How Can I Create a PDF Quotation File from Winform?

Question

Assuming i have a winform that has a button called "Create a Quote". Once user clicks it, a PDF File gets created on desktop. The PDF File has a fixed design/structure e.g. the logo is at the top left corner, the headers are fixed, etc. However, the data it self is pulled from a database.

As you see above, Quotation #, Description, Qty, U.P (USD), T.P (USD) records should be fetched from the db and dumped in the pdf template then create the pdf for user.

I haven't done this before. I hope my question is clear enough. Feel free to put useful web links that help me achieve it.

Any help will be appreciated.

Answer 1

You should look at two of the most popular open-source PDF libraries for C#, namely:

ITextSharp and PDFSharp

Both allow you to programatically create PDF files. Here's a quick 'hello word' example with PDFSharp:

  // Create a new PDF document
  PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument();
  document.Info.Title = "Created with PDFsharp";

  // Create an empty page
  PdfPage page = document.AddPage();

  // Get an XGraphics object for drawing
  XGraphics gfx = XGraphics.FromPdfPage(page);

  // Create a font
  XFont font = new XFont("Verdana", 20, XFontStyle.BoldItalic);

  // Draw the text
  gfx.DrawString("Hello, World!", font, XBrushes.Black,
    new XRect(0, 0, page.Width, page.Height),
    XStringFormats.Center);

  // Save the document...
  const string filename = "HelloWorld.pdf";
  document.Save(filename);
  // ...and start a viewer.
  Process.Start(filename);