Creating PDF Documents from Scratch with PDFium VCL in Delphi

While PDFium is primarily known for PDF viewing and manipulation, PDFium VCL also provides powerful PDF creation capabilities. The Create PDF demo shows how to generate PDF documents programmatically with text, shapes, tables, and watermarks.

Overview

This demo creates a new PDF document with various elements including styled text, geometric shapes, a simple table, and a diagonal watermark. It demonstrates the core PDF creation APIs available in PDFium VCL.

Key Features

Create New Documents – Generate PDFs from scratch
Add Text – Insert styled text with custom fonts, sizes, and colors
Draw Shapes – Create rectangles, paths, and other geometric shapes
Build Tables – Create simple text-based tables
Add Watermarks – Insert rotated, semi-transparent text

PDFium DLL Requirements

Before running any PDFium VCL application, ensure the PDFium DLL files are installed:

pdfium32.dll / pdfium64.dll – Standard versions (~5-6 MB)
pdfium32v8.dll / pdfium64v8.dll – With V8 JavaScript engine (~23-27 MB)

Installation: Run PDFiumVCL\DLLs\CopyDlls.bat as Administrator to automatically copy the DLLs to Windows system directories.

Creating a New PDF Document

procedure CreateNewPdf;

var

Pdf: TPdf;

begin

Pdf := TPdf.Create(nil);

try

// Create empty document

Pdf.CreateDocument;

Pdf.Active := True;

// Add first page (A4 size: 595 x 842 points)

Pdf.AddPage(1, 595, 842);

Pdf.PageNumber := 1;

// Add content here...

// Save the document

Pdf.SaveAs('output.pdf');

finally

Pdf.Active := False;

Pdf.Free;

end;

Adding Text

The AddText method adds styled text to the current page:

procedure TPdf.AddText(

const Text, Font: WString; // Text content and font name

FontSize: Single; // Font size in points

X, Y: Double; // Position (from bottom-left)

Color: TColor = clBlack; // Text color

Alpha: Byte = $FF; // Transparency (0-255)

Angle: Double = 0.0 // Rotation angle in degrees

);

// Examples

Pdf.AddText('Hello World', 'Arial', 24, 50, 750, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

Pdf.AddText('Subtitle', 'Times New Roman', 14, 50, 720, clGray, $FF, 0.0);

Pdf.AddText('Rotated Text', 'Arial', 18, 300, 400, clRed, $80, 45.0);

Complete PDF Creation Example

procedure TFormMain.CreateSimplePDF;

begin

Pdf.CreateDocument;

Pdf.Active := True;

try

// Add A4 page

Pdf.AddPage(0, 595, 842);

// Title

Pdf.AddText(EditTitle.Text, 'Arial', 18, 50, 750, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

// Author line

Pdf.AddText('By: ' + EditAuthor.Text, 'Arial', 12, 50, 720, clGray, $FF, 0.0);

// Body text

Pdf.AddText('This is a simple PDF document created with PDFium VCL.',

'Arial', 12, 50, 680, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

Pdf.AddText('You can add various elements to your PDF:',

'Arial', 12, 50, 650, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

// Optional features

if CheckShapes.Checked then

AddShapes;

if CheckTable.Checked then

AddTable;

if CheckWatermark.Checked then

AddWatermark;

// Save

Pdf.SaveAs('Sample.pdf');

finally

Pdf.Active := False;

end;

Drawing Shapes with CreatePath

// Create a path starting at (X, Y)

procedure TPdf.CreatePath(

X, Y: Single; // Starting point

FillMode: TPdfFillMode = fmNone; // None, Alternate, or Winding

FillColor: TColor = clBlack; // Fill color

FillAlpha: Byte = $FF; // Fill transparency

Stroke: Boolean = True; // Draw outline

StrokeColor: TColor = clBlack; // Outline color

StrokeAlpha: Byte = $FF; // Outline transparency

StrokeWidth: Single = 1.0; // Line width

LineCap: TPdfLineCap = lcDefault; // Line end style

LineJoin: TPdfLineJoin = ljDefault; // Line join style

BlendMode: TPdfBlendMode = bmDefault // Color blending

);

// Create a rectangle path

procedure TPdf.CreatePath(

X, Y, Width, Height: Single; // Rectangle bounds

// Same optional parameters as above...

);

Shape Drawing Examples

procedure TFormMain.AddShapes;

begin

// Filled rectangle with blue color at 50% opacity

Pdf.CreatePath(100, 550, 150, 80, fmWinding, $FFCCAA, $80);

Pdf.AddPath;

Pdf.AddText('Rectangle', 'Arial', 10, 120, 580, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

// Another filled shape (green)

Pdf.CreatePath(350, 590, 80, 80, fmWinding, $CCFFCC, $80);

Pdf.AddPath;

Pdf.AddText('Shape', 'Arial', 10, 370, 580, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

end;

Creating Complex Paths

procedure DrawTriangle(Pdf: TPdf);

begin

// Start path at first vertex

Pdf.CreatePath(200, 300, fmWinding, clBlue, $80, True, clNavy, $FF, 2.0);

// Draw lines to other vertices

Pdf.LineTo(300, 300);

Pdf.LineTo(250, 400);

// Close the path

Pdf.ClosePath;

// Add to page

Pdf.AddPath;

end;

procedure DrawCurve(Pdf: TPdf);

begin

Pdf.CreatePath(100, 200, fmNone, clBlack, $FF, True, clRed, $FF, 2.0);

Pdf.MoveTo(100, 200);

// Bezier curve with control points

Pdf.BezierTo(

150, 250, // Control point 1

200, 250, // Control point 2

250, 200 // End point

);

Pdf.AddPath;

end;

Building Simple Tables

procedure TFormMain.AddTable;

var

X, Y: Double;

I: Integer;

begin

X := 100;

Y := 450;

// Table header

Pdf.AddText('Item', 'Arial', 10, X, Y, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

Pdf.AddText('Quantity', 'Arial', 10, X + 100, Y, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

Pdf.AddText('Price', 'Arial', 10, X + 200, Y, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

// Draw header underline

Pdf.CreatePath(X, Y - 5, 250, 0.5, fmNone, clBlack, $FF,

True, clBlack, $FF, 1.0);

Pdf.AddPath;

// Table rows

for I := 1 to 3 do

begin

Y := Y - 20;

Pdf.AddText('Item ' + IntToStr(I), 'Arial', 9, X, Y, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

Pdf.AddText(IntToStr(I), 'Arial', 9, X + 100, Y, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

Pdf.AddText('$' + IntToStr(I * 10) + '.00', 'Arial', 9,

X + 200, Y, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

end;

Adding Watermarks

procedure TFormMain.AddWatermark;

begin

// Large, semi-transparent, rotated text

Pdf.AddText('SAMPLE', 'Arial', 72, 200, 200, clGray, $30, 45.0);

end;

// More sophisticated watermark

procedure AddDiagonalWatermark(Pdf: TPdf; const Text: string);

begin

// Center of A4 page

Pdf.AddText(Text, 'Arial', 60,

595 / 2 - 100, // X centered

842 / 2, // Y centered

$CCCCCC, // Light gray

$40, // 25% opacity

45.0 // 45 degree rotation

);

end;

Adding Images

procedure AddImageToPdf(Pdf: TPdf; const ImageFile: string);

var

Picture: TPicture;

begin

Picture := TPicture.Create;

try

Picture.LoadFromFile(ImageFile);

// Add at position with automatic sizing

Pdf.AddPicture(Picture, 50, 400);

// Or with specific dimensions

Pdf.AddPicture(Picture, 50, 400, 200, 150);

finally

Picture.Free;

end;

Multi-Page Documents

procedure CreateMultiPagePdf;

var

Pdf: TPdf;

I: Integer;

begin

Pdf := TPdf.Create(nil);

try

Pdf.CreateDocument;

Pdf.Active := True;

for I := 1 to 5 do

begin

// Add page

Pdf.AddPage(I, 595, 842);

Pdf.PageNumber := I;

// Add content

Pdf.AddText('Page ' + IntToStr(I), 'Arial', 24,

250, 400, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);

end;

Pdf.SaveAs('multipage.pdf');

finally

Pdf.Active := False;

Pdf.Free;

end;

Page Sizes

Format	Width (pts)	Height (pts)
A4 Portrait	595	842
A4 Landscape	842	595
Letter Portrait	612	792
Letter Landscape	792	612
Legal Portrait	612	1008

Use Cases

Report Generation – Create formatted reports from data
Invoice Creation – Generate invoices and receipts
Certificate Generation – Create certificates with templates
Document Templates – Fill templates with dynamic content

Conclusion

The Create PDF demo shows that PDFium VCL isn’t just for viewing—it’s a complete PDF toolkit. With support for text, shapes, images, and multi-page documents, you can generate professional PDFs entirely from code.

Combined with the component’s viewing and manipulation capabilities, PDFium VCL provides everything you need for comprehensive PDF handling in Delphi applications.

Explore PDF creation with PDFium VCL Component and bring dynamic document generation to your applications.