF document with no pages using the file path, PDF save options (containing encryption settings and a signature) that will be applied to the document when it is saved, and PDF creation options.

Namespace: DevExpress.Pdf

Assembly: DevExpress.Docs.v19.1.dll

Declaration

C#

public void CreateEmptyDocument(
    string path,
    PdfSaveOptions saveOptions,
    PdfCreationOptions creationOptions
)

VB.NET

Public Sub CreateEmptyDocument(
    path As String,
    saveOptions As PdfSaveOptions,
    creationOptions As PdfCreationOptions
)

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
path	String	A string that is the full path to the PDF document file.
saveOptions	PdfSaveOptions	A PdfSaveOptions object that contains settings to encrypt and sign an empty document.
creationOptions	PdfCreationOptions	A PdfCreationOptions object that contains PDF compatibility and font embedding options.

Remarks

Use this method to create an empty document. The empty document is created using the file path, PDF save options (represented by the PdfSaveOptions object) that will be applied to the document when it is saved, and PDF creation options (represented by the PdfCreationOptions object).

The PDF save options allows you to access the encryption options (the PdfSaveOptions.EncryptionOptions property) to protect a document with a password and permissions. You can also sign a document using the PdfSaveOptions.Signature property.

Using the PDF creation options, you can create an empty PDF document by setting the PdfCreationOptions.Compatibility property to one of the PdfCompatibility enumeration values. You can also disable embedding all fonts when the document is created using the PdfCreationOptions.DisableEmbeddingAllFonts property or disable embedding certain fonts using the PdfCreationOptions.NotEmbeddedFontFamilies property.

This method allows you to decrease memory consumption when merging is performed especially for large documents. This is achieved by saving merge result directly on a local disk. So, the whole document content is not kept in memory during the merging process.

Note

When all operations with a document created using the overloaded CreateEmptyDocument method are completed, you need to close the document either by calling the PdfDocumentProcessor.CloseDocument method or disposing of the PdfDocumentProcessor instance.

The PDF specification does not describe empty documents. For this reason, most third-party PDF viewers cannot open such files. This does not apply to the DevExpress WinForms PDF Viewer and WPF PDF Viewer, which are less demanding concerning the validity of opened documents, and are capable of opening documents containing no pages.

Example

This example shows how to programmatically create a document with graphics using the PDF Document API.

• Create an empty document with no pages by calling one of the PdfDocumentProcessor.CreateEmptyDocument overload methods (e.g., using a file path).
• Call the PdfDocumentProcessor.CreateGraphics method to create PDF graphics represented by the PdfGraphics class instance. Make sure that you have reference to the DevExpress.Pdf.Drawing assembly to access PdfGraphics.
• Draw the graphic content (e.g., an image, a string, lines, polygons) by calling the corresponding Draw method.
• Use the PdfDocumentProcessor.RenderNewPage method to render a page with created graphics.

Note

A complete sample project is available at https://github.com/DevExpress-Examples/how-to-generate-a-document-layout-from-scratch-t244516

Program.cs

using DevExpress.Pdf;
using System;
using System.Drawing;

namespace DocumentCreationAPI
{
    class Program {

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {

            using (PdfDocumentProcessor processor = new PdfDocumentProcessor())
            {

                // Create an empty document.
                processor.CreateEmptyDocument("..\\..\\Result.pdf");

                // Create and draw PDF graphics.
                using (PdfGraphics graph = processor.CreateGraphics())
                {
                    DrawGraphics(graph);

                    // Render a page with graphics.
                    processor.RenderNewPage(PdfPaperSize.Letter, graph);
                }
            }
        }

        static void DrawGraphics(PdfGraphics graph)
        {

            // Draw text lines on the page.
            SolidBrush black = (SolidBrush)Brushes.Black;
            using (Font font1 = new Font("Times New Roman", 32, FontStyle.Bold))
            {
                graph.DrawString("PDF Document Processor", font1, black, 180, 150);
            }
            using (Font font2 = new Font("Arial", 20))
            {
                graph.DrawString("Display, Print and Export PDF Documents", font2, black, 168, 230);
            }
            using (Font font3 = new Font("Arial", 10))
            {
                graph.DrawString("The PDF Document Processor is a non-visual component " +
                                  "that provides the application programming interface of the PDF Viewer.", font3, black, 16, 300);
            }
        }
    }
}

Program.vb

Imports DevExpress.Pdf
Imports System
Imports System.Drawing

Namespace DocumentCreationAPI
    Friend Class Program

        Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)

            Using processor As New PdfDocumentProcessor()

                ' Create an empty document.
                processor.CreateEmptyDocument("..\..\Result.pdf")

                ' Create and draw PDF graphics.
                Using graph As PdfGraphics = processor.CreateGraphics()
                    DrawGraphics(graph)

                    ' Render a page with graphics.
                    processor.RenderNewPage(PdfPaperSize.Letter, graph)
                End Using
            End Using
        End Sub

        Private Shared Sub DrawGraphics(ByVal graph As PdfGraphics)

            ' Draw text lines on the page. 
            Dim black As SolidBrush = CType(Brushes.Black, SolidBrush)
            Using font1 As New Font("Times New Roman", 32, FontStyle.Bold)
                graph.DrawString("PDF Document Processor", font1, black, 180, 150)
            End Using
            Using font2 As New Font("Arial", 20)
                graph.DrawString("Display, Print and Export PDF Documents", font2, black, 168, 230)
            End Using
            Using font3 As New Font("Arial", 10)
                graph.DrawString("The PDF Document Processor is a non-visual component " & "that provides the application programming interface of the PDF Viewer.", font3, black, 16, 300)
            End Using
        End Sub
    End Class
End Namespace