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PlantUML Advanced usage PDF Support

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PDF Support

Some users have asked for the ability to generate diagrams directly in PDF format. Unfortunately, this is not an easy task, and would require the need of several external libraries (Batik and FOP).

This goes against the wish to keep plantuml.jar file not too big and to facilitate its integration with other products.

Fortunately, it is possible to use some kind of dynamic linkage, so that those libraries are not needed for compilation or execution if not present. A SVG file is first generated, then translated to PDF.

Note that in some case, shadowing is an issue for PDF export, so you can find here a way to disable it.

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Make it work

So by default PDF generation is not enabled. This will probably fit a majority of users' needs.

If you want to use PDF, you have to download the following files:

You have to download those files from Batik and FOP web site.

For testing purposes only, those files have been put together in a zip here.

Those files have to be in the very same folder as plantuml.jar (this is important).

Now, you can use the -tpdf flag in the command line: 

java -jar plantuml.jar -tpdf diagram.txt

Or format="pdf" in the ant task: 

<!-- task definition -->
<taskdef name="plantuml" classname="net.sourceforge.plantuml.ant.PlantUmlTask" classpath="plantuml.jar" />
<!-- process diagram.txt file -->
<target name="images">
<plantuml format="pdf">
<fileset file="diagram.txt" />
</plantuml>
</target>

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Installation of the new libraries on a Unix system

The following script will install the new libraries required to convert to PDF. It was tested on a Mac but should work as well on Linux: 

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# These libraries will have to go in the same location where plantuml.jar is
PLANT_UML_WITH_PATH=$(awk '{for (i=1; i<=NF; i++) if ($i=="-jar") print $(i+1)}' "$(which plantuml)")
PLANT_UML_DIR=$(dirname "$PLANT_UML_WITH_PATH")

mapfile -t FILES_TO_REMOVE < <(find "$PLANT_UML_DIR" -type f ! -name "plantuml.jar")

if (( ${#FILES_TO_REMOVE[@]} == 0 )); then
    echo "No files to remove."
    #exit 0
else
    echo "The following files will be removed:"
    printf '%s\n' "${FILES_TO_REMOVE[@]}"

    read -p "Do you want to continue? (y/n) " -n 1 -r
    echo
    if [[ $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
        find "$PLANT_UML_DIR" -type f ! -name "plantuml.jar" -delete
        echo "Files removed."
    else
        echo "Operation cancelled."
        exit 0
    fi
fi

# plantuml.jar uses these exact filenames in its manifest Class-Path.
curl -fL -o "$PLANT_UML_DIR/batik-all-1.7.jar" https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/xmlgraphics/batik-all/1.17/batik-all-1.17.jar
#curl -fL -o "$PLANT_UML_DIR/batik-rasterizer-1.17.jar" https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/xmlgraphics/batik-rasterizer/1.17/batik-rasterizer-1.17.jar
curl -fL -o "$PLANT_UML_DIR/fop.jar" https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/xmlgraphics/fop-transcoder-allinone/2.9/fop-transcoder-allinone-2.9.jar
curl -fL -o "$PLANT_UML_DIR/xmlgraphics-commons-1.4.jar" https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/xmlgraphics/xmlgraphics-commons/2.9/xmlgraphics-commons-2.9.jar
curl -fL -o "$PLANT_UML_DIR/commons-io-1.3.1.jar" https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/commons-io/commons-io/2.15.1/commons-io-2.15.1.jar
curl -fL -o "$PLANT_UML_DIR/commons-logging-1.0.4.jar" https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/commons-logging/commons-logging/1.2/commons-logging-1.2.jar
curl -fL -o "$PLANT_UML_DIR/xml-apis-ext-1.3.04.jar" https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/xml-apis/xml-apis-ext/1.3.04/xml-apis-ext-1.3.04.jar

ls -l "$PLANT_UML_DIR"/*.jar

echo "Script finished successfully."

Example to run the script and convert a file: 

chmod +x download_pdf_conversion_libs.sh
./download_pdf_conversion_libs.sh
plantuml -tpdf file_to_convert.wsd