Create PDF of dynamic size with typography using UIView template(s)

Question

I\'m new but have managed to learn a lot and create a pretty awesome (I hope) app that\'s near completion. One of my last tasks is to create a PDF of dynamically generated user

Answer 1

So here we go. The following was made for OSX with NSView but it's easily adapatable for UIView (so I guess). You will need the following scaffold:

A) PSPrintView will handle a single page to print

class PSPrintView:NSView {
  var pageNo:Int = 0 // the current page
  var totalPages:Int = 0
  struct PaperDimensions {
    size:NSSize // needs to be initialized from NSPrintInfo.sharedPrintInfo
    var leftMargin, topMargin, rightMargin, bottomMargin : CGFloat
  }
  let paperDimensions = PaperDimensions(...)

  class func clone() -> PSPrintView {
    // returns a clone of self where most page parameters are copied
    // to speed up printing
  }

  override func drawRect(dirtyRect: NSRect) {
    super.drawRect(dirtyRect)

    // Drawing code here.

    // e.g. to draw a frame inside the view
    let scale = convertSize(NSMakeSize(1, 1), fromView:nil)
    var myContext = NSGraphicsContext.currentContext()!.CGContext
    CGContextSetLineWidth(myContext, scale.height)
    CGContextSetFillColorWithColor(myContext, NSColor.whiteColor().CGColor)
    CGContextFillRect (myContext, rect)
    rect.origin.x += paperDimensions.leftMargin
    rect.origin.y += paperDimensions.bottomMargin
    rect.size.width -= paperDimensions.leftMargin + paperDimensions.rightMargin
    rect.size.height -= paperDimensions.topMargin + paperDimensions.bottomMargin
    CGContextSetStrokeColorWithColor(myContext, NSColor(red: 1, green: 0.5, blue: 0, alpha: 0.5).CGColor)
    CGContextStrokeRect(myContext, rect)

    // here goes your layout with lots of String.drawInRect....
  }
}

B) PSPrint: will hold the single PSPrintViews in an array and when done send them to the (PDF) printer

class PSPrint: NSView {
  var printViews = [PSPrintView]()

  override func knowsPageRange(range:NSRangePointer) -> Bool {
    range.memory.location = 1
    range.memory.length = printViews.count
    return true
  }

  func printTheViews() {
    let sharedPrintInfo = NSPrintInfo.sharedPrintInfo()
    let numOfViews = printViews.count

    var totalHeight:CGFloat = 0;//if not initialized to 0 weird problems occur after '3' clicks to print
    var heightOfView:CGFloat = 0
    //    PSPrintView *tempView;

    for tempView in printViews {
      heightOfView = tempView.frame.size.height
      totalHeight = totalHeight + heightOfView
    }
    //Change the frame size to reflect the amount of pages.
    var newsize = NSSize()
    newsize.width = sharedPrintInfo.paperSize.width-sharedPrintInfo.leftMargin-sharedPrintInfo.rightMargin
    newsize.height = totalHeight
    setFrameSize(newsize)
    var incrementor = -1 //default the incrementor for the loop below.  This controls what page a 'view' will appear on.

    //Add the views in reverse, because the Y position is bottom not top.  So Page 3 will have y coordinate of 0.  Doing this so order views is placed in array reflects what is printed.
    for (var i = numOfViews-1; i >= 0; i--) {
      incrementor++
      let tempView = printViews[i] //starts with the last item added to the array, in this case rectangles, and then does circle and square.
      heightOfView = tempView.frame.size.height

      tempView.setFrameOrigin(NSMakePoint(0, heightOfView*CGFloat(incrementor))) //So for the rectangle it's placed at position '0', or the very last page.

      addSubview(tempView)
    }
    NSPrintOperation(view: self, printInfo: sharedPrintInfo).runOperation()
  }

C) a function to perform printing (from the menu)

func doPrinting (sender:AnyObject) {
  //First get the shared print info object so we know page sizes.  The shared print info object acts like a global variable.
  let sharedPrintInfo = NSPrintInfo.sharedPrintInfo()

  //initialize it's base values.
  sharedPrintInfo.leftMargin = 0
  sharedPrintInfo.rightMargin = 0
  sharedPrintInfo.topMargin = 0
  sharedPrintInfo.bottomMargin = 0

  var frame = NSRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: sharedPrintInfo.paperSize.width-sharedPrintInfo.leftMargin-sharedPrintInfo.rightMargin, height: sharedPrintInfo.paperSize.height-sharedPrintInfo.topMargin-sharedPrintInfo.bottomMargin)
  //Initiate the printObject without a frame, it's frame will be decided later.
  let printObject = PSPrint ()

  //Allocate a new instance of NSView into the variable printPageView
  let basePrintPageView = PSPrintView(frame: frame)
  // do additional init stuff for the single pages if needed
  // ...

  var printPageView:PSPrintView
  for pageNo in 0..