Annotations¶

The PDF format allows to add various annotations to a document.

Text annotations¶

They are rendered this way by Sumatra PDF reader:

Screenshot of text annotation rendered by Sumatra PDF reader

from fpdf import FPDF

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.add_page()
pdf.set_font("Helvetica", size=24)
pdf.text(x=60, y=140, text="Some text.")
pdf.text_annotation(
    x=100,
    y=130,
    text="This is a text annotation.",
)
pdf.output("text_annotation.pdf")

Method documentation: FPDF.text_annotation

Free Text Annotations¶

They are rendered this way by Adobe Acrobat Reader:

Screenshot of text annotation rendered by Adobe Acrobat Reader

from fpdf import FPDF

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.add_page()
pdf.set_font("Helvetica",size=24)
pdf.text(x=60, y=140, text="Some text.")
pdf.set_draw_color(255,0,0)
pdf.set_font_size(12)
pdf.free_text_annotation(
    x=100,
    y=130,
    text="This is a free text annotation.",
    w=150,
    h=15,
)
pdf.output("free_text_annotation.pdf")

Method documentation: FPDF.free_text_annotation

Highlights¶

from fpdf import FPDF

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.add_page()
pdf.set_font("Helvetica", size=24)
with pdf.highlight("Highlight comment"):
    pdf.text(50, 50, "Line 1")
    pdf.set_y(50)
    pdf.multi_cell(w=30, text="Line 2")
pdf.cell(w=60, text="Not highlighted", border=1)
pdf.output("highlighted.pdf")

Rendering by Sumatra PDF reader: Screenshot of highlight annotation rendered by Sumatra PDF reader

Method documentation: FPDF.highlight

The appearance of the "highlight effect" can be controlled through the type argument: it can be Highlight (default), Underline, Squiggly or StrikeOut.

Ink annotations¶

Those annotations allow to draw paths around parts of a document to highlight them:

from fpdf import FPDF

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.ink_annotation([(100, 200), (200, 100), (300, 200), (200, 300), (100, 200)],
                   title="Lucas", contents="Hello world!")
pdf.output("ink_annotation_demo.pdf")

Rendering by Firefox internal PDF viewer: Screenshot of ink annotation rendered by Firefox

Method documentation: FPDF.ink_annotation

File attachments¶

cf. the dedicated page: File attachments

Named actions¶

The four standard PDF named actions provide some basic navigation relative to the current page: NextPage, PrevPage, FirstPage and LastPage.

from fpdf import FPDF
from fpdf.actions import NamedAction

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.set_font("Helvetica", size=24)
pdf.add_page()
pdf.text(x=80, y=140, text="First page")
pdf.add_page()
pdf.underline = True
for x, y, named_action in ((40, 80, "NextPage"), (120, 80, "PrevPage"), (40, 200, "FirstPage"), (120, 200, "LastPage")):
    pdf.text(x=x, y=y, text=named_action)
    pdf.add_action(
        NamedAction(named_action),
        x=x,
        y=y - pdf.font_size,
        w=pdf.get_string_width(named_action),
        h=pdf.font_size,
    )
pdf.underline = False
pdf.add_page()
pdf.text(x=80, y=140, text="Last page")
pdf.output("named_actions.pdf")

Launch actions¶

Used to launch an application or open or print a document:

from fpdf import FPDF
from fpdf.actions import LaunchAction

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.set_font("Helvetica", size=24)
pdf.add_page()
x, y, text = 80, 140, "Launch action"
pdf.text(x=x, y=y, text=text)
pdf.add_action(
    LaunchAction("another_file_in_same_directory.pdf"),
    x=x,
    y=y - pdf.font_size,
    w=pdf.get_string_width(text),
    h=pdf.font_size,
)
pdf.output("launch_action.pdf")