PDF header not found exception

Question

i'm working with itext 7 and java and my problem is that exception when i try to open an existing pdf file. This is my code

    JFileChooser load = new JFileChooser();
    load.setFileFilter(new PdfFilter());
    load.showOpenDialog(this);
    String loadPath = load.getSelectedFile().getAbsolutePath();
//some stuff here....


    path = path.concat(".pdf");//path is declared above


    try {
        pdf = new PdfDocument(new PdfReader(loadPath), new PdfWriter(path));
    } catch (IOException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(ParagrafoFrame.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
    }

    doc = new Document(pdf);
    doc.add(new Paragraph("test"));
    doc.close();

why doesn't it work?

here the stack trace

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" com.itextpdf.io.IOException: PDF header not found. at com.itextpdf.io.source.PdfTokenizer.getHeaderOffset(PdfTokenizer.java:223) at com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfReader.getOffsetTokeniser(PdfReader.java:1075) at com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfReader.(PdfReader.java:120) at com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfReader.(PdfReader.java:154) at com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfReader.(PdfReader.java:170) at com.antonionappi.editorpdf.ParagrafoFrame.continuaButtonActionPerformed(ParagrafoFrame.java:1339) at com.antonionappi.editorpdf.ParagrafoFrame.access$2400(ParagrafoFrame.java:46) at com.antonionappi.editorpdf.ParagrafoFrame$25.actionPerformed(ParagrafoFrame.java:404) at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2022) at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2348) at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:402) at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.setPressed(DefaultButtonModel.java:259) at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicButtonListener.mouseReleased(BasicButtonListener.java:252) at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:6533) at javax.swing.JComponent.processMouseEvent(JComponent.java:3324) at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:6298) at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:2236) at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4889) at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2294) at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4711) at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:4888) at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:4525) at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:4466) at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2280) at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2746) at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4711) at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:758) at java.awt.EventQueue.access$500(EventQueue.java:97) at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:709) at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:703) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:80) at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:90) at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:731) at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:729) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:80) at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:728) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:201) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:116) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:105) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:101) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:93) at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:82)

Please have a thorough look through your code and make sure you attached the correct version. Do you really use path and loadPath variables? The exception tells us that the path you provided doesn't seem to be a correct PDF file. Can you make a self-contained example of trying to load PDF file with a hard-coded path and attach the PDF? — Alexey Subach
path is a substring of loadPath so it's declared, I split pdf = new PdfDocument(new PdfReader(loadPath), new PdfWriter(path)); in pdf1 = new PdfDocument(new PdfReader(loadPath)); pdf = new PdfDocument(new PdfWriter(path)); and now it works — thenoobdeveloper

Yuliia Ashomok Yuliia Ashomok · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-20T23:14:29

I my case I forgot to close docs:

PdfDocument pdfDoc = new PdfDocument(new PdfWriter(DEST));
Document doc = new Document(pdfDoc);
//...
doc.close(); //HAVE YOU CLOSE?
pdfDoc.close(); //HAVE YOU CLOSE?

PDF header not found exception

1 Answers