/*
 *
 * This file is part of the iText (R) project.
    Copyright (c) 1998-2017 iText Group NV
 * Authors: Bruno Lowagie, Paulo Soares, et al.
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License version 3
 * as published by the Free Software Foundation with the addition of the
 * following permission added to Section 15 as permitted in Section 7(a):
 * FOR ANY PART OF THE COVERED WORK IN WHICH THE COPYRIGHT IS OWNED BY
 * ITEXT GROUP. ITEXT GROUP DISCLAIMS THE WARRANTY OF NON INFRINGEMENT
 * OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
 * WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
 * or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
 * See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
 * along with this program; if not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses or write to
 * the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
 * Boston, MA, 02110-1301 USA, or download the license from the following URL:
 * http://itextpdf.com/terms-of-use/
 *
 * The interactive user interfaces in modified source and object code versions
 * of this program must display Appropriate Legal Notices, as required under
 * Section 5 of the GNU Affero General Public License.
 *
 * In accordance with Section 7(b) of the GNU Affero General Public License,
 * a covered work must retain the producer line in every PDF that is created
 * or manipulated using iText.
 *
 * You can be released from the requirements of the license by purchasing
 * a commercial license. Buying such a license is mandatory as soon as you
 * develop commercial activities involving the iText software without
 * disclosing the source code of your own applications.
 * These activities include: offering paid services to customers as an ASP,
 * serving PDFs on the fly in a web application, shipping iText with a closed
 * source product.
 *
 * For more information, please contact iText Software Corp. at this
 * address: sales@itextpdf.com
 */
package com.itextpdf.text.pdf;

/**
 * Classes implementing this interface can create custom encodings or
 * replace existing ones. It is used in the context of <code>PdfEncoding</code>.
 * @author Paulo Soares
 */
public interface ExtraEncoding {
    
    /**
     * Converts an Unicode string to a byte array according to some encoding.
     * @param text the Unicode string
     * @param encoding the requested encoding. It's mainly of use if the same class
     * supports more than one encoding.
     * @return the conversion or <CODE>null</CODE> if no conversion is supported
     */    
    public byte[] charToByte(String text, String encoding);
    
    /**
     * Converts an Unicode char to a byte array according to some encoding.
     * @param char1 the Unicode char
     * @param encoding the requested encoding. It's mainly of use if the same class
     * supports more than one encoding.
     * @return the conversion or <CODE>null</CODE> if no conversion is supported
     */    
    public byte[] charToByte(char char1, String encoding);
    
    /**
     * Converts a byte array to an Unicode string according to some encoding.
     * @param b the input byte array
     * @param encoding the requested encoding. It's mainly of use if the same class
     * supports more than one encoding.
     * @return the conversion or <CODE>null</CODE> if no conversion is supported
     */
    public String byteToChar(byte b[], String encoding);   
}