PDFium VCL Programming Examples

Basic Document Operations

Loading and Displaying a PDF Document

Pdf1.FileName := 'C:\MyDocument.pdf';
Pdf1.Active := True;
ShowMessage('Pages: ' + IntToStr(Pdf1.PageCount));
ShowMessage('Title: ' + Pdf1.Title);
ShowMessage('Author: ' + Pdf1.Author);

var
  Stream: TMemoryStream;
begin
  Stream := TMemoryStream.Create;
  try
    Stream.LoadFromFile('C:\MyDocument.pdf');
    Pdf1.LoadDocument(Stream, True);
    Pdf1.Active := True;
    ShowMessage('PDF loaded from stream');
  finally
    Stream.Free;
  end;
end;

Creating a New PDF Document

Pdf1.CreateDocument;
Pdf1.Active := True;
Pdf1.AddPage(0, 612, 792);
Pdf1.PageNumber := 1;
Pdf1.AddText('Hello World!', 'Arial', 12, 100, 700, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);
Pdf1.UpdatePage;
Pdf1.SaveAs('C:\NewDocument.pdf');
Pdf1.Active := False;

Text Operations

Extracting Text from PDF

var
  PageText: WString;
  RectText: WString;
begin
  Pdf1.PageNumber := 1;
  PageText := Pdf1.Text;
  Memo1.Text := PageText;
  RectText := Pdf1.TextInRectangle(100, 100, 500, 200);
  ShowMessage('Text in rectangle: ' + RectText);
end;

Searching Text

var
  Position: Integer;
begin
  Position := Pdf1.FindFirst('Hello', [seCaseSensitive]);
  while Position >= 0 do
  begin
    ShowMessage('Found at character: ' + IntToStr(Position));
    Position := Pdf1.FindNext;
  end;
end;

Adding Text with Formatting

Pdf1.PageNumber := 1;
Pdf1.AddText('Document Title', 'Times New Roman', 16, 100, 750, clBlue);
Pdf1.AddText('This is the document content.', 'Arial', 12, 100, 700, clBlack);
Pdf1.UpdatePage;

Inspecting Character and Font Metadata

var
  I: Integer;
  MetricSize: Single;
  FontBytes: TBytes;
begin
  Pdf1.PageNumber := 1;
  for I := 0 to Pdf1.ObjectCount - 1 do
    if Pdf1.ObjectType[I] = otText then
    begin
      MetricSize := 12.0;
      FontBytes := Pdf1.FontData[I];
      Memo1.Lines.Add('Object ' + IntToStr(I));
      Memo1.Lines.Add('Base name: ' + Pdf1.FontBaseName[I]);
      Memo1.Lines.Add('Family: ' + Pdf1.FontFamilyName[I]);
      Memo1.Lines.Add('Embedded: ' + BoolToStr(Pdf1.FontIsEmbedded[I], True));
      Memo1.Lines.Add('Weight: ' + IntToStr(Pdf1.FontWeight[I]));
      Memo1.Lines.Add('Italic angle: ' + IntToStr(Pdf1.FontItalicAngle[I]));
      Memo1.Lines.Add('Ascent: ' + FloatToStr(Pdf1.FontAscent[I, MetricSize]));
      Memo1.Lines.Add('Descent: ' + FloatToStr(Pdf1.FontDescent[I, MetricSize]));
      Memo1.Lines.Add('Font data bytes: ' + IntToStr(Length(FontBytes)));
    end;

  if Pdf1.CharacterCount > 0 then
  begin
    Memo1.Lines.Add('First character size: ' + FloatToStr(Pdf1.CharacterFontSize[0]));
    Memo1.Lines.Add('First character weight: ' + IntToStr(Pdf1.CharacterFontWeight[0]));
    Memo1.Lines.Add('First character angle: ' + FloatToStr(Pdf1.CharacterAngle[0]));
  end;
end;

The Demo\Delphi\FontProperties project shows the same metadata through both TPdf and TPdfView.

Form Operations

Working with Form Fields

var
  I: Integer;
  FieldInfo: TPdfFormFieldInfo;
begin
  Pdf1.FormField[0] := 'John';
  for I := 0 to Pdf1.FormFieldCount - 1 do
  begin
    FieldInfo := Pdf1.FormFieldInfo[I];
    ShowMessage(FieldInfo.Name + ': ' + Pdf1.FormField[I]);
  end;
end;

Flatten Filled Form Values into the Page

// Without flattening, FormField[i] := value writes only the /V entry —
// the visible appearance comes from the /AP stream and may not refresh.
// GenerateFormAppearances regenerates /AP for every widget, then
// FlattenAllPages bakes every page's annotations and widgets into
// permanent, non-editable content.
Pdf1.FileName := 'C:\Application.pdf';
Pdf1.Active := True;
Pdf1.FormField[0] := 'John Smith';
Pdf1.FormField[1] := 'john@example.com';
Pdf1.GenerateFormAppearances;
if Pdf1.FlattenAllPages then
  Pdf1.SaveAs('C:\Application.flat.pdf');
Pdf1.Active := False;

Image Operations

Extracting Images

var
  I: Integer;
  Bitmap: TBitmap;
begin
  for I := 0 to Pdf1.BitmapCount - 1 do
  begin
    Bitmap := Pdf1.Bitmap[I];
    try
      Bitmap.SaveToFile('C:\ExtractedImage' + IntToStr(I) + '.bmp');
    finally
      Bitmap.Free;
    end;
  end;
end;

Adding Images

var
  JpegStream: TFileStream;
begin
  JpegStream := TFileStream.Create('C:\MyImage.jpg', fmOpenRead or fmShareDenyWrite);
  try
    Pdf1.AddJpegImage(JpegStream, 100, 500, 200, 150);
  finally
    JpegStream.Free;
  end;
  Pdf1.AddPicture(Image1.Picture, 100, 300, 150, 100);
  Pdf1.UpdatePage;
end;

Annotation Operations

Working with Annotations

var
  I: Integer;
  Annotation: TPdfAnnotation;
begin
  for I := 0 to Pdf1.AnnotationCount - 1 do
  begin
    Annotation := Pdf1.Annotation[I];
    ShowMessage('Annotation ' + IntToStr(I) + ': ' + Annotation.ContentsText);
  end;
end;

Drawing Operations

Drawing Shapes

Pdf1.CreatePath(100, 100, 200, 150, fmAlternate, clYellow, $FF, True, clBlack, $FF, 2.0);
Pdf1.AddPath;

Pdf1.CreatePath(100, 100, fmNone, clBlack, $FF, True, clRed, $FF, 3.0);
Pdf1.LineTo(200, 100);
Pdf1.LineTo(150, 200);
Pdf1.ClosePath;
Pdf1.AddPath;
Pdf1.UpdatePage;

Navigation and Bookmarks

Working with Bookmarks

var
  I: Integer;
  Bookmarks: TBookmarks;
begin
  Bookmarks := Pdf1.Bookmarks;
  for I := 0 to Length(Bookmarks) - 1 do
    ShowMessage(Bookmarks[I].Title + ' -> Page ' + IntToStr(Bookmarks[I].PageNumber));
end;

Working with Named Destinations

var
  I: Integer;
  Destination: TDestination;
begin
  for I := 0 to Pdf1.DestinationCount - 1 do
  begin
    Destination := Pdf1.Destination[I];
    if Destination.Name = 'Chapter1' then
    begin
      Pdf1.PageNumber := Destination.PageNumber;
      Break;
    end;
  end;
end;

Attachment Operations

Working with Attachments

var
  I: Integer;
  AttachmentData: TBytes;
  AttachmentName: WString;
  FileStream: TFileStream;
begin
  for I := 0 to Pdf1.AttachmentCount - 1 do
  begin
    AttachmentName := Pdf1.AttachmentName[I];
    AttachmentData := Pdf1.Attachment[I];
    FileStream := TFileStream.Create('C:\Extracted_' + string(AttachmentName), fmCreate);
    try
      if Length(AttachmentData) > 0 then
        FileStream.WriteBuffer(AttachmentData[0], Length(AttachmentData));
    finally
      FileStream.Free;
    end;
  end;
  if Pdf1.CreateAttachment('MyFile.txt') then
    Pdf1.Attachment[Pdf1.AttachmentCount - 1] := TFile.ReadAllBytes('C:\MyFile.txt');
end;

Page Management

Page Operations

Pdf1.AddPage(Pdf1.PageCount, 612, 792);
Pdf1.AddPage(Pdf1.PageCount, 595, 842);
Pdf1.AddPage(Pdf1.PageCount, 400, 600);

var
  SourcePdf: TPdf;
begin
  SourcePdf := TPdf.Create(nil);
  try
    SourcePdf.FileName := 'C:\SourceDocument.pdf';
    SourcePdf.Active := True;
    Pdf1.ImportPages(SourcePdf, '1', Pdf1.PageCount + 1);
  finally
    SourcePdf.Free;
  end;
end;

if Pdf1.PageCount > 1 then
  Pdf1.DeletePage(Pdf1.PageCount);

Saving and Compression

Saving with Compression

// Create a compressed PDF document
Pdf1.CreateDocument;
Pdf1.Compressed := True; // ensure all streams are FlateDecode compressed (default)
Pdf1.Active := True;
Pdf1.AddPage(0, 595, 842); // A4 size
Pdf1.AddText('Hello World!', 'Arial', 24, 100, 700, clBlack, $FF, 0.0);
Pdf1.SaveAs('C:\Compressed.pdf');
Pdf1.Active := False;

// Save with options
Pdf1.SaveAs('C:\Output.pdf', saIncremental); // incremental save
Pdf1.SaveAs('C:\NoSecurity.pdf', saRemoveSecurity); // remove security

Error Handling

Robust PDF Operations

function LoadPdfSafely(const FileName: string): Boolean;
begin
  Result := False;
  if not FileExists(FileName) then
    Exit;
  try
    Pdf1.FileName := FileName;
    Pdf1.Active := True;
    Result := Pdf1.Active;
  except
    Result := False;
  end;
end;

function ExtractTextSafely(PageNo: Integer): WString;
begin
  Result := '';
  if not Pdf1.Active then
    Exit;
  if (PageNo < 1) or (PageNo > Pdf1.PageCount) then
    Exit;
  Pdf1.PageNumber := PageNo;
  Result := Pdf1.Text;
end;

Performance Tips

Optimizing PDF Operations

procedure ProcessMultiplePages;
var
  I: Integer;
  PageText: WString;
begin
  for I := 1 to Pdf1.PageCount do
  begin
    Pdf1.PageNumber := I;
    PageText := Pdf1.Text;
    ProcessPageText(PageText);
  end;
end;

procedure SetOptimalRenderOptions;
begin
  PdfView1.Options := [reAnnotations, reLcd];
end;