itextpdf / PdfContentByte / Font - How to combine 2 or more of BOLD, ITALICS AND UNDERLINE

As a part of the project I am working on, I need to create PDF files using the contents, position, text style from database. I am using PdfContentByte to add text to the document. Contents, position and text size work fine, but I am not able to understand how to incorporate text style that could be combination of one or more from Bold, Italics, and Underline. I have looked at many other questions on SOF, but not able to get it working.
What I have tried to do is create a Font using the text style from database and then get a BaseFont using Font.getBaseFont() as shown below.

Font custFont = FontFactory.getFont("/fonts/arial.ttf", BaseFont.IDENTITY_H, BaseFont.EMBEDDED, 0.8f, Font.BOLDITALIC, BaseColor.BLACK); 
// "/fonts/arial.ttf", Font.BOLDITALIC, BaseColor.BLACK ETC BASED ON THE FONT STYLE FROM DB
BaseFont baseFont = custFont.getBaseFont();
pdfContentByte.setFontAndSize(baseFont, fontSizeFromDB);
pdfContentByte.showTextAligned(Element.ALIGN_LEFT, "Text From DB", xPosFromDB, yPosFromDB, 0);

This does not work. Only the Font family is copied into baseFont object.

However, when I use the Font in a paragraph like below font styles are working fine. (But I cannot use this as I need to insert the contents in a specific position for which I need to use PdfContentByte )

Font custFontTimes = new Font(Font.FontFamily.TIMES_ROMAN, 18, Font.BOLD | Font.UNDERLINE);  
Paragraph paragraphCusTime = new Paragraph("Paragraph text in custFontTimes", custFontTimes);
document.add(paragraphCusTime);

You could do this by creating a base font with the combined BoldItalic style modifier. The limitation of using pdfContentByte.setFontAndSize is that you can only use one of the 14 built in types, and TIMES_BOLDITALIC is the only one that fits your criteria.

It seems like you are using iText 2.1.7 which I don't have a copy of to test if it works, but a simple solution using the built in font might look something like this:

BaseFont baseFont = BaseFont.createFont(BaseFont.TIMES_BOLDITALIC, BaseFont.CP1257, BaseFont.EMBEDDED);

Or you could try your hand at using a TrueType font with a style modifier. You would need to play with this to find a font that has both bold and italic, but when you find one it may look something like this:

BaseFont baseFont = BaseFont.createFont("Arial-CE-Bold-Italic", BaseFont.CP1257, BaseFont.EMBEDDED);

Note that embedded fonts may misbehave, you may need to play around with embedded set to false.

It's been a long time since I used iText 2.1.7, but it does come with a number of limitations like this, I strongly recommend using the latest version of iText going forward, especially given how hard it is to find examples for the older version.

API reference:
https://coderanch.com/how-to/javadoc/itext-2.1.7/com/lowagie/text/pdf/BaseFont.html#createFont(java.lang.String,%20java.lang.String,%20boolean)

API quote:

> BaseFont createFont(java.lang.String name,
java.lang.String encoding,
boolean embedded,
boolean forceRead)
throws DocumentException,
java.io.IOException
>
> Creates a new font. This font can be one of the 14 built in types, a
> Type1 font referred to by an AFM or PFM file, a TrueType font (simple
> or collection) or a CJK font from the Adobe Asian Font Pack. TrueType
> fonts and CJK fonts can have an optional style modifier appended to
> the name. These modifiers are: Bold, Italic and BoldItalic. An example
> would be "STSong-Light,Bold".