Java – Cerate Lists in PDF

Grouping related items in a list makes the information easy to read. Spire.PDF for Java supports rendering HTML ordered list and unordered list in a PDF document (see this article), and it also provides the PdfSortedList class and PdfUnsortedList class that allow developers to create lists directly in PDF. In this article, I am going to introduce how to create a numbered list, a bullet list and a nested list by using Spire.PDF for Java. 

Installing Spire.Pdf.jar

If you create a Maven project, you can easily import the jar in your application using the following configurations. For non-Maven projects, download the jar file from this link and add it as a dependency in your application.

<repositories>
    <repository>
        <id>com.e-iceblue</id>
        <name>e-iceblue</name>
        <url>http://repo.e-iceblue.com/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
    </repository>
</repositories>
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId> e-iceblue </groupId>
        <artifactId>spire.pdf</artifactId>
        <verson>4.1.2</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Example 1. Numbered List

import com.spire.pdf.PdfDocument;
import com.spire.pdf.PdfPageBase;
import com.spire.pdf.PdfPageSize;
import com.spire.pdf.graphics.*;
import com.spire.pdf.lists.PdfSortedList;

public class CreateNumberList {


    public static void main(String[] args) {

        //Create a PdfDocument object
        PdfDocument doc = new PdfDocument();

        //Set the margin
        PdfMargins margin = new PdfMargins(60,60,40,40);

        //Create one page
        PdfPageBase page = doc.getPages().add(PdfPageSize.A4, margin);

        //Specify the initial coordinate
        float x = 0;
        float y = 15;

        //Draw title
        PdfBrush brush = PdfBrushes.getBlack();
        PdfFont titleFont = new PdfFont(PdfFontFamily.Times_Roman, 12f, PdfFontStyle.Bold);
        String title = "Tips to learn programming faster:";
        page.getCanvas().drawString(title, titleFont, brush, x, y);
        y = y + (float) titleFont.measureString(title).getHeight();
        y = y + 5;

        //Draw numbered list
        PdfFont listFont = new PdfFont(PdfFontFamily.Times_Roman, 12f, PdfFontStyle.Regular);
        String listContent = "Make your fundamentals clear\n"
                +"Learn by doing, practicing and not just reading\n"
                +"Share, teach, discuss and ask for help\n"
                +"Use online resources";
        PdfSortedList list = new PdfSortedList(listContent);
        list.setFont(listFont);
        list.setIndent(8);
        list.setTextIndent(5);
        list.setBrush(brush);
        list.draw(page, 0, y);

        //Save to file
        doc.saveToFile("output/NumberedList.pdf");
    }
}

Example 2. Bullet List

import com.spire.pdf.PdfDocument;
import com.spire.pdf.PdfPageBase;
import com.spire.pdf.PdfPageSize;
import com.spire.pdf.graphics.*;
import com.spire.pdf.lists.PdfUnorderedList;

public class CreateBulletList {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        //Create a PdfDocument object
        PdfDocument doc = new PdfDocument();

        //Set the margin
        PdfMargins margin = new PdfMargins(60,60,40,40);

        //Create one page
        PdfPageBase page = doc.getPages().add(PdfPageSize.A4, margin);

        //Specify the initial coordinate
        float x = 0;
        float y = 15;

        //Draw title
        PdfBrush brush = PdfBrushes.getBlack();
        PdfFont titleFont = new PdfFont(PdfFontFamily.Times_Roman, 12f, PdfFontStyle.Bold);
        String title = "Tips to learn programming faster:";
        page.getCanvas().drawString(title, titleFont, brush, x, y);
        y = y + (float) titleFont.measureString(title).getHeight();
        y = y + 5;

        //Draw bullet list
        PdfFont listFont = new PdfFont(PdfFontFamily.Times_Roman, 12f, PdfFontStyle.Regular);
        String listContent = "Make your fundamentals clear\n"
                +"Learn by doing, practicing and not just reading\n"
                +"Share, teach, discuss and ask for help\n"
                +"Use online resources";
        PdfUnorderedList list = new PdfUnorderedList(listContent);
        list.setFont(listFont);
        list.setIndent(8);
        list.setTextIndent(5);
        list.setBrush(brush);
        list.draw(page, 0, y);

        //Save to file
        doc.saveToFile("output/BulletList.pdf");
    }
}

Example 3. Multi-level List

import com.spire.pdf.PdfDocument;
import com.spire.pdf.PdfNumberStyle;
import com.spire.pdf.PdfPageBase;
import com.spire.pdf.PdfPageSize;
import com.spire.pdf.graphics.*;
import com.spire.pdf.lists.PdfListItem;
import com.spire.pdf.lists.PdfOrderedMarker;
import com.spire.pdf.lists.PdfSortedList;

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.geom.Point2D;

public class CreateMultiLevelList {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        //Create a PdfDocument object
        PdfDocument doc = new PdfDocument();

        //Set the margin
        PdfMargins margin = new PdfMargins(60, 60, 40, 40);

        //Create one page
        PdfPageBase page = doc.getPages().add(PdfPageSize.A4, margin);

        //Specify the initial coordinate
        float x = 0;
        float y = 15;

        //Create two brushed
        PdfBrush blackBrush = PdfBrushes.getBlack();
        PdfBrush purpleBrush = PdfBrushes.getPurple();

        //Create two fonts
        PdfTrueTypeFont titleFont = new PdfTrueTypeFont(new java.awt.Font("Times New Roman", Font.BOLD, 12));
        PdfTrueTypeFont listFont = new PdfTrueTypeFont(new java.awt.Font("Calibri Light", Font.PLAIN, 12));

        //Draw title
        String title = "XHTML Tutorials/FAQs:";
        page.getCanvas().drawString(title, titleFont, blackBrush, x, y);
        y = y + (float) titleFont.measureString(title).getHeight();
        y = y + 5;

        //Create two ordered makers, which are used to define the number style of sorted list
        PdfOrderedMarker marker1 = new PdfOrderedMarker(PdfNumberStyle.Upper_Roman, listFont);
        PdfOrderedMarker marker2 = new PdfOrderedMarker(PdfNumberStyle.Numeric, listFont);

        //Create a parent list
        String parentListContent = "Introduction To XHTML 1.0\n"
                + "Introduction To Tag and Attribute Syntax";
        PdfSortedList parentList = new PdfSortedList(parentListContent);
        parentList.setFont(listFont);
        parentList.setIndent(8);
        parentList.setBrush(purpleBrush);
        parentList.setMarker(marker1);

        //Create a sub list - "subList_1"
        String subListContent_1 = "What Is XHTML?\n"
                + "What Does an XHMTL Document Look Like?\n"
                + "What Is the Relation between XHTML and HTML?\n"
                + "What Is the Relation between XHTML and XML?";
        PdfSortedList subList_1 = new PdfSortedList(subListContent_1);
        subList_1.setIndent(16);
        subList_1.setFont(listFont);
        subList_1.setBrush(purpleBrush);
        subList_1.setMarker(marker2);

        //Create another sub list -"subList_2"
        String subListContent_2 = "What Is an XHTML Element?\n"
                + "How To Enter Comments into XHTML Documents?\n"
                + "How To Write the Opening Tag of an XHTML Element?";
        PdfSortedList subList_2 = new PdfSortedList(subListContent_2);
        subList_2.setIndent(16);
        subList_2.setFont(listFont);
        subList_2.setBrush(purpleBrush);
        subList_2.setMarker(marker2);

        //Set subList_1 as sub list of the first item of parent list
        PdfListItem item_1 = parentList.getItems().get(0);
        item_1.setSubList(subList_1);

        //Set subList_2 as sub list of the second item of parent list
        PdfListItem item_2 = parentList.getItems().get(1);
        item_2.setSubList(subList_2);

        //Draw parent list
        PdfTextLayout textLayout = new PdfTextLayout();
        textLayout.setBreak(PdfLayoutBreakType.Fit_Page);
        textLayout.setLayout(PdfLayoutType.Paginate);
        parentList.draw(page,new Point2D.Float(x,y),textLayout);

        //Save to file
        doc.saveToFile("output/MultiLevelList.pdf");
    }
}