Convert Multiple Text Documents to a PDF File or to PDF Files

This article demonstrates how to use the iTextSharp PDF Library to convert multiple text files into a single combined PDF file and also convert to individual PDF files with the same GUI.

Description

About the classes used:

1. The StreamReader class provides read access using a Stream such as for a Text File.
2. The Document class allows creation of a new PDF File.
3. The PdfWriter class provides instantaneous access to write a PDF document from an object of the Document class.

Namespaces Required:

• System.IO,
• iTextSharp,
• iTextSharp.text,
• iTextSharp.text.pdf,
• iTextSharp.text.pdf.draw

Controls Used:

1. TextBox Control (txtOutput)
2. Button Control (btnSelect, btnCreatePDF, btnClear)
3. ListBox Control (lbInputs)
4. RadioButton Control (rbCombined, rbIndividual)

Here I implemented the code for converting multiple Text Documents into a single combined PDF and into individual PDFs using the iTextSharp Tool.

The Code

1. Variable Declaration

Document doc;  //Create a New instance on Document Class

Listing 1

2. Select the Input Text Files (code for the "Select Files" Button); see:

using (OpenFileDialog file = new OpenFileDialog())
{
    //Allow to select multiple files
    file.Multiselect = true;

    //Allow to select only *.txt Files
    file.Filter = "Only Text Documents|*.txt";

    //Show the Dialog box to selcet file(s)
    file.ShowDialog();
 
    //Add the input file names to ListBox
    lbInputs.Items.AddRange(file.FileNames);
}

Listing 2

3. Function to Create a New instance of the PDFWriter Class:

void GetInstance(String str)
{
      //Create a New instance of PDFWriter Class for Output File
      PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, new FileStream(str, FileMode.Create));
}

Listing 3

4. Convert Text Files into PDF File(s) (code for "Create PDF" Button):

//For Combined PDF Option is Selected

            //Create a New instance on Document Class
            doc = new Document();

            //Create a new instance of PDFWriter Class for output file
            GetInstance(txtOutput.Text);

            //Open the Document
            doc.Open();
 
            foreach (String var in lbInputs.Items)
            {
                  //Access Each file in ListBox using StreamReader Class
                  using (StreamReader rdr = new StreamReader(var))
                  {
                        //Add New Page to the Output file
                        doc.NewPage();

                        //Add the File name of text file to PDF File
                        doc.Add(new Paragraph("File Name : " + var + "\n\n"));

                        //Add the content of Text File to PDF File
                        doc.Add(new Paragraph(rdr.ReadToEnd()));
                  }
            }

            //Close the Document
            doc.Close();

            MessageBox.Show("Conversion Successful....");

            //Open the Converted PDF File"
            System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(txtOutput.Text);

Listing 4

//For Individual PDFs Option is Selected

            //Create a Output Directory for storing individual PDF files
            Directory.CreateDirectory(txtOutput.Text
            foreach (String var in lbInputs.Items)
            {
                  //Create a New instance on Document Class
                  doc = new Document();

                  //Create a New Instance of FileInfo Class
                  //to get the Extension of selected file
                  FileInfo file = new FileInfo(var);

                  //Create a new instance of PDFWriter Class for output file
                  GetInstance(txtOutput.Text +
                                    file.Name.Replace(file.Extension, ".pdf"));
                  using (StreamReader rdr = new StreamReader(var))
                  {
                        //Open the Document
                        doc.Open();

                        //Add the content of Text File to PDF File
                        doc.Add(new Paragraph(rdr.ReadToEnd().ToString()));
 
                        //Close the Document
                        doc.Close();
                  }
            }
            MessageBox.Show("Conversion Successful....");

Listing 5

5. Now execute the application and see the result (Figure 1).

Intended Result



Figure 1

Summary

In this piece of writing, using the C# environment, we have seen how to convert Multiple Text files into a Single PDF file & into individual PDF files, using the iTextSharp Tool (a free PDF library ported from Java iText).