PdfFormManager Class


PdfFormManager Class

Reads and fills the AcroForm fields of an existing PDF document. Load a document with one of the Load overloads, read or set values through Fields, then persist the changes with Save(String) / GetDocument.

Inheritance Hierarchy

SystemObject
SelectPdf.UniversalPdfFormManager

Namespace: SelectPdf.Universal
Assembly: SelectPdf.Universal (in SelectPdf.Universal.dll) Version: 26.4

Syntax

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public class PdfFormManager

Public Class PdfFormManager

The PdfFormManager type exposes the following members.

Constructors

	Name	Description
	PdfFormManager	Initializes a new instance of the PdfFormManager class. Call one of the Load overloads before accessing Fields.

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Properties

	Name	Description
	CompactSave	Gets or sets a value indicating whether the document is rewritten from scratch on save instead of being updated incrementally. Default is false.
	Fields	Gets the collection of form fields in the loaded document. A document with no AcroForm - which is the state a document is in after Flatten and a save - returns an EMPTY collection, not null, so manager.Fields.Count is always safe to read.
	Flatten	Gets or sets a value indicating whether the whole form is flattened on save.
	ReadOnly	Gets or sets a value indicating whether the pdf form is read-only or not.

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Methods

	Name	Description
	Close	Closes the loaded document and releases its resources.
	GetDocument	Serializes the current state and returns it as a new PdfDocument for further processing (adding pages, merging, applying security, etc.).
	Load(Byte)	Loads a PDF document from a byte array.
	Load(PdfDocument)	Loads the AcroForm of an existing PdfDocument.
	Load(Stream)	Loads a PDF document from a stream.
	Load(String)	Loads a PDF document from a file.
	Load(Byte, String)	Loads a password-protected PDF document from a byte array.
	Load(PdfDocument, String)	Loads an existing PdfDocument with a password.
	Load(Stream, String)	Loads a password-protected PDF document from a stream.
	Load(String, String)	Loads a password-protected PDF document from a file.
	Save	Saves the document (with any field changes) and returns the bytes.
	Save(Stream)	Saves the document (with any field changes) to a stream.
	Save(String)	Saves the document (with any field changes) to a file.

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Remarks

Fonts. A field is drawn in the font the form itself specifies. When that font cannot encode the value — a form built for Latin text given Greek, Japanese or mathematical symbols — a font that can is chosen from the ones installed on the machine, so the value is visible and extractable rather than silently blank. If a character still does not appear, no installed font covers it: installing one is the fix. The directories searched are %SystemRoot%\Fonts on Windows, /Library/Fonts and ~/Library/Fonts on macOS, and /usr/share/fonts, ~/.fonts and ~/.local/share/fonts on Linux.

It must be an outline font. A colour-bitmap face — Apple Color Emoji, Noto Color Emoji — stores its glyphs as images rather than outlines, so it cannot be embedded in a PDF and is skipped; a monochrome equivalent such as Noto Emoji works. One value is drawn in one font, so a value mixing scripts that no single installed font covers keeps only the part that font has.

Example

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PdfFormManager manager = new PdfFormManager();
manager.Load("form.pdf");
PdfFormFieldTextBox name =
    manager.Fields["name"] as PdfFormFieldTextBox;
if (name != null) name.Text = "John Doe";
manager.Save("filled.pdf");
manager.Close();

Dim manager As New PdfFormManager()
manager.Load("form.pdf")
Dim name As PdfFormFieldTextBox =
    TryCast(manager.Fields("name"), PdfFormFieldTextBox)
If name IsNot Nothing Then name.Text = "John Doe"
manager.Save("filled.pdf")
manager.Close()

Reference

SelectPdf.Universal Namespace