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Annotate PDFs⚓︎

PyPDFForm supports adding non-form-field annotations to PDFs.

This section uses this PDF as an example.

Understanding the PDF coordinate system is necessary for this section.

Optional parameters are marked with an # optional comment.

Create text annotations⚓︎

Text annotations appear as sticky notes on a PDF. To create them, use the PdfWrapper.annotate method and pass a list of annotations:

from PyPDFForm import Annotations, PdfWrapper

annotations = [
    Annotations.TextAnnotation(
        page_number=1,
        x=310,
        y=663,
        contents="this is an annotation",  # optional
        title="First Annotation",  # optional
    ),
    Annotations.TextAnnotation(
        page_number=2,
        x=310,
        y=672,
        contents="this is another annotation",  # optional
        title="Second Annotation",  # optional
        icon=Annotations.TextAnnotation.comment_icon,  # optional (1)
    ),
]

pdf = PdfWrapper("sample_template.pdf").annotate(annotations)

pdf.write("output.pdf")
  1. Default is note_icon. Other options are comment_icon, help_icon, key_icon, and insert_icon.

A link annotation navigates to a specified destination when clicked. A destination can be a URI or another page of the same PDF.

The following snippet creates a link annotation on top of the text TEST PDF TEMPLATE that redirects to https://www.google.com/:

from PyPDFForm import Annotations, PdfWrapper

pdf = PdfWrapper("sample_template.pdf").annotate(
    [
        Annotations.LinkAnnotation(
            page_number=1,
            x=70,
            y=705,
            width=95,
            height=20,
            uri="https://www.google.com/",
        )
    ]
)

pdf.write("output.pdf")

The following snippet creates a link annotation on top of the text TEST PDF TEMPLATE that redirects to the second page of the PDF:

from PyPDFForm import Annotations, PdfWrapper

pdf = PdfWrapper("sample_template.pdf").annotate(
    [
        Annotations.LinkAnnotation(
            page_number=1,
            x=70,
            y=705,
            width=95,
            height=20,
            page=2,
        )
    ]
)

pdf.write("output.pdf")

Create text markup annotations⚓︎

There are four types of text markup annotations: highlight, underline, squiggly, and strikeout. To create them, specify the coordinates and dimensions for the bounding box:

from PyPDFForm import Annotations, PdfWrapper

pdf = PdfWrapper("sample_template.pdf").annotate(
    [Annotations.HighlightAnnotation(page_number=1, x=70, y=705, width=95, height=20)]
)

pdf.write("output.pdf")

from PyPDFForm import Annotations, PdfWrapper

pdf = PdfWrapper("sample_template.pdf").annotate(
    [Annotations.UnderlineAnnotation(page_number=1, x=70, y=705, width=95, height=20)]
)

pdf.write("output.pdf")

from PyPDFForm import Annotations, PdfWrapper

pdf = PdfWrapper("sample_template.pdf").annotate(
    [Annotations.SquigglyAnnotation(page_number=1, x=70, y=705, width=95, height=20)]
)

pdf.write("output.pdf")

from PyPDFForm import Annotations, PdfWrapper

pdf = PdfWrapper("sample_template.pdf").annotate(
    [Annotations.StrikeOutAnnotation(page_number=1, x=70, y=705, width=95, height=20)]
)

pdf.write("output.pdf")

Create rubber stamp annotations⚓︎

Note

Currently, Chromium-based browsers have trouble rendering rubber stamp annotations correctly.

A rubber stamp annotation displays text or graphics intended to look as if they were stamped on the page with a rubber stamp. PyPDFForm supports a collection of predefined rubber stamps you can use to annotate PDFs:

from PyPDFForm import Annotations, PdfWrapper

pdf = PdfWrapper("sample_template.pdf").annotate(
    [
        Annotations.RubberStampAnnotation(
            page_number=1,
            x=70,
            y=720,
            width=95,
            height=20,
            name=Annotations.RubberStampAnnotation.approved,  # optional (1)
        )
    ]
)

pdf.write("output.pdf")
  1. Supported options are approved, experimental, not_approved, as_is, expired, not_for_public_release, confidential, final, sold, departmental, for_comment, top_secret, draft, and for_public_release.