How to Export Document as PDF in ASP.NET Core DOCX Editor

14 Aug 202611 minutes to read

This article explains how to export the document as a PDF. You can export the document as PDF in the following ways:

Export the document as PDF on the client-side

Use the pdf export component at the application level to export the document as PDF using the exportAsImage API. Here, all pages will be converted to images and inserted as PDF pages (works like print as PDF).

NOTE

  1. The ASP.NET Core DOCX Editor (Document Editor) exports PDFs by converting pages into images on the client side, which may slightly increase the file size compared to text-based PDFs.
  2. Text search is not supported in the exported PDF, as the content is stored as images.
  3. You can install the PDF export packages from this link.
<div class="control-section">
    <ejs-button id="element" content="Using Pdf Export" onclick="exportClientSide()"></ejs-button>

    <ejs-documenteditorcontainer id="container" serviceUrl="/api/DocumentEditor/" enableToolbar=true created="onCreated" height="590px"></ejs-documenteditorcontainer>
</div>
<script>
    var documenteditor;
    var container;
    function onCreated() {
        var documenteditorElement = document.getElementById("container");
        container = documenteditorElement.ej2_instances[0];
        documenteditor = container.documentEditor;
    }
    //Pdf document exported using pdf export
    function exportClientSide() {
        let pdfdocument = new ej.pdfexport.PdfDocument();
        let count = container.documentEditor.pageCount;
        container.documentEditor.documentEditorSettings.printDevicePixelRatio = 2;
        let loadedPage = 0;
        for (let i = 1; i <= count; i++) {
            setTimeout(() => {
                let format = 'image/jpeg';
                // Getting pages as image
                let image = container.documentEditor.exportAsImage(i, format);
                image.onload = function () {
                    let imageHeight = parseInt(
                        image.style.height.toString().replace('px', '')
                    );
                    let imageWidth = parseInt(
                        image.style.width.toString().replace('px', '')
                    );
                    let section = pdfdocument.sections.add();
                    let settings = new ej.pdfexport.PdfPageSettings(0);
                    if (imageWidth > imageHeight) {
                        settings.orientation = PdfPageOrientation.Landscape;
                    }
                    settings.size = new ej.pdfexport.SizeF(imageWidth, imageHeight);
                    (section).setPageSettings(settings);
                    let page = section.pages.add();
                    let graphics = page.graphics;
                    let imageStr = image.src.replace('data:image/jpeg;base64,', '');
                    let pdfImage = new ej.pdfexport.PdfBitmap(imageStr);
                    graphics.drawImage(pdfImage, 0, 0, imageWidth, imageHeight);
                    loadedPage++;
                    if (loadedPage == count) {
                        // Exporting the document as pdf
                        pdfdocument.save(
                            (container.documentEditor.documentName === ''
                                ? 'sample'
                                : container.documentEditor.documentName) + '.pdf'
                        );
                    }
                };
            }, 500);
        }
    }
</script>
public ActionResult Default()
{
    return View();
}

Export document as PDF on the server-side using DocIO

With the help of Syncfusion DocIO, you can export the document as PDF on the server-side. Here, you can search the text.

The following steps illustrate how to convert the document as PDF:

  • Using the serialize API, convert the document as SFDT and send it to the server-side.
<div class="control-section">
    <ejs-button id="element" content="Export" onclick="exportServerSide()"></ejs-button>
    <ejs-documenteditorcontainer id="container" serviceUrl="/api/DocumentEditor/" enableToolbar=true created="onCreated"
        height="590px"></ejs-documenteditorcontainer>
</div>
<script>
    var documenteditor;
    var container;
    function onCreated() {
        var documenteditorElement = document.getElementById("container");
        container = documenteditorElement.ej2_instances[0];
        documenteditor = container.documentEditor;
    }
    function exportServerSide() {
        let http = new XMLHttpRequest();
        // Replace your running web service Url here
        http.open('POST', '/api/documenteditor/ExportPdf');
        http.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/json;charset=UTF-8');
        http.responseType = 'json';
        //Serialize document content as SFDT.
        let sfdt = { content: container.documentEditor.serialize() };
        //Send the sfdt content to server side.
        http.send(JSON.stringify(sfdt));
    }
</script>
public ActionResult Default()
{
    return View();
}
  • Using the Save API on the server-side, you can convert the SFDT to a stream.
  • Finally, convert the stream to a PDF using the Syncfusion.DocIORenderer.Net.Core library.
[AcceptVerbs("Post")]
[HttpPost]
[EnableCors("AllowAllOrigins")]
[Route("ExportPdf")]
public void ExportPdf([FromBody]SaveParameter data)
{
    // Converts the sfdt to stream
    Stream document = WordDocument.Save(data.content, FormatType.Docx);
    Syncfusion.DocIO.DLS.WordDocument doc = new Syncfusion.DocIO.DLS.WordDocument(document, Syncfusion.DocIO.FormatType.Docx);
    //Instantiation of DocIORenderer for Word to PDF conversion
    DocIORenderer render = new DocIORenderer();
    //Converts Word document into PDF document
    PdfDocument pdfDocument = render.ConvertToPDF(doc);
    // Saves the document to server machine file system, you can customize here to save into databases or file servers based on requirement.
    FileStream fileStream = new FileStream("sample.pdf", FileMode.OpenOrCreate, FileAccess.ReadWrite);
    //Saves the PDF file
    pdfDocument.Save(fileStream);
    pdfDocument.Close();
    fileStream.Close();
    document.Close();
}

Get the complete working sample in this link.