Create, Modify & Delete Annotations

PDF Xpress™ provides the capability to export PDF annotations to an XFDF file (ExportXfdf). The application may then read, modify, and write annotations to the XFDF file. When the application calls ImportXfdf, these modifications are applied to the annotations within the PDF document.

NotateXpress may be used in conjunction with PDF Xpress to provide programmatic or application end-user annotation capabilities.

PDF Xpress supports a subset of PDF native annotations:

caret
circle
freetext
highlight
ink
line
polygon
polyline
popup
square
squiggly
strikeout
text
underline

PDF Xpress creates XFDF that complies with the published XML Schema: http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/xml/xfdf.xsd

However, PDF Xpress created XFDF will contain only data for PDF Xpress supported annotations.

For more information on PDF Xpress support of XFDF elements and attributes, see Frequently Asked Questions: http://www.accusoft.com/pdfxpressfaq.htm

Read Annotations from a PDF File

Annotations can be retrieved from a PDF document by calling the ExportXfdf method. This method writes PDF annotations from the PDF document into an XFDF file.

C# Example	Copy Code
// This code demonstrates how to export annotations from a single-page PDF document Accusoft.PdfXpressSdk.PdfXpress pdfXpress1 = null; Accusoft.PdfXpressSdk.Document document = null; XfdfOptions xfdfoptions = null; try { pdfXpress1 = new PdfXpress(); pdfXpress1.Initialize(); document = new Document(pdfXpress1, "C:\\mynewfile.pdf"); xfdfoptions = new XfdfOptions(); xfdfoptions.WhichAnnotation = XfdfOptions.AllAnnotations; xfdfoptions.WhichPage = 0; byte[] xfdf = document.ExportXfdf(xfdfoptions); Encoding encoding = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode; string xml = encoding.GetString(xfdf); using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter("C:\\sample.xfdf")) { sw.Write(xml); } } catch (System.Exception) { } finally { if (null != document) { document.Dispose(); } if (null != pdfXpress1) { pdfXpress1.Dispose(); } }

C# Example

Copy Code

            // This code demonstrates how to export annotations from a single-page PDF document 
            Accusoft.PdfXpressSdk.PdfXpress pdfXpress1 = null;
            Accusoft.PdfXpressSdk.Document document = null;
            XfdfOptions xfdfoptions = null;
            try
            {
                pdfXpress1 = new PdfXpress();
                pdfXpress1.Initialize();
                document = new Document(pdfXpress1, "C:\\mynewfile.pdf");
                xfdfoptions = new XfdfOptions();
                xfdfoptions.WhichAnnotation = XfdfOptions.AllAnnotations;
                xfdfoptions.WhichPage = 0;
                byte[] xfdf = document.ExportXfdf(xfdfoptions);
                Encoding encoding = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode;
                string xml = encoding.GetString(xfdf);
                using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter("C:\\sample.xfdf"))
                {
                    sw.Write(xml);
                }
            }
            catch (System.Exception)
            {
            }
            finally
            {
                if (null != document)
                {
                    document.Dispose();
                }
                if (null != pdfXpress1)
                {
                    pdfXpress1.Dispose();
                }
            }

Write Annotations to a PDF File

Annotations can be written to a PDF document by calling the ImportXfdf method. This method takes an XFDF file as input, and stores the annotations as part of the PDF document.

C# Example	Copy Code
// This code demonstrates how to write annotations to a PDF file Accusoft.PdfXpressSdk.PdfXpress pdfxpress1 = null; XfdfOptions xo = null; try { pdfxpress1 = new PdfXpress(); pdfxpress1.Initialize(); pdfxpress1.Documents.Add("C:\\test.pdf"); xo = new XfdfOptions(); xo.CanCreateAnnotations = true; byte[] xfdf = File.ReadAllBytes("C:\\many21.xfdf"); pdfxpress1.Documents[0].ImportXfdf(xo, xfdf); } catch (System.Exception) { } finally { if (null != pdfxpress1) { pdfxpress1.Dispose(); } }

C# Example

Copy Code

            // This code demonstrates how to write annotations to a PDF file 
            Accusoft.PdfXpressSdk.PdfXpress pdfxpress1 = null;
            XfdfOptions xo = null;
            try
            {
                pdfxpress1 = new PdfXpress();
                pdfxpress1.Initialize();
                pdfxpress1.Documents.Add("C:\\test.pdf");
                xo = new XfdfOptions();
                xo.CanCreateAnnotations = true;
                byte[] xfdf = File.ReadAllBytes("C:\\many21.xfdf");
                pdfxpress1.Documents[0].ImportXfdf(xo, xfdf);
            }
            catch (System.Exception)
            {
            }
            finally
            {
                if (null != pdfxpress1)
                {
                    pdfxpress1.Dispose();
                }
            }