QuestPDF add page numbers to a PDF Alternatives VS IronPDF (Example)

What is IronPDF?

IronPDF is a feature-rich library built for the .NET ecosystem, designed to handle PDF creation, manipulation, and rendering tasks efficiently. It leverages a Chromium-based engine to provide precise conversion of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into PDF documents. This makes it an excellent choice for web developers who need to convert HTML content directly into a PDF format while retaining the original layout and styling.

With IronPDF, you can easily integrate PDF functionalities into your .NET applications, including creating custom headers and footers, adding new pages to your PDFs, embedding images and tables, and performing advanced PDF manipulations such as merging or splitting documents. The library supports various formats and offers a wide range of customization options, making it ideal for generating professional-grade PDFs from dynamic web content.

Key Features of IronPDF:

• Allows you to generate PDFs directly from C# code.
• Converts web pages, HTML, and JavaScript to high-quality PDFs.
• Provides options for adding custom elements like headers, footers, and watermarks.
• Facilitates merging, splitting, and editing existing PDFs.
• Works seamlessly with .NET applications, including ASP.NET and MVC frameworks.

To dive deeper into IronPDF's capabilities and more advanced examples, refer to the official documentation here.

Install-Package IronPdf

What is QuestPDF?

QuestPDF is a modern .NET library designed for PDF document generation. It focuses on providing developers with a flexible and efficient tool for creating PDFs from C#. QuestPDF allows for an intuitive and fluid approach to designing documents using a declarative style.

QuestPDF emphasizes simplicity, speed, and performance, making it a great choice for generating dynamic reports and documents. The library also supports advanced layout features, custom styling, and easy-to-use templates.

QuestPDF Features

• Easy-to-use API for building complex PDF documents.
• Supports flexible layout and document structuring, setting default pages, column items, and so on.
• Allows for easy styling of elements using CSS-like properties.
• Provides support for images, default text style settings, tables, barcodes, charts, columns, rows, multiple page types and more.
• Great for creating reports, invoices, and data-driven documents.

For more details, refer to the QuestPDF documentation.

Install-Package QuestPDF

Adding Page Numbers using IronPDF

using IronPdf;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // HTML content for the PDF
        var html = "<h1>Hello World!</h1><p>This document was generated using IronPDF</p>";

        // Set up the IronPDF renderer with header for page numbers
        ChromePdfRenderer renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer
        {
            RenderingOptions = 
            {
                HtmlHeader = new HtmlHeaderFooter
                {
                    HtmlFragment = "<center><i>{page} of {total-pages}</i></center>"
                }
            }
        };

        // Render the HTML as a PDF
        PdfDocument pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(html);

        // Save the PDF to a file
        pdf.SaveAs("pageNumbers.pdf");
    }
}

using IronPdf;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // HTML content for the PDF
        var html = "<h1>Hello World!</h1><p>This document was generated using IronPDF</p>";

        // Set up the IronPDF renderer with header for page numbers
        ChromePdfRenderer renderer = new ChromePdfRenderer
        {
            RenderingOptions = 
            {
                HtmlHeader = new HtmlHeaderFooter
                {
                    HtmlFragment = "<center><i>{page} of {total-pages}</i></center>"
                }
            }
        };

        // Render the HTML as a PDF
        PdfDocument pdf = renderer.RenderHtmlAsPdf(html);

        // Save the PDF to a file
        pdf.SaveAs("pageNumbers.pdf");
    }
}

How to Add Page Numbers using QuestPDF

In QuestPDF, adding page numbers can be done in a similar fashion. Below is the code to add page numbers using QuestPDF:

using QuestPDF.Fluent;
using QuestPDF.Infrastructure;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Set the license type for QuestPDF
        QuestPDF.Settings.License = LicenseType.Community;

        // Create a PDF document using the QuestPDF fluent API
        var document = Document.Create(container =>
        {
            // Define a page with content and a header with page numbers
            container.Page(page =>
            {
                page.Content().Text("Hello, QuestPDF!");

                // Add a centered header with page number and total pages
                page.Header().AlignCenter().Text(text =>
                {
                    text.Span("Page ");
                    text.CurrentPageNumber();
                    text.Span(" of ");
                    text.TotalPages();
                });
            });
        });

        // Generate and save the PDF document
        document.GeneratePdf("QuestPdfOutput.pdf");
    }
}

using QuestPDF.Fluent;
using QuestPDF.Infrastructure;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Set the license type for QuestPDF
        QuestPDF.Settings.License = LicenseType.Community;

        // Create a PDF document using the QuestPDF fluent API
        var document = Document.Create(container =>
        {
            // Define a page with content and a header with page numbers
            container.Page(page =>
            {
                page.Content().Text("Hello, QuestPDF!");

                // Add a centered header with page number and total pages
                page.Header().AlignCenter().Text(text =>
                {
                    text.Span("Page ");
                    text.CurrentPageNumber();
                    text.Span(" of ");
                    text.TotalPages();
                });
            });
        });

        // Generate and save the PDF document
        document.GeneratePdf("QuestPdfOutput.pdf");
    }
}

This QuestPDF code defines a simple document with a page number in the header. The CurrentPageNumber() and TotalPages() methods are used to dynamically generate the page number relative to each page.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both IronPDF and QuestPDF offer effective solutions for adding page numbers to PDFs in C#. However, IronPDF provides a more streamlined and user-friendly approach. Its flexibility and ease of use make it an ideal choice for developers needing to add page numbers or manipulate existing PDFs with minimal effort.

IronPDF is available for free development use, allowing developers to experiment and integrate it into projects without any cost during the development phase. Once you're ready for production, commercial licensing is available for these licensing options.

By choosing IronPDF, developers gain access to a reliable and feature-rich tool that simplifies PDF creation and editing, including page number insertion, with the added benefit of ongoing maintenance and updates.

For more information on IronPDF's free version and commercial licensing, visit IronPDF's official website.