Flattening PDF fields removes formatting

Question

I try to flatten form fields (PDAcroForm.flatten()) in a pdf, which contain rich text. When doing so the formatting (bold, italics, color, size) get lost.

^{It's not edible any longer, but the formatting is also gone.}

    String inputFileName = "test.pdf";

    String val = "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>"
            + "<body xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\">"
            +   "<p style=\"color:#FF0000;font-size:8pt;\">"
            +       "<i>Small</i> <b>Red</b>&#13;"
            +   "</p>"
            +   "<p style=\"color:#00FF00;font-size:20pt;\">"
            +       "<i>Big</i> <b>Green</b>&#13;"
            +   "</p>"
            + "</body>";
    String valNoFormat = "Small Red\rBig Green\r";

    PDDocument pdf_document = PDDocument.load(new File(inputFileName));
    PDAcroForm acroForm = pdf_document.getDocumentCatalog().getAcroForm();
    PDTextField acroField = (PDTextField)acroForm.getField("example_field_number_one");

    acroField.setValue(valNoFormat);
    acroField.setRichTextValue(val);

    acroForm.setNeedAppearances(true);
    pdf_document.save(new File("output01.pdf"));

    List<PDField> the_fields = new ArrayList<PDField>();
    for (PDField field: pdf_document.getDocumentCatalog().getAcroForm().getFieldTree()) {
        the_fields.add(field);
    }
    System.out.println("Flattening fields: " + Arrays.stream(the_fields.toArray()).map(field -> ((PDField)field).getFullyQualifiedName()).collect(Collectors.joining(", ","[","]")));
    acroForm.setNeedAppearances(true);
    pdf_document.getDocumentCatalog().getAcroForm().flatten(the_fields, true);
    pdf_document.save(new File("output02.pdf"));

Created that form elements with Adobe Acrobat Pro 10.1.1, via the form menu, and simply saved the pdfs as test.pdf.

For completeness sake I uploaded everything on github:

Full minimal example (also via Permalink)
input template: test.pdf
with values filled in, before flattening: output01.pdf
after flattening: output02.pdf

The question is, how can I remove the input field and flatten it while maintaining style from the content, and preferable features like auto size from the field?

PDFBox doesn't support rich text, so you'll get the "cheap" appearance. — Tilman Hausherr, Mar 29 '19 at 13:23
@TilmanHausherr are there any viable workarounds and/or projects? Or any work already done where I could contribute to? — luckydonald, Mar 29 '19 at 13:55
Not on PDFBox… you could have a look at the openhtmltopdf projject ( https://github.com/danfickle/openhtmltopdf/ ) and then try to use that code to fill appearance streams. But this won't be done in a few minutes. — Tilman Hausherr, Mar 29 '19 at 14:51

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 29 '19 at 12:10

0

Maybe it suffices to remove the editable state:

for (PDField field: pdf_document.getDocumentCatalog().getAcroForm().getFieldTree()) {
    field.setReadOnly(true);
}

answered Mar 29 '19 at 12:10

Joop Eggen

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It seems the formatting in the field will not be displayed by all viewers, i.e. the browser built in ones. – luckydonald Mar 29 '19 at 12:24
E.g. in Chrome's pdf viewer, [output01.pdf](https://github.com/luckydonald-archive/pdf-stackoverflow-example/blob/cf891bb29c8be972396f5041ede4a318f4cd0bbf/output01.pdf) looks like [output02.pdf](https://github.com/luckydonald-archive/pdf-stackoverflow-example/blob/cf891bb29c8be972396f5041ede4a318f4cd0bbf/output02.pdf). No color, and no styling. – luckydonald Mar 29 '19 at 12:27
1

`Maybe it suffices to remove the editable state` - no, it doesn't. – Tilman Hausherr Mar 29 '19 at 13:29

Flattening PDF fields removes formatting

1 Answers1