Vector graphics in iText PDF

Question

We use iText to generate PDFs from Java (based partly on recommendations on this site). However, embedding a copy of our logo in an image format like GIF results in it looking a bit strange as people zoom in and out.

Ideally we'd like to embed the image in a vector format, such as EPS, SVG or just a PDF template. The website claims that EPS support has been dropped, that embedding a PDF or PS within a PDF can result in errors, and it doesn't even mention SVG.

Our code uses the Graphics2D API rather than iText directly, but we'd be willing to break out of AWT mode and use iText itself if it achieved the result. How can this be done?

Answer 1

I recently learned that you can send your Graphics2D object directly to iText, and the resulting PDF files are just as good as scalable vector graphics. From your post, it sounds like this might solve your problem.

Document document = new Document(PageSize.LETTER);
PdfWriter writer = null;
try {
    writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream(your file name));
} catch (Exception e) {
    // do something with exception
}

document.open();

PdfContentByte cb = writer.getDirectContent();
PdfTemplate tp = cb.createTemplate(width, height);
Graphics2D g2 = tp.createGraphics(width, height, new DefaultFontMapper());

// Create your graphics here - draw on the g2 Graphics object

g2.dispose();
cb.addTemplate(tp, 0, 100); // 0, 100 = x,y positioning of graphics in PDF page
document.close();

Answer 2

According to the documentation iText supports the following image formats: JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, BMP, WMF and EPS. I don't know if this might be of any help but I have successfully used iTextSharp to embed vector WMF image in a pdf file:

C#:

using System;
using System.IO;
using iTextSharp.text;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;

public class Program 
{

    public static void Main() 
    {
        Document document = new Document();
        using (Stream outputPdfStream = new FileStream("output.pdf", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None))
        using (Stream imageStream = new FileStream("test.wmf", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
        {
            PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, outputPdfStream);
            Image wmf = Image.GetInstance(imageStream);
            document.Open();
            document.Add(wmf);
            document.Close();
        }
    }
}