OrsonPDF and iText
I created OrsonPDF a few years ago because I wanted a lightweight API for exporting charts (JFreeChart and Orson Charts) to PDF files. The approach used is to implement the Graphics2D API (from Java2D), and under the hood write the code that generates the corresponding PDF bytes. This works really well, and the resulting jar file is around 67kb, which I would classify as lightweight.
At the time, the main PDF library in the Java space (iText) had a PdfGraphics2d class that did the same job (iText also has many other things, of course - check it out if you need to do serious PDF work in Java). I noticed, however, that recent releases of iText have dropped the PdfGraphics2d class, which has left a few JFreeChart users stuck - for example:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47593083/migrating-jfreechart-from-itext-5-to-7
So, while I’m no iText expert, I wondered if it would be possible to combine the PDFGraphics2D implementation in OrsonPDF to render a chart into a PDF document created using iText. It turns out that this is possible and (as far as I can tell) works pretty well. Here’s a screenshot of the resulting PDF, the code follows:
And now the code (dependencies listed afterwards):
package com.orsonpdf.demo;
import java.awt.BasicStroke;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Font;
import java.awt.Rectangle;
import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.IOException;
import com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfDocument;
import com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfReader;
import com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfWriter;
import com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.xobject.PdfFormXObject;
import com.itextpdf.layout.Document;
import com.itextpdf.layout.element.Image;
import com.itextpdf.layout.element.Paragraph;
import com.orsonpdf.PDFDocument;
import com.orsonpdf.PDFGraphics2D;
import com.orsonpdf.Page;
import org.jfree.chart.ChartFactory;
import org.jfree.chart.JFreeChart;
import org.jfree.chart.block.BlockBorder;
import org.jfree.chart.plot.XYPlot;
import org.jfree.chart.renderer.xy.XYItemRenderer;
import org.jfree.chart.renderer.xy.XYLineAndShapeRenderer;
import org.jfree.chart.title.TextTitle;
import org.jfree.chart.ui.HorizontalAlignment;
import org.jfree.data.time.Month;
import org.jfree.data.time.TimeSeries;
import org.jfree.data.time.TimeSeriesCollection;
import org.jfree.data.xy.XYDataset;
/**
* Creates a PDF document with iText, then inserts a PDF chart generated with
* JFreeChart and OrsonPDF.
*/
public class ITextPDFWithChart {
private static byte[] generateChartPDF() {
// here we use OrsonPDF to generate PDF in a byte array
PDFDocument doc = new PDFDocument();
Rectangle bounds = new Rectangle(500, 335);
Page page = doc.createPage(bounds);
PDFGraphics2D g2 = page.getGraphics2D();
JFreeChart chart = createChart(createDataset());
chart.draw(g2, bounds);
return doc.getPDFBytes();
}
/**
* Creates a chart.
*
* @param dataset a dataset.
*
* @return A chart.
*/
private static JFreeChart createChart(XYDataset dataset) {
JFreeChart chart = ChartFactory.createTimeSeriesChart(
"International Coffee Organisation : Coffee Prices",
null, "US cents/lb", dataset);
String fontName = "Serif";
chart.getTitle().setFont(new Font(fontName, Font.BOLD, 18));
chart.addSubtitle(new TextTitle(
"Source: http://www.ico.org/historical/2010-19/PDF/HIST-PRICES.pdf",
new Font(fontName, Font.PLAIN, 14)));
XYPlot plot = (XYPlot) chart.getPlot();
plot.setDomainPannable(true);
plot.setRangePannable(false);
plot.setDomainCrosshairVisible(true);
plot.setRangeCrosshairVisible(true);
plot.getDomainAxis().setLowerMargin(0.0);
plot.getDomainAxis().setLabelFont(new Font(fontName, Font.BOLD, 14));
plot.getDomainAxis().setTickLabelFont(new Font(fontName, Font.PLAIN, 10));
plot.getRangeAxis().setLabelFont(new Font(fontName, Font.BOLD, 14));
plot.getRangeAxis().setTickLabelFont(new Font(fontName, Font.PLAIN, 10));
plot.setRangeGridlinePaint(Color.GRAY);
plot.setDomainGridlinePaint(Color.GRAY);
chart.getLegend().setItemFont(new Font(fontName, Font.PLAIN, 14));
chart.getLegend().setFrame(BlockBorder.NONE);
chart.getLegend().setHorizontalAlignment(HorizontalAlignment.CENTER);
XYItemRenderer r = plot.getRenderer();
if (r instanceof XYLineAndShapeRenderer) {
XYLineAndShapeRenderer renderer = (XYLineAndShapeRenderer) r;
renderer.setDefaultShapesVisible(false);
renderer.setDrawSeriesLineAsPath(true);
// set the default stroke for all series
renderer.setAutoPopulateSeriesStroke(false);
renderer.setDefaultStroke(new BasicStroke(3.0f,
BasicStroke.CAP_ROUND, BasicStroke.JOIN_BEVEL), false);
renderer.setSeriesPaint(0, Color.RED);
renderer.setSeriesPaint(1, new Color(24, 123, 58));
renderer.setSeriesPaint(2, new Color(149, 201, 136));
renderer.setSeriesPaint(3, new Color(1, 62, 29));
renderer.setSeriesPaint(4, new Color(81, 176, 86));
renderer.setSeriesPaint(5, new Color(0, 55, 122));
renderer.setSeriesPaint(6, new Color(0, 92, 165));
}
return chart;
}
/**
* Creates a dataset, consisting of two series of monthly data.
*
* @return the dataset.
*/
private static XYDataset createDataset() {
TimeSeries s1 = new TimeSeries("Indicator Price");
s1.add(new Month(1, 2010), 126.80);
s1.add(new Month(2, 2010), 123.37);
s1.add(new Month(3, 2010), 125.30);
s1.add(new Month(4, 2010), 126.89);
s1.add(new Month(5, 2010), 128.10);
s1.add(new Month(6, 2010), 142.20);
s1.add(new Month(7, 2010), 153.41);
s1.add(new Month(8, 2010), 157.46);
s1.add(new Month(9, 2010), 163.61);
s1.add(new Month(10, 2010), 161.56);
s1.add(new Month(11, 2010), 173.90);
s1.add(new Month(12, 2010), 184.26);
s1.add(new Month(1, 2011), 197.35);
s1.add(new Month(2, 2011), 216.03);
s1.add(new Month(3, 2011), 224.33);
s1.add(new Month(4, 2011), 231.24);
s1.add(new Month(5, 2011), 227.97);
s1.add(new Month(6, 2011), 215.58);
s1.add(new Month(7, 2011), 210.36);
s1.add(new Month(8, 2011), 212.19);
s1.add(new Month(9, 2011), 213.04);
s1.add(new Month(10, 2011), 193.90);
s1.add(new Month(11, 2011), 193.66);
s1.add(new Month(12, 2011), 189.02);
s1.add(new Month(1, 2012), 188.90);
s1.add(new Month(2, 2012), 182.29);
s1.add(new Month(3, 2012), 167.77);
s1.add(new Month(4, 2012), 160.46);
s1.add(new Month(5, 2012), 157.68);
s1.add(new Month(6, 2012), 145.31);
s1.add(new Month(7, 2012), 159.07);
s1.add(new Month(8, 2012), 148.50);
s1.add(new Month(9, 2012), 151.28);
s1.add(new Month(10, 2012), 147.12);
s1.add(new Month(11, 2012), 136.35);
s1.add(new Month(12, 2012), 131.31);
s1.add(new Month(1, 2013), 135.38);
s1.add(new Month(2, 2013), 131.51);
s1.add(new Month(3, 2013), 131.38);
TimeSeries s2 = new TimeSeries("Columbian Milds");
s2.add(new Month(1, 2010), 207.51);
s2.add(new Month(2, 2010), 204.71);
s2.add(new Month(3, 2010), 205.71);
s2.add(new Month(4, 2010), 200.00);
s2.add(new Month(5, 2010), 200.54);
s2.add(new Month(6, 2010), 224.49);
s2.add(new Month(7, 2010), 235.52);
s2.add(new Month(8, 2010), 243.98);
s2.add(new Month(9, 2010), 247.77);
s2.add(new Month(10, 2010), 230.02);
s2.add(new Month(11, 2010), 244.02);
s2.add(new Month(12, 2010), 261.97);
s2.add(new Month(1, 2011), 279.88);
s2.add(new Month(2, 2011), 296.44);
s2.add(new Month(3, 2011), 300.68);
s2.add(new Month(4, 2011), 312.95);
s2.add(new Month(5, 2011), 302.17);
s2.add(new Month(6, 2011), 287.95);
s2.add(new Month(7, 2011), 285.21);
s2.add(new Month(8, 2011), 286.97);
s2.add(new Month(9, 2011), 287.54);
s2.add(new Month(10, 2011), 257.66);
s2.add(new Month(11, 2011), 256.99);
s2.add(new Month(12, 2011), 251.60);
s2.add(new Month(1, 2012), 255.91);
s2.add(new Month(2, 2012), 244.14);
s2.add(new Month(3, 2012), 222.84);
s2.add(new Month(4, 2012), 214.46);
s2.add(new Month(5, 2012), 207.32);
s2.add(new Month(6, 2012), 184.67);
s2.add(new Month(7, 2012), 202.56);
s2.add(new Month(8, 2012), 187.14);
s2.add(new Month(9, 2012), 190.10);
s2.add(new Month(10, 2012), 181.39);
s2.add(new Month(11, 2012), 170.08);
s2.add(new Month(12, 2012), 164.40);
s2.add(new Month(1, 2013), 169.19);
s2.add(new Month(2, 2013), 161.70);
s2.add(new Month(3, 2013), 161.53);
TimeSeries s3 = new TimeSeries("Other Milds");
s3.add(new Month(1, 2010), 158.90);
s3.add(new Month(2, 2010), 157.86);
s3.add(new Month(3, 2010), 164.50);
s3.add(new Month(4, 2010), 169.55);
s3.add(new Month(5, 2010), 173.38);
s3.add(new Month(6, 2010), 190.90);
s3.add(new Month(7, 2010), 203.21);
s3.add(new Month(8, 2010), 211.59);
s3.add(new Month(9, 2010), 222.71);
s3.add(new Month(10, 2010), 217.64);
s3.add(new Month(11, 2010), 233.48);
s3.add(new Month(12, 2010), 248.17);
s3.add(new Month(1, 2011), 263.77);
s3.add(new Month(2, 2011), 287.89);
s3.add(new Month(3, 2011), 292.07);
s3.add(new Month(4, 2011), 300.12);
s3.add(new Month(5, 2011), 291.09);
s3.add(new Month(6, 2011), 274.98);
s3.add(new Month(7, 2011), 268.02);
s3.add(new Month(8, 2011), 270.44);
s3.add(new Month(9, 2011), 274.88);
s3.add(new Month(10, 2011), 247.82);
s3.add(new Month(11, 2011), 245.09);
s3.add(new Month(12, 2011), 236.71);
s3.add(new Month(1, 2012), 237.21);
s3.add(new Month(2, 2012), 224.16);
s3.add(new Month(3, 2012), 201.26);
s3.add(new Month(4, 2012), 191.45);
s3.add(new Month(5, 2012), 184.65);
s3.add(new Month(6, 2012), 168.69);
s3.add(new Month(7, 2012), 190.45);
s3.add(new Month(8, 2012), 174.82);
s3.add(new Month(9, 2012), 178.98);
s3.add(new Month(10, 2012), 173.32);
s3.add(new Month(11, 2012), 159.91);
s3.add(new Month(12, 2012), 152.74);
s3.add(new Month(1, 2013), 157.29);
s3.add(new Month(2, 2013), 149.46);
s3.add(new Month(3, 2013), 149.78);
TimeSeries s4 = new TimeSeries("Brazilian Naturals");
s4.add(new Month(1, 2010), 131.67);
s4.add(new Month(2, 2010), 124.57);
s4.add(new Month(3, 2010), 126.21);
s4.add(new Month(4, 2010), 126.07);
s4.add(new Month(5, 2010), 127.45);
s4.add(new Month(6, 2010), 143.20);
s4.add(new Month(7, 2010), 156.87);
s4.add(new Month(8, 2010), 163.21);
s4.add(new Month(9, 2010), 175.15);
s4.add(new Month(10, 2010), 175.38);
s4.add(new Month(11, 2010), 190.62);
s4.add(new Month(12, 2010), 204.25);
s4.add(new Month(1, 2011), 219.77);
s4.add(new Month(2, 2011), 247.00);
s4.add(new Month(3, 2011), 260.98);
s4.add(new Month(4, 2011), 273.40);
s4.add(new Month(5, 2011), 268.66);
s4.add(new Month(6, 2011), 250.59);
s4.add(new Month(7, 2011), 245.69);
s4.add(new Month(8, 2011), 249.83);
s4.add(new Month(9, 2011), 255.64);
s4.add(new Month(10, 2011), 234.28);
s4.add(new Month(11, 2011), 236.75);
s4.add(new Month(12, 2011), 228.79);
s4.add(new Month(1, 2012), 228.21);
s4.add(new Month(2, 2012), 215.40);
s4.add(new Month(3, 2012), 192.03);
s4.add(new Month(4, 2012), 180.90);
s4.add(new Month(5, 2012), 174.17);
s4.add(new Month(6, 2012), 156.17);
s4.add(new Month(7, 2012), 175.98);
s4.add(new Month(8, 2012), 160.05);
s4.add(new Month(9, 2012), 166.53);
s4.add(new Month(10, 2012), 161.20);
s4.add(new Month(11, 2012), 148.25);
s4.add(new Month(12, 2012), 140.69);
s4.add(new Month(1, 2013), 145.17);
s4.add(new Month(2, 2013), 136.63);
s4.add(new Month(3, 2013), 133.61);
TimeSeries s5 = new TimeSeries("Robustas");
s5.add(new Month(1, 2010), 69.92);
s5.add(new Month(2, 2010), 67.88);
s5.add(new Month(3, 2010), 67.25);
s5.add(new Month(4, 2010), 71.59);
s5.add(new Month(5, 2010), 70.70);
s5.add(new Month(6, 2010), 76.92);
s5.add(new Month(7, 2010), 85.27);
s5.add(new Month(8, 2010), 82.68);
s5.add(new Month(9, 2010), 81.28);
s5.add(new Month(10, 2010), 85.27);
s5.add(new Month(11, 2010), 92.04);
s5.add(new Month(12, 2010), 94.09);
s5.add(new Month(1, 2011), 101.09);
s5.add(new Month(2, 2011), 109.35);
s5.add(new Month(3, 2011), 118.13);
s5.add(new Month(4, 2011), 117.37);
s5.add(new Month(5, 2011), 121.98);
s5.add(new Month(6, 2011), 117.95);
s5.add(new Month(7, 2011), 112.73);
s5.add(new Month(8, 2011), 112.07);
s5.add(new Month(9, 2011), 106.06);
s5.add(new Month(10, 2011), 98.10);
s5.add(new Month(11, 2011), 97.24);
s5.add(new Month(12, 2011), 98.41);
s5.add(new Month(1, 2012), 96.72);
s5.add(new Month(2, 2012), 101.93);
s5.add(new Month(3, 2012), 103.57);
s5.add(new Month(4, 2012), 101.80);
s5.add(new Month(5, 2012), 106.88);
s5.add(new Month(6, 2012), 105.70);
s5.add(new Month(7, 2012), 107.06);
s5.add(new Month(8, 2012), 106.52);
s5.add(new Month(9, 2012), 104.95);
s5.add(new Month(10, 2012), 104.47);
s5.add(new Month(11, 2012), 97.67);
s5.add(new Month(12, 2012), 96.59);
s5.add(new Month(1, 2013), 99.69);
s5.add(new Month(2, 2013), 104.03);
s5.add(new Month(3, 2013), 106.26);
TimeSeries s6 = new TimeSeries("Futures (London)");
s6.add(new Month(1, 2010), 62.66);
s6.add(new Month(2, 2010), 60.37);
s6.add(new Month(3, 2010), 58.64);
s6.add(new Month(4, 2010), 62.21);
s6.add(new Month(5, 2010), 62.46);
s6.add(new Month(6, 2010), 69.72);
s6.add(new Month(7, 2010), 78.17);
s6.add(new Month(8, 2010), 78.42);
s6.add(new Month(9, 2010), 75.87);
s6.add(new Month(10, 2010), 80.08);
s6.add(new Month(11, 2010), 86.40);
s6.add(new Month(12, 2010), 88.70);
s6.add(new Month(1, 2011), 96.02);
s6.add(new Month(2, 2011), 104.53);
s6.add(new Month(3, 2011), 111.36);
s6.add(new Month(4, 2011), 111.34);
s6.add(new Month(5, 2011), 116.76);
s6.add(new Month(6, 2011), 110.51);
s6.add(new Month(7, 2011), 103.36);
s6.add(new Month(8, 2011), 102.71);
s6.add(new Month(9, 2011), 96.10);
s6.add(new Month(10, 2011), 88.64);
s6.add(new Month(11, 2011), 85.78);
s6.add(new Month(12, 2011), 87.65);
s6.add(new Month(1, 2012), 84.19);
s6.add(new Month(2, 2012), 88.69);
s6.add(new Month(3, 2012), 91.37);
s6.add(new Month(4, 2012), 91.81);
s6.add(new Month(5, 2012), 96.82);
s6.add(new Month(6, 2012), 94.75);
s6.add(new Month(7, 2012), 96.14);
s6.add(new Month(8, 2012), 96.12);
s6.add(new Month(9, 2012), 94.65);
s6.add(new Month(10, 2012), 94.66);
s6.add(new Month(11, 2012), 87.32);
s6.add(new Month(12, 2012), 85.94);
s6.add(new Month(1, 2013), 88.85);
s6.add(new Month(2, 2013), 94.41);
s6.add(new Month(3, 2013), 97.22);
TimeSeries s7 = new TimeSeries("Futures (New York)");
s7.add(new Month(1, 2010), 142.76);
s7.add(new Month(2, 2010), 134.35);
s7.add(new Month(3, 2010), 134.97);
s7.add(new Month(4, 2010), 135.12);
s7.add(new Month(5, 2010), 135.81);
s7.add(new Month(6, 2010), 152.36);
s7.add(new Month(7, 2010), 165.23);
s7.add(new Month(8, 2010), 175.10);
s7.add(new Month(9, 2010), 187.80);
s7.add(new Month(10, 2010), 190.43);
s7.add(new Month(11, 2010), 206.92);
s7.add(new Month(12, 2010), 221.51);
s7.add(new Month(1, 2011), 238.05);
s7.add(new Month(2, 2011), 261.41);
s7.add(new Month(3, 2011), 274.10);
s7.add(new Month(4, 2011), 285.58);
s7.add(new Month(5, 2011), 277.72);
s7.add(new Month(6, 2011), 262.52);
s7.add(new Month(7, 2011), 255.90);
s7.add(new Month(8, 2011), 260.39);
s7.add(new Month(9, 2011), 261.39);
s7.add(new Month(10, 2011), 236.74);
s7.add(new Month(11, 2011), 235.25);
s7.add(new Month(12, 2011), 227.23);
s7.add(new Month(1, 2012), 227.50);
s7.add(new Month(2, 2012), 212.09);
s7.add(new Month(3, 2012), 188.78);
s7.add(new Month(4, 2012), 181.75);
s7.add(new Month(5, 2012), 176.50);
s7.add(new Month(6, 2012), 159.93);
s7.add(new Month(7, 2012), 183.20);
s7.add(new Month(8, 2012), 169.77);
s7.add(new Month(9, 2012), 175.36);
s7.add(new Month(10, 2012), 170.43);
s7.add(new Month(11, 2012), 155.72);
s7.add(new Month(12, 2012), 149.58);
s7.add(new Month(1, 2013), 154.28);
s7.add(new Month(2, 2013), 144.89);
s7.add(new Month(3, 2013), 141.43);
TimeSeriesCollection dataset = new TimeSeriesCollection();
dataset.addSeries(s1);
dataset.addSeries(s2);
dataset.addSeries(s3);
dataset.addSeries(s4);
dataset.addSeries(s5);
dataset.addSeries(s6);
dataset.addSeries(s7);
return dataset;
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {
PdfWriter writer = new PdfWriter("ITextPDFWithChart.pdf");
PdfDocument targetPDF = new PdfDocument(writer);
Document document = new Document(targetPDF);
document.add(new Paragraph("Demo showing a JFreeChart being rendered into a PDF document created by iText 7."));
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(new ByteArrayInputStream(generateChartPDF()));
PdfDocument chartDoc = new PdfDocument(reader);
PdfFormXObject chart = chartDoc.getFirstPage().copyAsFormXObject(targetPDF);
Image chartImage = new Image(chart);
document.add(new Paragraph("Here we add a chart... ").add(chartImage));
document.close();
}
}The dependencies for compiling the above:
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.jfree</groupId>
<artifactId>jfreechart</artifactId>
<version>1.5.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.orsonpdf</groupId>
<artifactId>orsonpdf</artifactId>
<version>1.7</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>
<artifactId>kernel</artifactId>
<version>7.0.4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>
<artifactId>io</artifactId>
<version>7.0.4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>com.itextpdf</groupId>
<artifactId>layout</artifactId>
<version>7.0.4</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
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Written on December 12, 2017