PDF Generation in C++: Overview of Libraries and Tools

PDF Generation in C++: Overview of Libraries and Tools

Generating PDF documents is one of the common tasks in software development. Reports, invoices, certificates, documentation — all of this requires a reliable and flexible tool for creating PDFs. In the C++ ecosystem, there are several proven solutions, each with its own strengths. In this article, we will review the main libraries and tools that will help you implement PDF generation in C++, and also provide code examples for each of them.

1. PoDoFo — A Powerful Library for Working with PDF

PoDoFo is a cross-platform C++ library designed for creating, editing, and analyzing PDF documents. It provides full control over the file structure and supports fonts, images, annotations, and forms.

Key Features:

• Creating PDFs from scratch and editing existing documents
• Support for TrueType, Type1, and standard PDF fonts
• Embedding images (PNG, JPEG, TIFF)
• Working with tables and multi-page documents
• Support for compression and encryption

Code Example: Creating a Simple PDF with Text

#include <podofo/podofo.h>using namespace PoDoFo;

int main() {    PdfMemDocument document;    PdfPage* page = document.CreatePage(PdfPage::CreateStandardPageSize(PdfPageSize::A4));    PdfPainter painter;    painter.SetPage(page);

    // Set the font    PdfFont* font = document.CreateFont("Arial");    painter.SetFont(font, 12.0);

    // Draw text    painter.DrawText("Hello, PDF World!", 50, 700);

    painter.FinishPage();    document.Save("output_podofo.pdf");    return 0;}

2. libharu — A Lightweight and Fast Library

libharu (or HPDF) is a minimalist C library for PDF generation. Despite being written in C, it works perfectly with C++ and does not require complex dependencies. libharu is ideal for simple tasks where full PDF standard support is not needed.

Key Features:

• Support for text, images, lines, and rectangles
• Working with Cyrillic characters via encodings
• Page compression
• Zlib license (free)

Code Example: Creating a PDF with an Image

#include <hpdf.h>#include <stdio.h>

int main() {    HPDF_Doc pdf = HPDF_New(NULL, NULL);    HPDF_Page page = HPDF_AddPage(pdf);    HPDF_Page_SetSize(page, HPDF_PAGE_SIZE_A4, HPDF_PAGE_PORTRAIT);

    // Load an image    HPDF_Image image = HPDF_LoadJpegImageFromFile(pdf, "example.jpg");    HPDF_Page_DrawImage(page, image, 50, 500, 200, 150);

    // Text    HPDF_Page_BeginText(page);    HPDF_Page_SetFontAndSize(page, HPDF_GetFont(pdf, "Helvetica", NULL), 14);    HPDF_Page_TextOut(page, 50, 700, "Example with an image");    HPDF_Page_EndText(page);

    HPDF_SaveToFile(pdf, "output_libharu.pdf");    HPDF_Free(pdf);    return 0;}

3. wkhtmltopdf — Converting HTML to PDF

wkhtmltopdf is not a library in the classic sense, but a command-line utility based on WebKit. However, it can be easily called from C++ code via system() or popen(). This is an ideal choice if you need to convert an HTML template into a PDF document while preserving styles and layout.

Key Features:

• Support for CSS, JavaScript, tables, and images
• Configuration of margins, orientation, headers, and footers
• High rendering quality
• Ease of integration

Code Example: Calling wkhtmltopdf from C++

#include <cstdlib>#include <string>

int main() {    std::string input = "report.html";    std::string output = "report.pdf";    std::string