Create form fields

The most common tool for creating PDF form fields is Adobe Acrobat, and a tutorial is available here. Alternative free tools like DocFly offer similar functionality.

PyPDFForm also allows creating PDF form fields on existing PDFs through coding.

This section of the documentation will primarily use this PDF as an example.

Understanding the PDF coordinate system is necessary for this section.

All optional parameters will have a comment # optional after each of them.

Create a text field

A text field can be created by downloading the PDF and running the following snippet:

from PyPDFForm import PdfWrapper

new_form = PdfWrapper("dummy.pdf").create_widget(
    widget_type="text",
    name="new_text_field",
    page_number=1,
    x=57,
    y=700,
    width=120,  # optional
    height=40,  # optional
    max_length=5,   # optional
    comb=True,  # optional, when set to True, max_length must also be set
    font="your_registered_font", # optional
    font_size=15,   # optional
    font_color=(1, 0, 0),   # optional
    bg_color=(0, 0, 1, 1), # optional, (r, g, b, alpha)
    border_color=(1, 0, 0), # optional
    border_width=5,  # optional
    alignment=0, # optional, 0=left, 1=center, 2=right
    multiline=True # optional
)

new_form.write("output.pdf")

To use a custom font, see how to register it here.

Create a checkbox

A checkbox can be created using the same method with some changes to the parameters:

from PyPDFForm import PdfWrapper

new_form = PdfWrapper("dummy.pdf").create_widget(
    widget_type="checkbox",
    name="new_checkbox",
    page_number=1,
    x=57,
    y=700,
    size=30,    # optional
    button_style="check",   # optional
    tick_color=(0, 1, 0),   # optional
    bg_color=(0, 0, 1, 1), # optional, (r, g, b, alpha)
    border_color=(1, 0, 0), # optional
    border_width=5  # optional
)

new_form.write("output.pdf")

The button_style parameter currently supports three options: check, circle, and cross.

Create a radio button group

Unlike other field types, radio buttons must be created as a group. Therefore, for the coordinate parameters x and y, you must specify a list of coordinates for each radio button within the group, and the list must contain more than one coordinate.

Otherwise, radio button creation shares almost the same parameters as a checkbox:

from PyPDFForm import PdfWrapper

new_form = PdfWrapper("dummy.pdf").create_widget(
    widget_type="radio",
    name="new_radio_group",
    page_number=1,
    x=[50, 100, 150],
    y=[50, 100, 150],
    size=30,    # optional
    button_style="check",   # optional
    shape="square", # optional, circle or square
    tick_color=(0, 1, 0),   # optional
    bg_color=(0, 0, 1, 1), # optional, (r, g, b, alpha)
    border_color=(1, 0, 0), # optional
    border_width=5  # optional
)

new_form.write("output.pdf")

Create a dropdown field

A dropdown field shares a similar set of parameters as a text field. The only significant difference is that a list of options needs to be specified:

from PyPDFForm import PdfWrapper

new_form = PdfWrapper("dummy.pdf").create_widget(
    widget_type="dropdown",
    name="new_dropdown",
    page_number=1,
    x=57,
    y=700,
    options=[
        "foo",
        "bar",
        "foobar",
    ],
    width=120,  # optional
    height=40,  # optional
    font="your_registered_font", # optional
    font_size=15,   # optional
    font_color=(1, 0, 0),   # optional
    bg_color=(0, 0, 1, 1), # optional, (r, g, b, alpha)
    border_color=(1, 0, 0), # optional
    border_width=5  # optional
)

new_form.write("output.pdf")

To use a custom font, see how to register it here.

Create a signature field

A signature field is only interactive in tools that support it. Otherwise, it is displayed as a rectangle, and clicking it will not trigger any action:

from PyPDFForm import PdfWrapper

new_form = PdfWrapper("dummy.pdf").create_widget(
    widget_type="signature",
    name="new_signature",
    page_number=1,
    x=100,
    y=100,
    width=410,  # optional
    height=100,  # optional
)

new_form.write("output.pdf")

Create an image field

Similar to a signature field, an image field is also only interactive in tools that support it:

from PyPDFForm import PdfWrapper

new_form = PdfWrapper("dummy.pdf").create_widget(
    widget_type="image",
    name="new_image",
    page_number=1,
    x=100,
    y=100,
    width=192,  # optional
    height=108,  # optional
)

new_form.write("output.pdf")

Modify the key of a field

PyPDFForm allows you to modify the keys of existing fields. For example, to change the key of the first text field, test, to test_text using this PDF, use the following code:

from PyPDFForm import PdfWrapper

new_form = PdfWrapper("sample_template.pdf").update_widget_key(
    "test", "test_text"
)

new_form.write("output.pdf")

If multiple fields share the same key, use the index parameter to specify which one to update. For instance, to change the key of the second row's text field with the key Description[0] to Description[1] using this PDF, use the following code:

from PyPDFForm import PdfWrapper

new_form = PdfWrapper("733.pdf").update_widget_key(
    "Description[0]", "Description[1]", index=1
)

new_form.write("output.pdf")

For bulk updates, improve performance by setting defer=True when updating each key, then call commit_widget_key_updates() at the end to commit all changes.

To change the key of each row's text field with the key Description[0] to Description[i], where i is the index of each row, using this PDF, use the following code:

from PyPDFForm import PdfWrapper

new_form = PdfWrapper("733.pdf")

for i in range(1, 10):
    new_form.update_widget_key(
        "Description[0]", f"Description[{i}]", index=1, defer=True
    )

new_form.commit_widget_key_updates().write("output.pdf")