Export Chart to PDF Using ITextSharp

This article explains how to export an ASP.Net Chart Control to PDF using iTextSharp.

What is ITextSharp

iTextSharp is a free and open source assembly that helps to convert page output or HTML content in a PDF file.

You can download it from here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/itextsharp/ 

Now add that DLL to the application.

Getting Started

Start Visual Studio and create a new website in ASP.Net and add these 2 DLLs to the solution.

• Itextsharp.dll
• itextsharp.pdfa.dll

Now drag and drop the ASP.Net Chart Control to web page.

<div>
        <asp:Chart ID="Chart1" runat="server">
            <series>
                <asp:Series Name="Series1" Legend="Legend1">
                <Points>
                    <asp:DataPoint AxisLabel="Article" YValues="90" />
                    <asp:DataPoint AxisLabel="Blogs" YValues="120" />
                    <asp:DataPoint AxisLabel="Questions" YValues="300" />
                    <asp:DataPoint AxisLabel="Videos" YValues="240" />
                    <asp:DataPoint AxisLabel="Training" YValues="100" />
                </Points>
                </asp:Series>
            </series>
            <chartareas>
                <asp:ChartArea Name="ChartArea1">
                </asp:ChartArea>
            </chartareas>
        <titles><asp:Title Name="Title1" Text="Website Stats"></asp:Title></titles></asp:Chart>
        <br />
 <asp:Button ID="btnExport" runat="server" Text="Export To PDF" OnClick="btnExport_Click" />
</div>

Once we have added the Chart Control to a page, as you can see a few things have been added to the web.config automatically.

<appSettings>
    <add key="ChartImageHandler" value="storage=file;timeout=20;dir=c:\TempImageFiles\;" />
  </appSettings>
  <system.webServer>
    <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
    <handlers>
      <remove name="ChartImageHandler" />
      <add name="ChartImageHandler" preCondition="integratedMode" verb="GET,HEAD,POST"
        path="ChartImg.axd" type="System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.ChartHttpHandler, System.Web.DataVisualization, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
    </handlers>
  </system.webServer>
  <httpHandlers>
      <add path="ChartImg.axd" verb="GET,HEAD,POST" type="System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.ChartHttpHandler, System.Web.DataVisualization, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35"
        validate="false" />
    </httpHandlers>
    <pages>
      <controls>
        <add tagPrefix="asp" namespace="System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting"
          assembly="System.Web.DataVisualization, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" />
      </controls>
    </pages>

Now let's work on the code behind, first of all add the following namespaces:

using iTextSharp.text;
using System.IO;
using iTextSharp.text.html.simpleparser;
using iTextSharp.text.pdf;
using System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting;
Write this on button click.
protected void btnExport_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   Document Doc = new Document(PageSize.A4, 10f, 10f, 10f, 0f);
   PdfWriter.GetInstance(Doc, Response.OutputStream);
   Doc.Open();
   using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream())
   {
       Chart1.SaveImage(memoryStream, ChartImageFormat.Png);
       iTextSharp.text.Image img = iTextSharp.text.Image.GetInstance(memoryStream.GetBuffer());
        img.ScalePercent(75f);
        Doc.Add(img);
        Doc.Close();
        Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
        Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=Chart.pdf");
        Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
        Response.Write(Doc);
        Response.End();
    }
}

Hit F5 to see the output.

Image 1.

Click the "Export" button to export data to a PDF.



Image 2.

If you need more help then download the sample application, there are all the DLLs available and the page name is ExportChartToPDF.aspx.