使用iTextSharp C＃创建列（如Word）并对齐pdf文档中的文本

Question

I'm working in a "study" project which perform the function of cash register. It have the basics, add products with name and price, can bill to customers. I created a method that takes all created products (loaded in a collection) and creates a price list in a PDF document. The final result is something like this:

A bit ugly. Now, how can I create three columns that limit the characters in each one? Like Office Word: As you can see, in Word we can create columns (in my case three, with the lines visible). It is possible using iTextSharp? I searched but I couldn't find anything. And how to align the name on the left and the price on the right regardless of the length of the name, again as Word?

Answer 1

If this is a school project (I'm not sure what you meant when you wrote "I'm working in a "study" project" ), you can show off to your teacher by using iText 7 instead of the outdated iTextSharp.

By the way: we don't call it iTextSharp anymore: it's now called iText for .NET, which explains why there is no iTextSharp tag on Stack Overflow anymore.

iText 7 comes with a ColumnDocumentRenderer that allows you to define nice columns (see chapter 2 of the tutorial). Most of the tutorials are in Java, because a good C# developer is supposed to know how to read Java, but there's also a .NET tutorial with a columns example. See chapter 3 of the .NET version of the iText 7 jump-start tutorial:

Document document = new Document(pdf, ps);
//Set column parameters
float offSet = 36;
float columnWidth = (ps.GetWidth() - offSet * 2 + 10) / 3;
float columnHeight = ps.GetHeight() - offSet * 2;
//Define column areas
Rectangle[] columns = new Rectangle[] {
    new Rectangle(offSet - 5, offSet, columnWidth, columnHeight),
    new Rectangle(offSet + columnWidth, offSet, columnWidth, columnHeight),
    new Rectangle(offSet + columnWidth * 2 + 5, offSet, columnWidth, columnHeight)
};
document.SetRenderer(new ColumnDocumentRenderer(document, columns));

If you want the nice tabbing, you can use the TabStop class as explained in chapter 3 of the building blocks tutorial.

However, the iText 5 code is much less intuitive than the iText 7 code. I can expand my answer if you need an iText 5 solution, but be aware that if I were your teacher, I would fail you for using iText 5. So before I give you an iText 5 answer, I'd need some written proof that your teacher insists on an iText 5 solution.