Generating PDF Reports in Swift for iOS and macOS with PDFKit and Core Graphics

Generating PDF Reports in Swift for iOS and macOS

Creating PDF documents is a common task in mobile and desktop applications. On Apple platforms (iOS, macOS), powerful built-in tools are available for this: PDFKit and Core Graphics. In this article, we will walk through how to generate a multi-page report with tables, text, and graphics using only native Swift.

Why Use Built-in Tools?

• No third-party dependencies required — everything is already included in the SDK.
• Full control over rendering — work with coordinates, fonts, and colors.
• Cross-platform — the code works on both iOS and macOS.
• High performance — Core Graphics uses hardware acceleration.

Main Approaches

There are two main ways to generate PDFs in Swift:

1. PDFKit — a high-level API for working with PDFs (reading, editing, creating).
2. Core Graphics — low-level rendering via a PDF context.

We will look at the second approach, as it provides maximum flexibility when creating reports "from scratch."

Creating a PDF Context

The first step is to create a PDF context into which we will draw elements. The function UIGraphicsBeginPDFContextToFile (iOS) or its macOS equivalent is used for this.

import UIKit

func generatePDF() -> URL? {    let fileName = "Report.pdf"    let paths = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask)    guard let documentsURL = paths.first else { return nil }    let pdfURL = documentsURL.appendingPathComponent(fileName)        let pageSize = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 612, height: 792) // A4    UIGraphicsBeginPDFContextToFile(pdfURL.path, pageSize, nil)        // We will draw pages here    UIGraphicsEndPDFContext()    return pdfURL}

Adding Pages and Content

Each page begins with a call to UIGraphicsBeginPDFPage(). After that, standard UIKit drawing methods can be used.

func drawReport() {    guard let pdfURL = generatePDF() else { return }        UIGraphicsBeginPDFContextToFile(pdfURL.path, CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: 612, height: 792), nil)        // First page    UIGraphicsBeginPDFPage()    drawHeader(title: "Monthly Report")    drawTable(data: sampleData)        // Second page (if needed)    UIGraphicsBeginPDFPage()    drawChart()        UIGraphicsEndPDFContext()}

Drawing Text and Headers

To draw text, we use NSString with attributes.

func drawHeader(title: String) {    let titleAttributes: [NSAttributedString.Key: Any] = [        .font: UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 24),        .foregroundColor: UIColor.darkGray    ]    title.draw(at: CGPoint(x: 50, y: 40), withAttributes: titleAttributes)}

Creating a Simple Table

A table can be drawn using lines and text. Below is an example of generating a table with two columns.

func drawTable(data: [(String, String)]) {    let startX: CGFloat = 50    var startY: CGFloat = 100    let colWidth: CGFloat = 250    let rowHeight: CGFloat = 30        // Draw headers    let headerAttributes: [NSAttributedString.Key: Any] = [        .font: UIFont.boldSystemFont(ofSize: 14),        .foregroundColor: UIColor.black    ]    "Name".draw(at: CGPoint(x: startX, y: startY), withAttributes: headerAttributes)    "Value".draw(at: CGPoint(x: startX + colWidth, y: startY), withAttributes: headerAttributes)        startY += rowHeight        // Draw rows    for (key, value) in data {        let rowAtt