A PDF workaround - ETOOBUSY

TL;DR

A workaround for A PDF void.

In latest post A PDF void I expressed my surprise for not finding Perl modules that allow creating PDF files from scratch that include forms.

Not too much of a miss, anyway. PDF::Builder is very supporting in taking pre-existing PDF stuff and adding more stuff onto it, e.g. strings in key places.

The SYNOPSIS is just eye candy and a joy to read. So much so that I’ll steal it entirely:

use PDF::Builder;
 
# Create a blank PDF file
$pdf = PDF::Builder->new();
 
# Open an existing PDF file
$pdf = PDF::Builder->open('some.pdf');
 
# Add a blank page
$page = $pdf->page();
 
# Retrieve an existing page
$page = $pdf->open_page($page_number);
 
# Set the page size
$page->size('Letter');  # or mediabox('Letter')
 
# Add a built-in font to the PDF
$font = $pdf->font('Helvetica-Bold'); # or corefont('Helvetica-Bold')
 
# Add an external TrueType (TTF) font to the PDF
$font = $pdf->font('/path/to/font.ttf');  # or ttfont() in this case
 
# Add some text to the page
$text = $page->text();
$text->font($font, 20);
$text->position(200, 700);  # or translate()
$text->text('Hello World!');
 
# Save the PDF
$pdf->saveas('/path/to/new.pdf');

Enough said, cheers!

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