Version française

Java JEE - Apache PDFBox Series

Creating PDFs from Scratch

Build new documents, add pages, and save to files or byte arrays.

Table of Contents

• 1. Creating a New Document
• 2. Page Size and Orientation
• 3. Saving to OutputStream
• 4. Design Patterns

1. Creating a New Document

Instantiate PDDocument, add PDPage objects, then save.

try (PDDocument doc = new PDDocument()) {
    PDPage page = new PDPage();
    doc.addPage(page);
    doc.save("output.pdf");
}

2. Page Size and Orientation

Use PDRectangle.A4, LETTER, or custom dimensions. Rotate with page.setRotation(90).

3. Saving to OutputStream

For web APIs, write to ByteArrayOutputStream and return bytes as download responses.

ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
doc.save(baos);
byte[] pdfBytes = baos.toByteArray();

4. Design Patterns

• Builder class per report type (InvoicePdfBuilder).
• Template method: header/footer hooks shared across documents.
• Separate layout from data for testability.

5. Conclusion

Creating PDFs programmatically is straightforward with PDDocument and PDPage. Next, learn fonts, text layout, and graphics on those pages.