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C# itextsharp working with letterhead

i have to merge two pdf files, one is the letterhead (source.pdf) an the other is a code generated pdf page (overlay.pdf). the letterhead can be a scanned or a digital copy. i used the code i found at here: https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/e78ccbbf-3d00-4612-b342-269eb0075982/make-a-pdf-as-a-background-of-another-pdf?forum=csharpgeneral
. My problem is that the text from the overlay.pdf not showing up if the letterhead is scanned, when the letterhead is an digital copy etc. from Photsop it works! BUT the text is there in the output.pdf i can select it.
output.pdf with invisible text
i hope anyone has an idea. thank you

I'm a Java developer, so I am not familiar with all the details of C#. Nevertheless I'm going to try to write some C#. If that code doesn't work immediately, please treat it as if it were pseudo-code. The principles are correct; the syntax may contain errors.
// Actual content
PdfReader overlay = new PdfReader("overlay.pdf");
int n = overlay.NumberOfPages;
PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(overlay,
new FileStream("result.pdf", FileMode.Create);
// Company stationery (letter head)
PdfReader stationery = new PdfReader("source.pdf");
PdfImportedPage page = stamper.GetImportedPage(stationery, 1);
// Add stationery page to each page of real content
PdfContentByte background;
for (int i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
background = stamper.GetUnderContent(i);
background.AddTemplate(page, 0, 0);
}
// Close the stamper
stamper.Close();
As I explained in my comment, there is no need to use PdfWriter. You just take the existing PDF with the real content, and you add the single-page PDF with the letterhead and you add it to the background.
Update
If your overlay.pdf is opaque, it is only normal that you won't see source.pdf as that content will be covered. In that case, you might consider using transparency:
// Actual content
PdfReader overlay = new PdfReader("overlay.pdf");
int n = overlay.NumberOfPages;
PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(overlay,
new FileStream("result.pdf", FileMode.Create);
// Company stationery (letter head)
PdfReader stationery = new PdfReader("source.pdf");
PdfImportedPage page = stamper.GetImportedPage(stationery, 1);
// Add stationery page to each page of real content
PdfContentByte foreground;
PdfGState state = new PdfGState();
state.FillOpacity = 0.6f;
for (int i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
foreground = stamper.GetOverContent(i);
foreground..SaveState();
foreground.SetGState(state);
foreground.AddTemplate(page, 0, 0);
foreground.RestoreState();
}
// Close the stamper
stamper.Close();
This may not be the optimal result. You can try changing the 0.6 fill opacity, but it's the best result you'll get if crazy people give you opaque letter-head PDFs (that's not done; people who do this are totally unprofessional).

Setting my paragraphs to begin at the top margin with iTextSharp

I'm trying to build pdfs to digitize our reporting system at my company. I've used iTextSharp and so far it looks great but my margins don't seem to be working properly. I've set the margins to a config file and the left and right margins are working great, but my paragraph seems to start about 30% down the page regardless of the top and bottom margin. Here's the code I'm using:
public int PrintPdf()
{
//Getting the path
//Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension("Test_Doc_Print") + ".pdf");
object OutputFileName = this._path;
//Making the PDF Doc
iTextSharp.text.Document PDFReport = new iTextSharp.text.Document
(
PageSize.A4.Rotate(),
/*this._left,
this._right,
this._top,
this._bottom*/
10,
10,
10,
10
);
//Setting The Font
string fontpath = #"C:\Windows\Fonts\";
BaseFont monoFont = BaseFont.CreateFont(fontpath + "Consola.ttf", BaseFont.CP1252, BaseFont.EMBEDDED);
Font fontPDF = new Font(monoFont, this._fontSize);
// create file stream for writing the PDF
FileStream fs = new FileStream(this._path, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.ReadWrite);
//FileStream fs = new FileStream(#"c:\\Reportlocation", FileMode.Create);
// Create an FCFC scan object to convert TextToPrint page at a time
FCFCScanner page = new FCFCScanner(this._text);
// Create PDF writer and associate with file stream
//iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfWriter writer = new iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfWriter.GetInstance(PDFReport, fs);
PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(PDFReport, fs);
//Opening the PDF Doc
PDFReport.Open();
//Load each page from the string into the PDF
page.NextPage();
do
{
if (page.PageLength > 0)
{
Paragraph prg = new Paragraph(page.Page, fontPDF);
PDFReport.Add(prg);
PDFReport.NewPage();
page.NextPage();
}
} while (page.MorePages);
PDFReport.Close();
return (0);
}
I've set the margins to 10 (hardcoded for now) to show what I'm working with. This program should read a string that I send it from my StringBuider class.
It's designed to receive one page of text at a time and to convert it into a PDF document.
Ok, so the problem: when the page is built, the first paragraph doesn't begin at the top margin. If I reduce the margin, it doesn't shift the paragraph up to the new margin. It's causing my PDFs to be much longer as the text that fits easily on a printer page takes two PDF pages. Any help with getting my paragraph to simply begin at the top margin would be really appreciated.
I'm relatively new to programming and this is my first post, so if you need more information, let me know and I'll add more info.

XMLWorkerHelper convert html page into pdf produces only first 2 pages

I'm getting only the first two page. I have a generated list of elements in the third page. When there are too many elements in my collection, all pages from there become blank in my pdf output
using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create))
{
Document document = new Document(PageSize.A4, 25, 25, 30, 30);
WebClient wc = new WebClient();
string htmlText = wc.DownloadString(textUrl);
PdfWriter pdfWriter = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, fs);
document.Open();
// register all fonts in current computer
FontFactory.RegisterDirectories();
XMLWorkerFontProvider fontProvider = new XMLWorkerFontProvider();
using (var msHtml = new MemoryStream(System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetBytes(htmlText)))
{
//Set factories
var cssAppliers = new CssAppliersImpl(fontProvider);
var htmlContext = new HtmlPipelineContext(cssAppliers);
//HtmlPipelineContext htmlContext = new HtmlPipelineContext(null);
htmlContext.SetTagFactory(Tags.GetHtmlTagProcessorFactory());
//FontFactory.Register(arialuniTff);
string gishaTff = Path.Combine(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.Fonts), "GISHA.TTF");
FontFactory.Register(gishaTff);
var worker = XMLWorkerHelper.GetInstance();
var cssStream = new FileStream(FolderMapPath("/css/style.css"), FileMode.Open);
worker.ParseXHtml(pdfWriter, document, msHtml, cssStream, new UnicodeFontFactory());
}
// Close the document
document.Close();
// Close the writer instance
pdfWriter.Close();
}
Here is my cshtml code

I only have experience working with iText in Java, but is it possible that the MemoryStream object you are using has a byte limit that gets filled up when the table on page 3 has too many elements for it to store? If that's the case, then the closing tags on that long table may not be written to the MemoryStream, thus that table and everything after doesn't get rendered; i.e. get's truncated by the PDF converter engine.
Can you try using a different Stream object?

Here is how i solved my problem. The problem wasn't with the C# backend code. It's seems like the XMLWorkerHelper at the moment doesn't deal well with loop in view. I had to display list of items in my PDF file. The result was well if the collection contains no so many items, But the page break at the level when the the collection contains more than 50 items because this could not be display in a single page. What i did is that i started to count the number of items and at some number like 40, i just include a break element <li style="list-style:none; list-style-type:none; page-break-before:always">#item</li>. And reset the counter and continue display my items. And it was great and my problem was resolved.
May be this can be helpful for someone.

PDF generated with iTextSharp always prompts to save changes when closing. And has missing pages when viewed with non-Acrobat PDF readers

I've recently used iTextSharp to create a PDF by importing the 20 pages from an existing PDF and then adding a dynamically generated link to the bottom of the last page. It works fine... kind of. Viewing the generated PDF in Acrobat Reader on a windows PC displays everything as expected although when closing the document it always asks "Do you want to save changes?". Viewing the generated PDF on a Surface Pro with PDF Reader displays the document without the first and last pages. Apparently on a mobile device using Polaris Office the first and last pages are also missing.
I'm wondering if when the new PDF is generated it's not getting closed off quite properly and that's why it asks "Do you want to save changes?" when closing it. And maybe that's also why it doesn't display correctly in some PDF reader apps.
Here's the code:
using (var reader = new PdfReader(HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/app/pdf/OriginalDoc.pdf")))
{
using (
var fileStream =
new FileStream(
HostingEnvironment.MapPath("~/documents/attachments/DocWithLink_" + id + ".pdf"),
FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
{
var document = new Document(reader.GetPageSizeWithRotation(1));
var writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, fileStream);
using (PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(reader, fileStream))
{
var baseFont = BaseFont.CreateFont(BaseFont.HELVETICA_BOLD, BaseFont.CP1252,
BaseFont.NOT_EMBEDDED);
Font linkFont = FontFactory.GetFont("Arial", 12, Font.UNDERLINE, BaseColor.BLUE);
document.Open();
for (var i = 1; i <= reader.NumberOfPages; i++)
{
document.NewPage();
var importedPage = writer.GetImportedPage(reader, i);
// Copy page of original document to new document.
var contentByte = writer.DirectContent;
contentByte.AddTemplate(importedPage, 0, 0);
if (i == reader.NumberOfPages) // It's the last page so add link.
{
PdfContentByte cb = stamper.GetOverContent(i);
//Create a ColumnText object
var ct = new ColumnText(cb);
//Set the rectangle to write to
ct.SetSimpleColumn(100, 30, 500, 90, 0, PdfContentByte.ALIGN_LEFT);
//Add some text and make it blue so that it looks like a hyperlink
var c = new Chunk("Click here!", linkFont);
var congrats = new Paragraph("Congratulations on reading the eBook! ");
congrats.Alignment = PdfContentByte.ALIGN_LEFT;
c.SetAnchor("http://www.domain.com/pdf/response/" + encryptedId);
//Add the chunk to the ColumnText
congrats.Add(c);
ct.AddElement(congrats);
//Tell the system to process the above commands
ct.Go();
}
}
}
}
}
I've looked at these posts with similar issues but none seem to quite provide the answer I need:
iTextSharp-generated PDFs cause save dialog when closing
Using iTextSharp to write data to PDF works great, but Acrobat Reader asks 'Do you want to save changes' when closing file
(Or they refer to memory streams instead of writing to disk etc)
My question is, how do I modify the above so that when closing the generated PDF in Acrobat Reader there's no "Do you want to save changes?" prompt. The answer to that may solve the problems with missing pages on Surface Pro etc but if you know anything else about what might be causing that I'd like to hear about it.
Any suggestions would be very welcome! Thanks!

At first glance (and without much coffee yet) it appears that you're using a PdfReader in three different contexts, as a source to a PdfStamper, as a source for Document and as for a source for importing. So you are essentially importing a document into itself that you're also writing to.
To give you a quick overview, the following code will essentially clone the contents of source.pdf into dest.pdf:
using (var reader = new PdfReader("source.pdf")){
using (var fileStream = new FileStream("dest.pdf", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write)){
using (PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(reader, fileStream)){
}
}
}
Since that does all of the cloning for you you don't need to import pages or anything.
Then, if the only thing that you want to do is add some text to the last page, you can just use the above and ask the PdfStamper for a PdfContentByte using GetOverContent() and telling it what page number you're interested. Then you can just use the rest of your ColumnText logic.
using (var reader = new PdfReader("Source.Pdf")) {
using (var fileStream = new FileStream("Dest.Pdf"), FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write) {
using (PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(reader, fileStream)) {
//Get a PdfContentByte object
var cb = stamper.GetOverContent(reader.NumberOfPages);
//Create a ColumnText object
var ct = new ColumnText(cb);
//Set the rectangle to write to
ct.SetSimpleColumn(100, 30, 500, 90, 0, PdfContentByte.ALIGN_LEFT);
//Add some text and make it blue so that it looks like a hyperlink
var c = new Chunk("Click here!", linkFont);
var congrats = new Paragraph("Congratulations on reading the eBook! ");
congrats.Alignment = PdfContentByte.ALIGN_LEFT;
c.SetAnchor("http://www.domain.com/pdf/response/" + encryptedId);
//Add the chunk to the ColumnText
congrats.Add(c);
ct.AddElement(congrats);
//Tell the system to process the above commands
ct.Go();
}
}
}

merge 2 pdf with itextsharp stamper

I want to take 2 pdf files and merge them together.
each file is one page long. the reason to merge them is that one file is simply a footer. The footer needs to be attached to the existing file.
I'm using a stamper to try and merge the 2 files.
I successfully create the output file, but it doesn't have the footer. It's just a copy of the original input file. Any idea why they aren't merging?
using (Stream inputPdfStream = new FileStream(inputFile, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
using (Stream inputPdfFooterStream = new FileStream(footerPdf, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
using (Stream outputPdfStream = new FileStream(outputFile, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.None))
{
var reader = new PdfReader(inputPdfStream);
var stamper = new PdfStamper(reader, outputPdfStream);
var pdfContentByte = stamper.GetOverContent(1);
stamper.FormFlattening = true;
stamper.Close();
}

There are different problems with your question.
Problem #1: why did you add the line stamper.FormFlattening = true;? Are you working with a form? I don't see you do anything with forms, so why would you flatten the document?
Problem #2: You say you want to merge two documents with PdfStamper. That is misleading. Merging documents is done with PdfCopy. From your explanation, I gather that you want to superimpose two documents. You are right that you need PdfStamper to do so.
Problem #3: You want to use a specific document containing a footer as company stationery. In that case, you want to add the content of the stationery under the actual content. Then why are you using stamper.GetOverContent(1);? Use stamper.GetUnderContent(1); instead.
Problem #4: You are creating an inputPdfFooterStream to read the document with the footer, but I don't see you using that stream anywhere. What do you expect?
Problem #5: You didn't read the documentation. This is your main problem. Download chapter 6 of my book (it's available for free, and I've been referring to it in dozens of answers on StackOverflow). Go to page 176 where it says "Adding company stationery to an existing document". That example meets your requirement completely!
// Create readers
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(src);
PdfReader s_reader = new PdfReader(stationery);
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream()) {
// Create the stamper
using (PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper(reader, ms)) {
// Add the stationery to each page
PdfImportedPage page = stamper.GetImportedPage(s_reader, 1);
int n = reader.NumberOfPages;
PdfContentByte background;
for (int i = 1; i <= n; i++) {
background = stamper.GetUnderContent(i);
background.AddTemplate(page, 0, 0);
}
}
return ms.ToArray();
}
In your code, you only have one reader. In my code, I also have an object called s_reader that takes the footerPdf document and allows you to created a PdfImportedPage:
PdfImportedPage page = stamper.GetImportedPage(s_reader, 1);
This page is then added under the existing content of the actual document:
background = stamper.GetUnderContent(i);
background.AddTemplate(page, 0, 0);
Note that this example assumes that both documents have the same page size and that the origin of the coordinate system of the document with the actual content coincided with the lower-left corner. If that isn't the case with your PDFs, you can have a situation where the footer isn't visible or is only partly visible. Also: if the document with the actual content is opaque, it will also make the footer invisible.