[Java] How to convert Excel to PDF using Java

Do you always need to share your Excel workbook with people who don’t have MS Office installed on their system? Do you always need your Excel spreadsheets to keep their format and look exactly the same when opened on different systems? If yes, Converting Excel to PDF will be a perfect way to deal with these problems.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to convert Excel to PDF using Java code and Spire.XLS for Java API from the following aspects.

l  Converting the whole Excel workbook to PDF

l  Converting each worksheet in Excel file to different PDF

l  Converting selected range in worksheet to PDF

l  Converting CSV file to PDF

Spire.XLS for Java is a professional Java Excel API that enables developers to create, manage, manipulate, convert and print Excel worksheets without using Microsoft Office or Microsoft Excel. At the same time, it also supports all three operation systems – Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

Add Spire.Xls.jar as dependency

Method 1: Download Free Spire.XLS for Java pack, unzip it and import Spire.Xls.jar located in the “lib” folder in your project as a dependency. You can find the steps from the following screenshot.

Method 2: If you are creating a Maven project, please specify e-iceblue Maven Repository configuration and define Free Spire.XLS for Java API dependency in your pom.xml as follows.

<repositories>

        <repository>

            <id>com.e-iceblue</id>

            <name>e-iceblue</name>

            <url>http://repo.e-iceblue.com/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>

        </repository>

</repositories>

<dependencies>

    <dependency>

        <groupId> e-iceblue </groupId>

        <artifactId>spire.xls.free</artifactId>

        <version>2.2.0</version>

    </dependency>

</dependencies>

Finally, for IDEA, you need to click “Import Changes” to import the Spire.PDF jars, and for Eclipse, you just need to click the “Save” button.

Converting the whole Excel workbook to PDF

You first need to create a workbook and load an Excel example file, and then use the setSheetFitToPage method to adjust the width of worksheet. Finally, save the whole file to PDF using the workbook. saveToFile method.

import com.spire.xls.*;

public class WholeToPDF {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //Create a Workbook and load an Excel file
        Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
        workbook.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Test1\\Desktop\\Sample.xlsx");

        //Fit to page
        workbook.getConverterSetting().setSheetFitToPage(true);

        //Save to PDF file
        workbook.saveToFile("output/WholeToPDF.pdf",FileFormat.PDF);
        }
    }

Output

Convert each worksheet to different PDF

Spire.XLS for Java offers a method of worksheet. SaveToPdf to convert each worksheet to PDF.

import com.spire.xls.*;

public class EachWorksheetToPDF {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        //Create a workbook and load an Excel file

        Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

        workbook.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Test1\\Desktop\\Sample.xlsx");

        //Loop through all worksheets and save to different PDF files

        for(int i = 0; i < workbook.getWorksheets().getCount(); i ++)

        {

            Worksheet worksheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(i);

            String result = "output/sheet-" + i + "-result.pdf";

            worksheet.saveToPdf(result);

        }
       }

 } 

Output

Converting selected Range in worksheet to PDF
The following are the steps to convert selected range in worksheet to PDF.
·      Create a workbook and load an Excel example file
·      Add a new sheet and copy the cells you want to convert to the new sheet.
·      Using the method autoFitColumns() to automatically fit the width.
·      Get the new sheet and save it to PDF file.
import com.spire.xls.*;

public class SelectedRangeToPDF {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        //Create a workbook and load an Excel file

        Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

        workbook.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Test1\\Desktop\\Sample.xlsx");

        //Add a new sheet to workbook

        workbook.getWorksheets().add("NewSheet");

        //Copy your area to new sheet

    workbook.getWorksheets().get(0).getCellRange("A1:C7").copy(workbook.getWorksheets().get(1).getCellRange("A11:C17"), true );

        //Auto fit column width

        workbook.getWorksheets().get(1).getCellRange("A1:F17").autoFitColumns();

        //Save the document

        String output = "SelectedRangeToPDF.pdf";

        Worksheet worksheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(1);

        String result = "output/selectedRangeToPDF.pdf";

        worksheet.saveToPdf(result);

    }

}
Output

Converting CSV to PDF
A Comma Separated Values (CSV) file is a plain text file that contains a list of data, and we 
can open it in spreadsheet programs (such as Microsoft Excel), which make them easier to read. 
import com.spire.xls.*;

public class CsvToPDF {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        String inputFile ="C:\\Users\\Test1\\Desktop\\Sample.csv";

        //Create a workbook and load a csv file

        Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

        workbook.loadFromFile( inputFile,",", 1, 1);

        //Set the setSheetFitToPage property as true

        workbook.getConverterSetting().setSheetFitToPage(true);

        //Get the first worksheet

        Worksheet sheet = workbook.getWorksheets().get(0);

        //AutoFit a column if the characters in the column exceed column width

        for (int i = 1; i < sheet.getColumns().length; i++)

        {

            sheet.autoFitColumn(i);

        }
        //Save to PDF document

        String output = "output/CSVToPDF.pdf";

        workbook.saveToFile(output,  FileFormat.PDF);
    }

}
Output

Conclusion
In this article, we can learn how to easily convert Excel to PDF using Spire.XLS for Java.
If there are still some problems about Java code, you can leave a note on our Forum.