PTElementWriter

@interface PTElementWriter : NSObject

ElementWriter can be used to assemble and write new content to a page, Form XObject, Type3 Glyph stream, pattern stream, or any other content stream.

  • Undocumented

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)WriterBeginWithPage: (PTPage*)page placement:  (PTWriteMode)placement page_coord_sys:  (BOOL)page_coord_sys compress:  (BOOL)compress resources:  (PTObj*)resources;

    Swift

    func writerBegin(with page: PTPage!, placement: PTWriteMode, page_coord_sys: Bool, compress: Bool, resources: PTObj!)

  • Begin writing to the given page.

    By default, new content will be appended to the page, as foreground graphics. It is possible to add new page content as background graphics by setting the second parameter in begin method to ‘true’ (e.g. writer.Begin(page, true)).

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)Begin:(PTPage *)page
         placement:(PTWriteMode)placement
    page_coord_sys:(BOOL)page_coord_sys
          compress:(BOOL)compress;

    Swift

    func begin(_ page: PTPage!, placement: PTWriteMode, page_coord_sys: Bool, compress: Bool)

    Parameters

    page

    The page to write content.
    placement

    An optional flag indicating whether the new content should be added as a foreground or background layer to the existing page. By default, the new content will appear on top of the existing graphics.
    page_coord_sys

    An optional flag used to select the target coordinate system if true (default), the coordinates are relative to the lower-left corner of the page, otherwise the coordinates are defined in PDF user coordinate system (which may, or may not coincide with the page coordinates).
    compress

    An optional flag indicating whether the page content stream should be compressed. This may be useful for debugging content streams. Also some applications need to do a clear text search on strings in the PDF files. By default, all content streams are compressed.
    resources

    the resource dictionary in which to store resources for the final page. By default, a new resource dictionary will be created.

  • Undocumented

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)WriterBeginWithSDFDoc: (PTSDFDoc*)doc compress:  (BOOL)compress;

    Swift

    func writerBegin(with doc: PTSDFDoc!, compress: Bool)

  • Undocumented

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)WriterBeginWithSDFObj: (PTObj*)stream_obj_to_update compress:  (BOOL)compress resources:  (PTObj*)resources;

    Swift

    func writerBegin(withSDFObj stream_obj_to_update: PTObj!, compress: Bool, resources: PTObj!)

  • Finish writing to a page

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (PTObj *)End;

    Swift

    func end() -> PTObj!

    Return Value

    A low-level stream object that was used to store Elements.

  • Writes the Element to the content stream.

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)WriteElement:(PTElement *)element;

    Swift

    func write(_ element: PTElement!)

    Parameters

    element

    The element to write to the content stream.

  • A utility function that surrounds the given Element with a graphics state Save/Restore Element (i.e. in PDF content stream represented as ‘q element Q’).

    The function is equivalent to calling WriteElement three times: WriteElement(eSave); WriteElement(element); WriteElement(eRestore);

    where eSave is ‘e_group_begin’ and eRestore is ‘e_group_end’ Element

    The function is useful when XObjects such as Images and Forms are drawn on the page.

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)WritePlacedElement:(PTElement *)element;

    Swift

    func writePlacedElement(_ element: PTElement!)

    Parameters

    element

    Element object to enact function on.

  • The Flush method flushes all pending Element writing operations. This method is typically only required to be called when intermixing direct content writing (i.e. WriteBuffer/WriteString) with Element writing.

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)Flush;

    Swift

    func flush()

  • Writes an arbitrary buffer to the content stream. This function can be used to insert comments, inline-image data, and chunks of arbitrary content to the output stream.

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)WriteBuffer:(NSData *)data;

    Swift

    func writeBuffer(_ data: Data!)

  • Writes an arbitrary string to the content stream. Serves the same purpose as WriteBuffer().

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)WriteString:(NSString *)str;

    Swift

    func write(_ str: String!)

    Parameters

    str

    String to write to the content stream.

  • Write only the graphics state changes applied to this element and skip writing the element itself. This is especially useful when rewriting page content, but with the intention to skip certain elements.

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)WriteGStateChanges:(PTElement *)element;

    Swift

    func writeGStateChanges(_ element: PTElement!)

    Parameters

    element

    The element for which to write graphics state changes.

  • This method is used to initialize ElementWriter state with the state of a given ElementReader. This can be used to avoid incorrectly writing inherited GState attributes.

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (void)SetDefaultGState:(PTElementReader *)reader;

    Swift

    func setDefaultGState(_ reader: PTElementReader!)

    Parameters

    reader

    ElementReader.

  • Undocumented

    Declaration

    Objective-C

    - (instancetype)init;

    Swift

    init!()