How to Generate a PDF file in Android App?

20 Jun, 2022
There are many apps in which data from the app is provided to users in the downloadable PDF file format. So in this case we have to create a PDF file from the data present inside our app and represent that data properly inside our app. So by using this technique we can easily create a new PDF according to our requirement. In this article, we will take a look at creating a new PDF file from the data present inside your Android app and saving that PDF file in the external storage of the users’ device. So for generating a new PDF file from the data present inside our Android app we will be using Canvas. Canvas is a predefined class in Android which is used to make 2D drawings of the different object on our screen. So in this article, we will be using canvas to draw our data inside our canvas, and then we will store that canvas in the form of a PDF. Now we will move towards the implementation of our project. 
Below is the sample GIF in which we will get to know what we are going to build in this article. Note that this application is built using Java language. In this project, we are going to display a simple button. After clicking the button our PDF file will be generated and we can see this PDF file saved in our files. 
Step 1: Create a New Project
To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. Note that select Java as the programming language.
Step 2: Working with the activity_main.xml file
Go to the activity_main.xml file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the activity_main.xml file.
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><RelativeLayout    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"    android:layout_width="match_parent"    android:layout_height="match_parent"    tools:context=".MainActivity">     <!--Button for generating the PDF file-->    <Button        android:id="@+id/idBtnGeneratePDF"        android:layout_width="wrap_content"        android:layout_height="wrap_content"        android:layout_centerInParent="true"        android:text="Generate PDF" />     </RelativeLayout>
 Step 3: Add permission for reading and writing in the External Storage
Navigate to the app > AndroifManifest.xml file and add the below permissions to it.  
XML
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/><uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>
 Step 4: Working with the MainActivity.java file
Go to the MainActivity.java file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MainActivity.java file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail. 
Java
import android.content.pm.PackageManager;import android.graphics.Bitmap;import android.graphics.BitmapFactory;import android.graphics.Canvas;import android.graphics.Paint;import android.graphics.Typeface;import android.graphics.pdf.PdfDocument;import android.os.Bundle;import android.os.Environment;import android.view.View;import android.widget.Button;import android.widget.Toast; import androidx.annotation.NonNull;import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;import androidx.core.app.ActivityCompat;import androidx.core.content.ContextCompat; import java.io.File;import java.io.FileOutputStream;import java.io.IOException; import static android.Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE;import static android.Manifest.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE; public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {     // variables for our buttons.    Button generatePDFbtn;         // declaring width and height    // for our PDF file.    int pageHeight = 1120;    int pagewidth = 792;         // creating a bitmap variable    // for storing our images    Bitmap bmp, scaledbmp;         // constant code for runtime permissions    private static final int PERMISSION_REQUEST_CODE = 200;         @Override    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);                 // initializing our variables.        generatePDFbtn = findViewById(R.id.idBtnGeneratePDF);        bmp = BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getResources(), R.drawable.gfgimage);        scaledbmp = Bitmap.createScaledBitmap(bmp, 140, 140, false);         // below code is used for          // checking our permissions.        if (checkPermission()) {            Toast.makeText(this, "Permission Granted", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();        } else {            requestPermission();        }         generatePDFbtn.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {            @Override            public void onClick(View v) {                // calling method to                  // generate our PDF file.                generatePDF();            }        });    }     private void generatePDF() {        // creating an object variable        // for our PDF document.        PdfDocument pdfDocument = new PdfDocument();                 // two variables for paint "paint" is used        // for drawing shapes and we will use "title"        // for adding text in our PDF file.        Paint paint = new Paint();        Paint title = new Paint();                 // we are adding page info to our PDF file        // in which we will be passing our pageWidth,        // pageHeight and number of pages and after that        // we are calling it to create our PDF.        PdfDocument.PageInfo mypageInfo = new PdfDocument.PageInfo.Builder(pagewidth, pageHeight, 1).create();                 // below line is used for setting        // start page for our PDF file.        PdfDocument.Page myPage = pdfDocument.startPage(mypageInfo);                 // creating a variable for canvas        // from our page of PDF.        Canvas canvas = myPage.getCanvas();                 // below line is used to draw our image on our PDF file.        // the first parameter of our drawbitmap method is        // our bitmap        // second parameter is position from left        // third parameter is position from top and last        // one is our variable for paint.        canvas.drawBitmap(scaledbmp, 56, 40, paint);         // below line is used for adding typeface for        // our text which we will be adding in our PDF file.        title.setTypeface(Typeface.create(Typeface.DEFAULT, Typeface.NORMAL));                 // below line is used for setting text size        // which we will be displaying in our PDF file.        title.setTextSize(15);                 // below line is sued for setting color        // of our text inside our PDF file.        title.setColor(ContextCompat.getColor(this, R.color.purple_200));                 // below line is used to draw text in our PDF file.        // the first parameter is our text, second parameter        // is position from start, third parameter is position from top        // and then we are passing our variable of paint which is title.        canvas.drawText("A portal for IT professionals.", 209, 100, title);        canvas.drawText("Geeks for Geeks", 209, 80, title);         // similarly we are creating another text and in this        // we are aligning this text to center of our PDF file.        title.setTypeface(Typeface.defaultFromStyle(Typeface.NORMAL));        title.setColor(ContextCompat.getColor(this, R.color.purple_200));        title.setTextSize(15);                 // below line is used for setting        // our text to center of PDF.        title.setTextAlign(Paint.Align.CENTER);        canvas.drawText("This is sample document which we have created.", 396, 560, title);         // after adding all attributes to our        // PDF file we will be finishing our page.        pdfDocument.finishPage(myPage);                 // below line is used to set the name of        // our PDF file and its path.        File file = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(), "GFG.pdf");         try {            // after creating a file name we will            // write our PDF file to that location.            pdfDocument.writeTo(new FileOutputStream(file));                         // below line is to print toast message            // on completion of PDF generation.            Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "PDF file generated successfully.", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();        } catch (IOException e) {            // below line is used            // to handle error            e.printStackTrace();        }        // after storing our pdf to that        // location we are closing our PDF file.        pdfDocument.close();    }     private boolean checkPermission() {        // checking of permissions.        int permission1 = ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(getApplicationContext(), WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE);        int permission2 = ContextCompat.checkSelfPermission(getApplicationContext(), READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE);        return permission1 == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED && permission2 == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED;    }     private void requestPermission() {        // requesting permissions if not provided.        ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(this, new String[]{WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE}, PERMISSION_REQUEST_CODE);    }     @Override    public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, @NonNull String[] permissions, @NonNull int[] grantResults) {        if (requestCode == PERMISSION_REQUEST_CODE) {            if (grantResults.length > 0) {                                 // after requesting permissions we are showing                // users a toast message of permission granted.                boolean writeStorage = grantResults[0] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED;                boolean readStorage = grantResults[1] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED;                 if (writeStorage && readStorage) {                    Toast.makeText(this, "Permission Granted..", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();                } else {                    Toast.makeText(this, "Permission Denied.", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();                    finish();                }            }        }    }}
Output:
 
gabaa406
germanshephered48
android
Technical Scripter 2020
Android
Java
Technical Scripter
Java
Android
Writing code in comment?
Please use ide.geeksforgeeks.org,
generate link and share the link here.