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Documents

PdfDocument is the root object. Every PDF starts here.

Creating a document​

PdfDocument implements AutoCloseable. Always use try-with-resources:

try (PdfDocument doc = new PdfDocument()) {
    // add pages, draw content
}

Closing the document releases internal buffers. Failing to close it does not corrupt the output, but it is good practice.

Writing output​

Write to a file​

try (PdfDocument doc = new PdfDocument();
     FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("report.pdf")) {
    doc.addPage(595, 842);
    // ...
    doc.writeTo(out);
}

Write to a byte array​

ByteArrayOutputStream buffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
try (PdfDocument doc = new PdfDocument()) {
    doc.addPage(595, 842);
    // ...
    doc.writeTo(buffer);
}
byte[] pdfBytes = buffer.toByteArray();

Write to an HTTP response​

response.setContentType("application/pdf");
try (PdfDocument doc = new PdfDocument()) {
    doc.addPage(595, 842);
    // ...
    doc.writeTo(response.getOutputStream());
}

writeTo accepts any OutputStream — files, buffers, HTTP responses, S3 streams, etc.

Document lifecycle​

new PdfDocument()
    └── addPage(w, h)  →  PdfPage
            └── draw*()
    └── setTitle / setAuthor / ...
    └── writeTo(stream)
close()

All pages must be added and all content drawn before calling writeTo. Calling writeTo multiple times is supported and produces the same bytes each time (deterministic).