PDF header presents consistent information of a PDF document. It can be automatic page number, a date, a section title, an icon or an image. Whatever it is, it is an important part for a PDF file. This article will introduce how to add a header when programmatically creating a PDF document from scratch.
You can add both text and image in your PDF header by using Spire.PDF for .NET. In order to display the header content appropriately, you can also set text format and image size. The picture below shows the output after adding header in PDF:
Main Steps:
Step 1: Define a custom function CreateHeaderTemplate() to create a page template element that servers as header, and return a PdfPageDocumentElement object.
In the code below, we first initialize a page template object that can be used as header, then call DrawString() method, DrawImage() method and DrawLine() method to insert text,image and line into the header space.
static PdfPageTemplateElement CreateHeaderTemplate(PdfDocument doc, PdfMargins margins)
{
//get page size
SizeF pageSize = doc.PageSettings.Size;
//create a PdfPageTemplateElement object as header space
PdfPageTemplateElement headerSpace = new PdfPageTemplateElement(pageSize.Width, margins.Top);
headerSpace.Foreground = false;
//declare two float variables
float x = margins.Left;
float y = 0;
//draw image in header space
PdfImage headerImage = PdfImage.FromFile("logo.png");
float width = headerImage.Width / 3;
float height = headerImage.Height / 3;
headerSpace.Graphics.DrawImage(headerImage, x, margins.Top - height - 2, width, height);
//draw line in header space
PdfPen pen = new PdfPen(PdfBrushes.Gray, 1);
headerSpace.Graphics.DrawLine(pen, x, y + margins.Top - 2, pageSize.Width - x, y + margins.Top - 2);
//draw text in header space
PdfTrueTypeFont font = new PdfTrueTypeFont(new Font("Impact", 25f, FontStyle.Bold));
PdfStringFormat format = new PdfStringFormat(PdfTextAlignment.Left);
String headerText = "HEADER TEXT";
SizeF size = font.MeasureString(headerText, format);
headerSpace.Graphics.DrawString(headerText, font, PdfBrushes.Gray, pageSize.Width - x - size.Width-2, margins.Top- (size.Height+5), format);
//return headerSpace
return headerSpace;
}
Step 2: Create a PDF document, call the method CreateHeaderTemplate() to create a header template and apply it to the document.
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//create a PDF document
PdfDocument doc = new PdfDocument();
doc.PageSettings.Size = PdfPageSize.A4;
//reset the default margins to 0
doc.PageSettings.Margins = new PdfMargins(0);
//create a PdfMargins object, the parameters indicate the page margins you want to set
PdfMargins margins = new PdfMargins(60, 60, 60, 60);
//create a header template with content and apply it to page template
doc.Template.Top = CreateHeaderTemplate(doc, margins);
//apply blank templates to other parts of page template
doc.Template.Bottom = new PdfPageTemplateElement(doc.PageSettings.Size.Width, margins.Bottom);
doc.Template.Left = new PdfPageTemplateElement(margins.Left, doc.PageSettings.Size.Height);
doc.Template.Right = new PdfPageTemplateElement(margins.Right, doc.PageSettings.Size.Height);
//save the file
doc.SaveToFile("PdfHeader.pdf");
}
Full Code:
[C#]
using Spire.Pdf;
using Spire.Pdf.Graphics;
using System;
using System.Drawing;
namespace AddPDFHeader
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//create a PDF document
PdfDocument doc = new PdfDocument();
doc.PageSettings.Size = PdfPageSize.A4;
//reset the default margins to 0
doc.PageSettings.Margins = new PdfMargins(0);
//create a PdfMargins object, the parameters indicate the page margins you want to set
PdfMargins margins = new PdfMargins(60, 60, 60, 60);
//create a header template with content and apply it to page template
doc.Template.Top = CreateHeaderTemplate(doc, margins);
//apply blank templates to other parts of page template
doc.Template.Bottom = new PdfPageTemplateElement(doc.PageSettings.Size.Width, margins.Bottom);
doc.Template.Left = new PdfPageTemplateElement(margins.Left, doc.PageSettings.Size.Height);
doc.Template.Right = new PdfPageTemplateElement(margins.Right, doc.PageSettings.Size.Height);
//save the file
doc.SaveToFile("PdfHeader.pdf");
}
static PdfPageTemplateElement CreateHeaderTemplate(PdfDocument doc, PdfMargins margins)
{
//get page size
SizeF pageSize = doc.PageSettings.Size;
//create a PdfPageTemplateElement object as header space
PdfPageTemplateElement headerSpace = new PdfPageTemplateElement(pageSize.Width, margins.Top);
headerSpace.Foreground = false;
//declare two float variables
float x = margins.Left;
float y = 0;
//draw image in header space
PdfImage headerImage = PdfImage.FromFile("logo.png");
float width = headerImage.Width / 3;
float height = headerImage.Height / 3;
headerSpace.Graphics.DrawImage(headerImage, x, margins.Top - height - 2, width, height);
//draw line in header space
PdfPen pen = new PdfPen(PdfBrushes.Gray, 1);
headerSpace.Graphics.DrawLine(pen, x, y + margins.Top - 2, pageSize.Width - x, y + margins.Top - 2);
//draw text in header space
PdfTrueTypeFont font = new PdfTrueTypeFont(new Font("Impact", 25f, FontStyle.Bold));
PdfStringFormat format = new PdfStringFormat(PdfTextAlignment.Left);
String headerText = "HEADER TEXT";
SizeF size = font.MeasureString(headerText, format);
headerSpace.Graphics.DrawString(headerText, font, PdfBrushes.Gray, pageSize.Width - x - size.Width - 2, margins.Top - (size.Height + 5), format);
//return headerSpace
return headerSpace;
}
}
}
[VB.NET]
Imports Spire.Pdf
Imports Spire.Pdf.Graphics
Imports System.Drawing
Namespace AddPDFHeader
Class Program
Private Shared Sub Main(args As String())
'create a PDF document
Dim doc As New PdfDocument()
doc.PageSettings.Size = PdfPageSize.A4
'reset the default margins to 0
doc.PageSettings.Margins = New PdfMargins(0)
'create a PdfMargins object, the parameters indicate the page margins you want to set
Dim margins As New PdfMargins(60, 60, 60, 60)
'create a header template with content and apply it to page template
doc.Template.Top = CreateHeaderTemplate(doc, margins)
'apply blank templates to other parts of page template
doc.Template.Bottom = New PdfPageTemplateElement(doc.PageSettings.Size.Width, margins.Bottom)
doc.Template.Left = New PdfPageTemplateElement(margins.Left, doc.PageSettings.Size.Height)
doc.Template.Right = New PdfPageTemplateElement(margins.Right, doc.PageSettings.Size.Height)
'save the file
doc.SaveToFile("PdfHeader.pdf")
End Sub
Private Shared Function CreateHeaderTemplate(doc As PdfDocument, margins As PdfMargins) As PdfPageTemplateElement
'get page size
Dim pageSize As SizeF = doc.PageSettings.Size
'create a PdfPageTemplateElement object as header space
Dim headerSpace As New PdfPageTemplateElement(pageSize.Width, margins.Top)
headerSpace.Foreground = False
'declare two float variables
Dim x As Single = margins.Left
Dim y As Single = 0
'draw image in header space
Dim headerImage As PdfImage = PdfImage.FromFile("logo.png")
Dim width As Single = headerImage.Width / 3
Dim height As Single = headerImage.Height / 3
headerSpace.Graphics.DrawImage(headerImage, x, margins.Top - height - 2, width, height)
'draw line in header space
Dim pen As New PdfPen(PdfBrushes.Gray, 1)
headerSpace.Graphics.DrawLine(pen, x, y + margins.Top - 2, pageSize.Width - x, y + margins.Top - 2)
'draw text in header space
Dim font As New PdfTrueTypeFont(New Font("Impact", 25F, FontStyle.Bold))
Dim format As New PdfStringFormat(PdfTextAlignment.Left)
Dim headerText As [String] = "HEADER TEXT"
Dim size As SizeF = font.MeasureString(headerText, format)
headerSpace.Graphics.DrawString(headerText, font, PdfBrushes.Gray, pageSize.Width - x - size.Width - 2, margins.Top - (size.Height + 5), format)
'return headerSpace
Return headerSpace
End Function
End Class
End Namespace
