Add BufferedImage to PDFBox document

Question

In my current project, I try to add a BufferedImage to a PDFBox document. More specificly, I use an image from a JFreeChart. My code looks like this:

public void exportToPDF(JFreeChart chart, String filePath){
    PDDocument doc = null;
    PDPage page = null;
    PDXObjectImage ximage = null;

    try {
        doc = new PDDocument();
        page = new PDPage();
        doc.addPage(page);
        PDPageContentStream content = new PDPageContentStream(doc, page);
        BufferedImage image = chart.createBufferedImage(300, 300);
        ximage = new PDJpeg(doc, image);
        content.drawImage(ximage, 20, 20);
        content.close();
    } catch(IOException ie) {
    }
    doc.save(filePath);
    doc.close();
}

The document gets created; I can add text, but I get an error stating the the image does not have enough information to be shown.

Any clue to what I am doing wrong?

Mesnalty

The error message is displayed in the generated pdf file, I should have been clear on that. When i open the file it dislays all text as it should but instead of an image i get a message "Unsufficient data to display image". Im more or less green when it comes to siplaying images so any ideas are welcomed – Mesnalty

This might be this bug: issues.apache.org/jira/browse/PDFBOX-2026 It will be fixed in 1.8.5. Or download a snapshot. – Bromine

Answer 1

Thanks for helping me out trashgod. Spent last night and a few hours today beeing confused about PipedIn/OutStreams. Can´t figure it out. However, i got it to work. Turns out it wasn´t very difficult at all.

public void exportToPDF(JFreeChart chart, String filePath){
    PDDocument doc = null;
    PDPage page = null;
    PDXObjectImage ximage = null;
    try {
        doc = new PDDocument();
        page = new PDPage();
        doc.addPage(page);
        PDPageContentStream content = new PDPageContentStream(doc, page);

        //create a new outStream
        ByteArrayOutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        ChartUtilities.writeChartAsJPEG(out, chart, 300, 300);//write to outstream
        //create a new inputstream
        InputStream in = new ByteArrayInputStream(out.toByteArray());
        ximage = new PDJpeg(doc, in);
        content.drawImage(ximage, 5, 300);
        content.close();
    }
    catch (IOException ie){
        //handle exception
    }
    //save and close
    doc.save(filePath);
    doc.close();
}

I´m sure this can be done better but it works.

Mesnalty

Answer 2

There is an easy way to insert a JFreeChart into a pdf with pdfbox:

BufferedImage bufferedImage = source.getChart().createBufferedImage(source.getWidth(),
        source.getHeight(), BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_RGB, null);
PDXObjectImage ximage = new PDJpeg(doc, bufferedImage);

Without any stream ;)

Disagreeable

This seems to be what I was looking for back then. Great! – Mesnalty

Answer 3

Two things stand out:

• Do not swallow exceptions.

• Do use ChartUtilities to render the image in a suitable format, as suggested here.

Kebab

So i looked at what you said, i can get an outputStream by using: OutputStream out = new ByteArrayOutputStream(); and then: ChartUtilities.writeChartAsJPEG(out, chart, 300, 300); however, i can´t figure out how to turn this into an inputstream. – Mesnalty

To move data from an OutputStream to an InputStream use piped streams, shown here and here. – Kebab

Also, you can just save the image as a file or cache its byte array. Also consider the PNG v JPG tradeoff. – Kebab