For November’s Xojo Year of Code 2025, I’ve created a fun and practical project: a PDF Postcard Generator. This desktop application allows you to easily design personalized holiday postcards by combining a chosen image with a custom message, then exporting it as a ready-to-share PDF. It’s a fantastic way to see Xojo’s capabilities in handling graphics, file operations, and PDF creation, all within a simple, intuitive interface.
What this project includes
- A
DesktopWindow(wMain) that provides a clean user interface for selecting an image, inputting your message, and generating the final PDF postcard. - Intelligent image handling that supports common formats like JPG, PNG, and GIF. The application automatically crops your selected image to a perfect 4:6 aspect ratio, ensuring it fits the postcard layout beautifully.
- Robust PDF generation, leveraging Xojo’s
PDFDocumentandGraphicsclasses to embed images and render styled text effectively onto the document. - Customizable message rendering, which includes a subtle drop shadow effect for improved readability and a polished look against your background image.
- Automated saving of the generated PDF postcard to your desktop, complete with a unique, timestamped filename, and immediate opening of the file in your system’s default viewer for quick review.
Download
You can download the entire Xojo project from GitHub.
This project illustrates Xojo’s robust capabilities for handling graphics and generating PDFs, demonstrating how straightforward it is to create functional and creative desktop applications. We encourage you to use this postcard generator as a springboard for your own ideas. Perhaps you could expand it by adding features like custom fonts, multiple message fields, or even integration with a data source for personalized bulk postcards. Or, consider how Xojo’s PDF features could power entirely new applications for reporting, invoicing, or custom document creation. We’d love to see what you build!
Gabriel is a digital marketing enthusiast who loves coding with Xojo to create cool software tools for any platform. He is always eager to learn and share new ideas!
Year of Code Project
- Year of Code: Kickoff
- January Project: Desktop Apps | Forum Discussion
- February Project: Database Apps | Forum Discussion
- March Project: Web Apps | Forum Discussion
- April Project: User Interface | Forum Discussion
- May Project: Mobile Apps | Forum Discussion
- June Project: Code Sharing | Forum Discussion
- July Project: Charting | Forum Discussion
- August Project: Console Apps | Forum Discussion
- September Project: Games | Forum Discussion
- October Project: Multi-Platform | Forum Discussion
- November Project: PDF | Forum Discussion
How to Play:
Each month we’ll announce a new theme and share an example project of our own. Share your projects to the Xojo Forum thread for that month via GitHub (all the links you need are posted above ↑ ). Learn how to use Xojo and GitHub.
The Prizes:
Monthly winners get $100 at the Xojo store. Every month you submit a project is another chance to win the grand prize. The grand prize is $250 cash plus a Xojo Pro license and a year of GraffitiSuite and will be announce in December. Learn more about the prizes.