CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaswingpdf-generationjpanelitext
Carlos Oliveira
Carlos Oliveira

Reputation: 91

iText Java to PDF: how to output a JPanel without having to add it to the Container

I have a Java application that has a JPanel with information that I want to output to PDF (using iText). The only twist is that I need to give this JPanel a different formatting on the PDF. Since the JPanel is showed on the GUI, I can't change it to the way I want to appear on the PDF, because this would change the JPanel being showed. So what I do is create a new JPanel with my PDF formatting, populate it with the information of the original one and then output this new one to PDF. No problem so far, except that I only can get this JPanel to be outputted to PDF if it's added to the Container. And obviously I don't want it to be, because I don't want this new JPanel to be showed. I even tried to set it not visible, but this way it also doesn't get outputted.

The new JPanel: 

JPanel myFormattedPanel = new JPanel(); {
myFormattedPanel.setLayout(new GridLayout(2, 3, 0, 2));
myFormattedPanel.setBackground(Color.WHITE);

(...)

getContentPane().add(myFormattedPanel); //How to not need this??

Output to PDF: 

Document document = new Document();
PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document, out);
document.open();

PdfContentByte cb = writer.getDirectContent();

float width = PageSize.A4.getWidth();
float height = PageSize.A4.getHeight() / 2;

PdfTemplate resultsPanelPdfTemplate = cb.createTemplate(width, height);
Graphics2D g2d2 = new PdfGraphics2D(resultsPanelPdfTemplate, width, height);
myFormattedPanel.paint(g2d2);
g2d2.dispose();
cb.addTemplate(resultsPanelPdfTemplate, 0, 0);

document.close();

So basically, what is the way to output a JPanel to PDF using iText, without having to add it to the Container, or at least, without having to make it visible?

Thanks very much in advance.

Cheers!

Upvotes: 2

Views: 3441

Answers (1)

MadProgrammer
MadProgrammer

Reputation: 347214

  • Use setSize to give the component space to paint its contents. You can use getPreferredSize if you want to get the recommended size
  • Use printAll instead of paint. printAll isn't double buffered and doesn't suffer from NullPointerException (which can occur under Windows from experience)

Upvotes: 1

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