IText - BarcodeQRCode making the background color transparent

Question

I'm trying to set the background color of my QR Code using iText into a transparent background, however it does not work. Shows only white bars and black background.

What i have done so far:

My Code Snippet:

    PdfContentByte cb = writer.getDirectContent();
    BarcodeQRCode qrcode = new BarcodeQRCode("sample message on qr", 100, 100, null);
    java.awt.Image qrImage = qrcode.createAwtImage(Color.WHITE,new Color(0, 0, 0, 0));
    Image finalImage = Image.getInstance(writer, qrImage, 1);
    finalImage.setAbsolutePosition(positionX, positionY);
    cb.addImage(finalImage);

I have already generated my QR code and produced a PDF, however, when using

qrcode.createAwtImage(Color.WHITE,new Color(0, 0, 0, 0));

It does not produce an alpha background, instead it only shows a black background color.

I have also tried:

java.awt.Image qrImage = qrcode.createAwtImage(Color.WHITE,Color.OPAQUE);

But obviously, my arguments are incorrect.

Help will be most appreciated, i've been working on this for a day now.

I have also tried Graphics, Graphics2g, converting it into BufferedImage.

Answer 1

Changing the assignment of finalImage to the following works:

Image finalImage = Image.getInstance(qrImage, null)

I don't know why using the getInstance method that takes a PdfWriter as first argument ruins the transparency, though...

Answer 2

I would solve this problem like this:

BarcodeQRCode qrcode = new BarcodeQRCode("sample message on qr", 100, 100, null);
Image image = qrcode.getImage();
Image mask = qrcode.getImage();
mask.makeMask();
image.setImageMask(mask);
document.add(image);

There may be an AWT solution too, but I'm more familiar with native PDF solutions than with using an AWT workaround.