How can I generate a PDF with "real" text content on iOS?

Question

I want to generate a good-looking PDF in my iOS 6 app.

I've tried:

UIView render in context
Using CoreText
Using NSString drawInRect
Using UILabel drawRect

Here is a code example:

-(CGContextRef) createPDFContext:(CGRect)inMediaBox path:(NSString *) path
{
    CGContextRef myOutContext = NULL;
    NSURL * url;

    url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
    if (url != NULL) {
        myOutContext = CGPDFContextCreateWithURL ((__bridge CFURLRef) url,
                                                  &inMediaBox,
                                                  NULL);
    }


    return myOutContext;
}

-(void)savePdf:(NSString *)outputPath
{
    if (!pageViews.count)
        return;

    UIView * first = [pageViews objectAtIndex:0];

    CGContextRef pdfContext = [self createPDFContext:CGRectMake(0, 0, first.frame.size.width, first.frame.size.height) path:outputPath];

    for(UIView * v in pageViews)
    {
        CGContextBeginPage (pdfContext,nil);
        CGAffineTransform transform = CGAffineTransformIdentity;
        transform = CGAffineTransformMakeTranslation(0, (int)(v.frame.size.height));
        transform = CGAffineTransformScale(transform, 1, -1);
        CGContextConcatCTM(pdfContext, transform);

        CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(pdfContext, [UIColor whiteColor].CGColor);
        CGContextFillRect(pdfContext, v.frame);

        [v.layer renderInContext:pdfContext];

        CGContextEndPage (pdfContext);
    }

    CGContextRelease (pdfContext);
}

The UIViews that are rendered only contain a UIImageView + a bunch of UILabels (some with and some without borders).

I also tried a suggestion found on stackoverflow: subclassing UILabel and doing this:

- (void)drawLayer:(CALayer *)layer inContext:(CGContextRef)ctx {
    BOOL isPDF = !CGRectIsEmpty(UIGraphicsGetPDFContextBounds());
    if (!layer.shouldRasterize && isPDF)
        [self drawRect:self.bounds]; // draw unrasterized
    else
        [super drawLayer:layer inContext:ctx];
}

But that didn't change anything either.

No matter what I do, when opening the PDF in Preview the text parts are selectable as a block, but not character per character, and zooming the pdf shows it is actually a bitmap image.

Any suggestions?

Can you post a sample code fragment and the output PDF file so I can take a look at them? — iPDFdev, Sep 24 '12 at 08:06
Did you ever figure this out? Experiencing the "block selection" issue. — JeremyDay, Sep 18 '13 at 04:56
Doesn't seem to happen now with: `UIGraphicsBeginPDFContextToFile( outputPath, view.bounds, nil ); UIGraphicsBeginPDFPage(); CGContextRef pdfContext = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext(); [view.layer renderInContext:pdfContext]; UIGraphicsEndPDFContext();` — JeremyDay, Sep 18 '13 at 05:31

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 22 '12 at 13:50

2

This Tutorial From Raywenderlich Saved my Day.Hope it will work for you too. http://www.raywenderlich.com/6818/how-to-create-a-pdf-with-quartz-2d-in-ios-5-tutorial-part-2

answered Nov 22 '12 at 13:50

Siba Prasad Hota

4,779
1
20
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1

I do something similar, and the pdf looks ok, but the text is not real text, but a rendered image. I would like to generate a pdf with selectable text – Joris Mans Nov 22 '12 at 13:57
But i used the same tutorial and its working perfect for me in Zooming as well. – Siba Prasad Hota Nov 22 '12 at 13:58
He means selectable - like with the cursor on a Mac (copy, paste etc etc) – Adam Waite Nov 28 '14 at 21:55

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 28 '12 at 22:18

My experience when I did this last year was that Apple didn't provide any library to do it. I ended up importing an open source C library (libHaru). Then I added a function for outputting to it in each class in my view hierarchy. Any view with subviews would call render on its subviews. My UILabels, UITextFields, UIImageViews, UISwitches etc would output their content either as text or graphics accordingly I also rendered background colors for some views.

It wasn't very daunting, but libHaru gave me some problems with fonts so iirc I ended up just using the default font and font size.

I ll have a look at that. Thanks – Joris Mans Nov 30 '12 at 13:02 — Joris Mans, Nov 30 '12 at 13:02

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 19 '18 at 08:45

0

It works good with UILabels except that you have to work around a bug:

Rendering a UIView into a PDF as vectors on an iPad - Sometimes renders as bitmap, sometimes as vectors

answered Dec 19 '18 at 08:45

netdigger

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3
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How can I generate a PDF with "real" text content on iOS?

3 Answers3