Elements

Elements are the building blocks of a document. Every visible thing on a page, whether it is a line of text, a table row, an image, or a spacer, is an element.

Adding elements

Inside a content(), header(), or footer() callback you receive a ColumnElement. Call .item() on it to add children fluently:

content(c -> {
    c.item().text("A paragraph of text");
    c.item().spacer(12);
    c.item().row(row -> {
        row.fillColumn(col -> col.text("Left"));
        row.fillColumn(col -> col.text("Right"));
    });
    c.item().table(table -> { /* ... */ });
})

You can also pass a pre-built element directly to .add():

c.add(new SeparatorElement().color(Colors.GRAY_400));
c.add(ImageElement.ofResource("/logo.svg").width(120));

Element types

Text

TextElement and RichTextElement for plain and mixed-style text.

Layout

Column, Row, Grid, Container, and Stack for arranging content.

Table

TableElement with typed columns, headers, rows, and per-cell styling.

Media

Images, QR codes, and barcodes.

Structural

Spacers, separators, and page breaks.

Form

Input fields and hyperlinks.

How measuring and rendering work

Every element has three internal methods that Kawa calls during generation:

measure(ctx) returns the height the element needs for the available width. Kawa uses this to decide whether the element fits on the current page.
render(ctx, renderCtx) draws the element into the PDF.
renderSlice(...) draws a partial portion when the element needs to split across a page break. Layout elements like TableElement and ColumnElement support this.

You never call these methods yourself.