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Create a PDF document with SkiaSharp

Use SKDocument to draw a multi-page PDF into a file or writable stream. Create the document, begin and end each page, and call Close after the final page. PDF page dimensions use points, where 72 points equal one inch.

Create and finalize the pages

The following complete example writes a two-page US Letter PDF. The page canvas is valid only until EndPage or Close is called.

using System.IO;
using SkiaSharp;

const string outputPath = "sample.pdf";

using (var output = File.Create(outputPath))
{
    WritePdf(output);
}

static void WritePdf(Stream output)
{
    const float pageWidth = 612;  // 8.5 inches * 72 points
    const float pageHeight = 792; // 11 inches * 72 points

    var metadata = SKDocumentPdfMetadata.Default;
    metadata.Title = "SkiaSharp PDF example";
    metadata.Author = "Example application";

    using var document = SKDocument.CreatePdf(output, metadata);
    using var paint = new SKPaint
    {
        IsAntialias = true,
        Color = SKColors.CornflowerBlue,
    };

    for (var pageNumber = 1; pageNumber <= 2; pageNumber++)
    {
        var canvas = document.BeginPage(pageWidth, pageHeight);
        canvas.Clear(SKColors.White);
        canvas.DrawCircle(
            pageWidth / 2,
            220 + pageNumber * 120,
            100,
            paint);

        document.EndPage();
    }

    document.Close();
}

SKDocument owns the native page canvas and invalidates it when the page ends. Scope the managed canvas wrapper to one page and do not use it after EndPage.

The Stream overload keeps the caller's .NET stream open. Close finalizes the PDF into that stream; disposing the document then releases its internal stream wrapper. The caller remains responsible for disposing the .NET stream.

Configure metadata and raster fallback

Start with SKDocumentPdfMetadata.Default, then change the fields you need. A newly zero-initialized SKDocumentPdfMetadata does not contain the documented raster DPI and encoding-quality defaults.

The most relevant options are:

  • Title, Author, Subject, Keywords, Creator, Producer, Creation, and Modified set PDF metadata.
  • RasterDpi controls the resolution used when a draw operation must be rasterized because PDF has no native representation for it. It does not change page dimensions.
  • EncodingQuality is 101 by default, which selects lossless image encoding. Values of 100 or less allow opaque images to use JPEG at that quality.
  • PdfA requests the additional metadata and output intent needed by Skia's PDF/A-2b path. Validate the resulting file against any conformance rules your application must meet.

Handle incomplete output

Call Abort if page generation cannot complete. After an abort, discard the output stream contents; they are not a valid document. The example uses a finally block so the original failure still propagates while the document is abandoned.

Call Close before reading or publishing the result. Disposing a PDF document also closes it when needed, but an explicit Close makes the successful completion point clear and ensures final bytes have reached the stream.

Verify the result

The resulting file should be non-empty, begin with the PDF header %PDF-, and open as a two-page US Letter document. Verify text, images, effects, and links in the PDF viewer used by your target workflow.

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