PDFFlow library is a cross platform PDF SDK that transforms an abstract document model into a PDF document. The transformation includes creating pages and filling them with a content using specified layouts and automatic generation of repeating areas (such as headers and footers).
PDFFlow itself is NOT an open-source project, however:
-
The license allows to use this library in any open source or non-commercial project (however "non-commercial" means serving no purpose to get profit directly or indirectly, for example projects used in internal business processes of a commercial structure are considered commercial).
-
The license allows to use this library during prototyping, development and testing of a commercial project. You should only purchase a commercial license only when the project goes alive. Please contact Gehtsoft USA LLC to discuss the licensing.
Please check the project's Wiki for useful articles and links.
This sample set consists of prebuild release version of Gehtsoft.PDFFlowLib library.
-
Visual Studio 2017 or above is installed.
To install a community version of Visual Studio use the following link:
https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/community/
Please make sure that the way you are going to use Visual Studio is allowed by the community license. You may need to buy Standard or Professional Edition.
-
.NET Core Framework SDK 2.1 or above is installed. To install the framework use the following link: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download
PDFFlow is made to simplify generation of the PDF documents from .NET applications.
It is build on the base of Haru library (http://libharu.org/) and provides the set of classes that allows the user to define a true document (as a sequence of sections with their own layouts, paragraphs, images, tables) and takes care on layouting the document content into PDF document.
The major benefit of this library is that the developer does not need any special document publishing knowledge except the knowledge that any qualified office user already has and the developer concentrates on solving the business task (which exact information needs to be printed) rather than fighting with complex repetitive drawing and layouting "magic" operation that are involved into of hand-making of a PDF document.
The documentation for the library is available by following the link http://docs.gehtsoftusa.com/pdfflow/web-content.html
The source code of the examples is provided under Apache license (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_License).
The Haru.Net package located in .nuget folder is provided under zLib license (https://github.com/libharu/libharu/blob/master/LICENCE)
Gehtsoft.PDFFlowLib package located in .nuget folder is provided to build and evaluate examples ONLY. Using this package in any application, even if such application is derived under Apache license from the provided examples, is strictly prohibited and violates conditions of use.
You must obtain Gehtsoft.PDFFlowLib package either under free community license for open source projects or for development purposes, or you must buy a commercial license in order to use in a real business process, even if the product is used for internal business processes or for marketing purposes (e.g. for demonstration to customers).
Should you have any question about the licensing or prices please feel free to contact Gehtsoft USA LLC via contact@gehtsoftusa.com
PDFFlow library comes with a number of examples. Each example is accompanied by a how-to article, which makes it a breeze to create your own documents fast. We add new real-world examples regularly, so check back the examples page or sign-up for our email list.
The resulting PDF documents are all located in the /results folder.
If you would like to submit some new ideas for documents you are working on or would find useful, please post a question on our support forum at http://www.fxcodebase.com/code/viewforum.php?f=56.
-
Afterschool Agreement
This example shows how to create a real agreement for an afterschool program with forms to fill out, images, and formatting options.
-
Airplane Ticket
Create a real-world airplane ticket in just a short time with this example. This example demonstrates how to create a single page document that contains different sections, and how to arrange and format these sections. Also the example explains the process of filling the tables with data from JSON files.
-
Bank Account Statement
The real-world example shows how to create a complex document that includes tables, nested tables, and lists, as well as creating forms using tabulation. The example showcases a way to create a two-column page using "Left" and "Right" repeating areas. The project includes a how-to article as well.
-
Boarding Pass
This example accompanies the Airplane Ticket example. The example demonstrates a simple one-page document that includes a lot of small tables, images, and paragraphs. This example also demonstrates the usage of margins and lines. See the accompanying article for some tips and tricks on layouting and formatting.
-
Concert Ticket
Another useful example showing how to create a real concert or event ticket. This one showcases the rather complex layouting with tables and formatting options, so it's a good one to review for your own project or copy and use as-is right away. A how-to article is included in the project as well.
-
House Rental Contract
The example demonstrates the creation of a simple multi-page contractual text document. The document includes a repeating footer with automatic page numeration. The footer is made of two distinct sections with different content for the initials area on all pages of the contract, except the page with full signatures. Additionally, this example demonstrates how to use Word-like tabulation and how to work with JSON as a data source. See the accompanying article for step-by-step instructions on creating this document.
-
Lab Test Results
The example demonstrates how to create a real medical laboratory test results report, which is a multi-page document that contains repeating headers, footers and images. This example also shows how to divide page into tables and paragraphs, parse document contents from JSON file and add tabulation to separate text parts on the same line.
-
LogBook with Complex Tables
The example demonstrates a multi-page document that consists of a complex table that spreads into a two-pages layout (i.e. half of the table columns is printed on the left page and half of the table columns is printed on the right page). Additionally, the example shows how to populate the table with data from a JSON source. The PDFFlow Library allows you to easily develop documents with a variety of complex tables without wasting time providing for complex layouts, measuring, multi-page spread-tables, etc. Make sure to review the how-to article to understand better how the library allows you to work with tables.
-
Medical Bill
MedicalBill project is an example of creating a “Medical Bill” document. The example shows how to create a complex document that includes tables, nested tables, and lists. Also, it shows one of the ways to display forms for manually filling a printed document. The project includes a how-to article as well.
-
Medication Schedule
This example demonstrates creation of a PDF document that contains nested tables, fill-in forms and repeating areas. The example also shows how to add barcodes of a specified standard and how to individually style paragraphs and cells in the tables.
-
Payment Agreement
This example demonstrates how to create a multi-page contract document that includes a series of paragraphs. This example also demonstrates the usage of images, lines, and tabulation. There is also a how-to article accompanying the example.
-
Subscription Receipt
The example demonstrates the generation of a simple one-page subscription receipt document that includes a footer and a document flow area above it. This example also shows the usage of an image, horizontal lines, a table with transparent borders, and clickable URLs/emails. The accompanying article goes into details on how to create this particular document, as well as similar documents.
-
Rental Agreement
The example shows how to code a typical legal rental agreement document with different sections. Each section has its own headers and footers, with pages having initials and clickable URL areas, as well as tracking scannable QR-code. Automatic pagination is also generated. Finally, the document has a complex move-in checklist with areas to fill in free text, as well as signature areas. The accompanying article has some good tips and tricks on layouting, formatting and general project and code organizing.
-
Resume
In this example, we generate a sample resume/CV. The example demonstrates a simple multi-page document that includes the right repeating area on both pages (even and odd) with the same content and document flow area on the left side of the page. This example also demonstrates the usage of the vertical line (between the document flow and the repeating area) and clickable URLs. See the article that comes with the example for best practices and some formatting tips.
-
Travel Insurance Claim Form
The example shows how to generate a typical Travel Insurance Claim Form document. The example demonstrates how to create a two-page document that contains many fill-in forms and images. This example also shows how to divide a page into tables, configure its titles and borders, add multiple paragraphs and checkboxes into cells. The accompanying article is a good place to start learning from this example.
-
Trade Confirmation
This example shows how to create a real brokerage trade confirmation. The example demonstrates a simple one-page document that with a table, image, and paragraphs with various alignments. This example also demonstrates the usage of margins and lines.
-
Tutorial (Book)
In this example we will generate an actual programming tutorial book. The example demonstrates the creation of a multi-page text document with mixed content. The document includes several sections and a repeating footer with automatic page numeration. Additionally, this example shows how to use images and how to work with tables. Read the article that describes this example in detail.
-
Warehouse Shipment Report
The example demonstrates creation of a multi-page text document. The document includes a repeating footer with automatic page numeration. The footer is made of two distinctive sections with different content for the initials area on all pages of the contract, except the page with full signatures. Additionally, this example demonstrates how to use Word-like tabulation and how to work with JSON as a data source. Finally, we demonstrate how to easily add barcodes (GS1-128) for each product in the report using the PDFFlowLib.Barcodes extension library.