C# Asp.net RazorPdf / iTextSharp image from base64

Question

I'm using MvcRazorToPdf in my Asp.net MVC5 project to create pdfs from model. That works fine, but I want to include an image from a base64 string, because I don't want to save the generated image.

System.Drawing.Image img = generator.GenerateImage();
string imageBase64Data = Convert.ToBase64String(Helper.ImageToByteArray(img));
string imageDataURL = string.Format("data:image/png;base64,{0}", imageBase64Data);
ViewBag.Image = imageDataURL;

return new PdfActionResult(myobject);

...

<img src="@ViewBag.Image" />

Working fine, if showing the image in a normal view, but the pdf doesn't show the image.

Thank you for help or alternatives.

Answer 1

In MvcRazorToPdf you can only use the full (local) path to the image file like this:

@model MvcRazorToPdfExample.Models.PdfExample
@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Index";
    Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_PdfLayout.cshtml";
    var imagePath = Server.MapPath("~/Content/Images");
}

 <img src="@imagePath\avatar.jpg" alt="mug shot" />

Base64 images are not supported as far as I know. I copied the snippet above from the example view at: https://github.com/andyhutch77/MvcRazorToPdf/blob/master/MvcRazorToPdfExample/Views/Pdf/Index.cshtml

Answer 2

Probably I'm answering too late. If your needs for a base64 string based image is to avoid store the image in the filesystem, you can write an Action that returns the image file and reference that url in the img tag:

public ActionResult GetImage(/*probably some id*/)
{ 
    System.Drawing.Image img = generator.GenerateImage();
    ImageConverter converter = new ImageConverter();
    var bytes = (byte[])converter.ConvertTo(img, typeof(byte[]));
    return File(bytes, "image/jpg"); // if your image is jpg
}

And then your razor will look like:

<img src='@Url.Action("GetImage", "Images", null, Request.Url.Scheme)' />

Note the use of Request.Url.Scheme Url.Action overload is VERY important, because iTextSharp needs the full qualified URL.