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# Class ElementWriter

ElementWriter can be used to assemble and write new content to a page, Form XObject, Type3 Glyph stream, pattern stream, or any other content stream.

##### Inheritance

object
ElementWriter

##### Implements

IDisposable

##### Inherited Members

object.Equals(object)
object.Equals(object, object)
object.GetHashCode()
object.GetType()
object.MemberwiseClone()
object.ReferenceEquals(object, object)
object.ToString()

###### Namespace: pdftron.PDF

###### Assembly: PDFTronDotNet.dll

##### Syntax

    public class ElementWriter : IDisposable

### Constructors

#### ElementWriter()

Instantiates a new element writer.

##### Declaration

    public ElementWriter()

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

### Methods

#### Begin(Page)

Begin writing to the given page.

By default, new content will be appended to the page, as foreground graphics. It is possible to add new page content as background graphics by setting the second parameter in begin method to 'true' (e.g. writer.Begin(page, true)).

##### Declaration

    public void Begin(Page page)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
Page | page | The page to write content.

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### Begin(Page, WriteMode)

Begin writing to the given page. By default, new content will be appended to the page, as foreground graphics. It is possible to add new page content as background graphics by setting the second parameter in begin method to 'true' (e.g. writer.Begin(page, true)).

##### Declaration

    public void Begin(Page page, ElementWriter.WriteMode placement)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
Page | page | The page to write content.
ElementWriter.WriteMode | placement | An optional flag indicating whether the new content should be added as a foreground or background layer to the existing page. By default, the new content will appear on top of the existing graphics.

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### Begin(Page, WriteMode, bool)

Begin writing to the given page. By default, new content will be appended to the page, as foreground graphics. It is possible to add new page content as background graphics by setting the second parameter in begin method to 'true' (e.g. writer.Begin(page, true)).

##### Declaration

    public void Begin(Page page, ElementWriter.WriteMode placement, bool page_coord_sys)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
Page | page | The page to write content.
ElementWriter.WriteMode | placement | An optional flag indicating whether the new content should be added as a foreground or background layer to the existing page. By default, the new content will appear on top of the existing graphics.
bool | page_coord_sys | An optional flag used to select the target coordinate system. If true (default), the coordinates are relative to the lower-left corner of the page, otherwise the coordinates are defined in PDF user coordinate system (which may, or may not coincide with the page coordinates).

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### Begin(Page, WriteMode, bool, bool)

Begin writing to the given page. By default, new content will be appended to the page, as foreground graphics. It is possible to add new page content as background graphics by setting the second parameter in begin method to 'true' (e.g. writer.Begin(page, true)).

##### Declaration

    public void Begin(Page page, ElementWriter.WriteMode placement, bool page_coord_sys, bool compress)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
Page | page | The page to write content.
ElementWriter.WriteMode | placement | An optional flag indicating whether the new content should be added as a foreground or background layer to the existing page. By default, the new content will appear on top of the existing graphics.
bool | page_coord_sys | An optional flag used to select the target coordinate system. If true (default), the coordinates are relative to the lower-left corner of the page, otherwise the coordinates are defined in PDF user coordinate system (which may, or may not coincide with the page coordinates).
bool | compress | An optional flag indicating whether the page content stream should be compressed. This may be useful for debugging content streams. Also some applications need to do a clear text search on strings in the PDF files. By default, all content streams are compressed.

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### Begin(Page, WriteMode, bool, bool, Obj)

##### Declaration

    public void Begin(Page page, ElementWriter.WriteMode placement, bool page_coord_sys, bool compress, Obj resources)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
Page | page |
ElementWriter.WriteMode | placement |
bool | page_coord_sys |
bool | compress |
Obj | resources |

#### Begin(Obj, bool)

Begin writing an Element sequence to a stream. Use this function to write Elements to a content stream which will replace an existing content stream in an object passed as a parameter.

##### Declaration

    public void Begin(Obj stream_to_modify, bool compress)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
Obj | stream_to_modify | the streamobj_to_update
bool | compress | the compress

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### Begin(Obj, bool, Obj)

Begin writing an Element sequence to a stream. Use this function to write Elements to a content stream which will replace an existing content stream in an object passed as a parameter.

##### Declaration

    public void Begin(Obj stream_to_modify, bool compress, Obj resources)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
Obj | stream_to_modify | the streamobj_to_update
bool | compress | the compress
Obj | resources | the resource dictionary in which to store resources for the final page.

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### Begin(SDFDoc)

Begin writing an Element sequence to a new stream. Use this function to write Elements to a content stream other than the page. For example, you can create Form XObjects (See Section '4.9 Form XObjects' in PDF Reference for more details) pattern streams, Type3 font glyph streams, etc.

##### Declaration

    public void Begin(SDFDoc doc)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
SDFDoc | doc | A low-level SDF/Cos document that will contain the new stream. You can access low-level document using PDFDoc.GetSDFDoc() or Obj.GetDoc() methods.

##### Remarks

the newly created content stream object is returned when writing operations are completed (i.e. after the call to ElementWriter.End()).

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### Begin(SDFDoc, bool)

Begin writing an Element sequence to a new stream. Use this function to write Elements to a content stream other than the page. For example, you can create Form XObjects (See Section '4.9 Form XObjects' in PDF Reference for more details) pattern streams, Type3 font glyph streams, etc.

##### Declaration

    public void Begin(SDFDoc doc, bool compress)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
SDFDoc | doc | the doc
bool | compress | the compress

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### Destroy()

##### Declaration

    public void Destroy()

#### Dispose()

Performs application-defined tasks associated with freeing, releasing, or resetting unmanaged resources.

##### Declaration

    public void Dispose()

#### Dispose(bool)

##### Declaration

    protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
bool | disposing |

#### End()

Finish writing to a page.

##### Declaration

    public Obj End()

##### Returns

Type | Description
--- | ---
Obj | A low-level stream object that was used to store Elements.

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### ~ElementWriter()

Releases all resources used by the ElementWriter

##### Declaration

    protected ~ElementWriter()

#### Flush()

The Flush method flushes all pending Element writing operations. This method is typically only required to be called when intermixing direct content writing (i.e. WriteBuffer/WriteString) with Element writing.

##### Declaration

    public void Flush()

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### SetDefaultGState(ElementReader)

##### Declaration

    public void SetDefaultGState(ElementReader reader)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
ElementReader | reader |

#### WriteBuffer(byte[])

Writes an arbitrary buffer to the content stream. This function can be used to insert comments, inline-image data, and chunks of arbitrary content to the output stream.

##### Declaration

    public void WriteBuffer(byte[] buf)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
byte[] | buf | the data

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### WriteElement(Element)

Writes the Element to the content stream.

##### Declaration

    public void WriteElement(Element element)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
Element | element | the element

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### WritePlacedElement(Element)

A utility function that surrounds the given Element with a graphics state Save/Restore Element (i.e. in PDF content stream represented as 'q element Q').

The function is equivalent to calling WriteElement three times: WriteElement(eSave); WriteElement(element); WriteElement(eRestore);

where eSave is 'e_group_begin' and eRestore is 'e_group_end' Element

The function is useful when XObjects such as Images and Forms are drawn on the page.

##### Declaration

    public void WritePlacedElement(Element element)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
Element | element | the element

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

#### WriteString(string)

Writes an arbitrary string to the content stream. Serves the same purpose as WriteBuffer().

##### Declaration

    public void WriteString(string data)

##### Parameters

Type | Name | Description
--- | --- | ---
string | data | the str

##### Exceptions

Type | Condition
--- | ---
PDFNetException | PDFNetException the PDFNet exception

### Implements

IDisposable