The keys every annotation shares, the version of each subtype and the flags are on
Interactive
features. This page gives the keys of each subtype. A key listed is optional unless
marked required. Keys of markup annotations, such as T and
Popup, are on that page too.
Borders and effects
A border is Border, or from PDF 1.2 a border style dictionary in
BS, which supersedes it:
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
Type | Border |
W | Width in points, default 1; 0 means no border |
S | Style: S solid (default), D dashed, B beveled, I inset, U underline |
D | The dash array, default [3], for style D |
A border effect, BE (1.5), has S, S no effect
or C cloudy, and I, the cloud intensity, 0 to 2. Several
types add RD, four numbers that inset the drawn shape from
Rect.
Appearance characteristics
MK holds what a widget or screen annotation needs to draw its
appearance, from PDF 1.2, chiefly for form fields:
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
R | Rotation of the widget, a multiple of 90 |
BC | Border colour |
BG | Background colour |
CA | Button: normal caption |
RC | Button: rollover caption |
AC | Button: down caption |
I | Button: normal icon, a form XObject |
RI | Button: rollover icon |
IX | Button: down icon |
IF | Icon fit, from 1.3, below |
TP | Caption position: 0 no icon, 1 no caption, 2 below, 3 above, 4 right, 5 left, 6 overlaid |
The icon fit dictionary, IF, has SW, when to scale:
A always (default), B if bigger than the box,
S if smaller, N never; S, how:
A anamorphic, P proportional (default); A, the
fraction of leftover space to the left and below, default [0.5 0.5];
FB, ignore the line width in the fit, from 1.5.
Keys of each subtype
Text
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
Open | Whether it starts opened; default false |
Name | The icon: Comment, Key, Note (default), Help, NewParagraph, Paragraph, Insert |
State | The state of the review (1.5): Marked and Unmarked in the Marked model; Accepted, Rejected, Cancelled, Completed, None in the Review model |
StateModel | Marked or Review (1.5) |
Link
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
Dest | A destination |
A | An action (1.1), instead of Dest |
H | Highlight mode: N none, I invert (default), O outline, P push |
PA | A URI action for the link’s original web address (1.3) |
QuadPoints | The link’s active areas, in sets of eight numbers (1.6) |
BS | Border style (1.6) |
FreeText
| Key | Since | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
DA | 1.3 | Required. The default appearance string |
Q | 1.4 | Alignment: 0 left, 1 centre, 2 right |
DS | 1.5 | Default style string, as CSS |
RC | 1.5 | Rich text contents, an XHTML subset (as for markup annotations) |
CL | 1.6 | Four or six numbers: a callout line |
IT | 1.6 | FreeText, FreeTextCallout or FreeTextTypeWriter |
BE, RD, BS, LE | 1.7 | Border effect, rectangle differences, border style, the callout’s line ending |
Line
| Key | Since | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
L | 1.3 | Required. Start and end: [x1 y1 x2 y2] |
BS | 1.3 | Border style |
LE | 1.4 | Line endings for both ends, default [/None /None] |
IC | 1.4 | Interior colour, for filled line endings |
LL, LLE | 1.6 | Leader line length and extension |
Cap | 1.6 | Show the text as a caption; default false |
IT | 1.6 | LineArrow or LineDimension |
LLO | 1.7 | Leader line offset |
CP | 1.7 | Caption position: Inline (default) or Top |
Measure, CO | 1.7 | A measure dictionary, and the caption offset |
Line endings, used by LE here and on PolyLine and FreeText:
Square, Circle, Diamond,
OpenArrow, ClosedArrow, None (default),
Butt, ROpenArrow, RClosedArrow,
Slash.
Square and Circle
BS border style; IC interior colour; BE
border effect (1.5); RD the inset (1.5).
Polygon and PolyLine
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
Vertices | Required (unless Path is given). Coordinates of the points, in pairs |
LE | PolyLine: line endings, default [/None /None] |
BS, IC | Border style, interior colour |
BE | Polygon: border effect |
IT | PolygonCloud, PolyLineDimension, PolygonDimension |
Measure | A measure dictionary (1.7) |
Path | 2.0: the outline as path segments, instead of Vertices |
Highlight, Underline, Squiggly and StrikeOut
QuadPoints (required): groups of eight numbers, one group a
quadrilateral of text.
Caret
RD, the inset; Sy, the symbol: P paragraph
or None (default).
Stamp
Name, the icon: Approved, Experimental,
NotApproved, AsIs, Expired,
NotForPublicRelease, Confidential, Final,
Sold, Departmental, ForComment,
TopSecret, Draft (default),
ForPublicRelease. PDF 2.0 adds IT: Stamp,
StampSnapshot, StampImage.
Ink
InkList (required), an array of arrays of coordinates, one a stroke;
BS; BE (1.5); and in PDF 2.0 Path.
Popup
Parent, the annotation it belongs to; Open, whether it
starts open.
FileAttachment
FS (required), the file specification; Name, the icon:
Graph, PushPin (default), Paperclip,
Tag.
Sound and Movie
Sound: Sound (required), a sound
object; Name: Speaker (default) or Mic.
Movie: T, a title; Movie (required), a movie dictionary;
A, a movie activation dictionary or a boolean. Both are 2.0
deprecated.
Screen
T, a title; MK; A, an action to perform;
AA, additional actions.
Widget
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
H | Highlight mode, as Link, with T toggle added |
MK | Appearance characteristics |
A | An action to perform when activated |
AA | Additional actions |
BS | Border style |
Parent | The field it belongs to, when not merged with it |
PrinterMark and TrapNet
PrinterMark: MN, the name, usually ColorBar,
RegistrationTarget or CutMark. TrapNet (2.0 deprecated):
LastModified (1.4) or Version (1.3), saying which content
the trap network was made for; AnnotStates (1.3), the appearance states
applied; FontFauxing (1.3), the fonts faked.
Watermark
FixedPrint (1.6): a dictionary of Type FixedPrint,
Matrix, H and V, the horizontal and vertical
fractions of the page to place it at, default 0.
3D
3DD (required), a 3D stream or reference; 3DV, the
initial view; 3DA, activation; 3DI, whether it is
interactive; 3DB, the bounding box of the view area; and in PDF 2.0
3DU, units, and GEO, geospatial data. See
Multimedia.
Redact
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
QuadPoints | The areas to remove, in groups of eight numbers; if absent, Rect |
IC | Fill colour for the areas after redaction |
RO | A form XObject to draw there instead |
OverlayText | Text to show there |
Repeat | Repeat the overlay text to fill the area; default false |
DA, Q | Its appearance and alignment |
Projection and RichMedia
Projection takes only the markup keys and ExData. RichMedia has
RichMediaContent (required), the assets and configurations;
RichMediaSettings, how it is activated and deactivated; and in PDF 2.0
3DU and GEO. Both were first in Adobe’s extension
level 3.
External data
A markup annotation’s ExData (1.7) links it to data outside the
page: a dictionary of Type ExData and Subtype, in PDF 1.7
Markup3D with 3DA, the 3D annotation, 3DV, a
view, and MD5, a hash of the 3D stream; PDF 2.0 adds subtypes for
geospatial data. IT, the annotation’s intent, is a name saying what a
subtype is meant for, such as the values above.