Docx4j - Getting Started
Docx4j - Getting Started
Docx4j - Getting Started
Contents
What is docx4j? ............................................................................................................................................. 3
What sorts of things can you do with docx4j? .............................................................................................. 4
Is docx4j for you? .......................................................................................................................................... 5
docx4j.NET .................................................................................................................................................... 5
What Word documents does it support? ..................................................................................................... 6
Handling legacy binary .doc files................................................................................................................... 6
Getting Help: the docx4j forum .................................................................................................................... 6
Using docx4j via Maven ................................................................................................................................ 7
Using docx4j binaries .................................................................................................................................... 8
docx4j dependencies .................................................................................................................................... 8
slf4j ............................................................................................................................................................ 8
other dependencies .................................................................................................................................. 9
JDK versions ................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
A word about Jaxb ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Docx4j source code ....................................................................................................................................... 9
Javadoc.......................................................................................................................................................... 9
Building docx4j from source ......................................................................................................................... 9
Command line -via Maven ........................................................................................................................ 9
Command line - via Ant.............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Eclipse ....................................................................................................................................................... 9
Using a different IDE? ............................................................................................................................. 10
Open an existing docx/pptx/xlsx document ............................................................................................... 10
OpenXML concepts ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Specification versions ................................................................................................................................. 12
Architecture ................................................................................................................................................ 12
Jaxb: marshalling and unmarshalling .......................................................................................................... 14
Parts List ...................................................................................................................................................... 14
MainDocumentPart .................................................................................................................................... 16
1
Samples ....................................................................................................................................................... 18
Creating a new docx.................................................................................................................................... 20
docx4j.properties ........................................................................................................................................ 20
Adding a paragraph of text ......................................................................................................................... 21
General strategy/approach for creating stuff ............................................................................................. 22
Formatting Properties ................................................................................................................................. 24
Creating and adding a table ........................................................................................................................ 24
Selecting your insertion/editing point; accessing JAXB nodes via XPath................................................... 25
Traversing a document ............................................................................................................................... 25
Adding a Part............................................................................................................................................... 26
Importing XHTML ........................................................................................................................................ 26
docx to (X)HTML.......................................................................................................................................... 27
docx to PDF ................................................................................................................................................. 27
Image Handling - DOCX ............................................................................................................................... 28
Manual Image Manipulation....................................................................................................................... 30
Image Handling – PPTX ............................................................................................................................... 30
Adding Headers/Footers ............................................................................................................................. 30
Protection Settings...................................................................................................................................... 30
docx Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................... 31
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 31
Field background..................................................................................................................................... 32
TOC Content Control ............................................................................................................................... 32
TOC Field Syntax ..................................................................................................................................... 33
Inserting/generating a TOC ..................................................................................................................... 35
Page Number Considerations ................................................................................................................. 36
Updating a TOC ....................................................................................................................................... 36
Known Issues........................................................................................................................................... 37
Text extraction ............................................................................................................................................ 37
Text substitution ......................................................................................................................................... 37
Text substitution via data bound content controls .................................................................................... 38
Binding extensions for repeats and conditionals.................................................................................... 39
Binding escaped XHTML (XML + CSS)...................................................................................................... 39
2
Binding other rich content ...................................................................................................................... 39
Authoring ................................................................................................................................................ 39
Mailmerge ................................................................................................................................................... 39
SmartArt ...................................................................................................................................................... 40
JAXB stuff .................................................................................................................................................... 40
Cloning .................................................................................................................................................... 40
javax.xml.bind.JAXBElement ................................................................................................................... 40
@XmlRootElement.................................................................................................................................. 41
Merging Documents and Presentations ..................................................................................................... 41
Other Support Options................................................................................................................................ 42
Colophon ..................................................................................................................................................... 42
Contacting Plutext....................................................................................................................................... 43
This guide is for docx4j 8.0.0. The 8.x series will be the last series to run under Java 1.8 (hence the
name).
The latest version of this document can always be found in docx4j on GitHub in /docs.
The most up to date copy of this document is in English. There is also a Russian version. From time to
time, it may be machine translated into other languages. Please let us know if you are interested in
writing some basic documentation in your own language (either as a contribution, or for a fee).
What is docx4j?
docx4j is a library for working with docx, pptx and xlsx files in Java. In essence, it can unzip a docx (or
pptx/xlsx) "package", and parse the XML to create an in-memory representation in Java using developer
friendly classes (as opposed to DOM or SAX).
3
docx4j is usually deployed as part of a web application (eg on Tomcat, JBOSS, WebSphere etc – see the
deployment forums).
docx4j is similar in concept to Microsoft's OpenXML SDK, which is for .NET. docx4j.NET is available for
the NET platform; see further below.
A distinctive strength of docx4j is that its in-memory representation uses JAXB, the JCP standard for Java
- XML binding. Docx4j is the only library for working with OpenXML files which uses/supports JAXB
(each of the Sun/Oracle, MOXy and IBM1 implementations). In contrast, Apache POI uses XML Beans.
(Aspose in contrast, does not provide low-level access to the underlying XML or a corresponding object
model, so "you can't do it" unless Aspose provides support for it).
docx4j is open source, available under the Apache License (v2). As an open source project, docx4j has
been substantially improved by a number of contributions (see the README or POM file for
contributors), and further contributions are always welcome. Please see the docx4j forum at
http://www.docx4java.org/forums/ for details.
There is also a commercial enterprise edition of docx4j, which comes with commercial support and
additional functionality not found in the community edition. Additional functionality includes:
• Import XHTML
• Export as (X)HTML or PDF
• Template substitution; CustomXML binding
1
IBM has their own proprietary JAXB implementation. By default, WebSphere uses com.ibm.xml.xlxp2.jaxb, which
has the concept of fallback/ MarshallerProxy. The actual implementation it uses is in com.ibm.jaxb.tools.jar.
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• Mail merge
• Apply transforms, including common filters
• Diff/compare documents, paragraphs or sdt (content controls)
• Font support (font substitution, and use of any fonts embedded in the document)
This document focuses primarily on docx4j, but the general principles are equally applicable to pptx4j
and xlsx4j.
It isn't for old binary (.doc) files. If you wish to invest your effort around docx (as is wise), but you also
need to be able to handle old doc files, see further below for your options.
GraalVM
Programs based on docx4j can be converted to a Graal native image, and run "serverless" on AWS
Lambda.
docx4j.NET
If you want to process docx/pptx/xslsx on the .NET platform, you should consider Microsoft's OpenXML
SDK. That said, docx4j can be used in a .NET environment via IKVM, and there are several reasons you
might wish to do this:
You can use docx4j.NET and the OpenXML SDK together; see InteropDocx
5
See https://www.nuget.org/packages/docx4j.NET/
The relevant parts of docx4j are generated from the ECMA schemas, with the addition of the key
Microsoft proprietary extensions. For unsupported extensions, docx4j gracefully degrades to the
specified 2007 substitutes.
It is not really intended read/write Word 2003 XML documents, although package
org.docx4j.convert.in.word2003xml is a proof of concept of importing such documents.
This discussion is generally in English. If you would like to moderate a forum in another language (for
example, French, Chinese, Spanish…), please let us know.
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A word about Jaxb
docx4j uses JAXB to marshall and unmarshall the XML parts in a docx/pptx/xlsx.
• the JAXB in Java 8 implementation; to use this, you need the docx4j-JAXB-Internal jar. You can
also use this with Java 9. But not Java 11, since Java 11 does not ship JAXB anymore.
You can also use the JAXB reference implementation (eg v2.2.4). If you want to use that in
preference to the version included in the JDK, do so using the endorsed directory mechanism.
• IBM's (in WebSphere). By default, WebSphere uses com.ibm.xml.xlxp2.jaxb, which has the
concept of fallback/ MarshallerProxy. The actual implementation it uses is in
com.ibm.jaxb.tools.jar.
To use docx4j 8.0.0, add one and only one of the following to your project:
The blog entry hello-maven-centrals [needs to be updated per above] shows you what to do, starting
with a fresh OS (Win 7 is used, but these steps would work equally well on OSX or Linux).
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Using docx4j binaries
If Maven is not for you, you can download the latest version of docx4j from
http://www.docx4java.org/docx4j/
Supporting jars can be found in the .tar.gz or zip version, or in the relevant subdirectory.
You'll need the jars from one and only one of these directories:
• docx4j-JAXB-Internal,
• docx4j-JAXB-ReferenceImpl,
• docx4j-JAXB-MOXy
docx4j dependencies
slf4j
To do anything with docx4j, you need slf4j on your classpath. As the slf4j website puts it:
The Simple Logging Facade for Java (SLF4J) serves as a simple facade or abstraction
for various logging frameworks (e.g. java.util.logging, logback, log4j) allowing the
end user to plug in the desired logging framework at deployment time.
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-api</artifactId>
<version>1.7.5</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>ch.qos.logback</groupId>
<artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
<version>1.3.0-alpha4</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.slf4j</groupId>
<artifactId>slf4j-log4j12</artifactId>
<version>1.7.5</version>
</dependency>
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other dependencies
Depending what you want to do, the other dependencies will be required.
Best practice is to include all dependencies on your class path, and be done with it.
In your development environment, you can do this using Maven, or by physically copying them all to
your classpath.
For your deployment environment, your build process ought to be set up to do this for you.
We accept pull requests; pull requests are presumed to be contributions under ASLv2 per our
contributor agreement.
Source code can also be downloaded from Maven Central (search for docx4j at search.maven.org).
Javadoc
Javadoc can be downloaded from Maven Central (search for docx4j at search.maven.org), but you’ll find
the source code much more useful! See above.
Eclipse
See docx4j-from-github-in-eclipse.
Not working?
9
Enable Maven (make sure you have Maven and its plugin installed - see Prerequisites above):
To load a document or “Flat OPC” XML file, all you have to do is:
WordprocessingMLPackage wordMLPackage =
WordprocessingMLPackage.load(new java.io.File(inputfilepath));
WordprocessingMLPackage wordMLPackage =
Docx4J.load(new java.io.File(inputfilepath));
2
If you get the error 'Access restriction: The type is not accessible due to restriction on required library rt.jar'
(perhaps using some combination of Eclipse 3.4 and/or JDK 6 update 10?), you need to go into the Build Path for
the project, Libraries tab, select the JRE System Library, and add an access rule, "Accessible, **".
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After that, you can manipulate its contents.
PresentationMLPackage presentationMLPackage =
(PresentationMLPackage)OpcPackage.load(new java.io.File(inputfilepath));
OpenXML concepts
To do anything much beyond this, you need to have an understanding of basic WordML concepts (or
PresentationML or SpreadsheetML).
According to the Microsoft Open Packaging spec, each docx document is made up of a number of “Part”
files, zipped up.
An easy way to get an understanding of this is to unzip a docx/pptx/xlsx using your favourite zip utility.
Even easier is to visit http://webapp.docx4java.org and explore your file using “PartsList”. You can also
generate code that way.
A Part is usually XML, but might not be (an image part, for example, isn't).
The parts form a tree. If a part has child parts, it must have a relationships part which identifies these.
The part which contains the main text of the document is the Main Document Part. Each Part has a
name. The name of the Main Document Part is usually "/word/document.xml".
If the document has a header, then the main document part woud have a header child part, and this
would be described in the main document part's relationships (part).
Similarly for any images. To see the structure of any given document, upload it to the PartsList webapp,
or run the "Parts List" sample (see further below).
An introduction to WordML is beyond the scope of this document. You can find a very readable
introduction in 1st edition Part 3 (Primer) at http://www.ecma-
international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-376.htm or http://www.ecma-
international.org/news/TC45_current_work/TC45_available_docs.htm (a better link for the 1st edition
(Dec 2006), since its not zipped up).
See also the free "Open XML Explained" ebook by Wouter Van Vugt.
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Specification versions
From Wikipedia:
The Office Open XML file formats were standardised between December 2006 and November
2008,
The Ecma-376.htm link also contains the 2nd edition documents (of Dec 2008), which are "technically
aligned with ISO/IEC 29500".
Office 2007 SP2 implements ECMA-376 1st Edition3; this is what docx4j started with
ISO/IEC 29500 (ECMA-376 2nd Edition) has Strict and Transitional conformance classes. Office 2010
supports4 transitional, and also has read only support for strict.
docx4j started with ECMA-376 1st Edition. Where appropriate later versions of the schemas are used.
docx4j 3.0 uses MathML 2ed, PresentationML 2ed, and SpreadsheemML 4ed transitional.
Docx4j can open documents which contain Word 2010, 2013 specific content. The key extensions are
supported. For other stuff, for example, <w14:glow w14:rad="101600"> it will look for and try to use
mc:AlternateContent contained in the document. If you use docx4j to save the document, the w14:glow
won’t be there any more (ie the docx will effectively be a Word 2007 docx).
Architecture
Docx4j has 3 layers:
1. org.docx4j.openpackaging
docx org.docx4j.openpackaging.packages.WordprocessingMLPackage
pptx org.docx4j.openpackaging.packages.PresentationMLPackage
xlsx org.docx4j.openpackaging.packages.SpreadsheetMLPackage
3
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dmahugh/archive/2009/01/16/ecma-376-implementation-notes-for-office-2007-sp2.aspx
4
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dmahugh/archive/2010/04/06/office-s-support-for-iso-iec-29500-strict.aspx
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and is responsible for unzipping the file into a set of objects inheriting from Part;
This layer is based originally on OpenXML4J (which is also used by Apache POI).
This (the jaxb content tree) is the second level of the three layered model. To explore these
first two layers for a given document, upload it to the PartsList webapp.
3. org.docx4j.model
This package builds on the lower two layers to provide extra functionality, and is being
progressively further developed.
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Jaxb: marshalling and unmarshalling
Docx4j contains a class representing each part. For example, there is a MainDocumentPart class. XML
parts inherit from JaxbXmlPart, which contains a member called jaxbElement. When you want to
work with the contents of a part, you work with its jaxbElement by using the get|setContents
method.
When you open a docx document using docx4j, docx4j automatically unmarshals the contents of each
XML part to a strongly-type Java object tree (the jaxbElement). Actually, docx4j 3.0 is lazy; it only does
this when first needed.
Similarly, if/when you tell docx4j to save these Java objects as a docx, docx4j automatically marshals the
jaxbElement in each Part.
Sometimes you will want to marshal or unmarshal things yourself. The class org.docx4j.jaxb.Context
defines all the JAXBContexts used in docx4j. Here is representative (non-exhaustive) content:
org.docx4j.wml
org.docx4j.dml
org.docx4j.dml.picture
Jc org.docx4j.dml.wordprocessingDrawing
org.docx4j.vml
org.docx4j.vml.officedrawing
org.docx4j.math
jcThemePart org.docx4j.dml
org.docx4j.docProps.core
jcDocPropsCore org.docx4j.docProps.core.dc.elements
org.docx4j.docProps.core.dc.terms
jcDocPropsCustom org.docx4j.docProps.custom
jcDocPropsExtended org.docx4j.docProps.extended
jcXmlPackage org.docx4j.xmlPackage
jcRelationships org.docx4j.relationships
jcCustomXmlProperties org.docx4j.customXmlProperties
jcContentTypes org.docx4j.openpackaging.contenttype
org.docx4j.pml
jcPML org.docx4j.dml
org.docx4j.dml.picture
You’ll find XmlUtils.marshalToString very useful as you put your code together. With this, you can easily
output the content of a JAXB object, to see what XML it represents.
Parts List
To get a better understanding of how docx4j works – and the structure of a docx document – you can
run the PartsList sample on a docx (or a pptx or xlsx). If you do, it will list the hierarchy of parts used in
that package. It will tell you which class is used to represent each part, and where that part is a
JaxbXmlPart, it will also tell you what class the jaxbElement is.
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So it’s a bit like unzipping the docx/pptx/xlsx file, but it tells you what Java objects are being used for
each part.
A more fully featured tool is the PartsList online webapp. With this, you can:
• browse through the package,
• look up what elements mean in the spec, and
• generate code.
Alternatively, you can install the Docx4j Helper Word AddIn, to generate code from within Word. See
also forum http://www.docx4java.org/forums/docx4jhelper-addin-f30/
docx4j includes convenience methods to make it easy to access commonly used parts. These include,
on the package:
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public FootnotesPart getFootnotesPart()
If a part points to any other parts, it will have a relationships part listing these other parts.
RelationshipsPart rp = part.getRelationshipsPart();
You can access those, and from there, get the part you want:
for ( Relationship r : rp.getRelationships().getRelationship() ) {
That gives access to just the parts this part points to. RelationshipsPart contains various useful utility
methods, for example:
The RelationshipsPart is the key player when it comes to adding/removing images and other parts
from your document.
The Parts object encapsulates a map of parts, keyed by PartName, but you generally shouldn’t
add/remove things here directly!
MainDocumentPart
The text of the document is to be found in the main document part.
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</w:pPr>
<w:r>
<w:t>Hello World</w:t>
</w:r>
</w:p>
:
<w:sectPr >
<w:pgSz w:w="12240" w:h="15840"/>
<w:pgMar w:top="1440" w:right="1440" w:bottom="1440" w:left="1440" w:header="708"
w:footer="708" w:gutter="0"/>
</w:sectPr>
</w:body>
</w:document>
Given:
WordprocessingMLPackage wordMLPackage
org.docx4j.wml.Document wmlDocumentEl
= (org.docx4j.wml.Document) documentPart.getJaxbElement();
Body body = wmlDocumentEl.getBody();
/**
* Convenience method to getJaxbElement().getBody().getContent()
*/
public List<Object> getContent()
@XmlRootElement(name = "p")
public class P implements Child, ContentAccessor
/**
* @since 2.7
*/
public interface ContentAccessor {
17
it is implemented by a number of objects, including:
As well as
• Hdr, Ftr
Content is generally stored in a plain old Java List. So there are familiar methods for inserting
content at the end of the list, or other location in it.
Samples
The modules:
• docx4j-samples-docx4j
• docx4j-samples-docx-diffx
• docx4j-samples-docx-export-fo
• docx4j-samples-pptx4j
• docx4j-samples-xlsx4j
• docx4j-samples-glox4
contains examples of how to do things with docx4j. You can find them in the GitHub repo.
Basics • OpenMainDocumentAndTraverse
• XPathQuery
• CreateWordprocessingMLDocument
• DisplayMainDocumentPartXml Output/Transformation
• OpenAndSaveRoundTripTest
• PartsList • ConvertOutHtml
• ConvertOutPDF
Navigating the document body
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Import (X)HTML • DocProps
• Filter (remove proof errors, w:rsid)
• AltChunkXHTMLRoundTrip • MergeDocx
• AltChunkAddOfTypeHtml • UnmarshallFromTemplate
• ConvertInXHTMLDocument
• ConvertInXHTMLFragment Flat OPC XML
Part Handling
• PartCopy
• PartLoadFromFileSystem
• PartsList
• PartsStrip
• ContentControlsAddCustomXmlDataStorage
Part
• ContentControlsXmlEdit
• ContentControlsApplyBindings
• ContentControlBindingExtensions
• ContentControlsPartsInfo
• AltChunkAddOfTypeDocx
• VariableReplace (not recommended)
• BookmarkAdd
• CommentsSample
• HeaderFooterCreate
• HeaderFooterList
• HyperlinkTest
• NumberingRestart
• SubDocument
• TableOfContentsAdd
• TemplateAttach (attach your.dotx)
Miscellaneous
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Creating a new docx
To create a new docx:
// Save it
wordMLPackage.save(new java.io.File("helloworld.docx") );
That's it.
docx4j.properties
Here is a sample short docx4j.properties file (a complete one may be copied from docx4j-samples-
resources module):
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# if App.Write=true
docx4j.App.write=true
docx4j.Application=docx4j
docx4j.AppVersion=2.7
# of the form XX.YYYY where X and Y represent numerical values
#
#docx4j.McPreprocessor=true
The page size, margin & orientation values are used when new documents are created; naturally
they don't affect an existing document you open with docx4j.
If no docx4j.properties file is found on your class path, docx4j has hard coded defaults.
You can use that method to add a paragraph using the specified style.
<w:p xmlns:w="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main">
<w:r>
<w:t>Hello world</w:t>
</w:r>
</w:p>
addStyledParagraphOfText builds the object structure “the JAXB way”, and adds it to the document.
It is based on:
if (simpleText!=null) {
org.docx4j.wml.Text t = factory.createText();
t.setValue(simpleText);
para.getContent().add(run); // ContentAccessor
}
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return para;
}
Notice that the paragraph, the run, and indeed the Body, all implement the ContentAccessor
interface:
/**
* @since 2.7
*/
public interface ContentAccessor {
The add method adds the content at the end of the document. If you want to insert it somewhere
else, you could use something like:
if (simpleText != null) {
org.docx4j.wml.Text t = factory.createText();
t.setValue(simpleText);
para.getContent().add(run);
}
mdp.getContent().add(index, para);
return para;
}
For this to work, you need to ensure that all namespaces are declared properly in the string.
To figure this out, start with a docx that contains the construct (create it in Word if necessary).
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• You can unzip it to do this blagh
• upload it to the PartsList online webapp (which can also generate code for you)
• save it as Flat OPC XML from Word (or use the ExportInPackageFormat sample), so you
have just a single XML file which you don't need to unzip
• you can use the DisplayMainDocumentPartXml to get it
• you can open it with docx4all, and look at the source view
• on Windows, if you have Visual Studio 2010, you can drag the docx onto it
• if you use Google’s Chrome web browser, try OOXML Viewer for Chrome.
Now you are ready to create this XML using JAXB. There are 2 basic ways.
The classic JAXB way is to use the ObjectFactory's .createX methods. For example:
The challenge with this is to know what object it is you are trying to create. To find this out, the
easiest way by far is to use the PartsList online webapp. Alternatively, you could run
OpenMainDocumentAndTraverse on your document, or use Eclipse to search the relevant schema
(in /xsd) or source code.
An easier way to create stuff may be to just unmarshal the XML (eg a String representing a
paragraph to be inserted into the document).
<w:p xmlns:w="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main">
<w:r>
<w:t>Hello world</w:t>
</w:r>
</w:p>
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// Assuming String xml contains the XML above
org.docx4j.wml.P para = XmlUtils.unmarshalString(xml);
The PartsList online webapp can generate appropriate code for you, using both of these approaches.
It also links to the Open XML spec documentation for the element.
Alternatively, you can install the Docx4j Helper Word AddIn, to generate code from within Word.
See also forum http://www.docx4java.org/forums/docx4jhelper-addin-f30/
Formatting Properties
Usually you format the appearance of things via an object’s properties element:
Object Method
Paragraph P.getPPr()
Run R.getRPr()
Table Tbl.getTblPr()
Table row Tr.getTrPr()
Table cell Tc.getTcPr()
In a docx, the appearance of text is basically determined by the style in the styles part which applies
to it (styles can inherit from other styles), plus any direct formatting.
Docx4j contains code for working out the effective formatting, which is used in its PDF output.
Or you can use the PartsList online webapp to generate the code.
If you are looking to fill table rows with data, consider OpenDoPE content control data binding (in
which you “repeat” a table row).
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Selecting your insertion/editing point;
accessing JAXB nodes via XPath
Sometimes, XPath is a succinct way to select the things you need to change.
These JAXB nodes are live, in the sense that if you change them, your document changes.
• the xpath expressions are evaluated against the XML document as it was when first opened
in docx4j. You can update the associated XML document once only, by passing true into
getJAXBNodesViaXPath. Updating it again (with current JAXB 2.1.x or 2.2.x) will cause an error.
• For some documents, JAXB can’t set up the XPath
If these limitations are causing you problems, try using MOXy as your JAXB implementation, or see
Traversing immediately below for a different approach.
Traversing a document
OpenMainDocumentAndTraverse.java in the samples directory shows you how to traverse the JAXB
representation of a docx.
This is an alternative to XSLT, which doesn't require marshalling to a DOM document and
unmarshalling again.
The sample uses TraversalUtil, which is a general approach for traversing the JAXB object tree in the
main document part. It can also be applied to headers, footers etc. TraversalUtil has an interface
Callback, which you use to specify how you want to traverse the nodes, and what you want to do to
them.
As noted earlier, many objects (eg the document body, a paragraph, a run), have a List containing
their content. Traversal works by iterating over these lists.
Traversing is a very useful approach for finding and altering parts of the document.
For example, it is used in docx4j 2.8.0, to provide a way of producing HTML output without using
XSLT/Xalan.
The org.docx4j.finders package contains classes which make it convenient to find various objects.
It is often superior to using XPath (owing to the limitations in the JAXB reference implementation
noted above).
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Note also, in package org.docx4j.utils:
/**
* Use this if there is only a single object type (eg just P's)
* you are interested in doing something with.
public class SingleTraversalUtilVisitorCallback
/**
* Use this if there is more than one object type (eg Tables and Paragraphs)
* you are interested in doing something with during the traversal.
public class CompoundTraversalUtilVisitorCallback
Adding a Part
What if you wanted to add a new styles part? Here's how:
When you add a part this way, it is automatically added to the source part's relationships part.
Generally, you'll also need to add a reference to the part (using its relationship id) to the Main
Document Part. This applies to images, headers and footers. (Comments, footnotes and endnotes
are a bit different, in that what you add to the main document part are references to individual
comments/footnotes/endnotes).
Importing XHTML
docx4j can convert XHTML content (paragraphs, tables, images) into native WordML, reproducing
much of the formatting.
The reason being that its main dependency – Flying Saucer - is licensed under LGPL v2.1 (as opposed
to ASL v2, which docx4j’s other dependencies use).
If you want this functionality, you have to add these jars to your classpath.
26
docx to (X)HTML
docx4j can convert a docx to HTML or XHTML. You will find the generated HTML is clean (in
comparison to the HTML Word produces).
Docx4j’s HTML output is suitable for documents which contain paragraphs, tables and images. It
can’t handle more exotic features, such as equations, SmartArt, or WordArt (DrawingML or VML).
Elsewhere on the web, you’ll find XSLT which can convert docx to HTML. That XSLT is very complex,
since it has to derive effective formatting from the hierarchy.
In contrast, in docx4j, that logic is implemented in Java. Because of this, docx4j’s XSLT is simple (Java
XSLT extension functions do the heavy lifting).
In docx4j, you can create output using XSLT, or by traversing the document in Java. The façade lets
you specify which:
If you have output logging enabled, anything which is not implemented will be obvious in the output
document. If debug level logging is not switched on, unsupported elements will be silently
dropped.
docx to PDF
Use the Docx4J facade to convert to PDF:
Docx4j offers several ways under the covers to create a PDF from a docx.
The best results are achieved using Plutext’s commercial PDF Converter, so from version 3.3.0,
docx4j defaults to using this.
From 6.1.0, docx4j defaults to localhost endpoint for PDF Converter to avoid information leakage.
The localhost endpoint will only work if you download and install the converter there! You can
download an installer from http://converter-eval.plutext.com/
If you choose to use the converter-eval.plutext.com endpoint, please only use it for light testing
purposes:-
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com.plutext.converter.URL=http://converter-eval.plutext.com:80/v1/00000000-0000-0000-
0000-000000000000/convert
<groupId>org.docx4j</groupId>
<artifactId>docx4j-export-fo</artifactId>
If you want to use the existing XSL FO + Apache FOP PDF Conversion, just add docx4j-export-fo (+
deps) to your classpath. If docx4j detects that they are present, it will revert to this FO based
conversion.
When you open the document in docx4j, docx4j will create an image part representing it.
It is also possible to create a “linked” image. In this case, the image is not embedded in the docx
package, but rather, is referenced at its external location.
Docx4j's BinaryPartAbstractImage class contains methods to allow you to create both embedded
and linked images (along with appropriate relationships).
/**
* Create an image part from the provided byte array, attach it to the
* main document part, and return it.*/
public static BinaryPartAbstractImage createImagePart(WordprocessingMLPackage
wordMLPackage,
byte[] bytes)
/**
* Create an image part from the provided byte array, attach it to the source part
* (eg the main document part, a header part etc), and return it.*/
public static BinaryPartAbstractImage createImagePart(WordprocessingMLPackage
wordMLPackage,
Part sourcePart, byte[] bytes)
/**
* Create a linked image part, and attach it as a rel of the specified source part
* (eg a header part) */
public static BinaryPartAbstractImage createLinkedImagePart(
WordprocessingMLPackage wordMLPackage, Part sourcePart, String fileurl)
For an image to appear in the document, there also needs to be appropriate XML in the main
document part. This XML can take 2 basic forms:
<w:p>
<w:r>
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<w:drawing>
<wp:inline distT="0" distB="0" distL="0" distR="0">
<wp:extent cx="3238500" cy="2362200" />
<wp:effectExtent l="19050" t="0" r="0" b="0" />
:
<a:graphic >
<a:graphicData ..>
<pic:pic >
:
<pic:blipFill>
<a:blip r:embed="rId5" />
:
</pic:blipFill>
:
</pic:pic>
</a:graphicData>
</a:graphic>
</wp:inline>
</w:drawing>
</w:r>
</w:p>
<w:p>
<w:r>
<w:pict>
<v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" .. >
<v:stroke joinstyle="miter" />
<v:formulas>
:
</v:formulas>
:
</v:shapetype>
<v:shape .. style="width:428.25pt;height:321pt">
<v:imagedata r:id="rId4" o:title="" />
</v:shape>
</w:pict>
</w:r>
</w:p>
Docx4j can create the Word 2007 w:drawing/wp:inline form for you:
/**
* Create a <wp:inline> element suitable for this image,
* which can be linked or embedded in w:p/w:r/w:drawing.
* If the image is wider than the page, it will be scaled
* automatically. See Javadoc for other signatures.
* @param filenameHint Any text, for example the original filename
* @param altText Like HTML's alt text
* @param id1 An id unique in the document
* @param id2 Another id unique in the document
* @param link true if this is to be linked not embedded */
public Inline createImageInline(String filenameHint, String altText,
int id1, int id2, boolean link)
Finally, with docx4j, you can convert images from formats unsupported by Word (eg PDF), to PNG,
which is a supported format. For this, docx4j uses ImageMagick. So if you want to use this feature,
you need to install ImageMagick. Docx4j invokes ImageMagick using:
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Process p = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("imconvert -density " + density + " -units PixelsPerInch -
png:-");
Note the name imconvert, which is used so that we don't have to supply a full path to exec. You'll
need to accommodate that.
This means that if you are moving images around, you need to take care to ensure that the
relationships remain valid.
You can manually manipulate the relationship, and you can manually manipulate the XML
referencing the relationship IDs.
Adding Headers/Footers
See the HeaderFooter sample for how to do this.
Protection Settings
There is a family of features the Office UI groups under “Protection Settings”. These include:
• mark as final
• encrypt with password
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• digital signatures
Most protection settings can be manipulated using docx4j 3.3. It contains a class ProtectionSettings:
/**
* The Protection Settings which are common across
* docx, pptx, xlsx, namely mark as final, encrypt with password,
* and digital signature. Subclasses implement the
* docx and xlsx format specific features.
*
* @author jharrop
* @since 3.3.0
*/
public abstract class ProtectionSettings
• WordprocessingMLPackage:
ProtectDocument getProtectionSettings()
• PresentationMLPackage
ProtectPresentation getProtectionSettings()
• SpreadsheetMLPackage
ProtectWorkbook getProtectionSettings()
Introduction
A table of contents is often included in a docx file.
Where docx4j or other code is used to modify the document, the TOC may need updating since page
numbers may be wrong, or entries added, deleted or modified.
In some cases, it is sufficient to leave the TOC updating until the docx is opened in Microsoft Word.
In Word, the user can manually issue the command to update the table. Or an AutoOpen macro can
be used. For more on this, see
http://openxmldeveloper.org/blog/b/openxmldeveloper/archive/2011/08/24/updating-the-toc-in-
a-wordprocessingml-document-using-an-autoopen-macro.aspx
In other scenarios, it is desirable to update the TOC programmatically. For example, prior to PDF
output. This TOC helper is intended to help here.
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Field background
Historically, Word has used a field code to specify a table of contents.
date-and-time:
CREATEDATE | DATE | EDITTIME | PRINTDATE | SAVEDATE | TIME
document-automation:
COMPARE | DOCVARIABLE | GOTOBUTTON | IF | MACROBUTTON | PRINT
document-information:
AUTHOR | COMMENTS | DOCPROPERTY | FILENAME | FILESIZE | INFO
| KEYWORDS | LASTSAVEDBY | NUMCHARS | NUMPAGES | NUMWORDS | SUBJECT
| TEMPLATE | TITLE
equations-and-formulas:
= formula | ADVANCE | EQ | SYMBOL
index-and-tables:
INDEX | RD | TA | TC | TOA | TOC | XE
links-and-references:
AUTOTEXT | AUTOTEXTLIST | BIBLIOGRAPHY | CITATION | HYPERLINK | INCLUDEPICTURE |
INCLUDETEXT
| LINK | NOTEREF | PAGEREF | QUOTE | REF | STYLEREF
mail-merge:
ADDRESSBLOCK | ASK | COMPARE | DATABASE | FILLIN | GREETINGLINE | IF
| MERGEFIELD | MERGEREC | MERGESEQ | NEXT | NEXTIF | SET | SKIPIF
numbering:
AUTONUM | AUTONUMLGL | AUTONUMOUT | BARCODE | LISTNUM | PAGE | REVNUM
| SECTION | SECTIONPAGES | SEQ
user-information:
USERADDRESS | USERINITIALS | USERNAME
form-field:
FORMCHECKBOX | FORMDROPDOWN | FORMTEXT
32
When inserting a TOC, this docx4j TOC helper will insert it in a content control.
When updating a TOC, this docx4j TOC helper assumes the TOC is located in such a content control.
It won’t find the TOC field unless it is.
TOC
field-argument
switches
field-argument switches
switches field-argument
The TOC field supports a variety of field-specific-switches.
For example:
Of the switches in the Open XML specification, this TOC helper recognises:
\o field- Uses paragraphs formatted with all or the specified range of built-
argument in heading styles. Headings in a style range are specified by text in
this switch's field-argument using the notation specified as for \l,
where each integer corresponds to the style with a style ID of
HeadingX (e.g. 1 corresponds to Heading1). If no heading range is
specified, all heading levels used in the document are listed.
33
\t field- Uses paragraphs formatted with styles other than the built-in
argument heading styles. text in this switch's field-argument specifies those
styles as a set of comma-separated doublets, with each doublet
being a comma-separated set of style name and table of content
level. \t can be combined with \o.
\b field- Includes entries only from the portion of the document marked by
argument the bookmark named by text in this switch's field-argument.
\a field- Includes captioned items, but omits caption labels and numbers. The identifier
argument designated by text in this switch's field-argument corresponds to the caption
label.
\c field- Includes figures, tables, charts, and other items that are numbered by a SEQ
argument field. The sequence identifier designated by text in this switch's field-argument,
which corresponds to the caption label, shall match the identifier in the
corresponding SEQ field.
\d field- When used with \s, the text in this switch's field-argument defines the separator
argument between sequence and page numbers. The default separator is a hyphen (-).
\f field- Includes only those TC fields whose identifier exactly matches the text in this
argument switch's field-argument (which is typically a letter).
\l field- Includes TC fields that assign entries to one of the levels specified by text in this
argument switch's field-argument as a range having the form startLevel-endLevel, where
startLevel and endLevel are integers, and startLevel has a value equal-to or less-
than endLevel. TC fields that assign entries to lower levels are skipped.
\s field- For entries numbered with a SEQ field, adds a prefix to the page number. The
34
argument prefix depends on the type of entry. text in this switch's field-argument shall
match the identifier in the SEQ field.
Inserting/generating a TOC
Assuming you have:
WordprocessingMLPackage wordMLPackage
Then you can insert a TOC by invoking one of the generateToc methods.
For example:
tocGenerator.generateToc( 0, " TOC \\o \"1-3\" \\h \\z \\u ", false);
/**
* Generate Table of Contents as first element of body of document with default TOC instruction.
* @param body of document
* @param skipPageNumbering don't generate page numbers (useful for HTML output, or speed, or as a
fallback in case of issues)
* @return SdtBlock control
*/
public SdtBlock generateToc(boolean skipPageNumbering) throws TocException
/**
* Generate Table of Contents in the given place of body of document with given TOC instruction.
* See http://webapp.docx4java.org/OnlineDemo/ecma376/WordML/TOC.html for TOC instruction.
* @param body
* @param index
* @param instruction
* @return SdtBlock control
*/
public SdtBlock generateToc(int index, String instruction, boolean skipPageNumbering) throws
TocException
/**
* Generate Table of Contents in the given place of body of document with given TOC instruction.
* See http://webapp.docx4java.org/OnlineDemo/ecma376/WordML/TOC.html for TOC instruction.
* @param body
* @param sdt
* @param instruction
* @param skipPageNumbering don't generate page numbers (useful for HTML output, or speed, or as a
fallback in case of issues)
* @return SdtBlock control
*/
public static SdtBlock generateToc(SdtBlock sdt, String instruction, boolean skipPageNumbering)
throws TocException
35
You should ensure styles TOC1, TOC2, TOC3 etc are defined in your styles definition part, since these
are used to style TOC entries. ToC Helper will fallback to hard coded defaults for these styles, if they
are not defined. The hard coded defaults come from:
InputStream is = ResourceUtils.getResourceViaProperty(
"org.docx4j.toc.TocStyles.xml",
"org/docx4j/toc/TocStyles.xml");
From 6.1.0, docx4j defaults to localhost endpoint for PDF Converter to avoid information leakage; to
use this, you'll need to install it; You can download an installer from http://converter-
eval.plutext.com/
The position of the right aligned tab used for page numbers is calculated from the page width and
margins, which must be provided in a sectPr element somewhere following the ToC. An exception
will be thrown if a sectPr element is not present, or doesn’t contain the necessary page width /
margin information.
Updating a TOC
Assuming you have:
WordprocessingMLPackage wordMLPackage
tocGenerator.updateToc( false);
/**
* Update existing TOC in the document with TOC generated by generateToc() method.
* @param body
* @param skipPageNumbering don't generate page numbers (useful for HTML output, or speed, or as a
fallback in case of issues)
* @return SdtBlock control, or null if no TOC was founds
*/
public SdtBlock updateToc(boolean skipPageNumbering) throws TocException
36
As above, boolean skipPageNumbering argument is provided so you can control whether the helper
generates indicative page numbers or not.
Known Issues
• ToC in a table cell: the position of the right aligned tab will be calculated incorrectly.
Text extraction
A quick way to extract the text from a docx, is to use TextUtils‘
which marshals the object it is passed via a SAX ContentHandler, in order to output the text to the
Writer.
Text substitution
Text substitution is easy enough, provided the string you are searching for is represented in a
org.docx4j.wml.Text object in the form you expect.
However, that won't necessarily be the case. The string could be broken across text runs for any of
the following reasons:
This is one reason that using data bound content controls is often a better approach (see next
section).
Subject to that, you can do text substitution in a variety of ways, for example:
• traversing the main document part, and looking at the org.docx4j.wml.Text objects
• marshal to a string, search/replace in that, then unmarshall again
/**
* Give a string of wml containing ${key1}, ${key2}, return a suitable
* object.*/
public static Object unmarshallFromTemplate(String wmlTemplateString,
java.util.HashMap<String, String> mappings)
37
<w:p>
<w:r>
<w:t>My favourite colour is ${colour}.</w:t>
</w:r>
</w:p>
<w:p />
<w:p>
<w:r>
<w:t>My favourite ice cream is ${icecream}.</w:t>
</w:r>
</w:p>
Then, when you open the document in Word 2007, Word automatically populates the content
controls with the relevant XML data, which could even be an image (or with docx4j, arbitrary
XHTML). (This approach supersedes Word's legacy mail merge fields. Simple VBA for migrating a
document is available at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_office_word/archive/2007/03/28/migrating-mail-
merge-fields-to-content-controls.aspx )
This works using XPath. A data-bound content control looks something like:
<w:sdt>
<w:sdtPr>
<w:dataBinding w:xpath="/root[1]/customer[1]" w:storeItemID="{428C88D8-C0E3-44F0-B5D7-
F65D8B9F7EC9}" />
</w:sdtPr>
<w:sdtContent>
<w:r>
<w:rPr>
<w:rStyle w:val="PlaceholderText" />
</w:rPr>
<w:t>Click here to enter text.</w:t>
</w:r>
</w:sdtContent>
</w:sdt>
You XML file is stored as a part in the docx, typically with a path which is something like
customXml/item1.xml. Note: despite the word "customXml" in the path, this functionality is not
affected by the 2009 i4i patent saga.
If you have a Word document which contains data-bound content controls and your data, docx4j can
fetch the data, and place it in the relevant content controls.
This is useful if you don't want to leave it to Word to do that (for example, you are creating PDFs
with docx4j).
CustomXmlDataStoragePart customXmlDataStoragePart
= wordMLPackage.getCustomXmlDataStorageParts().get(itemId);
CustomXmlDataStorage customXmlDataStorage
= customXmlDataStoragePart.getData();
38
To apply the bindings:
customXmlDataStoragePart.applyBindings(wordMLPackage.getMainDocumentPart());
If you want to create the same document 5 times, each populated with different data, obviously
you'd need to insert new XML data first.
A content control is a repeat if it designates that its contents are to be included more than once. For
example, a row of a table for each invoice/order item, or person.
docx4j contains a mechanism for processing conditional content controls and repeats. See
http://www.opendope.org/opendope_conventions_v2.3.html for an explanation.
Authoring
To set up the bindings, you can use one of the Word Add-In from
http://www.opendope.org/implementations.html Please note that you will need to install .NET
Framework 4.0 ("full" - the "client profile" is not enough).
Mailmerge
docx4j has quite good support for processing fields of type MERGEFIELD (ie the equivalent of doing a
mailmerge operation from within Microsoft Word).
39
SmartArt
docx4j supports reading docx and pptx files which contain SmartArt.
• the layout definition for the SmartArt, either in the docx already, or from a glox file
• an XML file specifying the list of text items you want to render graphically
• an XSLT which can convert a transformed version of that XML file into a SmartArt data file.
Docx4j can be used to insert the SmartArt parts into a docx; Word or Powerpoint will then render it
when the document is opened.
• org.opendope.SmartArt.dataHierarchy
• org.docx4j.openpackaging.parts.DrawingML, and
• src/glox4j/java
JAXB stuff
Cloning
To clone a JAXB object, use one of the following methods in XmlUtils:
javax.xml.bind.JAXBElement
One annoying thing about JAXB, is that an object – say a table – could be represented as
org.docx4j.wml.Tbl (as you would expect). Or it might be wrapped in a javax.xml.bind.JAXBElement,
in which case to get the real table, you have to do something like:
if ( ((JAXBElement)o).getDeclaredType().getName().equals("org.docx4j.wml.Tbl") )
org.docx4j.wml.Tbl tbl = (org.docx4j.wml.Tbl)((JAXBElement)o).getValue();
Be careful, though. If you are intend to copy an unwrapped object into your document (rather than
just read it), you'll probably want the object to remain wrapped (JAXB usually wraps them for a
reason; without the wrapper, you might find you need an @XmlRootElement annotation in order to
be able to marshall ie save your document).
40
@XmlRootElement
Most commonly used objects have an @XmlRootElement annotation, so they can be marshalled
and unmarshalled.
If you can't add the annotation to the jaxb source code, an alternative is to marshall it using code
which is explicit about the resulting QName. For example, XmlUtils contains:
CTFootnotes footnotes =
wmlPackage.getMainDocumentPart().getFootnotesPart().getJaxbElement().getValue();
CTFtnEdn ftn = footnotes.getFootnote().get(1);
// No @XmlRootElement on CTFtnEdn, so ..
Document d = XmlUtils.marshaltoW3CDomDocument( ftn,
Context.jc, Namespaces.NS_WORD12, "footnote", CTFtnEdn.class );
Where the problematic object is something you're adding which isn't at the top of the tree, you
should add it wrapped in a JAXBElement. For example, suppose you wanted to add FldChar fldchar.
You'd create it in the ordinary way:
An easier way to do this is to find the appropriate method in the object factory (ie the method for
creating it wrapped as a JAXBElement). Use that method signature. In this example:
The easiest way is to use the PartsList online webapp to generate the relevant code.
This programming task is complicated by the need to keep other parts of the document in
sync with the data stored in paragraphs. For example, a paragraph can contain a reference
to a comment in the comments part, and if there is a problem with this reference, the
41
document is invalid. You must take care when moving / inserting / deleting paragraphs to
maintain ‘referential integrity’ within the document.
Plutext’s Enterprise edition of docx4j includes “MergeDocx” code which makes merging documents
as easy as invoking the method:
In other words, you pass a list of docx, and get a single new docx back.
The commercial edition of docx4j includes MergePptx, which you can use to concatenate
presentations.
The MergeDocx extension can also be used to process a docx which is embedded as an altChunk.
(Without the extension, you have to rely on Word to convert the altChunk to normal content, which
means if your docx contains w:altChunk, you have to round trip it through Word, before docx4j can
create a PDF or HTML out of it.)
You pass in a docx containg altChunks, and get a new docx back which doesn’t.
By purchasing services from Plutext, you support the continued development of docx4j.
Colophon
This document was written in Word 2007 (and more recently 2010), using:
The PDF and HTML versions were generated using docx4j (PDF via XSL FO and FOP).
42
Contacting Plutext
Unless you have paid for support, general “How do I” type questions should be posted directly to the
docx4j forum or StackOverflow. Plutext may post to the forum any questions it receives by email
which should have been directed to the forum.
43
Appendix 1 – Font Mapping
This section is not relevant if you are using Plutext’s PDF Converter for PDF output. The PDF
Converter uses the most appropriate fonts installed and available to it.
Note that Word silently performs font substitution. When you open an existing document in Word,
and select text in a particular font, the actual font you see on the screen won't be the font reported
in the ribbon if it is not installed on your computer or embedded in the document. To see whether
Word 2007 is substituting a font, go into Word Options > Advanced > Show Document Content and
press the "Font Substitution" button.
Word's font substitution information is not available to docx4j. As a developer, you 3 options:
To embed a font in a document, open it in Word on a computer which has the font installed (check
no substitution is occuring), and go to Word Options > Save > Embed Fonts in File.
If you want to tell docx4j to use a different font, you need to add a font mapping. The FontMapper
interface is used to do this.
On a Windows computer, font names for installed fonts are mapped 1:1 to the corresponding
physical fonts via the IdentityPlusMapper.
A font mapper contains Map<String, PhysicalFont>; to add a font mapping, as per the example in the
ConvertOutPDF sample:
You'll see the font names if you configure log4j debug level logging for
org.docx4j.fonts.PhysicalFonts
To conserve resources, you can restrict to a subset of fonts installed on your system:
44
// Here we have to do this before calling createContent,
// since that discovers fonts
String regex = null;
// Windows:
// String
// regex=".*(calibri|cour|arial|times|comic|georgia|impact|LSANS|pala|tahoma|trebuc|verdana|symbol|webdings|wingding).*";
// Mac
// String
// regex=".*(Courier New|Arial|Times New Roman|Comic Sans|Georgia|Impact|Lucida Console|Lucida
Sans Unicode|Palatino Linotype|Tahoma|Trebuchet|Verdana|Symbol|Webdings|Wingdings|MS Sans Serif|MS
Serif).*";
PhysicalFonts.setRegex(regex);
45