Android Java Project to Export Raw Text to PDF Document Using iTextPDF Library

Welcome folks today in this blog post we will be seeing how to export raw text to pdf document in android using the iTextPDF library in java. All the full source code of the application is shown below.

Get Started

In order to get started you need to make a new android project inside the android studio and then you will see the below directory structure as shown below at the end of the project.

Now first of all you need to go to build.gradle file and copy paste the below dependencies as shown below

build.gradle

dependencies {
    implementation 'com.itextpdf:itextpdf:5.5.13.2'
}

dependencies {

implementation 'com.itextpdf:itextpdf:5.5.13.2'

}

Now we need to edit the AndroidManifest.xml file and add the necessary permissions for saving the pdf document inside the external storage and also we need to add the provider tag as well as shown below

AndroidManifest.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:dataExtractionRules="@xml/data_extraction_rules"
        android:fullBackupContent="@xml/backup_rules"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/Theme.Imagetopdf"
        tools:targetApi="31">
        <activity
            android:name=".MainActivity"
            android:exported="true">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>
        <provider
            android:name="androidx.core.content.FileProvider"
            android:authorities="com.example.imagetopdf.provider"
            android:grantUriPermissions="true"
            android:exported="false">
            <meta-data
                android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"
                android:resource="@xml/file_paths" />
        </provider>
    </application>

</manifest>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools">

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

<application

android:allowBackup="true"

android:dataExtractionRules="@xml/data_extraction_rules"

android:fullBackupContent="@xml/backup_rules"

android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"

android:label="@string/app_name"

android:supportsRtl="true"

android:theme="@style/Theme.Imagetopdf"

tools:targetApi="31">

<activity

android:name=".MainActivity"

android:exported="true">

<intent-filter>

</intent-filter>

</activity>

<provider

android:name="androidx.core.content.FileProvider"

android:authorities="com.example.imagetopdf.provider"

android:grantUriPermissions="true"

android:exported="false">

<meta-data

android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"

android:resource="@xml/file_paths" />

</provider>

</application>

</manifest>

Here you need to replace your own package name and structure and now we need to create this file_paths.xml file inside the xml directory which holds the path where we will be saving the pdf documents.

xml/file_paths.xml

<paths>
    <external-path name="external_files" path="." />
    <root-path name="external_storage_root" path="/" />
</paths>

<paths>

<external-path name="external_files" path="." />

<root-path name="external_storage_root" path="/" />

</paths>

Editing the Main Layout

Now we need to edit the activity_main.xml file for the project where we will have the simple EditText widget where user can write any text and then we have the button to export the text to pdf document.

activity_main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/edit_text"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="start|top"
        android:hint="Enter text here" />

    <Button
        android:id="@+id/export_button"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Export to PDF"
        android:layout_below="@id/edit_text"
        android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
        android:layout_marginTop="16dp"/>

</RelativeLayout>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"

xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="match_parent"

tools:context=".MainActivity">

<EditText

android:id="@+id/edit_text"

android:layout_width="match_parent"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:gravity="start|top"

android:hint="Enter text here" />

<Button

android:id="@+id/export_button"

android:layout_width="wrap_content"

android:layout_height="wrap_content"

android:text="Export to PDF"

android:layout_below="@id/edit_text"

android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"

android:layout_marginTop="16dp"/>

</RelativeLayout>

And now we need to edit the MainActivity.java file and copy paste the following code

MainActivity.java

package com.example.rawtexttopdf;

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;
import androidx.core.content.FileProvider;

import android.content.Intent;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Environment;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.Toast;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.FontFactory;
import com.itextpdf.text.Paragraph;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

    EditText editText;
    Button exportButton;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

        editText = findViewById(R.id.edit_text);
        exportButton = findViewById(R.id.export_button);

        exportButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
            @Override
            public void onClick(View view) {
                String text = editText.getText().toString().trim();
                if (text.isEmpty()) {
                    Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Please enter some text", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                    return;
                }

                try {
                    File pdfFile = new File(Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS), "my_pdf_file.pdf");
                    FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream(pdfFile);
                    Document document = new Document();
                    PdfWriter.getInstance(document, outputStream);

                    Uri pdfUri = FileProvider.getUriForFile(MainActivity.this, BuildConfig.APPLICATION_ID + ".provider", pdfFile);


                    Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);
                    intent.setDataAndType(pdfUri, "application/pdf");
                    intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY);
                    startActivity(intent);

                    document.open();
                    document.add(new Paragraph(text));

                    document.close();

                    Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "PDF file exported successfully", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                    Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Error exporting PDF file", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                }
            }
        });
    }
}

package com.example.rawtexttopdf;

import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity;

import androidx.core.content.FileProvider;

import android.content.Intent;

import android.net.Uri;

import android.os.Bundle;

import android.os.Environment;

import android.view.View;

import android.widget.Button;

import android.widget.EditText;

import android.widget.Toast;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;

import com.itextpdf.text.FontFactory;

import com.itextpdf.text.Paragraph;

import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

import java.io.File;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

EditText editText;

Button exportButton;

@Override

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

editText = findViewById(R.id.edit_text);

exportButton = findViewById(R.id.export_button);

exportButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {

@Override

public void onClick(View view) {

String text = editText.getText().toString().trim();

if (text.isEmpty()) {

Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Please enter some text", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

return;

}

try {

File pdfFile = new File(Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS), "my_pdf_file.pdf");

FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream(pdfFile);

Document document = new Document();

PdfWriter.getInstance(document, outputStream);

Uri pdfUri = FileProvider.getUriForFile(MainActivity.this, BuildConfig.APPLICATION_ID + ".provider", pdfFile);

Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW);

intent.setDataAndType(pdfUri, "application/pdf");

intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NO_HISTORY);

startActivity(intent);

document.open();

document.add(new Paragraph(text));

document.close();

Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "PDF file exported successfully", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

} catch (Exception e) {

e.printStackTrace();

Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Error exporting PDF file", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

}

});

}

As you can see in the above java code we are getting the reference of the button and then we are binding the onClick listener to it and inside it we are getting the text written inside the EditText widget and then we are importing the iTextPDF library and inserting the paragraph of text inside the pdf document and then we are saving it inside the external storage and opening it using the Intent class when it is saved.