It’s a common requirement to have a header/footer on PDF, and it could be achieved using PageEvents in iTextSharp. It depends on the requirement, but in general, the header may contain:
- Header Title
- Header Subtitle
- Logo
- Page Number/Datetime
And footer may contain the following:
- Page Number
- Copyright information
Check out the below function that creates a sample PDF having five pages with a header and footer:
private void CreatePDF()
{
string fileName = string.Empty;
DateTime fileCreationDatetime = DateTime.Now;
fileName = string.Format("{0}.pdf", fileCreationDatetime.ToString(@"yyyyMMdd") + "_" + fileCreationDatetime.ToString(@"HHmmss"));
string pdfPath = Server.MapPath(@"~\PDF\") + fileName;
using (FileStream msReport = new FileStream(pdfPath, FileMode.Create))
{
//step 1
using (Document pdfDoc = new Document(PageSize.A4, 10f, 10f, 140f, 10f))
{
try
{
// step 2
PdfWriter pdfWriter = PdfWriter.GetInstance(pdfDoc, msReport);
pdfWriter.PageEvent = new Common.ITextEvents();
//open the stream
pdfDoc.Open();
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
{
Paragraph para = new Paragraph("Hello world. Checking Header Footer", new Font(Font.FontFamily.HELVETICA, 22));
para.Alignment = Element.ALIGN_CENTER;
pdfDoc.Add(para);
pdfDoc.NewPage();
}
pdfDoc.Close();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//handle exception
}
finally
{
}
}
}
}
The below line assigns the object of ItextEvent class that extends PdfPageEventHelper, which contains various methods, as shown below, that you can override to do various things like add header/footer, watermark, etc. In the next post, we’ll add a watermark using a similar class that extends PdfPageEventHelper.
Check out the ITextEvents class that extends PdfPageEventHelper to add a header/footer.
public class ITextEvents : PdfPageEventHelper
{
// This is the contentbyte object of the writer
PdfContentByte cb;
// we will put the final number of pages in a template
PdfTemplate headerTemplate, footerTemplate;
// this is the BaseFont we are going to use for the header / footer
BaseFont bf = null;
// This keeps track of the creation time
DateTime PrintTime = DateTime.Now;
#region Fields
private string _header;
#endregion
#region Properties
public string Header
{
get { return _header; }
set { _header = value; }
}
#endregion
public override void OnOpenDocument(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
try
{
PrintTime = DateTime.Now;
bf = BaseFont.CreateFont(BaseFont.HELVETICA, BaseFont.CP1252, BaseFont.NOT_EMBEDDED);
cb = writer.DirectContent;
headerTemplate = cb.CreateTemplate(100, 100);
footerTemplate = cb.CreateTemplate(50, 50);
}
catch (DocumentException de)
{
//handle exception here
}
catch (System.IO.IOException ioe)
{
//handle exception here
}
}
public override void OnEndPage(iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfWriter writer, iTextSharp.text.Document document)
{
base.OnEndPage(writer, document);
iTextSharp.text.Font baseFontNormal = new iTextSharp.text.Font(iTextSharp.text.Font.FontFamily.HELVETICA, 12f, iTextSharp.text.Font.NORMAL, iTextSharp.text.BaseColor.BLACK);
iTextSharp.text.Font baseFontBig = new iTextSharp.text.Font(iTextSharp.text.Font.FontFamily.HELVETICA, 12f, iTextSharp.text.Font.BOLD, iTextSharp.text.BaseColor.BLACK);
Phrase p1Header = new Phrase("Sample Header Here", baseFontNormal);
//Create PdfTable object
PdfPTable pdfTab = new PdfPTable(3);
//We will have to create separate cells to include image logo and 2 separate strings
//Row 1
PdfPCell pdfCell1 = new PdfPCell();
PdfPCell pdfCell2 = new PdfPCell(p1Header);
PdfPCell pdfCell3 = new PdfPCell();
String text = "Page " + writer.PageNumber + " of ";
//Add paging to header
{
cb.BeginText();
cb.SetFontAndSize(bf, 12);
cb.SetTextMatrix(document.PageSize.GetRight(200), document.PageSize.GetTop(45));
cb.ShowText(text);
cb.EndText();
float len = bf.GetWidthPoint(text, 12);
//Adds "12" in Page 1 of 12
cb.AddTemplate(headerTemplate, document.PageSize.GetRight(200) + len, document.PageSize.GetTop(45));
}
//Add paging to footer
{
cb.BeginText();
cb.SetFontAndSize(bf, 12);
cb.SetTextMatrix(document.PageSize.GetRight(180), document.PageSize.GetBottom(30));
cb.ShowText(text);
cb.EndText();
float len = bf.GetWidthPoint(text, 12);
cb.AddTemplate(footerTemplate, document.PageSize.GetRight(180) + len, document.PageSize.GetBottom(30));
}
//Row 2
PdfPCell pdfCell4 = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Sub Header Description", baseFontNormal));
//Row 3
PdfPCell pdfCell5 = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("Date:" + PrintTime.ToShortDateString(), baseFontBig));
PdfPCell pdfCell6 = new PdfPCell();
PdfPCell pdfCell7 = new PdfPCell(new Phrase("TIME:" + string.Format("{0:t}", DateTime.Now), baseFontBig));
//set the alignment of all three cells and set border to 0
pdfCell1.HorizontalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_CENTER;
pdfCell2.HorizontalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_CENTER;
pdfCell3.HorizontalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_CENTER;
pdfCell4.HorizontalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_CENTER;
pdfCell5.HorizontalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_CENTER;
pdfCell6.HorizontalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_CENTER;
pdfCell7.HorizontalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_CENTER;
pdfCell2.VerticalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_BOTTOM;
pdfCell3.VerticalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE;
pdfCell4.VerticalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_TOP;
pdfCell5.VerticalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE;
pdfCell6.VerticalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE;
pdfCell7.VerticalAlignment = Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE;
pdfCell4.Colspan = 3;
pdfCell1.Border = 0;
pdfCell2.Border = 0;
pdfCell3.Border = 0;
pdfCell4.Border = 0;
pdfCell5.Border = 0;
pdfCell6.Border = 0;
pdfCell7.Border = 0;
//add all three cells into PdfTable
pdfTab.AddCell(pdfCell1);
pdfTab.AddCell(pdfCell2);
pdfTab.AddCell(pdfCell3);
pdfTab.AddCell(pdfCell4);
pdfTab.AddCell(pdfCell5);
pdfTab.AddCell(pdfCell6);
pdfTab.AddCell(pdfCell7);
pdfTab.TotalWidth = document.PageSize.Width - 80f;
pdfTab.WidthPercentage = 70;
//call WriteSelectedRows of PdfTable. This writes rows from PdfWriter in PdfTable
//first param is start row. -1 indicates there is no end row and all the rows to be included to write
//Third and fourth param is x and y position to start writing
pdfTab.WriteSelectedRows(0, -1, 40, document.PageSize.Height - 30, writer.DirectContent);
//Move the pointer and draw line to separate header section from rest of page
cb.MoveTo(40, document.PageSize.Height - 100);
cb.LineTo(document.PageSize.Width - 40, document.PageSize.Height - 100);
cb.Stroke();
//Move the pointer and draw line to separate footer section from rest of page
cb.MoveTo(40, document.PageSize.GetBottom(50));
cb.LineTo(document.PageSize.Width - 40, document.PageSize.GetBottom(50));
cb.Stroke();
}
public override void OnCloseDocument(PdfWriter writer, Document document)
{
base.OnCloseDocument(writer, document);
headerTemplate.BeginText();
headerTemplate.SetFontAndSize(bf, 12);
headerTemplate.SetTextMatrix(0, 0);
headerTemplate.ShowText((writer.PageNumber - 1).ToString());
headerTemplate.EndText();
footerTemplate.BeginText();
footerTemplate.SetFontAndSize(bf, 12);
footerTemplate.SetTextMatrix(0, 0);
footerTemplate.ShowText((writer.PageNumber - 1).ToString());
footerTemplate.EndText();
}
}
As you can see, the above class has a Header property that you might want to use if you want your header title to be assigned dynamically. Add as many properties as you want to display dynamic values in your header/footer. It will generate a sample PDF that will look like the below:
I hope it helps!
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