create Pdf without 3rd-party?
- Thread starter Scanzee
- Start date
InertiaM
Well-known member
It's not easy 
Here is a part of an example PDF. Within a PDF, there are a number of "objects".
Object 1 is the header.
Object 2 is the Root object, which dictates which object to display when opening the PDF, and how to display it.
Object 3 is the thumbnails object (I believe, as I never used it), and you then add font objects as necessary. You dont have to use all the font objects, you only need to add the ones you are going to use.
For each page, there are several objects. Listed below,
Object 34 is a page resource utilisation. It shows that it is going to use Object 4 (Courier) as F1, Object 5 (Courier Bold) as F2 etc.
Object 38 is the actual page content, with its length calculated as 2301. You'll need to have a basic knowledge of Postscript to work out how to write content onto pages.
Object 36 is the page "parent", which says how it will construct the "child" page object.
Object 37 holds the child page definition, the page size, what content object to use, and what resource object to use.
36 0 obj << /Type /Pages /Kids [37 0 R ] /Count 1 >> endobj
37 0 obj << /Type /Page /Parent 36 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 595.2630075 841.8866143] /Contents [38 0 R] /Resources 34 0 R >> endobj
After the last object, you get the xref positions. You'll need to write the file first, and then read it back to find the starting positions of each object. For example, object 2 begins at 1867 characters into the file.
Then you have the trailer, which contains the Size (number of objects), what the root object is (2) and the info object (1), and the position of the start of the xref definition.
As I said at the top, it's not easy
Here is a part of an example PDF. Within a PDF, there are a number of "objects".
Object 1 is the header.
VB.NET:
%PDF-1.4
1 0 obj
<<
/Title (whatever)
/Subject (whatever)
/Producer (Dynamically created using code written by Martin)
/CreationDate (D:" & Format(Now(), "yyyymmddHhNnSs") & ")
/Keywords (Keyword1 keyword2)
/MyKey (Copyright \(You need a backslash to use a bracket\) )
/Author (Anybody)
/Creator (Anybody)
>>
endobjObject 2 is the Root object, which dictates which object to display when opening the PDF, and how to display it.
VB.NET:
2 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Outlines 3 0 R /OpenAction [37 0 R /Fit] /Pages 36 0 R /PageLayout /OneColumn /PageMode /UseNone >> endobjObject 3 is the thumbnails object (I believe, as I never used it), and you then add font objects as necessary. You dont have to use all the font objects, you only need to add the ones you are going to use.
VB.NET:
3 0 obj << /Type /Outlines /Count 0 >> endobj
4 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F1 /BaseFont /Courier /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
5 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F2 /BaseFont /Courier-Bold /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
6 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F3 /BaseFont /Courier-Oblique /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
7 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F4 /BaseFont /Courier-BoldOblique /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
8 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F5 /BaseFont /Times-Roman /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
9 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F6 /BaseFont /Times-Bold /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
10 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F7 /BaseFont /Times-Italic /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
11 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F8 /BaseFont /Times-BoldItalic /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
12 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F9 /BaseFont /Helvetica /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
13 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F10 /BaseFont /Helvetica-Bold /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
14 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F11 /BaseFont /Helvetica-Oblique /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
15 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F12 /BaseFont /Helvetica-BoldOblique /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobjFor each page, there are several objects. Listed below,
Object 34 is a page resource utilisation. It shows that it is going to use Object 4 (Courier) as F1, Object 5 (Courier Bold) as F2 etc.
Object 38 is the actual page content, with its length calculated as 2301. You'll need to have a basic knowledge of Postscript to work out how to write content onto pages.
Object 36 is the page "parent", which says how it will construct the "child" page object.
Object 37 holds the child page definition, the page size, what content object to use, and what resource object to use.
36 0 obj << /Type /Pages /Kids [37 0 R ] /Count 1 >> endobj
37 0 obj << /Type /Page /Parent 36 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 595.2630075 841.8866143] /Contents [38 0 R] /Resources 34 0 R >> endobj
VB.NET:
34 0 obj << /Procset [/PDF /Text ] /Font << /F1 4 0 R /F2 5 0 R /F3 6 0 R /F4 7 0 R /F5 8 0 R /F6 9 0 R /F7 10 0 R /F8 11 0 R /F9 12 0 R /F10 13 0 R /F11 14 0 R /F12 15 0 R /F13 16 0 R /F14 21 0 R /F15 24 0 R /F16 27 0 R /F17 30 0 R>> >> endobj
38 0 obj << /Length 2301 >>
stream
BT 0 g /F14 8 Tf 141.732 85.039 Td (abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz) Tj 0 Tc ET BT 0 g /F15 8 Tf 141.732 104.882 Td (abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz) (etc etc etc)
endstream
endobj
36 0 obj << /Type /Pages /Kids [37 0 R ] /Count 1 >> endobj
37 0 obj << /Type /Page /Parent 36 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 595.2630075 841.8866143] /Contents [38 0 R] /Resources 34 0 R >> endobjAfter the last object, you get the xref positions. You'll need to write the file first, and then read it back to find the starting positions of each object. For example, object 2 begins at 1867 characters into the file.
VB.NET:
xref
0 39
0000000000 65535 f
0000000010 00000 n
0000001867 00000 n
0000002002 00000 n
.
.
.
0000062643 00000 n
0000062704 00000 n
0000060284 00000 nThen you have the trailer, which contains the Size (number of objects), what the root object is (2) and the info object (1), and the position of the start of the xref definition.
VB.NET:
trailer << /Size 39 /Root 2 0 R /Info 1 0 R >>
startxref
62833
%%EOFAs I said at the top, it's not easy
Last edited:
InertiaM
Well-known member
If I was trying to generate the following (which says Hello World)
I would do it like this. Write the following to a file :-
The object numbers must be consecutive.
Close the file. Open it back up again, and read the WHOLE file into a string. Close the file. Search the string for all the objects. Look for CHR(10) & "1 0 obj", then 2 etc. until you cant find any more objects. Define an array with this length. Write the following to the file
where 12 is the "number of objects + 1"
Open the file again, and write the opening line "0000000000 65535 f" (this is the xref start definition line). Follow this with the starting positions of each object to the file.
ie Object 1 starts at character 10, object 2 starts at character 404 etc
Write the following to the file
where 12 is the "number of objects + 1", "2 0 R" is the number of the Catalog object, and "1 0 R" is the number of the Title Definition object.
Close the file, open it again and read all the text into a string. Search for CHR(10) & "xref" and find the position. Write the following to the file :-
where 1439 is the position of the start of the "xref".
Oh, and (blank line) means an actual blank line, not the text
File is attached to this post as well.
VB.NET:
%PDF-1.4
1 0 obj
<<
/Title (Test Document)
/Subject (Test PDF for evaluation)
/Producer (Dynamically created using code written by Martin)
/CreationDate (D:20071213142546)
/Keywords (Put any keywords here)
/MyKey (Copyright AnyCompany \(Whereever\) Limited)
/Author (AnyCompany \(Whereever\) Limited)
/Creator (AnyCompany \(Whereever\) Limited)
>>
endobj
2 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Outlines 3 0 R /OpenAction [11 0 R /Fit] /Pages 10 0 R /PageLayout /OneColumn /PageMode /UseNone >> endobj
3 0 obj << /Type /Outlines /Count 0 >> endobj
4 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F1 /BaseFont /Courier /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
5 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F2 /BaseFont /Courier-Bold /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
6 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F3 /BaseFont /Courier-Oblique /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
7 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F4 /BaseFont /Courier-BoldOblique /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
8 0 obj << /Procset [/PDF /Text ] /Font << /F1 4 0 R /F2 5 0 R /F3 6 0 R /F4 7 0 R>> >> endobj
9 0 obj << /Length 61 >>
stream
BT 0 g /F1 10 Tf 141.732 700.157 Td (Hello world) Tj 0 Tc ET
endstream
endobj
10 0 obj << /Type /Pages /Kids [11 0 R ] /Count 1 >> endobj
11 0 obj << /Type /Page /Parent 10 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 595.2630075 841.8866143] /Contents [9 0 R] /Resources 8 0 R >> endobj
xref
0 12
0000000000 65535 f
0000000010 00000 n
0000000404 00000 n
0000000539 00000 n
0000000586 00000 n
0000000693 00000 n
0000000805 00000 n
0000000920 00000 n
0000001039 00000 n
0000001135 00000 n
0000001251 00000 n
0000001312 00000 n
trailer << /Size 12 /Root 2 0 R /Info 1 0 R >>
startxref
1439
%%EOFI would do it like this. Write the following to a file :-
VB.NET:
%PDF-1.4
1 0 obj
<<
/Title (Test Document)
/Subject (Test PDF for evaluation)
/Producer (Dynamically created using code written by Martin)
/CreationDate (D:20071213142546)
/Keywords (Put any keywords here)
/MyKey (Copyright AnyCompany \(Whereever\) Limited)
/Author (AnyCompany \(Whereever\) Limited)
/Creator (AnyCompany \(Whereever\) Limited)
>>
endobj
2 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Outlines 3 0 R /OpenAction [11 0 R /Fit] /Pages 10 0 R /PageLayout /OneColumn /PageMode /UseNone >> endobj
3 0 obj << /Type /Outlines /Count 0 >> endobj
4 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F1 /BaseFont /Courier /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
5 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F2 /BaseFont /Courier-Bold /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
6 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F3 /BaseFont /Courier-Oblique /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
7 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F4 /BaseFont /Courier-BoldOblique /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj
8 0 obj << /Procset [/PDF /Text ] /Font << /F1 4 0 R /F2 5 0 R /F3 6 0 R /F4 7 0 R>> >> endobj
9 0 obj << /Length 61 >>
stream
BT 0 g /F1 10 Tf 141.732 700.157 Td (Hello world) Tj 0 Tc ET
endstream
endobj
10 0 obj << /Type /Pages /Kids [11 0 R ] /Count 1 >> endobj
11 0 obj << /Type /Page /Parent 10 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 595.2630075 841.8866143] /Contents [9 0 R] /Resources 8 0 R >> endobjThe object numbers must be consecutive.
Close the file. Open it back up again, and read the WHOLE file into a string. Close the file. Search the string for all the objects. Look for CHR(10) & "1 0 obj", then 2 etc. until you cant find any more objects. Define an array with this length. Write the following to the file
VB.NET:
(blank line)
xref
0 12Open the file again, and write the opening line "0000000000 65535 f" (this is the xref start definition line). Follow this with the starting positions of each object to the file.
VB.NET:
0000000000 65535 f
0000000010 00000 n
0000000404 00000 n
0000000539 00000 n
0000000586 00000 n
0000000693 00000 n
0000000805 00000 n
0000000920 00000 n
0000001039 00000 n
0000001135 00000 n
0000001251 00000 n
0000001312 00000 nie Object 1 starts at character 10, object 2 starts at character 404 etc
Write the following to the file
VB.NET:
(blank line)
trailer << /Size 12 /Root 2 0 R /Info 1 0 R >>
startxrefClose the file, open it again and read all the text into a string. Search for CHR(10) & "xref" and find the position. Write the following to the file :-
VB.NET:
1439
%%EOFOh, and (blank line) means an actual blank line, not the text
File is attached to this post as well.
Attachments
InertiaM
Well-known member
If you want to make your PDF illegible, you can encode the page content using an ASCII85Encode function.
So
would become
So
VB.NET:
9 0 obj << /Length 61 >>
stream
BT 0 g /F1 10 Tf 141.732 700.157 Td (Hello world) Tj 0 Tc ET
endstream
endobjwould become
VB.NET:
9 0 obj << /Length 82 /Filter /ASCII85Decode >>
stream
+@9$M0Hb!N01IZ=0ea_LAfrfb0ePC@1*AM00J5(;2]u(1+=KclCi"#4GAhM<A18X#C*52Q<+@%><$3;+~>
endstream
endobj
Last edited:
InertiaM
Well-known member
When you add text content to a page, you'll need to replace
( with /(
) with /)
[ with /[
] with /]
All positions have to be in points. The conversion from millimetres to points is multiply by 2.834645675 - so in the above example
translates to "Move to 50mm, 247mm and write 'Hello world'"
When you add the XY position to the content, I found 3 decimal places is accurate enough for a simple text document.
( with /(
) with /)
[ with /[
] with /]
All positions have to be in points. The conversion from millimetres to points is multiply by 2.834645675 - so in the above example
VB.NET:
Tf 141.732 700.157 Td (Hello world)When you add the XY position to the content, I found 3 decimal places is accurate enough for a simple text document.
InertiaM
Well-known member
You can return the PDF document using code, if you dont want to store it.
Here is the ASP version of the above - please note it is ASP and NOT ASP.NET code - you will need to convert it to .NET for it to work.
Here is the ASP version of the above - please note it is ASP and NOT ASP.NET code - you will need to convert it to .NET for it to work.
VB.NET:
<%
Function getBinaryFile(strFilePath)
Dim TypeBinary, oStream
TypeBinary = 1 ' Indicates a binary file
' Create the object
Set oStream = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
' Open our file
oStream.Open
' Retreive binary data from the file
oStream.Type = TypeBinary
oStream.LoadFromFile strFilePath
' Return the binary data to the caller
getBinaryFile = oStream.read
' Destroy the ADO object
Set oStream = Nothing
End Function
dim strOutput
strOutput = ""
strOutput = strOutput & "%PDF-1.4" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "1 0 obj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " <<" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " /Title (Test Document)" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " /Subject (Test PDF for evaluation)" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " /Producer (Dynamically created using code written by Martin)" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " /CreationDate (D:20071213142546)" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " /Keywords (Put any keywords here)" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " /MyKey (Copyright AnyCompany \(Whereever\) Limited)" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " /Author (AnyCompany \(Whereever\) Limited)" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " /Creator (AnyCompany \(Whereever\) Limited)" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " >>" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "2 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Outlines 3 0 R /OpenAction [11 0 R /Fit] /Pages 10 0 R /PageLayout /OneColumn /PageMode /UseNone >> endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "3 0 obj << /Type /Outlines /Count 0 >> endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "4 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F1 /BaseFont /Courier /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "5 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F2 /BaseFont /Courier-Bold /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "6 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F3 /BaseFont /Courier-Oblique /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "7 0 obj << /Type /Font /Subtype /Type1 /Name /F4 /BaseFont /Courier-BoldOblique /Encoding /MacRomanEncoding >> endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "8 0 obj << /Procset [/PDF /Text ] /Font << /F1 4 0 R /F2 5 0 R /F3 6 0 R /F4 7 0 R>> >> endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "9 0 obj << /Length 61 >>" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "stream" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & " BT 0 g /F1 10 Tf 141.732 700.157 Td (Hello world) Tj 0 Tc ET" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "endstream" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "10 0 obj << /Type /Pages /Kids [11 0 R ] /Count 1 >> endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "11 0 obj << /Type /Page /Parent 10 0 R /MediaBox [0 0 595.2630075 841.8866143] /Contents [9 0 R] /Resources 8 0 R >> endobj" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "xref" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0 12" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000000000 65535 f" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000000010 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000000404 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000000539 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000000586 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000000693 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000000805 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000000920 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000001039 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000001135 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000001251 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "0000001312 00000 n" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "trailer << /Size 12 /Root 2 0 R /Info 1 0 R >>" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "startxref" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "1439" & vbcrlf
strOutput = strOutput & "%%EOF" & vbcrlf
set fs = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
strTempName = fs.GetTempName
fname = server.mappath ("/temp/" & strTempName & ".txt")
set writefile = fs.OpenTextFile (fname, 8, true)
writefile.writeline strOutput
writefile.close
set writefile = nothing
Response.Buffer = True
Response.Clear
Response.ContentType = "application/pdf"
Response.BinaryWrite getBinaryFile(fname)
Response.Binarywrite strOutput
Response.flush
If fs.FileExists(fname) Then fs.DeleteFile fname, True
set fs = nothing
Response.End
%>InertiaM
Well-known member
That's about right
It may seem like hard work, but once you've written standard functions for the header, the xref positioning etc, the rest is easy
If you are going to try and do any text alignment, I would strongly suggest using a fixed-width font. If you dont like using Courier, let me know and I'll send you the code for a pleasant alternative
InertiaM
Well-known member
If you're still thinking about doing this, it may be worth reading the PDF 1.4 manual. Best location for download appears to be :-
http://es.gnu.org/~jemarch/downloads/PDFReference14.pdf
http://es.gnu.org/~jemarch/downloads/PDFReference14.pdf
