ColdFusion 8.0.1 - Easier to add PDF Watermarks

ColdFusion 8.0.1 makes it much easier to add watermarks to PDF documents. In the past you had to either use an image or another PDF, but now you can simply pass in text. You can even pass in styled text. Here is a simple example.

First we generate a PDF dynamically.

<cfdocument format="pdf" name="mypdf">
<cfloop index="x" from="1" to="9">
<p>
Lorem impsum delorem battlestar galactica begins tonight and it kicks butt.
Lorem impsum delorem battlestar galactica begins tonight and it kicks butt.
Lorem impsum delorem battlestar galactica begins tonight and it kicks butt.
Lorem impsum delorem battlestar galactica begins tonight and it kicks butt.
</p>
</cfloop>
</cfdocument>

Now let's add the watermark:

<cfpdf action="addWatermark" text="<b>TOP SECRET!</b>" source="mypdf" foreground="true">

The foreground attribute is critical for PDFs made with cfdocument. If you don't use it - your watermark will be behind the text.

Now I can serve the PDF to the user:

<cfheader name="content-disposition" value="attachment; filename=""test.pdf"""/>
<cfcontent type="application/pdf" variable="#toBinary(mypdf)#">

Note the toBinary thing. This is an bug that was not fixed in CF8. Even though "mypdf" is a PDF document, when I performed the addWatermark action, I converted what was pure binary data into a PDF object recognized by ColdFusion. If I had used destinaiton= in the cfpdf tag, it would have worked fine, but I wanted to serve the document directly to the user, so I had to wrap it with toBinary.

Anyway - even with that little hitch at the end, it's far easier now to add watermarks to PDFs!

Comments (7) Apr 4, 2008 11:10 AM Views: 1483

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Interesting.

I wasn't aware of the toBinary() method.
# Posted By David Buhler | 4/4/08 11:59 AM
Thanks for the example Ray, can't wait to try it out.

One question though, the whole cfheader thing, is that file "test.pdf" an actual file placeholder that I should place in my webroot?

I've been using the following to show PDF's:
<cfcontent type="application/pdf">
<cfoutput>#pdfContent#</cfoutput>

Which works great in al browsers on windows, and mac safari is fine, but in mac firefox for some reason it will actually try to kick off a download?

I've been looking for a solution for some time now, and thought I'd try your code from the example above, but was a little confused about the whole "test.pdf" thing.

Thanks again Ray.
# Posted By Anthony Webb | 4/4/08 1:09 PM
No, you dont make test.pdf. This tells the code to serve the file up with a name already (test.pdf).
# Posted By Raymond Camden | 4/4/08 1:13 PM
Thanks for the clarification Ray. I'll give it a shot.
# Posted By Anthony Webb | 4/4/08 1:23 PM
Oh yes!! BSG, can't wait!! :-)
# Posted By Joshua Curtiss | 4/4/08 1:35 PM
@Ray. Are you readfy to order your BSGF pizza tonight?

Just call up and say "I want to order a fracking pizza." They will ask "How long has Starbuck been gone?" and you say "Just over two months."

Yes, I know you think it's a prank.
# Posted By Gary Funk | 4/4/08 5:14 PM
Regarding Anthony Webbs firefox issue could it be the download pdf extension running. This extension causes firefox to offer to download the file rather than open a pdf that is clicked on. Just a thought,
# Posted By t b | 4/5/08 4:51 AM
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