PDF Generation Cheat Sheet

This content was generated with the assistance of AI and should be verified against the official documentation before being relied on in production.

The reference material consulted while preparing these pages is listed in the section bibliography.

A single-page index of quick back-links to every page in the backend PDF Generation section, grouped the same way as the section index, so you can jump straight to the detail behind a line of the printed sheet.

The downloadable PDF is a separate, single A4 page meant for printing. It states the baseline date (2026-10-09) and covers:

  • the iText module map and document lifecycle;

  • layout elements, tables, page events and fonts;

  • the JasperReports lifecycle, bands, expressions, data sources and PDF exporter configuration;

  • PDF/A and PDF/UA;

  • the PAdES baseline levels with one-liners for iText, PDFBox and EU DSS;

  • AcroForm field types, the iText form builders and the JasperReports field properties;

  • the barcode classes and the QR error-correction levels;

  • the licences of iText, its add-ons, JasperReports and the other libraries; and

  • a migration table from the APIs used by the older books to the current ones.

Foundations — Introduction and Approaches, How a PDF File Works, PDF Standards and Conformance, Getting Started with Spring Boot and Generating Reports from Databases and Services.

iText — Architecture and Modules, Document Lifecycle, Layout Elements, Fonts and Unicode, Colours, Images and SVG, Tables, Renderers and Custom Layout, Page Events, Low-level Canvas, Navigation, Annotations and Actions, Manipulating Existing PDFs, Text Extraction and Parsing, HTML to PDF with pdfHTML, PDF/A and PDF/UA, Encryption and Permissions, Add-ons and Testing and Performance.

JasperReports — Architecture and Lifecycle, JRXML Design, Expressions, Parameters, Fields and Variables, Groups, Sorting and Filtering, Data Sources, Subreports, Datasets, Tables and Lists, Crosstabs, Charts, Styles, Templates and Markup, Fonts and Internationalization, Scriptlets and Extensions, Hyperlinks, Bookmarks and Books, PDF Export Configuration, Large Reports and Performance, Spring Boot Integration and Security Hardening.

Digital signatures — Fundamentals, PAdES Baseline Levels, Signing with iText, Signing with PDFBox and EU DSS, Remote, HSM and Deferred Signing and Validation and Long-term Validity.

Forms and barcodes — Editable Forms: Fundamentals, Editable Forms with iText, Editable Forms with JasperReports and PDFBox, Barcodes and QR Codes: Fundamentals, Barcodes with iText, ZXing and Okapi, Barcodes in JasperReports and Regulated QR Codes.

Beyond — Alternatives and Other Ecosystems, Testing and Production Practices and What’s Changed and Migration.

Overview — PDF Generation.

Download the PDF Generation Cheat Sheet (PDF)

References

  • Section bibliography for the official documentation, standards and books behind every figure on the sheet.