Merge Multiple PDF Documents using iText and Java

Previously, we saw how to split a single PDF document into multiple PDF documents. You may also face a scenario, where you need to merge multiple PDF documents into a single PDF document. These PDF documents can contain reports, tables, even multiple pages per document. In this example, we demonstrate how to merge multiple PDF documents using iText and Java.

Merge Multiple PDF Documents

• We start by creating a list that contains all PDF documents that we are merging. These documents reside in the src/main/resources folder. Using the static getResource() method of the class we are able to obtain the path.
• We create and initialize a PdfCopy object. The first argument, we pass the Document. The second argument we provide a FileOutputStream. This contains the path where the document will be created. We can optionally use the PdfSmartCopy. This has the same functionality as the PdfCopy, but when resources – such as fonts, images – are encountered, a reference to these resources is saved in a cache, so that they can be reused. This requires more memory, but reduces the file size of the resulting PDF document.
• Now, we can start merging PDF documents.
• 1. First, we iterate over the list.
  2. During the iteration, we create a new PdfReader for every file.
  3. We can merge the entire document using the PdfCopy#addDocument() method. Later on, we show how to merge only a specific page of a PDF document.
  4. You can optionally call the PdfCopy#freeReader() method. This writes the reader to the document and free the memory used by it. This is often used when concatenating multiple documents to keep the memory usage restricted to the current appending document.
  5. We close the PdfReader.
• Finally, we close the document and the file’ll be created.

package com.memorynotfound.pdf.itext;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.DocumentException;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.*;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

public class MergePdf {

    static List<URL> files = new ArrayList<URL>(Arrays.asList(
            MergePdf.class.getResource("/example-001.pdf"),
            MergePdf.class.getResource("/example-002.pdf"),
            MergePdf.class.getResource("/example-003.pdf")
    ));

    public static void main(String... args) throws IOException, DocumentException {
        Document document = new Document();
        PdfCopy copy = new PdfCopy(document, new FileOutputStream("merge-pdf-result.pdf"));

        document.open();
        for (URL file : files){
            PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(file);
            copy.addDocument(reader);
            copy.freeReader(reader);
            reader.close();
        }
        document.close();
    }
}

Merging an Individual Page

Before, we merged the entire document directly using the PdfCopy#addDocument(reader) method. You may want to merge a specific page. In this case, you can iterate over each page individually. When you reach the page you want to merge, you can add it to the PdfCopy object using the addPage() method.

document.open();
for (URL file : files){
    PdfReader reader = new PdfReader(file);
    for (int i = 1; i <= reader.getNumberOfPages(); i++){
        // optionally write an if statement to include the page
        copy.addPage(copy.getImportedPage(reader, i));
    }
    copy.freeReader(reader);
    reader.close();
}
document.close();

Output

References

• PdfReader JavaDoc
• PdfCopy JavaDoc

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