How can I create a PDF file programmatically in an iOS application?

As an example of creating a PDF from the contents of a CALayer, you can refer to the -dataForPDFRepresentationOfLayer method within the CPLayer class in the Core Plot framework. You can do something similar to extract the content from a CALayer-backed UIView, although we had to subclass CALayer in order to get vector elements to render to a PDF properly.

See "Drawing with Quartz" to see how to create a PDF Graphics Context.

Some notes:

"iPhoneOSNote: If you want to create a PDF graphics context in an iPhone application, make sure you also read “Drawing to a Graphics Context in iPhone OS” (page 27)."

"You can write any content to a PDF that’s appropriate for your application—images, text, path drawing—and you can add links and encryption. For more information see “PDF Document Creation, Viewing, and Transforming” (page 177)."