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Generate a PDF from a template in Flutter

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PDF generation is available only on the legacy method-channel API (package:nutrient_flutter/nutrient_flutter.dart), which is deprecated in Nutrient Flutter SDK 6. The APIs on this page aren’t part of the bindings API yet. They still work in SDK 6; import the legacy library to use them alongside bindings.dart if you use both. Nutrient plans to add a bindings equivalent. In the meantime, refer to the platform adapters guide to use native processors. For details, refer to the Flutter SDK 6 migration guide.

Use Nutrient Flutter SDK to create a PDF document from a template. The template can use a page pattern(opens in a new tab) or a page from an existing PDF document(opens in a new tab).

License

To generate a PDF from a template, contact Sales to add the PDF Generation component to your license.

Predefined page patterns

The following table lists the predefined page patterns(opens in a new tab).

TemplatePage pattern constant
BlankPagePattern.blank
Dots 5 mmPagePattern.dots_5mm
Grid 5 mmPagePattern.grid_5mm
Line 5 mmPagePattern.lines_5mm
Line 7 mmPagePattern.lines_7mm

Create custom tiled templates

You can also build custom page templates from your own PDF documents. Use the PagePattern.fromDocument method with a file URI.

Many page template use cases require a tiled or patterned background. A page is tiled when it repeats one or more images on the page.

A tiled page template requires a correctly exported source document. The source PDF must contain a pattern. If you instantiate PagePattern(opens in a new tab) with PagePattern.fromDocument and the source document doesn’t contain a pattern, rendering fails silently.

To use a PDF as the source for a tiled page template, embed the pattern path information. You can use Adobe Illustrator or another vector editing tool.

When you create your own patterns, consider these requirements:

  • Embed the path information in the PDF rendered on the page, not the actual PDF.
  • Include spacing information in the pattern information if your custom pattern requires spacing between tiles.

For testing, use the sample template.

Generate PDFs from page patterns

To generate a PDF from page patterns, create a NewPage object(opens in a new tab) with the NewPage.fromPattern() method. This method takes PagePattern(opens in a new tab) as its parameter:

/// Custom tiled page PDF document.
File patternTilesDocument = File('<readable-tiled-document-path');


String outputPath = '<writable-file-path>';


List<NewPage> pages = [


    // Nutrient predefined patterns.
    NewPage.fromPattern(PagePattern.blank),
    NewPage.fromPattern(PagePattern.grid5mm),
    NewPage.fromPattern(PagePattern.line5mm),
    NewPage.fromPattern(PagePattern.dots5mm),


    // Page from a custom tiled page PDF document.
    NewPage.fromPattern(
        PagePattern.fromDocument(patternTilesDocument.uri, 0)),
];


// Generate PDF from page templates and save it at `[outputPath]`.
var filePath = await Nutrient.generatePdf(pages, outputPath);

Generate PDFs from existing PDF document pages

Use PdfPage(opens in a new tab) to generate a PDF from existing PDF document pages. This is useful when you need to merge pages from different PDF documents into a new PDF.

PdfPage differs from the PagePattern.fromDocument creation method of the PagePattern class. Unlike PagePattern, PdfPage expects a standard PDF document and a page index for the source document.

To generate a PDF from existing PDF document pages, create a NewPage object(opens in a new tab) with the NewPage.fromPdfPage() method. This method takes PdfPage(opens in a new tab) as its parameter:

// Source document file.
File sourceDocument = File('readable-output-path');


String outputPath = '<writable-output-path>';


List<NewPage> pages = [
    // New page from an existing document page.
    NewPage.fromPdfPage(
        PdfPage(
            sourceDocumentUri: sourceDocument.uri,
            pageIndex: 4,
        )
    )
];


var filePath = await Nutrient.generatePdf(pages, outputPath);

For more information about generating PDF files from HTML strings and URLs, refer to the Nutrient(opens in a new tab) API reference and the PDF generation example(opens in a new tab) from the Catalog app(opens in a new tab).