PdfDocumentProcessor.CreateEmptyDocument() Method

Creates an empty PDF document with no pages.

Namespace: DevExpress.Pdf

Assembly: DevExpress.Docs.v18.2.dll

Declaration

C#

public void CreateEmptyDocument()

VB.NET

Public Sub CreateEmptyDocument

Remarks

Use this method to create an empty document. Then, you can continue to generate the document layout (e.g., append pages with graphics to the PDF document, generate bookmarks, and attach files) using the PDF document creation API. For more information, see the Document Generation topic.

Note

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

The PDF Document Processor allows you to draw graphic primitives on the PDF page, such as lines, Bezier curves, polygons, ellipses, paths, an image and a string.

This example shows how to draw a business card in the document foreground. To accomplish this task, do the following:

• Create a PDF document processor and add an empty document to it by calling the PdfDocumentProcessor.CreateEmptyDocument method.
• Create PDF graphics represented by an instance of the PdfGraphics class by calling the PdfDocumentProcessor.CreateGraphics method. To access PdfGraphics, you need to reference the DevExpress.Pdf.Drawing assembly.
• To draw an image on the PDF page, call the PdfGraphics.DrawImage method for the specified image at the specified location with the specified size.
• To draw text, call the PdfGraphics.DrawString method at the specified location with the specified Brush and Font objects.
• Render a page with created graphics by calling the PdfDocumentProcessor.RenderNewPage method.

Note

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

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

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);
            }
        }
    }
}