How to set background image in PdfPCell in iText?

I am currently using iText to generate PDF reports. I want to set a medium size image as a background in PdfPCell instead of using background color. Is this possible?

Posted on StackOverflow on Jun 11, 2014 by user1283475

You need to create your own implementation of the PdfPCellEvent interface, for instance:

JAVA

class ImageBackgroundEvent implements PdfPCellEvent {

    protected Image image;

    public ImageBackgroundEvent(Image image) {
        this.image = image;
    }

    public void cellLayout(PdfPCell cell, Rectangle position,
            PdfContentByte[] canvases) {
        try {
            PdfContentByte cb = canvases[PdfPTable.BACKGROUNDCANVAS];
            image.scaleAbsolute(position);
            image.setAbsolutePosition(position.getLeft(), position.getBottom());
            cb.addImage(image);
        } catch (DocumentException e) {
            throw new ExceptionConverter(e);
        }
    }

Then you need to create an instance of this event and declare it to the cell that needs this background:

JAVA

Image image = Image.getInstance(IMG1);
cell.setCellEvent(new ImageBackgroundEvent(image));

Take a look at the ImageBackground example for the full code.