Create PDF with QuestPDF open source and easy to use
In this article we show how to create PDF documents using the QuestPDF library.
Portable Document Format (PDF) is a versatile file format created by Adobe that gives people an easy, reliable way to present and exchange documents.
QuestPDF is an open-source .NET library for PDF generation. The library uses Skia to do the rendering. QuestPDF uses Fluent API.
C# QuestPDF simple example
The following example creates a simple PDF file.
using QuestPDF.Fluent;
using QuestPDF.Helpers;
using QuestPDF.Infrastructure;
var doc = Document.Create(container => container.Page(page =>
{
page.Size(PageSizes.A4);
page.Margin(2, Unit.Centimetre);
page.DefaultTextStyle(x => x.FontSize(12));
page.Content()
.Column(x => x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Paragraph()));
}));
doc.GeneratePdf("simple.pdf");The PDF document contains one paragraph of text.
using QuestPDF.Fluent;
using QuestPDF.Helpers;
using QuestPDF.Infrastructure;We import the QuestPDF types.
var doc = Document.Create(container => container.Page(page =>The document is created with Document.Create. A new page is added with Page.
page.Size(PageSizes.A4);
page.Margin(2, Unit.Centimetre);
page.DefaultTextStyle(x => x.FontSize(12));We set some basic properties of a page: the page size, margines, and default font size.
page.Content()
.Column(x => x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Paragraph()));The content is added with Content. It consists of one column of text. Into the column, we add one text item. The Placeholders.Paragraph creates a lorem impsum paragraph of text.
doc.GeneratePdf("simple.pdf");C# QuestPDF text
In the next example, we work with various text attributes.
using QuestPDF.Fluent;
using QuestPDF.Helpers;
using QuestPDF.Infrastructure;
var doc = Document.Create(container => container.Page(page =>
{
page.Size(PageSizes.A4);
page.Margin(2, Unit.Centimetre);
page.Content()
.Column(x =>
{
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Sentence());
x.Spacing(10);
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Sentence()).FontSize(15);
x.Spacing(10);
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.LoremIpsum());
x.Spacing(10);
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Paragraph()).FontFamily("Georgia");
x.Spacing(10);
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Sentence()).FontColor(Colors.Blue.Darken3);
x.Spacing(10);
x.Item().Text(txt =>
{
txt.Span("C# ").Italic();
txt.Span("is a modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language.");
});
});
}));
doc.GeneratePdf("text.pdf");In the program, we utilize the Sentence, Paragraph, LoremIpsum helper methods to generate some filler text.
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Sentence());
x.Spacing(10);
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Sentence()).FontSize(15);We add two sentences. A spacing is added between them with Spacing. The FontSize sets the size of the font for the sentence.
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Paragraph()).FontFamily("Georgia");For this paragraph, we choose the Georgia font.
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Sentence()).FontColor(Colors.Blue.Darken3);C# QuestPDF header & footer
For the next document, we add a header and a footer.
using QuestPDF.Fluent;
using QuestPDF.Helpers;
using QuestPDF.Infrastructure;
var doc = Document.Create(container => container.Page(page =>
{
page.Size(PageSizes.A4);
page.Margin(2, Unit.Centimetre);
page.Header()
.Text("My header")
.SemiBold().FontSize(24).FontColor(Colors.Blue.Medium);
page.Content()
.PaddingVertical(1, Unit.Centimetre)
.Column(x =>
{
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.LoremIpsum());
x.Spacing(20);
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.LoremIpsum());
});
page.Footer()
.Text(x =>
{
x.Span("Page ");
x.CurrentPageNumber();
});
}));
doc.GeneratePdf("headfoot.pdf");The document has three parts: header, content, and footer.
page.Header()
.Text("My header")
.SemiBold().FontSize(24).FontColor(Colors.Blue.Medium);A header is added with Header. We change the font weight with SemiBold, font size with FontSize and font colour with FontColor.
page.Content()
.PaddingVertical(1, Unit.Centimetre)
.Column(x =>
{
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.LoremIpsum());
x.Spacing(20);
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.LoremIpsum());
});The page content is added with Content. We add two paragraphs and a spacing between them.
page.Footer()
.Text(x =>
{
x.Span("Page ");
x.CurrentPageNumber();
});C# QuestPDF lines
In the next example, we add some horizontal lines to the page.
using QuestPDF.Fluent;
using QuestPDF.Helpers;
using QuestPDF.Infrastructure;
var doc = Document.Create(container =>
{
container.Page(page =>
{
page.Size(PageSizes.A4);
page.Margin(2, Unit.Centimetre);
page.Content()
.Column(x =>
{
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Paragraph());
x.Item().PaddingVertical(5).LineHorizontal(1);
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Paragraph());
x.Item().PaddingVertical(5).LineHorizontal(1).LineColor(Colors.LightBlue.Darken3);
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Paragraph());
x.Item().PaddingVertical(5).LineHorizontal(2);
x.Item().Text(Placeholders.Paragraph());
});
});
});
doc.GeneratePdf("lines.pdf");C# QuestPDF borders
In the next example, we add some borders.
using QuestPDF.Fluent;
using QuestPDF.Helpers;
using QuestPDF.Infrastructure;
Action<IDocumentContainer> container = (container) => container.Page(page =>
{
page.Size(PageSizes.A4);
page.Margin(2, Unit.Centimetre);
page.Content()
.Column(x =>
{
x.Item().Border(1).Padding(5).Text(Placeholders.Paragraph());
x.Item().Border(1).Padding(5).Text(Placeholders.Paragraph());
x.Item().Border(1).Padding(5).Text(Placeholders.Paragraph());
});
});
var doc = Document.Create(container);
doc.GeneratePdf("borders.pdf");We have three paragraphs of text. We place some borders around these paragraphs.
x.Item().Border(1).Padding(5).Text(Placeholders.Paragraph());
We add a border with Border and some padding with Padding.
C# QuestPDF table
The next example generate a table inside the PDF document.
using QuestPDF.Fluent;
using QuestPDF.Helpers;
using QuestPDF.Infrastructure;
var fonts = new[]
{
Fonts.Calibri,
Fonts.Georgia,
Fonts.Arial,
Fonts.TimesNewRoman,
Fonts.Consolas,
Fonts.Tahoma,
Fonts.Verdana,
Fonts.Trebuchet,
Fonts.ComicSans
};
var doc = Document.Create(container => container.Page(page =>
{
page.Size(PageSizes.A4);
page.Margin(2, Unit.Centimetre);
page.Content()
.Column(x => x.Item().Table(table =>
{
table.ColumnsDefinition(cols =>
{
cols.ConstantColumn(150);
cols.ConstantColumn(150);
});
table.ExtendLastCellsToTableBottom();
foreach (var font in fonts)
{
table.Cell().MinWidth(120).Border(1).Padding(5).Text(font).FontFamily(font);
}
}));
}));
doc.GeneratePdf("table.pdf");The table has two columns and displayes text in various font families.
page.Content()
.Column(x => x.Item().Table(table =>
{A table is added with Table.
table.ColumnsDefinition(cols =>
{
cols.ConstantColumn(150);
cols.ConstantColumn(150);
});We define two table columns of fixed width.
table.ExtendLastCellsToTableBottom();
The last cell is enlarged to the bottom of the table if the cells are not even.
