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.
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>