TX Text Control is used to edit, create and import Adobe PDF and Adobe PDF/A documents. This tutorial shows how to create a PDF document in an ASP.NET Core web application.

Requirements

In order to create the project in this tutorial, it is required to install TX Text Control .NET Server for ASP.NET. Download a trial version here:

Download trial version

Create a new ASP.NET Core Project

Make sure that you downloaded the latest version of Visual Studio 2022 that comes with the .NET 6 SDK.

  1. In Visual Studio 2022, create a new project by choosing Create a new project.

  2. Select ASP.NET Core Web App (Model-View-Controller) as the project template and confirm with Next.

  3. Choose a name for your project and confirm with Next.

  4. In the next dialog, choose .NET 6 (Long-term support) as the Framework and confirm with Create.

    Creating PDFs with TX Text Control

Adding ServerTextControl to the Project

  1. While the project is selected in the Solution Explorer, choose Project -> Add Project Reference... to open the Reference Manager. In the opened dialog, select Browse... to select the required TX Text Control assemblies. Navigate to the installation folder of TX Text Control and select the following assemblies from the Assembly folder:

    • TXDocumentServer.dll
    • TXTextControl.dll
    • TXTextControl.Server.dll

    Creating PDFs with TX Text Control

  2. Repeat this step with the following assemblies from the Assembly/bin64 folder:

    • txic.dll
    • txkernel.dll
    • txtools.dll

    After selecting these assemblies, close the Reference Manager by confirming with OK.

  3. In the Solution Explorer, select your created project and choose Manage NuGet Packages... from the Project main menu.

    Browse for system.drawing.common and Install the latest version of the System.Drawing.Common package.

    Creating PDFs with TX Text Control

  4. While the project is selected in the Solution Explorer, choose Project -> Add New Item.... Select Text File, name the file licenses.licx and close the dialog by clicking Add.

    Creating PDFs with TX Text Control

  5. Open the newly added file and add the following content:
    TXTextControl.ServerTextControl, TXTextControl.Server, Version=30.0.1500.500, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=6b83fe9a75cfb638
    view raw licenses.licx hosted with ❤ by GitHub

    Set the Build Action property to Embedded Resource.

  6. Select the project in the Solution Explorer and choose Edit Project File from the Project main menu. Find the PropertyGroup entry and replace the whole node with the following code:

    <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
    <EnableUnsafeBinaryFormatterSerialization>true</EnableUnsafeBinaryFormatterSerialization>
    <EnableUnsafeBinaryFormatterInDesigntimeLicenseContextSerialization>true</EnableUnsafeBinaryFormatterInDesigntimeLicenseContextSerialization>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    </PropertyGroup>
    view raw test.csproj hosted with ❤ by GitHub

    BinaryFormatter Information

    The above setting is required to enable the obsolete .NET BinaryFormatter while compiling the license into the assembly. We are working with Microsoft to avoid this requirement in the near future.

Creating a PDF in a Controller Method

  1. In the default controller HomeController.cs, create the a new action method CreatePDF:

    public IActionResult CreatePDF()
    {
    // new non-UI ServerTextControl
    using (TXTextControl.ServerTextControl tx = new TXTextControl.ServerTextControl()) {
    tx.Create();
    // create a selection object
    TXTextControl.Selection selection = new TXTextControl.Selection() {
    FontSize = 1000,
    Text = "Welcome to Text Control",
    Bold = true,
    ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.DarkRed
    };
    // apply the selection
    tx.Selection = selection;
    // save the document into a byte array
    byte[] document;
    tx.Save(out document, TXTextControl.BinaryStreamType.AdobePDF);
    // create and return a file
    MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(document);
    stream.Position = 0;
    FileStreamResult fileStreamResult = new FileStreamResult(stream, "application/pdf");
    fileStreamResult.FileDownloadName = "results.pdf";
    return fileStreamResult;
    }
    }
    view raw test.cs hosted with ❤ by GitHub

  2. In the corresponding view Views -> Home -> Index.cshtml, add the following code to insert an HTML form with a button:

    @{Html.BeginForm("CreatePDF", "Home", FormMethod.Get);
    {
    <div>
    <input type="submit" value="Create PDF Document" />
    </div>
    }
    Html.EndForm();
    }
    view raw view.cshtml hosted with ❤ by GitHub

After starting the application and clicking the button, the created document is automatically downloaded or displayed in a new browser tab.

Creating PDFs with TX Text Control

Extended PDF Functionality

TX Text Control can be used to create PDF forms, PDF files with embedded attachments or to digitally sign documents. Learn more about these feature in these articles:

Creating Adobe PDF Forms in C#

Creating ZUGFeRD Compliant PDF Invoices in C#

Adding Electronic and Digital Signatures to Documents in C# and Angular