Table gets rendered differently if put as header or in body content

[migthymax]

If the table from my example is written as header it is differently rendered compared to aa written in the body content of the PDF. Here an example code:

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import com.lowagie.text.Chunk;
import com.lowagie.text.Document;
import com.lowagie.text.Element;
import com.lowagie.text.PageSize;
import com.lowagie.text.Phrase;
import com.lowagie.text.Rectangle;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfPCell;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfPTable;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfPageEventHelper;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

public class TableTest {

    public static void main( final String[] args ) throws Throwable {
        try( final FileOutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream( "test.pdf" ) ) {
            final Document pdfDocument = new Document( PageSize.A4 );

            final PdfWriter pdfWriter = PdfWriter.getInstance( pdfDocument,outputStream );
            pdfWriter.setPdfVersion( PdfWriter.VERSION_1_7 );

            final PdfPTable header = new PdfPTable( 5 );
            header.setWidths( new int[] { 30,30,30,30,30 } );
            header.setHeaderRows( 0 );
            header.getDefaultCell().setPadding( 1 );
            header.setSplitLate( false );
            header.setSplitRows( true );

            PdfPCell cell = new PdfPCell( new Phrase( "Gets truncated" ) );
            cell.setColspan( 1 );
            cell.setRowspan( 5 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_CENTER );
            header.addCell( cell );

            cell = new PdfPCell( new Phrase( "Text A" ) );
            cell.setColspan( 1 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_LEFT );
            header.addCell( cell );

            cell = new PdfPCell( new Phrase( "Text B" ) );
            cell.setColspan( 2 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_CENTER );
            header.addCell( cell );

            cell = new PdfPCell( new Phrase( "Text C" ) );
            cell.setColspan( 1 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_CENTER );
            header.addCell( cell );

            cell = new PdfPCell( new Phrase( "" ) );
            cell.setColspan( 4 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_TOP );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_CENTER );
            header.addCell( cell );

            Phrase phrase = new Phrase();
            phrase.add( new Phrase( "Text D" ) );
            phrase.add( Chunk.NEWLINE );
            phrase.add( new Phrase( "Text E" ) );
            phrase.add( Chunk.NEWLINE );

            cell = new PdfPCell( phrase );
            cell.setColspan( 3 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_CENTER );
            header.addCell( cell );

            cell = new PdfPCell( new Phrase( "Text F" ) );
            cell.setColspan( 1 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_CENTER );
            header.addCell( cell );

            cell = new PdfPCell( new Phrase( "" ) );
            cell.setColspan( 4 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_TOP );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_CENTER );
            header.addCell( cell );

            cell = new PdfPCell( new Phrase( "Text G" ) );
            cell.setColspan( 1 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_LEFT );
            header.addCell( cell );

            cell = new PdfPCell( new Phrase( "Text H" ) );
            cell.setColspan( 2 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_CENTER );
            header.addCell( cell );

            phrase = new Phrase();
            phrase.add( new Phrase( "Text I" ) );
            phrase.add( Chunk.NEWLINE );
            phrase.add( new Phrase( "Text J" ) );
            phrase.add( Chunk.NEWLINE );

            cell = new PdfPCell( phrase );
            cell.setColspan( 1 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOX );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_MIDDLE );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_CENTER );
            header.addCell( cell );

            cell = new PdfPCell( new Phrase( "" ) );
            cell.setColspan( 6 );
            cell.setRowspan( 1 );
            cell.setBorder( Rectangle.BOTTOM );
            cell.setPadding( 1 );
            cell.setVerticalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_TOP );
            cell.setHorizontalAlignment( Element.ALIGN_CENTER );
            header.addCell( cell );

            header.setTotalWidth( pdfDocument.right() - pdfDocument.left() );

            final float haederHeight = header.getTotalHeight() * 2f;

            pdfDocument.setMargins( pdfDocument.leftMargin(),pdfDocument.rightMargin(),pdfDocument.left() + haederHeight,pdfDocument.bottomMargin() );

            pdfWriter.setPageEvent( new PdfPageEventHelper() {

                @Override
                public void onEndPage( final PdfWriter writer,final Document document ) {
                    header.writeSelectedRows( 0,-1,pdfDocument.leftMargin(),pdfDocument.top() + haederHeight,writer.getDirectContent() );
                }
            } );

            pdfDocument.open();
            pdfDocument.add( header );
            pdfDocument.close();
        }
    }
}

Here the generated example PDF using the latest master:

test.pdf

[asturio]

Pull requests are welcome.

[migthymax]

I would fix it, and create a PR, but seriously I'm not that deep into PDF file format. I tried to figure it out, but I have no idea where actually start to look, and why the generated PDF is faulty. So any hints?

[asturio]

That's OK. I'm also not sure what is producing this behavior. A table in a header or footer should be rendered the same as in the body. Maybe the problem is the height of the table, which is bigger than the height of the footer/header. And this may break the table.