A Comparison of Creating PDF in C# Between ITextSharp and IronPDF

Summary of Creating PDFs with iText

1. Create a new C# Project in Visual Studio.
2. Install the iText library from NuGet Package Manager.
3. Create an instance of PdfDocument class.
4. Instantiate it with PdfWriter object.
5. Create a Document object and pass the PdfDocument object to it.
6. Add text to Document object using Paragraph class.
7. Close the Document object.

Key Features of iText

Key Features of iText Core version 8

Step 1: Install iText Library

To create a PDF document with iText, follow these steps to install the library using the NuGet Package Manager:

1. Open Visual Studio and create a new project.

2. Right-click on the project in the Solution Explorer and select "Manage NuGet Packages."

   

3. In the "NuGet Package Manager" window, select the "Browse" tab.

4. Type "iText" in the search bar and press Enter.

   

5. Select "iText" from the search results and click "Install."
6. Review and accept the dependencies, then click "OK" to proceed.
7. Wait for the installation to complete, and iText can now be added to your project.

Step 2: Code to Create a PDF Document with iText

Now, let's explore a basic example of creating a PDF using iText:

using System;
using System.IO;
using iText.Kernel.Pdf;
using iText.Layout;
using iText.Layout.Element;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Create a new PDF document with a FileStream and PdfWriter
        using (PdfDocument pdfDocument = new PdfDocument(new PdfWriter(new FileStream("/myfiles/hello.pdf", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))))
        {
            // Create a document object
            using (Document doc = new Document(pdfDocument))
            {
                // Add a paragraph to the document
                string line = "Hello! Welcome to iTextSharp. Created with latest iText core version 8.";
                doc.Add(new Paragraph(line));
            }
        }

        // Print a message to the console
        Console.WriteLine("PDF created successfully!");
    }
}

using System;
using System.IO;
using iText.Kernel.Pdf;
using iText.Layout;
using iText.Layout.Element;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Create a new PDF document with a FileStream and PdfWriter
        using (PdfDocument pdfDocument = new PdfDocument(new PdfWriter(new FileStream("/myfiles/hello.pdf", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))))
        {
            // Create a document object
            using (Document doc = new Document(pdfDocument))
            {
                // Add a paragraph to the document
                string line = "Hello! Welcome to iTextSharp. Created with latest iText core version 8.";
                doc.Add(new Paragraph(line));
            }
        }

        // Print a message to the console
        Console.WriteLine("PDF created successfully!");
    }
}

Imports System
Imports System.IO
Imports iText.Kernel.Pdf
Imports iText.Layout
Imports iText.Layout.Element

Friend Class Program
	Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)
		' Create a new PDF document with a FileStream and PdfWriter
		Using pdfDocument As New PdfDocument(New PdfWriter(New FileStream("/myfiles/hello.pdf", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write)))
			' Create a document object
			Using doc As New Document(pdfDocument)
				' Add a paragraph to the document
				Dim line As String = "Hello! Welcome to iTextSharp. Created with latest iText core version 8."
				doc.Add(New Paragraph(line))
			End Using
		End Using

		' Print a message to the console
		Console.WriteLine("PDF created successfully!")
	End Sub
End Class

In this source code, we created a new PDF document by passing a PdfWriter class object. The FileStream object specifies the PDF file name and file mode to create the PDF document. We then pass this PdfDocument object to the Document class for PDF creation.

Finally, we added a string text as a new paragraph with the text "Hello! Welcome to iText. Created with latest iText core version 8." and closed the document to save memory. The created PDF document is saved as "hello.pdf" in the specified location within the 'myfiles' folder.

Key Features of IronPDF

Step 1: Install IronPDF Library

To get started with IronPDF, follow these steps to install the library using the NuGet Package Manager:

1. Open Visual Studio and create a new project.
2. Right-click on the project in the Solution Explorer and select "Manage NuGet Packages."

3. In the "NuGet Package Manager" window, select the "Browse" tab.

   

4. Type "IronPDF" in the search bar and press Enter.
5. Select "IronPDF" from the search results and click "Install."
6. Review and accept the dependencies, then click "OK" to proceed.
7. Wait for the installation to complete, and IronPDF can now be added to your project.

Step 2: Code to Create a PDF Document with IronPDF

Now, let's look at the following code for creating a PDF from an HTML string using IronPDF:

using IronPdf;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Instantiate renderer
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();

        // Create a PDF from an HTML string using C#
        var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World</h1>");

        // Export to a file or Stream
        pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf");

        // Print a message to the console
        Console.WriteLine("PDF created successfully using IronPDF!");
    }
}

using IronPdf;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Instantiate renderer
        var renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer();

        // Create a PDF from an HTML string using C#
        var pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World</h1>");

        // Export to a file or Stream
        pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf");

        // Print a message to the console
        Console.WriteLine("PDF created successfully using IronPDF!");
    }
}

Imports IronPdf

Friend Class Program
	Shared Sub Main(ByVal args() As String)
		' Instantiate renderer
		Dim renderer = New ChromePdfRenderer()

		' Create a PDF from an HTML string using C#
		Dim pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf("<h1>Hello World</h1>")

		' Export to a file or Stream
		pdf.SaveAs("output.pdf")

		' Print a message to the console
		Console.WriteLine("PDF created successfully using IronPDF!")
	End Sub
End Class

In the above source code, we created a new ChromePdfRenderer, rendered the HTML string content (in this case, a heading) as a PDF, and saved the generated PDF document as "output.pdf." IronPDF converts HTML to a pixel-perfect PDF document.

To generate PDFs with more control, such as by setting page size, adding image files, meta information, and other elements, please visit this documentation for more information.