Merge pdf files using C#

 
using iTextSharp.text;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
 
public class MergeEx
{
#region Fields
private string sourcefolder;
private string destinationfile;
private IList fileList = new ArrayList();
#endregion
 
#region Public Methods
///
/// Add a new file, together with a given docname to the fileList and namelist collection
///
///  public void AddFile(string pathnname)
{
fileList.Add(pathnname);
}
 
///
/// Generate the merged PDF
///
public void Execute()
{
MergeDocs();
}
#endregion
 
#region Private Methods
///
/// Merges the Docs and renders the destinationFile
///
///  ///  private void MergeDocs()
{
 
//Step 1: Create a Docuement-Object
Document document = new Document();
try
{
//Step 2: we create a writer that listens to the document
PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, new FileStream(destinationfile, FileMode.Create));
 
//Step 3: Open the document
document.Open();
 
PdfContentByte cb = writer.DirectContent;
PdfImportedPage page;
 
int n = 0;
int rotation = 0;
 
//Loops for each file that has been listed
foreach (string filename in fileList)
{
//The current file path
string filePath = sourcefolder + filename;
 
// we create a reader for the document
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(filePath);
 
//Gets the number of pages to process
n = reader.NumberOfPages;
 
int i = 0;
while (i < n)
{
i++;
document.SetPageSize(reader.GetPageSizeWithRotation(1));
document.NewPage();
 
//Insert to Destination on the first page
if (i == 1)
{
Chunk fileRef = new Chunk(" ");
fileRef.SetLocalDestination(filename);
document.Add(fileRef);
}
 
page = writer.GetImportedPage(reader, i);
rotation = reader.GetPageRotation(i);
if (rotation == 90 || rotation == 270)
{
cb.AddTemplate(page, 0, -1f, 1f, 0, 0, reader.GetPageSizeWithRotation(i).Height);
}
else
{
cb.AddTemplate(page, 1f, 0, 0, 1f, 0, 0);
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception e) { throw e; }
finally { document.Close(); }
}
#endregion
 
#region Properties
///
/// Gets or Sets the SourceFolder
///
public string SourceFolder
{
get { return sourcefolder; }
set {sourcefolder = value; }
}
 
///
/// Gets or Sets the DestinationFile
///
public string DestinationFile
{
get { return destinationfile; }
set { destinationfile = value; }
}
#endregion
}

15 Responses to “Merge pdf files using C#”

1. Jaime | 31/10/08

   hello, i am using this code and the result pdf file have other size. This to many large.

   you know it can happen

2. jf | 1/11/08

   This can be possible. Since i think the PDF document is “spitted” converted in some other format and then when the new document is created inserted in it.

   Can you please specify me what is the content of the document in question that is becoming larger that the original file ?

3. Masri Yousef | 15/01/09

   Hi
   Than’s for this code , i’m not profisional programmer and
   i’m sorry for my bad english
   i have aproblem when i use Execute Method
   my initialize code :
   MergeEx mr = new MergeEx();
   mr.SourceFolder = Server.MapPath(”Document/”);
   mr.AddFile(Server.MapPath(”Document/5.pdf”));
   mr.AddFile(Server.MapPath(”Document/5.pdf”));
   mr.Execute();
   and i get error message like this :
   Exception Details: System.ArgumentNullException: Path cannot be null.
   Parameter name: path

   Source Error:

   Line 108: }
   Line 109: catch (Exception e)
   Line 110: { throw e; }
   Line 111: finally
   Line 112: { document.Close(); }

   wht’s wrong with my path

4. jf | 15/01/09

   Make sure that your source folder and destination folder are properly registered and that they exist.

5. levstik | 4/02/09

   try with
   mr.SourceFolder = Server.MapPath(”Document”);

   without a slash at the end

6. npriddy | 5/02/09

   when ever i use this code to merge 2 pdf’s i’m returned blank pages. Does adobe not support templates anymore?

7. jf | 5/02/09

   When a blank PDF document is returned, normally it means that something went wrong and the merging did not succeed. Did you get any Exceptions ? What do you mean by Template ?

8. Franco T. Robles | 25/03/09

   Great contribution, the class worked fine with me.

9. PDFBinder | 14/06/09

   For more inspiration on how to deal with merging og PDF documents using iTextSharp, have a look at the open-source PDFBinder project: http://code.google.com/p/pdfbinder/

10. Nassos.NET | 2/07/09

    Hello there,
    is it possible to create a document in a MemoryStream instead of a File?
    Thnx in advance
    Nassos.

11. jf | 2/07/09

    //Step 2: we create a writer that listens to the document
    PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.GetInstance(document, new FileStream(destinationfile, FileMode.Create));

    PdfWriter.GetInstance takes a stream as parameter, you can just change the FileStream to memory stream here and this should work.

12. Dc | 29/07/09

    Awesome!

    Works like a charm.
    Great work. Thanks.

13. Balaji Birajdar | 25/11/09

    This is a excellent piece of code. It works fine except a issue specific to my PDFs. I have some hyperlinks in my PDF. Those links do not work when I merge the PDF using this code.

    Any thoughts on this?

14. flower | 13/01/10

    hi ,i work in a class with itexsharp.
    when the dll works in my machine it merges pdf files very well ,but when it work in a server doesn’t merge.Does the server need a package of c# distributable? or i have problems with Permissions for write? what problems can be succeced? any ideas?note: didn’t exists excepcions

15. jf | 19/01/10

    Hi flower,

    You should install the .NET framework 1.0/2.0 on your server and it should work. I have a compiled version of ITextSharp for the .net framework 2.0, did you recompile it in 2.0 ?

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