PDF Creator For Java (Step-By-Step) Tutorial

This article will demonstrate how you can create PDF files using a PDF creator written in the Java programming language.

Creating PDF files using Java has many applications in the IT industry. Once in a while, developers may need a PDF creator to be integrated into their projects. The PDF creator discussed in this article is IronPDF for Java. It helps developers to create new PDF documents from scratch and convert different file formats into PDF documents.

1. IronPDF for Java

IronPDF for Java is a Java library for creating, preparing, and managing PDF files. It allows developers to read, produce, and alter PDF files without needing to install any Adobe software.

IronPDF is also amazing at creating PDF forms from a PDF file. IronPDF for Java can create custom headers and footers, create signatures, add attachments, and add password encryption and security mechanisms. IronPDF also supports multithreading and asynchronous features for improved performance.

2. Prerequisites

Before getting started, there are some prerequisites that must be fulfilled to carry out PDF creation.

1. Java should be installed on the system, and its path should be set in Environment Variables. Please refer to this installation guideline to install Java if you haven't already done so.
2. A good Java IDE should be installed, like Eclipse or IntelliJ. To download Eclipse, please visit this download page, or click on this installation page to install IntelliJ.
3. Maven should be integrated with the IDE before starting with PDF conversion. For a tutorial on installing Maven and integrating it into the environment, visit the following integration link from JetBrains.

3. IronPDF for Java Installation

Once all the prerequisites are fulfilled, installing IronPDF for Java is quite simple and easy, even for new Java developers.

This article will use the JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA to install the library and execute the code examples.

First, open JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA and create a new Maven project.

New project

A new window will appear. Enter the name of the project and click on finish.

Configure the new project

After you click Finish, a new project will open to a pom.xml file, then use this file to add some Maven project dependencies.

The pom.xml file

Add the following dependencies in the pom.xml file.

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.ironsoftware</groupId>
        <artifactId>ironpdf</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.0</version> <!-- Replace with the latest version -->
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.ironsoftware</groupId>
        <artifactId>ironpdf</artifactId>
        <version>1.0.0</version> <!-- Replace with the latest version -->
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Once you have placed the dependencies in the pom.xml file, a small icon will appear in the top right corner of the file.

The pom.xml file with an icon to install dependencies

Click on this icon to install the Maven dependencies of IronPDF for Java. This will only take a few minutes, depending on your internet connection.

4. Creating PDF Files

This section will discuss how to create new PDF documents using IronPDF for Java. IronPDF makes it very easy to create new PDF documents with just a few lines of code.

There are many different ways to create PDF files using IronPDF for Java

• The renderHtmlAsPdf method can convert an HTML string to a PDF file
• The renderHtmlFileAsPdf method can convert HTML files into PDF documents
• The renderUrlAsPdf method can create PDF files directly from a URL and save the result in a specified folder.

4.1. Create PDF Documents using an HTML String

The code example below shows how to use the renderHtmlAsPdf method to convert a string of HTML markup into a PDF. Note that using the renderHtmlAsPdf method requires basic knowledge of how HTML works.

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        License.setLicenseKey("YOUR-LICENSE-KEY"); // Set your IronPDF license key
        Settings.setLogPath(Paths.get("C:/tmp/IronPdfEngine.log")); // Set the path for log files
        // Convert a simple HTML string into a PDF document
        PdfDocument myPdf = PdfDocument.renderHtmlAsPdf("<h1> ~Hello World~ </h1> Made with IronPDF!");
        // Save the PDF document to the specified path
        myPdf.saveAs(Paths.get("html_saved.pdf"));
    }
}

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        License.setLicenseKey("YOUR-LICENSE-KEY"); // Set your IronPDF license key
        Settings.setLogPath(Paths.get("C:/tmp/IronPdfEngine.log")); // Set the path for log files
        // Convert a simple HTML string into a PDF document
        PdfDocument myPdf = PdfDocument.renderHtmlAsPdf("<h1> ~Hello World~ </h1> Made with IronPDF!");
        // Save the PDF document to the specified path
        myPdf.saveAs(Paths.get("html_saved.pdf"));
    }
}

The output of the above code is given below.

The output file

4.2. Create a PDF file from an HTML File

The IronPDF library's renderHtmlFileAsPdf method allows you to generate a new PDF file from an HTML source file. This method turns everything in an HTML document into a PDF, including graphics, CSS, forms, and so on.

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        License.setLicenseKey("YOUR-LICENSE-KEY"); // Set your IronPDF license key
        Settings.setLogPath(Paths.get("C:/tmp/IronPdfEngine.log")); // Set the path for log files
        // Convert an HTML file into a PDF document
        PdfDocument myPdf = PdfDocument.renderHtmlFileAsPdf("index.html");
        // Save the PDF document to the specified path
        myPdf.saveAs(Paths.get("html_saved.pdf"));
    }
}

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        License.setLicenseKey("YOUR-LICENSE-KEY"); // Set your IronPDF license key
        Settings.setLogPath(Paths.get("C:/tmp/IronPdfEngine.log")); // Set the path for log files
        // Convert an HTML file into a PDF document
        PdfDocument myPdf = PdfDocument.renderHtmlFileAsPdf("index.html");
        // Save the PDF document to the specified path
        myPdf.saveAs(Paths.get("html_saved.pdf"));
    }
}

The output of the above code example is given below.

The output file from an HTML file

4.3. Create PDF files from URLs

Using IronPDF, you can quickly create a PDF from a web page's URL with excellent precision and accuracy. It also provides the ability to create PDF files from credential-locked websites.

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        License.setLicenseKey("YOUR-LICENSE-KEY"); // Set your IronPDF license key
        Settings.setLogPath(Paths.get("C:/tmp/IronPdfEngine.log")); // Set the path for log files
        // Convert a web page URL into a PDF document
        PdfDocument myPdf = PdfDocument.renderUrlAsPdf("https://www.alibaba.com/");
        // Save the PDF document to the specified path
        myPdf.saveAs(Paths.get("html_saved.pdf"));
    }
}

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.Paths;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        License.setLicenseKey("YOUR-LICENSE-KEY"); // Set your IronPDF license key
        Settings.setLogPath(Paths.get("C:/tmp/IronPdfEngine.log")); // Set the path for log files
        // Convert a web page URL into a PDF document
        PdfDocument myPdf = PdfDocument.renderUrlAsPdf("https://www.alibaba.com/");
        // Save the PDF document to the specified path
        myPdf.saveAs(Paths.get("html_saved.pdf"));
    }
}

The output of the above code is given below.

The output PDF file from the Alibaba website

4.4. Create PDF Files from Images

IronPDF for Java can also create a PDF file from one or more images.

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        Path imageDirectory = Paths.get("assets/images"); // Define the directory to search for images
        List<Path> imageFiles = new ArrayList<>();
        try (DirectoryStream<Path> stream = Files.newDirectoryStream(imageDirectory, "*.{png,jpg}")) {
            for (Path entry: stream) {
                imageFiles.add(entry); // Add each image file to the list
            }
            // Convert images into a composite PDF document
            PdfDocument.fromImage(imageFiles).saveAs(Paths.get("assets/composite.pdf"));
        } catch (IOException exception) {
            // Handle the exception if an error occurs during image-to-PDF conversion
            throw new RuntimeException(String.format("Error converting images to PDF from directory: %s: %s",
                    imageDirectory,
                    exception.getMessage()),
                exception);
        }
    }
}

import com.ironsoftware.ironpdf.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.nio.file.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
        Path imageDirectory = Paths.get("assets/images"); // Define the directory to search for images
        List<Path> imageFiles = new ArrayList<>();
        try (DirectoryStream<Path> stream = Files.newDirectoryStream(imageDirectory, "*.{png,jpg}")) {
            for (Path entry: stream) {
                imageFiles.add(entry); // Add each image file to the list
            }
            // Convert images into a composite PDF document
            PdfDocument.fromImage(imageFiles).saveAs(Paths.get("assets/composite.pdf"));
        } catch (IOException exception) {
            // Handle the exception if an error occurs during image-to-PDF conversion
            throw new RuntimeException(String.format("Error converting images to PDF from directory: %s: %s",
                    imageDirectory,
                    exception.getMessage()),
                exception);
        }
    }
}

The output of the above code is given below.

The output PDF file from images

5. Conclusion

This article demonstrated how you can create PDFs from scratch or from already existing HTML files or URLs. IronPDF allows you to convert from several formats to produce a high-quality PDF and makes it very simple to manipulate and format these PDF files.

IronPDF is perfect for software developers and businesses who need to handle, modify, or manipulate PDF files. To know more about IronPDF for Java and to get similar tutorials on how to manipulate PDF using Java, please refer to the following official documentation. For a tutorial on creating PDF files using Java, please visit this Java code example.

IronPDF for Java is free for development purposes but requires a license for commercial use. For more additional information about licensing, please visit the following licensing page.