# UIGraphicsPDFRenderer A graphics renderer for creating PDFs. ``` class UIGraphicsPDFRenderer ``` ## Overview You can use PDF renderers to create PDF files, without having to manage Core Graphics contexts. To render a PDF: 1. Optionally create a [`UIGraphicsPDFRendererFormat`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererFormat) object to specify nondefault parameters the renderer should use to create its context. 2. Instantiate a [`UIGraphicsPDFRenderer`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer) object, providing the dimensions of the output image and a format object. The renderer uses sensible defaults for the current device if you don’t provide format object, as demonstrated in [`Creating a graphics PDF renderer`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer#Creating-a-graphics-PDF-renderer). 3. Choose one of the rendering methods depending on your desired output: [`pdfData(actions:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer/pdfData(actions:)) outputs the PDF in the form of a object, and [`writePDF(to:withActions:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer/writePDF(to:withActions:)) saves the PDF as a file directly to disk. 4. Provide Core Graphics drawing instructions within the closure associated with your chosen method, as shown in [`Creating a PDF with a PDF renderer`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer#Creating-a-PDF-with-a-PDF-renderer). 5. Optionally, you can create a multi-page PDF, using the approach shown in [`Adding pages`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer#Adding-pages). 6. Optionally, add links to your PDF to make navigation easy, as shown in [`Creating internal links`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer#Creating-internal-links). After initializing a PDF renderer, you can use it to draw multiple PDFs with the same configuration. ### Creating a graphics PDF renderer Create a PDF renderer, providing the bounds of the PDF page. ```objc UIGraphicsPDFRenderer *renderer = [[UIGraphicsPDFRenderer alloc] initWithBounds:CGRectMake(0, 0, 500, 300)]; ``` You can instead use one of the other [`UIGraphicsPDFRenderer`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer) initializers to specify a renderer format ([`UIGraphicsPDFRendererFormat`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererFormat)) in addition to the bounds. This allows you to configure the underlying Core Graphics context with custom PDF document info. If you don’t provide a format, the renderer uses the [`default()`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsRendererFormat/default()) format, which creates a context best suited for the current device. ### Creating a PDF with a PDF renderer Use the [`pdfData(actions:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer/pdfData(actions:)) method to create a PDF with the PDF renderer you created above. This takes a block that represents the drawing actions. Within this block, the renderer creates a Core Graphics context using the parameters provided during renderer initialization, and sets this to be the current context. Before issuing PDF drawing instructions, you must create a page with a call to either the [`beginPage()`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext/beginPage()) method or [`beginPage(withBounds:pageInfo:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext/beginPage(withBounds:pageInfo:)) method on the supplied [`UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext). ```objc NSData *pdf = [renderer PDFDataWithActions:^(UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext * _Nonnull context) { [context beginPage]; NSDictionary *attributes = @{NSFontAttributeName : [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:150]}; NSString *text = @"Hello!"; [text drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, 500, 200) withAttributes:attributes];}]; ``` The drawing actions closure takes a single argument of type [`UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext). This provides access to some high-level drawing functions, such as [`fill(_:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsRendererContext/fill(_:)) through the [`UIGraphicsRendererContext`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsRendererContext) superclass. > Note: > This code uses a drawing method on . If you want to create a PDF with more text, consider using [TextKit](https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Miscellaneous/Conceptual/iPhoneOSTechOverview/iPhoneOSTechnologies/iPhoneOSTechnologies.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007898-CH3-SW11) or [Core Text](https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/StringsTextFonts/Conceptual/TextAndWebiPhoneOS/LowerLevelText-HandlingTechnologies/LowerLevelText-HandlingTechnologies.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009542-CH15-SW3), both of which provide extensive text layout functionality. The above code creates the following result:  ### Adding pages Add multiple pages to your PDF through repeated calls to the [`beginPage()`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext/beginPage()) method on the [`UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext) provided to the drawing block. ```objc NSData *pdf = [renderer PDFDataWithActions:^(UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext * _Nonnull context) { NSDictionary *attributes = @{NSFontAttributeName : [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:150]}; for (int page = 1; page < 4; page++) { [context beginPage]; NSString *text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Page %d", page]; [text drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, 500, 200) withAttributes:attributes]; }}]; ``` Use the [`beginPage(withBounds:pageInfo:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext/beginPage(withBounds:pageInfo:)) method instead of the [`beginPage()`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext/beginPage()) method if you want to override the default properties for the new page. This code creates a PDF with three pages, each of which contains the current page number as large text, as shown in the following image.  ### Creating internal links You can create internal links, known as destinations, in PDFs. A complete link has two components: - A named destination. This is a point on a PDF page. You create these with the [`addDestination(withName:at:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext/addDestination(withName:at:)) method on [`UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext). - A link region. This is a rectangle on a PDF page, which when tapped, instructs the PDF viewing app to jump to a specific named destination. You create these with the [`setDestinationWithName(_:for:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext/setDestinationWithName(_:for:)) method on [`UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext), providing the name of the destination to jump to, and the bounds of the active link region. The following code demonstrates how to use destinations with a PDF renderer by showing how to create links that jump to the next page. ```objc NSData *pdf = [renderer PDFDataWithActions:^(UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext * _Nonnull context) { NSDictionary *attributes = @{NSFontAttributeName : [UIFont boldSystemFontOfSize:150]}; NSString *nextPage = @"Next Page ↠"; CGRect nextPageRect = CGRectMake(350, 250, 150, 40); NSDictionary *nextPageAttributes = @{ NSFontAttributeName : [UIFont systemFontOfSize:25], NSBackgroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor redColor], NSForegroundColorAttributeName : [UIColor whiteColor] }; for (int page = 1; page < 4; page++) { [context beginPage]; NSString *pageNumber = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"Page %d", page]; [pageNumber drawInRect:CGRectMake(0, 0, 500, 200) withAttributes:attributes]; [nextPage drawInRect:nextPageRect withAttributes:nextPageAttributes]; [context addDestinationWithName:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"page-%d", page] atPoint:CGContextConvertPointToDeviceSpace(context.CGContext, CGPointZero)]; [context setDestinationWithName:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"page-%d", page+1] forRect:CGContextConvertRectToDeviceSpace(context.CGContext, nextPageRect)]; } }]; ``` This code adds large red labels that jump from the current page to the next page when clicked. Each page has a destination with names of the form `page-1`, positioned at the origin. The bounding box for the next-page label is the link to the destination on the following page. > Note: > The ``doc://com.apple.uikit/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext/addDestination(withName:at:)`` and ``doc://com.apple.uikit/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext/setDestinationWithName(_:for:)`` methods on ``doc://com.apple.uikit/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRendererContext`` use the underlying PDF coordinate space, which has its y-axis flipped with respect to the coordinate system used by Core Graphics. You can translate between the two using the property on , as shown in the code. The above code results in the following PDF:  ## Topics ### Creating a PDF renderer [`- initWithBounds:format:`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer/init(bounds:format:)) Creates a new graphics renderer with the specified bounds and format. ### Managing the PDF data [`- PDFDataWithActions:`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer/pdfData(actions:)) Creates a PDF from a set of drawing instructions and returns it as a data object. [`- writePDFToURL:withActions:error:`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer/writePDF(to:withActions:)) Creates a PDF from a set of drawing instructions and saves it to a specified URL. [`DrawingActions`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsPDFRenderer/DrawingActions) A closure for drawing PDF content. ## Relationships ### Conforms To [`NSObjectProtocol`](/documentation/ObjectiveC/NSObjectProtocol) [`Equatable`](/documentation/Swift/Equatable) [`CustomStringConvertible`](/documentation/Swift/CustomStringConvertible) [`SendableMetatype`](/documentation/Swift/SendableMetatype) [`Sendable`](/documentation/Swift/Sendable) [`Hashable`](/documentation/Swift/Hashable) [`CustomDebugStringConvertible`](/documentation/Swift/CustomDebugStringConvertible) [`CVarArg`](/documentation/Swift/CVarArg) ### Inherits From [`UIGraphicsRenderer`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGraphicsRenderer) --- Copyright © 2026 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. | [Terms of Use](https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/terms/site.html) | [Privacy Policy](https://www.apple.com/privacy/privacy-policy)