PDF for .NET - Migrating from ComponentOne PDF to GrapeCity Documents for PDF

If you are using ComponentOne PDF (C1Pdf) to generate PDFs in .NET, you should migrate to our new, high-performance API - GrapeCity Documents for PDF (GcPdf). GrapeCity Documents for PDF is a fast, feature-rich PDF API for .NET Standard 2.0. You can generate documents with speed, and memory efficiency, without any dependencies on Acrobat.

Both ComponentOne PDF and GrapeCity Documents for PDF include many PDF functions. With GcPDF you can do more!

Explore the advanced features of GrapeCity Documents for PDF API.

GrapeCity Documents for PDF additional features:

  • Advanced text handling with full fonts and multi-language support
  • Advanced paragraph handling and formatting
  • Add, modify and delete content from existing PDFs
  • Additional annotations
  • Text and image stamps
  • Generate linearized PDFs
  • Update documents incrementally

Our complete list of GcPdf features:

Features GcPdf C1PDF
Platform Support: .NET Standard 2.0 yes no
1. Supported PDF versions
1.1 PDF/UA yes (planned) no
2. Fonts
2.1 WOFF Fonts yes no
2.2 Ligatures and other font features yes no
3. Text
3.1 Text properties
3.3.1 Overline yes no
3.3.2 Word spacing yes no
3.3.3 Line spacing yes no
3.2 Add single, multiline, and multipage text yes yes (partial)
3.3 Add multilingual text using unicode fonts. yes no
3.4 Advanced text splitting yes no
3.5 Widow and orphan control yes no
3.6 Keep with next no
3.7 Keep together no
3.8 Embedded, inline and anchored objects in text yes no
3.9 Vertical direction (clockwise, counter clockwise) yes no
3.10 First line indent yes no
3.11 Left hanging paragraph yes no
3.12 Full justification yes no
3.13 Add paragraphs yes no
3.14 Paragraph formatting yes no
3.15 Extract text from pages. yes (planned) no
3.16 Search text from pages yes no
3.17 Get text segments yes no
3.18 Support for special characters
3.18.1 Ruby characters yes no
3.18.2 Automatic character shaping for Arabic/Asian languages (Hindi) yes yes (Partial)
4. Images
4.1 Extract images. yes (planned) no
5. Document
5.1 Modify existing document yes no
5.2 Open existing PDF documents from local or storage file yes no
5.3 Open existing PDF documents from stream yes no
5.4 Set page display properties yes no
5.5 Linearization (optimization for the web) yes no
5.6 Get document viewer properties yes no
5.7 Get page display properties yes no
5.8 Get PDF file information yes no
5.9 Custom metadata yes no
5.10 Set XMP metadata yes no
5.11 Get XMP metadata yes no
5.12 Incremental save yes no
5.13 Page properties
5.13.1 Cropbox yes no
5.13.2 Bleedbox yes no
5.13.3 Artibox yes no
5.13.4 Trimbox yes no
5.13.5 Page transition yes no
5.13.6 Zoom factor yes no
5.14 Multiple columns yes no
6. Bookmarks
6.1 Delete bookmarks yes no
6.2 Get bookmarks yes no
6.3 Get child bookmarks yes no
6.4 Modify bookmarks yes no
6.5 Modify child bookmarks yes no
7. Annotations
7.1 Get annotations yes no
7.2 Delete annotations yes no
7.3 Modify annotations yes no
8. Annotation Types
8.1 Ink Annotation yes no
8.2 FreeText annotation yes no
8.3 Polygon annotation yes no
8.4 Pop-up annotation yes no
8.5 Rubber stamp annotation yes no
9. Forms
9.1 Delete fields yes no
9.2 Modify fields yes no
9.3 Get field values yes no
9.4 Move field to new location yes no
9.5 Flatten fields (a particular field or all) yes no
9.6 Add and delete list item yes no
9.7 Set button script yes no
10. Stamp and watermark
10.1 Add text stamp yes no
10.2 Add image stamp yes no
11. Security and signatures
12. Decrypt PDF yes no
13. Links and Actions
13.1 Create JavaScript link yes no
13.2 Remove document open action yes no
13.3 Extract links yes no
14. Attachments
14.1 Get attachments yes no
14.2 Delete attachments yes no
14.3 Get attachment information yes no
15. Page
15.1 Get page count yes no
15.2 Concatenate PDF files yes no
15.3 Delete PDF pages. yes no
16. Graphic objects yes
16.1 Apply patterns and shadings to the graphics yes no

Migrating C1Pdf project to GcPdf

Suppose you have a project that uses C1Pdf to generate a PDF article with multiline text and paragraphs. 

//Create C1PdfDocument
C1PdfDocument doc = new C1PdfDocument();

//Set Paragraph properties
StringFormat stringFormat = new StringFormat();
stringFormat.Alignment = StringAlignment.Near;

//Define Font properties to display the title
System.Drawing.Font f = new System.Drawing.Font("Arial", 16, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular);

//Draw Title           
doc.DrawString("Introduction", f, Brushes.MediumBlue, new System.Drawing.PointF(230, 10), stringFormat);

//Re-define new Font properties for sub-title
f = new System.Drawing.Font("Arial", 12, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular);
//Draw sub-title
doc.DrawString("The Importance of Wetlands", f, Brushes.MediumBlue, new System.Drawing.PointF(200, 40), stringFormat);

//Re-define font object for paragraph text
f = new System.Drawing.Font("Arial", 9, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular);

//Draw paragraph
int k = 0;
using (StreamReader file = new StreamReader(@"..\..\temp.txt"))
{
       string line;
       while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
        {
           doc.DrawString(line, f, Brushes.Black, new System.Drawing.PointF(50, 80 + k), stringFormat);
           k += 20;
        }
}
doc.Save("C1Pdf_Doc.pdf");
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("C1Pdf_Doc.pdf");

You can migrate this project to GcPdf, using following steps:

Step 1. Remove C1.C1Pdf.4 dll from Solution Explorer

PDF for .NET - Migrating from ComponentOne PDF to GrapeCity Documents for PDF

Step 2: Add 'GrapeCity.Documents.Pdf' nuget package from nuget.org

PDF for .NET - Migrating from ComponentOne PDF to GrapeCity Documents for PDF

Step 3: Remove namespace -'using C1.C1Pdf' add namespaces for GcPdf

using GrapeCity.Documents.Pdf
using Grapecity.Documents.Text

Step 4: Modify the Pdf document object

Modify Pdf document object from - C1PdfDocument doc=new C1PdfDocument();

to

"GcPdfDocument doc=new GcPdfDocument();"

Step 5: Add new page to the document and point the GcPdfGraphics to the page, to draw content over the page.

var page=doc.NewPage();
GcPdfGraphics g = page.Graphics;

Step 6: Remove font object

Remove this code: 

//Define Font properties to display the title
System.Drawing.Font f = new System.Drawing.Font("Arial", 16, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular);

Step 7: Define TextLayout class that adds text to PDF file

The TextLayout class represents one or more paragraphs of text and can be drawn directly to the page Graphics. With GcPdf, you can additionally set the height, width of the text layout, along with the margins.

Define the TextLayout class and associate the FontCollection with it.

var tl = new TextLayout() 
{ 
     MaxWidth = doc.PageSize.Width,
    MaxHeight = doc.PageSize.Height,
    MarginLeft = 72,
    MarginRight = 72,
    MarginTop = 72,
    MarginBottom = 72,
};

Step 8: Draw titles on the page

Remove following lines:

//Set Paragraph properties
StringFormat stringFormat = new StringFormat();
stringFormat.Alignment = StringAlignment.Near;
//Define Font properties to display the title
System.Drawing.Font f = new System.Drawing.Font("Arial", 16, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular);
//Draw Title 
doc.DrawString("Introduction", f, Brushes.MediumBlue, new System.Drawing.PointF(230, 10), stringFormat);
//Re-define new Font properties for sub-title
f = new System.Drawing.Font("Arial", 12, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular);
//Draw sub-title
doc.DrawString("The Importance of Wetlands", f, Brushes.MediumBlue, new System.Drawing.PointF(200, 40), stringFormat);

You can align the titles at the center of the page and draw the titles on the page with GcPdf.

Note: The TextFormat class can specify the font properties you want to use on the titles or any text in PDF File. It allows individual formatting of text fragments using different fonts, font styles and colors.

Use the TextLayout class to set the alignment of the text and add the titles to it. Then define the TextFormat class to hold the Font properties for your titles. Finally, draw the titles on the page. 

tl.TextAlignment = TextAlignment.Center;
var colorBlue = Color.FromArgb(0x3B, 0x5C, 0xAA);           
tl.Append("Introduction\n", new TextFormat() { FontSize = 16, ForeColor = colorBlue, FontName = "Arial", FontStyle= GrapeCity.Documents.Text.FontStyle.Regular });
tl.Append("The Importance of Wetlands", new TextFormat() { FontSize = 12, ForeColor = colorBlue });
tl.PerformLayout(true);
g.DrawTextLayout(tl, PointF.Empty);

Step 9: Draw paragraphs, add additional paragraph formatting with GcPdf

Remove the code to draw paragraphs:

int k = 0;
using (StreamReader file = new StreamReader(file))
{
  string line;
  while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
  {
    doc.DrawString(line, f, Brushes.Black, new System.Drawing.PointF(50, 80 + k), stringFormat);
    k += 20; 
  }
}

Add additional paragraph formatting properties with GcPdf.

  • FirstLineIndent
  • TextAlignment
  • Uniform line spacing
  • Paragraph Spacing

Use the TextLayout class defined before to set the above properties:

tl.FirstLineIndent = 36;
tl.TextAlignment = TextAlignment.Justified;
tl.ParagraphSpacing = 12;
tl.UniformLineSpacing = 15;

Add paragraphs

var tf = new TextFormat() { FontSize = 9, ForeColor = Color.Black, FontName = "Arial", FontStyle = GrapeCity.Documents.Text.FontStyle.Regular };
using (StreamReader file = new StreamReader(@"..\..\temp.txt"))
{
     string line;
     while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
     {
           if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(line))
           tl.AppendLine(tf);
           else
           tl.Append(line + " ", tf);
      }
}

Draw the paragraphs

tl.PerformLayout(true);
g.DrawTextLayout(tl, PointF.Empty);

Step 10: Save to PDF

doc.Save("GcPdf_Doc.pdf");
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("GcPdf_Doc.pdf");

The complete code should look like this:

//Define GcPdfDocument object
GcPdfDocument doc = new GcPdfDocument();
//Add new page and point graphics to it to draw content on the page
var page = doc.NewPage();
GcPdfGraphics g = page.Graphics;

//Define Title forecolor
var colorBlue = Color.FromArgb(0x3B, 0x5C, 0xAA);
//Define TextLayout class to add text to PDF File. Associate FontCollection with it.
TextLayout tl = new TextLayout()
{
        MaxWidth = doc.PageSize.Width,
        MaxHeight = doc.PageSize.Height,
        MarginLeft = 72,
        MarginRight = 72,
        MarginTop = 72,
        MarginBottom = 72,              
};
//Align Titles to center
tl.TextAlignment = TextAlignment.Center;
//Add Title and Sub-title to TextLayout
//Define TextFormat class to hold the Font properties you want to set on the Titles
tl.Append("Introduction\n", new TextFormat() { FontSize = 16, ForeColor = colorBlue, FontName = "Arial", FontStyle = GrapeCity.Documents.Text.FontStyle.Regular });
tl.Append("The Importance of Wetlands", new TextFormat() { FontSize = 12, ForeColor = colorBlue, FontName = "Arial", FontStyle = GrapeCity.Documents.Text.FontStyle.Regular });
//Draw the titles on the page graphics
tl.PerformLayout(true);
g.DrawTextLayout(tl, PointF.Empty);

//Clear TextLayout
tl.Clear();
//Define additional Paragraph formatting properties
tl.MarginTop = tl.ContentHeight + 72*2;
tl.TextAlignment = TextAlignment.Justified;
tl.ParagraphSpacing = 12;
tl.FirstLineIndent = 36;
tl.UniformLineSpacing = 15;

//Define TextFormat to hold Font properties you want to apply on the paragraphs
var tf = new TextFormat() { FontSize = 9, ForeColor = Color.Black, FontName = "Arial", FontStyle = GrapeCity.Documents.Text.FontStyle.Regular };
//Read the txt file line by line and add the lines to the TextLayout.
using (StreamReader file = new StreamReader(@"..\..\temp.txt"))
{
      string line;
      while ((line = file.ReadLine()) != null)
      {
            if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(line))
            tl.AppendLine(tf);
            else
            tl.Append(line + " ", tf);
      }
}
//Draw the paragraphs
tl.PerformLayout(true);
g.DrawTextLayout(tl, PointF.Empty);
//Save the pdf
doc.Save("GcPdf_Doc.pdf");
System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("GcPdf_Doc.pdf");

Congratulations! You have migrated your project to GcPdf. Below are two generated PDFs from each of the controls. Notice the advanced text and paragraph formatting in PDF generated with GcPdf.

PDF for .NET

PDF for .NET

Download Now!

Shilpa Sharma - Product Manager

Shilpa Sharma

Product Manager
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