PDFreactor Library Manual
RealObjects GmbH
Version 12.0.0

PDFreactor is a registered trademark of RealObjects GmbH.

Installation

PDFreactor can be deployed in various ways:

For details about system requirements and information about the latest changes, please see the readme and changelog files contained within the PDFreactor installation package.

The PDFreactor Library

The PDFreactor package comes with two PDFreactor libraries:

It is generally recommended to use the pdfreactor.jar. It only contains PDFreactor, while required and optional 3rd party libraries are contained in the required and optional directories, which should be added to the PDFreactor class path manually depending on whether or not they are already installed on the server or their functionality is desired.

For a quick and easy integration of PDFreactor, you can also use the pdfreactor-uber.jar which contains all 3rd party libraries required by PDFreactor. This JAR file is a stand-alone PDFreactor library. No other libraries are required.

Please refer to the README.txt in the PDFreactor/libs directory for more information about the 3rd party libraries.

Using a Dependency Management System

When using a dependency management system such as Maven, it is recommended to use the pdfreactor.jar in conjunction with the POM file located in PDFreactor/libs/dependencies/pom.xml so that dependencies are included automatically in your application.

The Command Line Application

To use the PDFreactor on the command line, no installation is required. You just need the pdfreactor-uber.jar file.

The PDFreactor Preview Application

PDFreactor Preview is a desktop application that is automatically installed when using one of the PDFreactor installers for Windows or macOS. This application can be used in evaluation or development to quickly convert and preview documents. It is not recommended for use production since it only offers a limited feature set compared to a full PDFreactor integration.

Integration

You can integrate PDFreactor by directly using it as a Java library or by running it on the command line.

Basics

When integrating PDFreactor into your application, keep in mind your desired workflow. PDFreactor can convert one single HTML or XML document to PDF or image. If you want to convert multiple documents, you have to run multiple conversions. Another important factor is how the input document is supplied. In some workflows, the document already exists on a local or remote server, others might use a template engine to compile and render the document on-the-fly. Depending on the integration and your application, these processes can be parallelized. The following chapters explain comprehensively what steps you have to take to convert a document.

Additional information about the various input and output formats can be found here:

Additional information about the various integration options can be found here:

Creating a PDFreactor Instance

To convert a document to PDF or image, you first have to create a PDFreactor instance. This is done with the constructor of the PDFreactor class.

A PDFreactor instance is designed to be reusable, so you only have to create it once.

This part does not apply when using the PDFreactor command line application.

PDFreactor pdfReactor = new PDFreactor();

See for a more extensive sample.

Does not apply.

Configuring the Conversion

Now that you have a PDFreactor instance (or not if you are using the command line), you have to pass configuration properties to PDFreactor. Configuration instances are designed to be one-use, and it is not recommended to use the same configuration instance for multiple conversions.

Configuration config = new Configuration();

Use - or -- for command line arguments. The -h command shows a list of available arguments. More complex options can be passed with -C config.json, where config.json is a file containing a configuration in JSON format.

Specifying the Input Document

PDFreactor can convert a source document in HTML or XML format to PDF or image, depending on the licensed options. Since you already have a configuration from the previous chapter, you can pass the input document with the document configuration property. This property is the only one which actually required (all other configuration properties are optional), and the conversion will fail if it is not set.

The document configuration property is polymorphic and takes a string in various formats, such as a HTML document or a URL. Depending on the integration or client used, it may support other data types. The following table highlights some of the most common use cases for the source document and shows what data types are usually most appropriate. Examples follow after the table.

Common Use Cases
Use Case Data Type
Local document: A document that exists locally on your server's file system. file URL as string
Remote document: A document that exists on an external server, accessible via HTTP. HTTP(S) URL as string
Dynamically rendered template: A document that is generated from a template and rendered by a template engine. Content as string or binary*

* Binary data is represented as a byte array (byte[]) in Java and .NET, and as a base64-encoded string in other service clients.

PDFreactor does not support file system paths for the source document directly. To convert a document on a file system, use a file URLRFC 8089, i.e. a URL that starts with file:// followed by the absolute path to the document (on Windows, this path also needs to start with a slash).

Use case: A local document exists on the file system at /local-folder/document.html (Linux and Mac) or c:\local-document\document.html (Windows).

config.setDocument("file:///local-folder/document.html");    // Linux/Mac
config.setDocument("file:///c:/local-folder/document.html"); // Windows

Linux/Mac:

-i "file:///local-folder/document.html"

Windows

-i "file://c:/local-folder/document.html"

Use case: A remote document that can be accessed via https://some-server.com/document.html.

config.setDocument("https://some-server.com/document.html");
-i "https://some-server.com/document.html"

Use case: A template is rendered to a string.

String renderedTemplate = renderMyTemplate();
config.setDocument(renderedTemplate);
-i "<html><body><p>My rendered template</p></body></html>"

The rendered template is represented in the examples above as a variable whose value is computed by the fictional function renderMyTemplate, which represents the business logic in your workflow that would populate and render the template into a variable of string (or binary) data. In cases of REST and the CLI, the rendered template must either already exists as a local or remote document, or the document has to be passed directly as HTML content. This if of course also possible for all other integration scenarios and clients, but might not be ideal.

The document configuration property is required, all other configuration properties are optional.

Starting the Conversion

Now that you have created your configuration by at least specifying an input document, you can start the conversion. This is explained in detail in the respective integration-specific chapters:

Processing the Result

Once the conversion is finished, you either receive a Result object, the converted document as raw bytes, or other API-specific data types. In this chapter, we will focus on the Result object as it not only contains the converted document but also other conversion-specific metadata that may be useful for integrators. It contains the following properties:

Result Properties
Property Description
document The converted document as binary data.
documentArray The converted multi-image as an array of binary data (each array item represents a separate page image).
log The log of the conversion. See .
numberOfPages The total number of laid out pages.
numberOfPagesLiteral The actual number of pages of the resulting PDF. This page count can differ from numberOfPages if post-layout steps change the PDF further, such as .
conversionName The conversion name as specified in the conversionName configuration property.
javaScriptExports Data that was exported during JavaScript processing. See .
exceedingContents Exceeding content data if PDFreactor is configured to observe it. See .
missingResources Missing resources if PDFreactor is configured to observe them. See .
connections Connections established during the conversion if PDFreactor is configured to observe them. See .

The result document can be accessed like this:

byte[] pdfOrImage = result.getDocument();
byte[][] imagePages = result.getDocumentArray();

Use the -o argument to specify the output document path.

Note that the result object has either a document or a documentArray depending on the specified output format, but never both. In most scenarios, converted documents need to be processed further by the integrator's own business logic.

Please refer to the API documentation of the client or integration for more details and on how to access these properties.

Result Streams

For large documents, it is usually better to stream the result either directly to the file system or to other application components.

for information on how this is implemented in PDFreactor.

Memory

Depending on the input documents, PDFreactor may require additional memory. Large and especially complex documents, e.g. documents containing several hundred pages or documents using a complex nested HTML structure, may require even larger amounts of memory. In addition, concurrent conversions also increase memory consumption since they occur simultaneously in the same Java VM.

The exact amount of memory required depends nearly entirely on the input document. Should you run into any issues converting a document, we recommend increasing the memory to e.g. 2GB or higher before attempting another conversion. First signs of memory running short are unusual long conversion times and high CPU usage of multiple threads, even if only one document is being converted.

Should PDFreactor run out of memory, you will usually experience a java.lang.OutOfMemoryError. When using the PDFreactor Web Service or a PDFreactor Docker Container, they may crash, since the application is not recoverable after such an error. Should such a situation occur, it is recommended to increase the amount of memory available to PDFreactor or to reduce the number of concurrent conversions.

Depending on which PDFreactor integration or application you use, the memory configuration is different.

PDFreactor Java Library

To adjust the amount of memory available to PDFreactor, you have to start the Java VM with an appropriate Xmx parameter, such as -Xmx2048m for 2GB of memory.

PDFreactor Command Line Application

Pass the Xmx parameter as argument to the java -jar command.

PDFreactor Preview

To increase the amount of memory available to the PDFreactor Preview app, you need to adapt the PDFreactor/bin/PDFreactor Preview.vmoptions file.

To increase the memory to e.g. 4GB, change the parameter to -Xmx2048m or -Xmx4g and restart the PDFreactor Preview app.

It is not recommended to increase the memory available to PDFreactor to an amount which is greater than the amount of memory available on the system, after subtracting what the OS and other processes already consume. This can lead to instability of the Java VM.

Parallel Conversions

When doing multiple parallel PDF conversions, it is important to adapt the available memory to the number of parallel conversions.

Generally, a common document requires no more than 64MB of memory. To safely convert up to 16 of these documents in parallel, PDFreactor requires at least 1GB of memory (16 * 64MB). Keep in mind that this is merely a rule of thumb and that the amount of required memory may vary depending on the documents and integration environments.

Extensive Conversions

Most commonly, memory is the limiting factor when trying to convert very large or complex documents. Besides increasing the amount of memory, PDFreactor offers other strategies you could employ which will reduce memory pressure. See for general recommendations on how to convert particularly large jobs.

Analyzing Memory Consumption

When converting documents with PDFreactor, Java will consume certain amounts of memory (depending on the size and complexity of the document), up to its configured maximum heap size. Should it run out of free available memory, the Java VM will perform a so-called garbage collection. This will free up unused memory.

However, if a conversion is finished, Java actually won't automatically perform a garbage collection as it is not necessary. When using non-Java system tools to inspect memory usage, this behavior may appear problematic since Java seems to retain more and more memory without freeing it up even if there are currently no conversions running. Nevertheless, this is normal and intended Java behavior.

Java only frees up memory if necessary and won't do so merely because a process such as a PDFreactor conversion ends. This means memory issues can't reliably be analyzed using non-Java system tools since they don't actually show how much memory can be freed up after a garbage collection.

To properly analyze memory issues, we recommend Java-specific tools like VisualVMhttps://github.com/oracle/visualvm.

Using the Java library

With just a few lines you can create PDFs inside your applications and servlet.

The following sample program converts https://www.realobjects.com/ to PDF and saves it as output.pdf.

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;

import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.PDFreactor;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Result;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Exceptions.PDFreactorException;

public class FirstStepsWithPDFreactor {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        PDFreactor pdfReactor = new PDFreactor();
        // configuration settings
        Configuration config = new Configuration();
        // the input document
        config.setDocument("https://www.realobjects.com");
        // conversion result
        Result result = null;

        try {
            // render the PDF document
            result = pdfReactor.convert(config);
            byte[] pdf = result.getDocument();
            
            try (OutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream("output.pdf")) {
                outputStream.write(pdf);
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        } catch (PDFreactorException e) {
            // partial result without PDF
            result = e.getResult();
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

The API documentation for details.

Using PDFreactor in a Servlet

When used in a Servlet to generate a PDF that is returned to the client (e.g. a browser) PDFreactor can write directly to the ServletOutputStream:

ServletOutputStream out = response.getOutputStream();
response.setContentType("application/pdf");
pdfReactor.convert(config, out);
out.close();

Java Logging

When used as a Java library, PDFreactor uses two technologies for logging: The Java logging API (java.util.logging) and SLF4J.

Java Logging API

PDFreactor uses the Java Logging API to output information about its progress. To get a formatted log message, PDFreactor provides the DefaultHandler class as a Handler implementation. A simple console logger can be created like this:

Logger pdfReactorLogger = Logger.getAnonymousLogger();
pdfReactorLogger.setLevel(Level.INFO);
pdfReactorLogger.addHandler(new DefaultHandler());
config.setLoggers(pdfReactorLogger);

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/logging/

SLF4J

When no Java loggers are specified, PDFreactor logs to SLF4J using com.realobjects.pdfreactor.PDFreactor as a logger name.

PDFreactor does not provide a default implementation for SLF4J. If you don't have an implementation already in your classpath, SLF4J will log errors. If logging to neither the Java logging API nor SLF4J is not desired, it is recommended to use the SLF4J NOP bindingshttps://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.slf4j/slf4j-nop.

OSGi Support

PDFreactor provides support for OSGi out of the box. The Manifest of the self-contained variant of PDFreactor (pdfreactor-uber.jar) includes all entries required to deploy it as a bundle in your OSGi environment. Only the self-contained version of PDFreactor is OSGi compatible. The non-self-contained variant of PDFreactor ("pdfreactor.jar" and associated libraries) does not contain appropriate Manifest entries.

Running PDFreactor Without Graphics Environment

If you are using PDFreactor on a system without a graphics environment like X11, you need to enable the headless mode of Java. This can be done by setting the appropriate Java system property. You can either set the property as a Java VM argument or you can set it inside your Java code. it is recommend to set it as early as possible, as changing it affects the entire Java VM instance. In any case it is important to set the property before PDFreactor is instantiated.

As a Java VM Argument

java -Djava.awt.headless=true

In Java Code

public class MyPDFreactorIntegration {
        // set the headless system property
    static {
        System.setProperty("java.awt.headless", "true");
    }

    public void createPDF() {
        PDFreactor pdfReactor = new PDFreactor()
        // ...
    }
}

If the headless mode is not enabled on a system without a graphics environment, you might experience an error similar to this:

java.lang.InternalError: Can't connect to X11 window server using '' as the value of the DISPLAY variable

Improving Cold Start Performance

When running PDFreactor as a command line application or in certain cloud environments, the time required for the cold start of the JRE can be a significant portion of the total time required to convert each document. Note that when running PDFreactor as a library that is part of a larger application, this will only affects the first conversions, so no action is required.

Pre-initialization

To mitigate this, it is recommended to call the static method PDFreactor.preinit() before the first conversion, ideally as early as possible. It initializes some PDFreactor classes in separate threads, significantly reducing the performance penalty of the first conversion.

Eclipse OpenJ9 Class Data Sharing

As a further solution, you could use the Eclipse OpenJ9Eclipse OpenJ9: https://eclipse.dev/openj9/ runtime, specifically its feature "Class Data Sharing"Introduction to class data sharing: https://eclipse.dev/openj9/docs/shrc/. Creating and using a cache for shared classes will significantly improve the cold start time for the command line. This can improve conversion time up to 30% - 50% for smaller documents.

There is an example (a batch file or a shell script, depending on your installation) on how to use the OpenJ9 runtime in path-to-PDFreactor/bin/openj9. Important: It is for reference only and is not intended for productive use. You will have to edit the file and configure the path to your OpenJ9 Java executable in order to use it. You may want to use a different set of OpenJ9 parameters depending on your environment and requirements.

Writing Result Documents directly into OutputStreams

When using the Java library, PDFreactor can write converted documents directly into OutputStreams via the method convert(Configuration, OutputStream).

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;

import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.PDFreactor;

public class ConvertIntoOutputStream {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        PDFreactor pdfReactor = new PDFreactor();
        Configuration config = new Configuration();
        config.setDocument("https://www.realobjects.com");
        
        try (OutputStream outputStream = new FileOutputStream("output.pdf")) {
            pdfReactor.convert(config, outputStream);
        }
    }
}

Writing Multi-Images directly into OutputStreams

When converting to formats that require one image per page, i.e. most image formats, an OutputStreamProvider can be passed to convert(Configuration, OutputStreamProvider) to dynamically provide an OutputStream for each page. The Function-like method receives an OutputItem for information about the page and some advanced control. This convert method enables Multi-Image output by default.

Writing the images to numbered files can be achieved with just one line of code. Output items each belong to a group. The group in combination with the item number represent a unique identifier for each file. For programmatic purposes, you can also use the index of an output item as a unique identifier. Contrary to the itemNumber, the index starts at 0 and is unique for each output item of a conversion.

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration.OutputFormat;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration.OutputType;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.PDFreactor;

public class ConvertIntoDynamicOutputStreams {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        PDFreactor pdfReactor = new PDFreactor();
        Configuration config = new Configuration();
        config.setDocument("https://www.realobjects.com");
        config.setOutputFormat(new OutputFormat().setType(OutputType.PNG));
        
        pdfReactor.convert(config, oi -> new FileOutputStream(
                oi.getGroup().getText() + oi.getPaddedItemNumber() + "." + oi.getFileExtension()));
    }
}

In a similar way conversion results can be written directly into a zip file. To prevent PDFreactor from automatically closing the ZipOutputStream OutputItem.setKeepOpen() can be set to true:

import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.util.zip.ZipEntry;
import java.util.zip.ZipOutputStream;

import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration.OutputFormat;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration.OutputType;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.PDFreactor;

public class ConvertIntoZipOutputStream {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        ZipOutputStream zos = new ZipOutputStream(
                new BufferedOutputStream(new FileOutputStream("images.zip")));
        Configuration config = new Configuration()
                .setDocument("https://www.realobjects.com")
                .setOutputFormat(new OutputFormat().setType(OutputType.PNG));
                
        new PDFreactor().convert(config, oi -> {
            oi.setKeepOpen(true);
            zos.putNextEntry(new ZipEntry(
                oi.getGroup().getText() + oi.getPaddedItemNumber() + "." + oi.getFileExtension()));
            return zos;
        });
        zos.close();
    }
}

The OutputStreams can also be accessed after the item was written, e.g. to retrieve the data. The OutputItem of that callback allows retrieving the OutputStream previously created for that item:

import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration.OutputFormat;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.Configuration.OutputType;
import com.realobjects.pdfreactor.PDFreactor;

public class ConvertIntoCollection {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        Configuration config = new Configuration()
                .setDocument("https://www.realobjects.com")
                .setOutputFormat(new OutputFormat().setType(OutputType.PNG));
        
        List<byte[]> imgList = new ArrayList<>();
        new PDFreactor().convert(config, oi -> {
            oi.setCallback(oic -> imgList.add(
                    ((ByteArrayOutputStream)oic.getOutputStream()).toByteArray()));
            return new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        });
        // use data from 'imgList'
    }
}

Using the Command Line Application

PDFreactor comes with a command line interface for easy integration in shell scripts or batch files. It is included in the pdfreactor-uber.jar which is located in the PDFreactor/lib/uber-jar directory. For Windows systems a compiled version is provided which is located in the PDFreactor/bin directory. It can be used like this:

java -jar pdfreactor-uber.jar -i input.html -o output.pdf

Make sure that you are located in the PDFreactor/lib/uber-jar directory when executing the command. Alternatively, you can indicate the full path to the pdfreactor-uber.jar.

For a full list of all arguments and parameters, use the following command:

java -jar pdfreactor-uber.jar --help

When using the Windows executable or the Python Command Line client, replace java -jar pdfreactor-uber.jar with pdfreactor.exe and python pdfreactor.py, respectively.

The Windows executable is located in the PDFreactor/bin directory, the Python client is located in the PDFreactor/clients/cli directory.

Standard input and output

The Java command line interface supports standard input and output (stdin and stdout). To read from stdin, you have to specify the input argument as "stdin". To write to stdout, you have to specify the output argument as "stdout".

Reading from stdin:

java -jar pdfreactor-uber.jar -i stdin -o output.pdf < input.html

Writing to stdout:

java -jar pdfreactor-uber.jar -i input.html -o stdout > output.pdf

Combining both:

java -jar pdfreactor-uber.jar -i stdin -o stdout < input.html > output.pdf

Logging

PDFreactor can produce a detailed log of the entire conversion. To enable logging you have to set an appropriate log level first using the configuration property logLevel, e.g. like this:

config.setLogLevel(LogLevel.WARN);
--log-level WARN

To retrieve the logs, use the log property of the Result object. This gives you a Log object and access to the following logs:

Main log
The main log contains all relevant log information for that conversion. It can be accessed via the records property of a Log object.
CSS log
This log contains detail information for certain CSS warnings or errors. Those may occur in abbreviated form in the main log but are usually not critical for the conversion. It can be accessed via the recordsCss property.
JavaScript log
PDFreactor logs JavaScript output similar to a browser. While it is also available in the main log, the JavaScript log provides a more comprehensive and machine-readable access to the output. It can be accessed via the recordsJs property.

The logs are only populated if logging is enabled. Logs can be retrieved from the Result object like this:

Log log = result.getLog();
if (log != null) {
    Record[] mainLog = log.getRecords();
    Record[] cssLog = log.getRecordsCss();
    Record[] jsLog = log.getRecordsJavaScript();
}

The main log is written to the terminal during the conversion. The CSS and JavaScript logs are not available.

Additionally, you can retrieve the logs using appropriate debug settings. Refer to for more information.

Examples

The following examples show how to enable logging by setting an appropriate log level and then appending the log to the generated PDF.

Configuration config = new Configuration();
config.setLogLevel(LogLevel.DEBUG);
config.setDebugSettings(new DebugSettings()
    .setAppendLogs(true));
-d

Conversion Name

You can specify an arbitrary name for each conversion using the conversionName configuration property. This name will be logged as the first and last line in each conversion log. This makes it easy to match a conversion log to a particular document.

Log Capacity

During the course of the conversion, PDFreactor stores several messages in internal logs so that they can be accessed afterwards. Those internal logs have a limited capacity. By default, each log stores 100 000 entries. This should be sufficient for most documents. In the rare cases where this number needs to be adjusted, you can use the configuration property logMaxLines like this:

config.setLogMaxLines(100);
--log-max-lines 100

If the log capacity is exceeded, the oldest entries will be removed to make room for the new ones.

License Key

Evaluation Mode

Without a license key PDFreactor runs in evaluation mode. In evaluation mode it is possible to integrate and test PDFreactor just like the full version but the resulting PDF document will include watermarks and additional evaluation pages.

Receiving a License Key

To obtain a license key, please visit the PDFreactor website (https://www.pdfreactor.com). It provides information about all available licenses and how to receive license keys.

Setting the License Key

RealObjects provides you a license key file in XML format.

The license key can be set as a string using the licenseKey configuration property.

String licensekey = "<license>... your license ...</license>";
config.setLicenseKey(licensekey);
--license-key "<license>... your license ...</license>"

You can ensure that no eval or license notices are added to PDF documents using an appropriate error policy:

config.setErrorPolicies(ErrorPolicy.LICENSE);
--error-policies LICENSE

This forces PDFreactor to throw an exception instead of adding notices to PDF documents (see ).

Observing Document Content

When converting documents into PDF, it may be desirable to programmatically observe certain parts of the document content to ensure that the PDF result is as excepted. This can be especially important for highly dynamic input documents for which the result might not have been validated prior to the conversion.

There are currently two parts of the content that can be observed: Exceeding content and missing resources. Exceeding content observes content that overflows certain boundaries, missing resources observes all resources that could not be loaded during conversion.

All content observed this way is logged in the normal PDFreactor log. In addition to that, it is logged in separate, machine-parsable logs which can be retrieved and analyzed after the conversion has finished to verify the result.

A content observer can be configured like this:

ContentObserver contentObserver = new ContentObserver();
// set up contentObserver, see below...
config.setContentObserver(contentObserver);
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "contentObserver": {set up contentObserver, see below...} }

Exceeding Content

Content that does not fit into its pages can be logged as well as programmatically analyzed. This functionality is enabled and configured by using the content observer and requires two arguments:

The first one specifies what to analyze:
Constant Description
ExceedingContentAnalyze.NONE Disable this functionality (default)
ExceedingContentAnalyze.CONTENT Analyze content (text and images) only
ExceedingContentAnalyze.CONTENT_AND_BOXES Analyze content as well as boxes. (catches exceeding borders and backgrounds)
ExceedingContentAnalyze.CONTENT_AND_STATIC_BOXES Analyze content as well as boxes, except for those with absolute or relative positioning
The second one specifies how to analyze:
Constant Description
ExceedingContentAgainst.NONE Disable this functionality (default)
ExceedingContentAgainst.PAGE_BORDERS Find content exceeding the actual edges of the page
ExceedingContentAgainst.PAGE_CONTENT Find content exceeding the page content area. (avoids content extending into the page margins)
ExceedingContentAgainst.PARENT Find content exceeding its parent (i.e. any visible overflow)

For example:

contentObserver
    .setExceedingContentAnalyze(ExceedingContentAnalyze.CONTENT_AND_STATIC_BOXES)
    .setExceedingContentAgainst(ExceedingContentAgainst.PAGE_CONTENT);
--content-observer-exceeding-content-analyze CONTENT_AND_STATIC_BOXES \
--content-observer-exceeding-content-against PAGE_CONTENT

To programmatically process the results you can get an array of ExceedingContent objects using the property exceedingContents. Please see the API documentation for details on this class.

ExceedingContent[] exceedingContents = result.getExceedingContents();

Use debug settings to attach the exceeding contents log to the PDF.

Missing Resources

To ensure that all resources referenced in the input document (or in other resources) are loaded, configure the content observer like this:

contentObserver.setMissingResources(true);
--content-observer-missing-resources

After the conversion, you can access and analyze a log containing all missing resources using the property missingResources. It returns an array of MissingResource objects which contains the resource description, type (e.g. style sheet, image, etc.) as well as a description why the resource is missing. If the log is null, no resources are missing. Please see the API documentation for details on this class.

MissingResource[] missingResources = result.getMissingResources();

Use debug settings to attach the missing resources log to the PDF.

Connections

It is also possible to log all connections or connection attempts performed by PDFreactor. For this, configure the content observer like this:

contentObserver.setConnections(true);
--content-observer-connections

A log containing all connections or connection attempts can be accessed after the conversion via the connections property. It returns an array of Connection objects which contain data about the connection. For HTTP connections, the data includes the status code as well as request and response headers. Please see the API documentation for details on this class.

Connection[] connections = result.getConnections();

Use debug settings to attach the connections log to the PDF.

Please note that connections that were blocked due to security settings are not included in this log since PDFreactor blocked the connection before even attempting to open it.

Error Policies

It is possible to adjust PDFreactor's default error policy. Depending on the configured policy, the conversion will now fail if certain criteria are met. The following error policies can be set and will terminate the conversion:

Error policies can be set like this:

config.setErrorPolicies(
    ErrorPolicy.LICENSE,
    ErrorPolicy.MISSING_RESOURCE);
--error-policies LICENSE MISSING_RESOURCE

Limiting Conversion Times

To limit conversion times and to prevent certain inputs to cause extremely long or even indefinite conversion times, you can specify timeouts. If a timeout is exceeded, the conversion will be aborted.

Conversion times can be limited by specifying a conversionTimeout in seconds.

config.setConversionTimeout(30);
--conversion-timeout 30

To specifically limit JavaScript processing times, see JavaScript Timeout.

To limit resource loading times, see Resource Timeout. These timeouts will not cause the conversion to abort.

Development and Debugging Tools

Debug Settings

When integrating PDFreactor, especially during the trial and development phases, it might be useful to retrieve debugging information about the conversion. The most convenient way to do this is by enabling the various debugging tools of PDFreactor. This can be done in the configuration like this:

config.setDebugSettings(new DebugSettings().setAll(true));
-d

This causes PDFreactor to do the following:

  • Set the log level to the most verbose level, i.e. LogLevel.PERFORMANCE.

  • Append logs to the generated PDF with that log level. Can be controlled with the appendLogs property of the DebugSettings object.

  • Attach various debug files to the generated PDF. Can be controlled with the attachConfiguration, attachDocuments, attachResources, and attachLogs properties of the DebugSettings object.

  • No longer throw any exceptions. Instead, in case of an exception, a text document is returned that contains the conversion log as well as the exception that would have been thrown. Can be controlled with the forceResult property of the DebugSettings object.

The following debug files are attached by default:

Debug Files
Group Attachment URL File Description
documents #,
#originalsource
OriginalSource.txt The original input document
#finalsource FinalSource.txt The input document after XSLT preprocessing
#originaldocument OriginalDocument.txt The initially parsed input document
#originaldocumentpp OriginalDocumentPP.txt A pretty-printed version of the above
#finaldocument FinalDocument.txt The input document after all modifications (JavaScript etc.) are completed
#finaldocumentpp FinalDocumentPP.txt A pretty-printed version of the above
configuration #configuration Configuration.txt The configuration object passed to the PDFreactor instance
ClientConfiguration.txt The configuration object sent to the PDFreactor Web Service (if used)
resources #resources Resources.dat All used external resources like style sheets, scripts, images etc. as a ZIP file
logs #log Log.txt The main PDFreactor conversion log
#logcss LogCss.txt The PDFreactor CSS log
#logjavascript LogJavaScript.txt The PDFreactor JavaScript log
#systemproperties SystemProperties.txt A list of the current Java system properties
#connections Connections.txt A log of all URL connection attempts performed by PDFreactor
#missingresources MissingResources.txt A log of all resources that could not be loaded

Debug settings are intended for investigation purposes only and not for production use. Activating some or all debug settings may change other configuration properties, such as the log level. This is done for convenience to get the most verbose result when debugging.

Controlling Debug Behavior

If only specific debugging tools are required, instead of setting the all property, you can use the appropriate debug settings to enable the desired setting manually. The following properties are available:

  • all — Activates all of the following debugging tools

  • attachDocuments — Attaches all debug files belonging to the group "documents"

  • attachResources — Attaches all debug files belonging to the group "resources"

  • attachLogs — Attaches all debug files belonging to the group "logs"

  • appendLogs — Appends the PDFreactor log to the generated PDF

  • forceResult — Forces PDFreactor to return a result even if an exception occurred during the conversion

Debug File Dump

In certain cases where no converted document could be created (e.g. when a specific PDF/A conformance could not be achieved) it may be helpful to have access to the debug files mentioned previously. To do this, it is possible to specify a local directory when configuring the debug settings. If such a directory is specified, PDFreactor will attempt to write all available debug files as a single ZIP into that directory. The local directory can be specified like this:

config.setDebugSettings(new DebugSettings()
    .setAll(true)
    .setLocalDirectory(Paths.get("c:\\debug")));
-d c:\debug

PDFreactor will create a ZIP file with the naming scheme

PDFreactor-dump-yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-SSS

where yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-SSS represents the serialized date of the dump.

Attaching Debug Files Manually

If you only want specific debug files attached, you can forgo enabling the debugging tools entirely and use the feature to make PDFreactor attach the appropriate file. For that, use the URLs mentioned in the Debug Files table.

Inspectable Documents

To create inspectable documents that can be used with the PDFreactor Inspector application, use the inspectableSettings configuration option like this:

config.setInspectableSettings(new InspectableSettings()
    .setEnabled(true));
-I

A license key is required to enable the creation of inspectable documents.

Creating inspectable documents increases the conversion time and may require additional memory.

Security

PDFreactor converts HTML or XML documents which can contain external style sheets, scripts, images or other resources. Depending on the use case, these documents and resources may come from untrusted sources, such as third-party users. This means they might contain malicious code or content which may be used to access private resources through Server-Side Request Forgery.

To protect against potential attacks, PDFreactor has a security layer in place which restricts certain functionality and filters URLs according to configurable security settings via the configuration properties securitySettings and customUrlStreamHandlers.

Depending on your use case and processing chain, you should consider supplementing the security features offered by PDFreactor with your own security measures that can protect your system e.g. on the network layer (such as firewalls), which is beyond the scope of PDFreactor.

SSL Certificate Validation

When accessing resources from HTTPS, PDFreactor will automatically verify the target SSL certificate. If the certificate is invalid, PDFreactor will refuse the connection. If this certificate is still deemed trustworthy (e.g. because the target is located in the intranet or the certificate is self-signed) or during the development phase, you can configure PDFreactor to automatically trust all certificates. This can be done with the trustAllConnectionCertificates security property like this:

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setTrustAllConnectionCertificates(true));

-k or --insecure

Please note that this approach is insecure and only recommended if you can verify that the target server is trustworthy.

Connection Security

Whenever PDFreactor attempts a URL connection to a source from an untrusted security context, the URL is vetted against certain criteria before the connection is opened.

Trusted and Untrusted Contexts

PDFreactor distinguishes between two security contexts when applying the security settings: Trusted and untrusted. The PDFreactor API (i.e. the configuration object that is passed to the convert methods) is considered a trusted security context, because usually only integrators have access to it. Any documents or resources that are specified there are not subject to the connection security, although still works. So no matter how you configure the connection security settings, resources specified in configuration properties such as document, userStyleSheets, baseUrl etc. are always allowed because it is assumed they have been set by the integrator.

Please note that this is not transitive. Even though user style sheets and user scripts are always allowed, resources that they load, e.g. via "@import" rule or XHR are subject to the connection security.

System fonts can also always be loaded, however they can be disabled separately.

All other resources, especially those that are part of the input document which is potentially produced by untrusted third parties, are vetted according to the configured security settings.

Untrusted Clients

When using PDFreactor as a publicly available service or in certain other scenarios, PDFreactor processes configurations that may not have been specified by the integrator or that come from user machines which are by default untrusted environments. Additionally, if at any point in your processing chain it is possible for third parties to inject code or content into the configuration object, then the entire configuration object should be considered untrusted.

To protect yourself, you can use the untrustedApi property to configure the security layer in such a way that PDFreactor treats the API as an untrusted context. This means that all security checks are also applied to any resources specified in the PDFreactor configuration object, including the input document. In addition to that, machine-specific information is omitted from the logs.

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setUntrustedApi(true));
--security-untrusted-api

Author API Overrides

Input documents may be authored by third parties which don't have the same privileges as PDFreactor integrators or admins. In this case, it is undesirable that such authors can override API settings, such as by using . So by default, PDFreactor prevents access to these features unless it is specifically allowed via the allowAuthorApiOverrides security setting.

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setAllowAuthorApiOverrides(true));
--security-allow-author-api-overrides

Automatic Redirects

By default, PDFreactor follows redirects automatically. You can disable this with the allowRedirects property:

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setAllowRedirects(false));
--security-allow-redirects

Connection Rules

You can define security rules that either deny or allow connections to certain resources. These rules support wildcard patterns for their hosts and paths. Each rule also has a priority. Rules are evaluated in order of their priority, starting with the highest priority value. If rules have the same priority, they are evaluated in the same order as they were inserted in the API. The priority is 0 by default.

If a resource is not matched by any of the rules (or if there are no rules), the default security behavior is applied.

If multiple resource properties of a rule such as protocol, host, port or path are specified, the resource must match all of the defined properties.

When PDFreactor vets resource paths according to security policies, it normalizes the path, ignoring any query parameters and the fragment component. Additionally, relative path segments are resolved and non-URI characters are URL encoded. So for the purposes of path vetting, the path

/part/../resource path/file?param=value#fragment

is normalized to

/resource%20path/file

Both the host and the path in connection rules support wildcard patterns, meaning that you can substitute characters for the "?" or "*" characters. "?" represents a single wildcard character while "*" represents any single wildcard path segment (when used in the path property) or one domain label (when used in the host property). If you want to represent zero or any number of path segments or domain labels, use "**" instead.

Important: Invalid URI characters (according to RFC 2396) must be URL encoded for path segments!

The matching of hosts is always case-insensitive. The matching of paths is case-insensitive, unless the property caseSensitivePath of the connection rule is set to true.

Note that path patterns must always start with a slash.

This example illustrates how to allow connections to the internal host "company-cms" as well as connections to certain paths of a publicly available CDN. All other connections are automatically denied.

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setConnectionRules(
        new ConnectionRule()
            .setAction(ConnectionRuleAction.ALLOW)
            .setName("Allow internal company CMS")
            .setHost("company-cms"),
        new ConnectionRule()
            .setAction(ConnectionRuleAction.ALLOW)
            .setName("Allow public company CDN")
            .setProtocol("https")
            .setHost("cdn.company.com"),
            .setPath("/public%20assets/**") // Encode invalid URI characters
        new ConnectionRule()
            .setAction(ConnectionRuleAction.DENY)
            .setName("Deny all")
            .setPath("/**")
            .setPriority(-1) // Make sure this rule is evaluated last
    )
);
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "securitySettings": {
    "connectionRules": [{
        "action": "ALLOW",
        "name": "Allow internal company CMS",
        "host": "company-cms"
    }, {
        "action": "ALLOW",
        "name": "Allow public company CDN",
        "protocol": "https",
        "host": "cdn.company.com",
        "path": "/public%20assets/**"
    }, {
        "action": "DENY",
        "name": "Deny all",
        "path": "/**",
        "priority": -1
    }]
}}

The pattern

*.pdfreactor.com

matches the hosts

cloud.pdfreactor.com
www.pdfreactor.com

but not

pdfreactor.com
www.cloud.pdfreactor.com

To match these hosts as well, you could use

**.pdfreactor.com

To allow only CSS files, more specifically files with the extension "css", regardless of the host and path, you could use the following path pattern:

/**/*.css

To ensure that no URLs can be accessed, you can deny all URLs with a rule:

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setConnectionRules(
        new ConnectionRule()
            .setAction(ConnectionRuleAction.DENY)
            .setName("Deny all")
            .setPath("/**")
            .setPriority(-1)
    )
);
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "securitySettings": {
    "connectionRules": [{
        "action": "DENY",
        "name": "Deny all",
        "path": "/**",
        "priority": -1
    }]
}}

Make sure to set the path property to "/**", so that it works for URL types that do not have a host (such as file URLs).

Data URIs and Blobs

Data URIs and Blobs are not subject to connection security, and thus cannot be blocked by connection rules since this would be impractical. The single exception is the allowedProtocols setting which can be used to block data URIs or Blobs altogether by not allowing the "data" or "blob" protocol, respectively.

JAR URLs

When using JAR URLs, security rules apply only to the URL to the JAR file, not the whole JAR URL. When the security settings allow access to a JAR file, access is also automatically granted to all of its entries. You can control access to certain JAR entries by using the entry property of a connection rule. Entries are treated as paths, so you can use wildcard notation.

The following rule grants access to all resources inside the "resources" directory in a specific JAR file. Since an entry is specified, the rule does not grant access to the JAR file itself. Also note that the protocol is "file" and not "jar", since rules apply to the URL to the JAR file and not the whole URL.

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setConnectionRules(
        new ConnectionRule()
            .setAction(ConnectionRuleAction.ALLOW)
            .setName("Allow access to resources inside a JAR")
            .setProtocol("file")
            .setPath("/path/to/my.jar")
            .setEntry("/resources/**")
    )
);
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "securitySettings": {
    "connectionRules": [{
        "action": "ALLOW",
        "name": "Allow access to resources inside a JAR",
        "protocol": "file",
        "path": "/path/to/my.jar",
        "entry": "/resources/**"
    }]
}}

The example above would grant access to e.g. the resource:

jar:file:///path/to/my.jar!/resources/image.png

If an entry is specified for any connection rule, the rule will no longer apply to the URL itself, only the entry. This means that specifying an entry on rules to non-JAR files makes them useless.

Regardless of any more specific rules, access to the JAR itself needs to be ensured first. This means that the "jar" protocol itself needs to be allowed in addition to other adjustments that depend on the used URL.

For example with a Jar URL like jar:file:///path/to/my.jar!/resources/image.png, would need the "file" protocol as well as file system access to load the jar. In case of a URL like jar:http://www.jar-server.com/jars/my.jar!/resources/image.png the "http" protocol would need to be enabled as well as any connection rules needed to access the URL to the JAR itself.

Default Security Behavior

The default security behavior is applied to any URL to which no connection rule matched. The appropriate configuration properties are grouped in the defaults property of the securitySettings. Checks are applied in the following order:

allowSameBasePath

This property is considered true if not specified.

When a document is converted from URL or a base URL is specified, access to resources within the same base path is allowed. No further security checks will be made for that resource. Please note that this allows for HSTS, i.e. when the base or document URL is HTTP, then resources within the same base path using HTTPS are also allowed.

This check is always skipped if the untrustedApi property is true.

If a resource is within the same base path, it is allowed. Otherwise, subsequent default checks below are applied.

The base path is the normalized part of the URL leading to the input document (or the base URL if specified), up to the last slash. For HTTP or HTTPS URLs, the base Path consists of at least the host, even if the URL does not end with a slash. For file URLs, it is ensured that the base Path is never the root directory.

For example, if the following URL is the input URL of your document:

http://myServer/document.html

Then the base path is the following URL:

http://myServer/
allowProtocols

This property is considered to have the values "http", "https", "data" and "blob" if not specified.

A list of URL protocols (as lower-case strings) that are allowed. If the protocol of a resource is not contained within this list, the resource is not loaded. Note that the "file" protocol is not handled by this setting. Use allowFileSystemAccess to allow or restrict file URLs.

If the resource's protocol is not allowed, the resource is denied. Otherwise, subsequent default checks below are applied.

allowFileSystemAccess

This property is considered false if not specified.

Allows access to the file system. This is prohibited by default.

If a resource points to a file and file system access is not allowed, the resource is denied. Otherwise, subsequent default checks below are applied.

allowAddresses

This property is considered to have the values PUBLIC, PRIVATE and LOCAL if not specified.

Allows connections to a certain type of host or IP address. Possible values are:

  • PUBLIC — Public hosts or IP addresses.

  • PRIVATE — Hosts in private networks or IP addresses in the private range.

  • LOCAL — Hosts or IP addresses pointing to the local machine.

  • LINK_LOCAL — Link-local addresses or auto-IPs which are usually assigned automatically and are usually not used to provide any useful resources for the conversion. Unless explicitly required, it is recommended to not grant access to this type of address.

If a resource points to a network address that is not allowed, the resource is denied.

When using JAR URLs, the URL to the JAR file is also validated against file system access, allowed protocols as well as allowed addresses. Security rules only apply to the URL to the JAR file.

To allow global file system access, you could use the following default settings. This is not recommended when processing content from untrusted sources!

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setDefaults(new SecurityDefaults()
        .setAllowFileSystemAccess(true)));

The CLI allows file system access by default.

Custom URL Filtering

To further filter URLs, you can implement custom URLStreamHandlers java.net.URLStreamHandler for specific protocols. These are used before the internal security checks are made. It is also possible to register such a handler for all protocols, in this case use an asterisk for the protocol in the API. Only one CustomUrlStreamHandler can be used for a particular protocol. If more are specified, the first one is used. If one for a specific protocol and one for all protocols is defined, the one for the specific protocol is always used.

config.setCustomUrlStreamHandlers(
    new CustomUrlStreamHandler()
        .setProtocol("file")
        .setHandler(new URLStreamHandler() {
            // your implementation
        })
);
config.setCustomUrlStreamHandlers(
    new CustomUrlStreamHandler()
        .setProtocol("*")
        .setHandler(new URLStreamHandler() {
            // your implementation
        })
);

Non-local File URLs

PDFreactor automatically considers all file URLs to be invalid that have an authority component other than "localhost". For example, the file URLs file:///dir/file (no host) and file://localhost/dir/file are considered valid but file://host/dir/file, file://LOCALHOST/dir/file, and file://localhost:8080/dir/file are not.

Enabling this setting allows for arbitrary authority components in file URLs but may cause system-specific behavior. On Windows systems for example, a file URL with a non-local host is interpreted as a UNC path. This might allow potentially malicious authors gain information about the server's OS and available network resources.

Since this affects the creation of URLs, they are checked before any other security checks are made.

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setAllowNonLocalFileUrls(true));
--security-allow-remote-file-urls

External XML Parser Resources

By default, PDFreactor does not load external resources during XML parsing, such as DTDs, entities or XIncludes. To allow this for documents, you can use the allowExternalXmlParserResources property of the SecuritySettings.

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setAllowExternalXmlParserResources(true));
--security-allow-external-xml-parser-resources

Hiding Version Information

While information about the used PDFreactor version can be generally useful, disclosing version information can give potential attackers knowledge of the underlying system who may then develop attacks targeting a specific version of PDFreactor. To hide version information, use the security setting hideVersionInfo.

config.setSecuritySettings(new SecuritySettings()
    .setHideVersionInfo(true));
--security-hide-version-info

The version as well as other system or server information may also be included in the PDFreactor logs which can be embedded in or attached to the resulting PDF using .

Input Formats

PDFreactor can process the following input formats. By default, it automatically tries to identify the right format. The input format of the source document can be overridden using the documentType configuration property.

HTML + CSS

HTML is rendered by PDFreactor using a default CSS style sheet for HTML in addition to the document's style.

HTML is parsed by the built-in HTML5 parser which parses the document according to HTML5 rules. This means that elements missing closing tags (such as <p> without </p>) are handled as demanded by the HTML5 specifications. SVG Elements should be used without having their namespace specified.

See and on how to load additional CSS that is not originally part of the input document.

You can force HTML processing like this:

config.setDocumentType(Doctype.HTML5);
--document-type HTML5

Legacy XHTML

It is also possible, albeit discouraged, to enable the legacy XHTML parser and its cleanup processes for HTML documents. You can force this document type like this:

config.setDocumentType(Doctype.XHTML);
--document-type XHTML

In legacy XHTML, there are various cleanup tools at your disposal that will attempt to repair non-well-formed XHTML documents:

  • CYBERNEKO (default)
  • JTIDY
  • TAGSOUP
  • NONE (no cleanup)

You can set a cleanup tool like this:

config.setCleanupTool(Cleanup.TAGSOUP);
--cleanup-tool TAGSOUP

HTML + JavaScript

PDFreactor can also process JavaScript contained or linked in the HTML document. See for further details.

JavaScript processing is only possible when converting HTML, not XML.

See on how to load additional JavaScript that is not originally part of the input document.

XML + CSS

Like HTML, XML documents can be styled via CSS. Because XML does not have a default CSS style sheet, you will have to provide one for your specific XML language.

Alternatively or in addition to directly styling the XML content it can be processed by the built-in XSLT Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt) processor, either to modify it or to convert it to HTML.

You can force XML processing like this:

config.setDocumentType(Doctype.XML);
--document-type XML

XML + XSLT

PDFreactor can optionally transform XML documents using XSLT style sheets. This can transform the document into other formats such as HTML. As with the normal input document, PDFreactor attempts to detect the document type of the post-transformation document. This can be overridden by using the postTransformationDocumentType.

The configuration property xsltMode is used to enable XSLT processing.

config.setPostTransformationDocumentType(Doctype.HTML5);
config.setXsltMode(true);
--post-transformation-document-type HTML5 --xslt-mode

See on how to load additional XSLT style sheets that are not originally part of the input document.

Encoding

PDFreactor automatically detects the encoding of the input document, however the encoding can also be forced to a specific value, e.g. like this:

config.setEncoding("UTF-8");
--encoding "UTF-8"

CSS Validation

PDFreactor validates CSS, ignoring unknown properties and property values with invalid syntax. The cssSettings configuration property is used to adjust PDFreactor's default behavior by constructing a CssSettings object. This object has two properties, each one responsible for a different aspect of CSS validation:

validationMode

Adjusts the CSS property validation behavior. This effects how PDFreactor validates CSS property–value combinations when parsing style sheets. The default value is HTML_THIRD_PARTY.

supportQueryMode

Adjusts the CSS property support behavior. This effects how PDFreactor interprets the validity of CSS property–value combinations in CSS "@supports" queries or via JavaScript. The default value is HTML.

Both of these properties are configured using one of the constants below:

ALL

Indicates that all style declarations are considered valid disregarding the possibility of improper rendering.

Valid values may be overwritten by invalid style declarations.

HTML

Indicates that all values set in style declarations will be validated as long as PDFreactor supports the corresponding property.

Style declarations for properties not supported by PDFreactor are taken as invalid.

HTML_THIRD_PARTY

Indicates that all values set in style declarations will be validated as long as PDFreactor supports the corresponding property.

Style declarations for properties not supported by PDFreactor but by third party products are taken as valid.

HTML_THIRD_PARTY_LENIENT

Indicates that all values set in style declarations will be taken as valid if a third party product supports the corresponding property.

Style declarations for properties not supported by any third party product but supported by PDFreactor will be validated.

config.setCssSettings(new CssSettings()
    .setValidationMode(CssPropertySupport.ALL)
    .setSupportQueryMode(CssPropertySupport.ALL));
--css-validation-mode ALL \
--css-support-query-mode ALL

Quirks Mode

Legacy HTML versions may have different CSS processing or layout rules. To be compatible, PDFreactor offers various quirks settings to adjust its behavior appropriately. This can be done with the quirksSettings configuration property. It takes an object with the following properties:

caseSensitiveClassSelectors

By default in HTML CSS class selectors are case sensitive.

In the default DETECT mode this behavior is disabled for old HTML doctypes or when there is no doctype.

minLineHeightFromContainer

By default the line-height of text containers, e.g. paragraph elements, is used as the minimum line-height of their lines.

In the default DETECT mode this behavior is disabled for old HTML doctypes or when there is no doctype.

Each of these properties is configured with a QuirksMode constant to enable or disable it independently of the document:

STANDARDS

Forced no-quirks (i.e. standard compliant) behavior.

QUIRKS

Forced quirks behavior.

DETECT

Doctype dependent behavior.

config.setQuirksSettings(new QuirksSettings()
    .setCaseSensitiveClassSelectors(QuirksMode.QUIRKS);
quirks--case-sensitive-class-selectors QUIRKS

Resource Loading

PDFreactor automatically loads linked external resources, e.g. from tags like <link>, <img> etc. If the respective server does not respond within 60 seconds, loading of the resource will be aborted and it will not be included in the document.

For documents including relative resources, like

<img src="images/a.png" />
<a href="/english/index.html">...</a>
<link href="../css/layout.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

PDFreactor needs a base URL Uniform Resource Locator (https://www.w3.org/Addressing/) to resolve these resources. If your input document source is a URL, the base URL will be set automatically. In all other cases you have to specify it manually:

config.setBaseUrl("https://someServer/public/");
--base-url "https://someServer/public/"

It is also possible to specify file URLs:

config.setBaseUrl("file:///directory/");
--base-url "file:///directory/"

Network Settings

PDFreactor automatically loads resources over the network or the local file system via file URLs. The network settings encapsulate configuration options that affect how PDFreactor connects to a server to access a resource and how it behaves when downloading it.

Connect and Read Timeout

Resource loading timeouts can be customized. Timeouts in milliseconds can be configured via the connectTimeout and readTimeout network settings.

The connect timeout is the timeout in establishing the initial connection to the resource server, the read timeout is the timeout in downloading the resource from the server (after establishing the connection).

These timeouts can be configured like this:

config.setNetworkSettings(new NetworkSettings()
    .setConnectTimeout(1000)
    .setReadTimeout(1000));
--network-connect-timeout 1000 \
--network-read-timeout 1000

HTTPS

PDFreactor supports resource loading from HTTPS and will automatically verify the target SSL certificate. Sometimes this can lead to PDFreactor refusing the connection due to issues with the certificate. For more information please refer to .

Authentication

When resources are behind authentication, PDFreactor can automatically send appropriate HTTP headers to gain access. You can specify the username and the password for the credentials via the authenticationCredentials property. This property is a collection of HttpCredentials objects that are used to specify various properties of the authentication and the target server. PDFreactor will automatically select the credentials whose properties best match the target server's authentication request.

The following properties can be specified:

  • username – The username. This property is required.

  • password – The password. This property is required.

  • authScheme – The authentication scheme, chosen from a list of constants. If set, PDFreactor only uses these credentials when connection to a server whose authentication scheme matches the specified scheme.

  • host – The host. If set, PDFreactor only uses these credentials when connecting to the specified host.

  • port – The port. If set, PDFreactor only uses these credentials when connecting to a server using the specified port.

  • protocol – The HTTP protocol. If set, PDFreactor only uses these credentials when connecting to a server over the specified protocol.

  • realm – The authentication realm. If set, PDFreactor only uses these credentials when connecting to a server whose authentication challenge matches the specified realm.

config.setNetworkSettings(new NetworkSettings()
    .setAuthenticationCredentials(new HttpCredentials()
        .setUsername("username")
        .setPassword("password")
        .setAuthScheme(HttpAuthScheme.DIGEST)
        .setRealm("My Realm")));
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "networkSettings: {
    "authenticationCredentials": [
        "username": "username",
        "password": "password",
        "authScheme": "DIGEST",
        "realm": "My Realm"
    ]
}}

HTTP Request Headers

Sometimes external resources require additional HTTP headers. PDFreactor will always send all configured headers when requesting resources. HTTP headers can be specified via the requestHeaders configuration property of the networkSettings object.

Resource servers may have a white list of user agents to which they deliver content. While PDFreactor always sends a default user agent header, it can be overridden if necessary.

config.setNetworkSettings(new NetworkSettings()
    .setRequestHeaders(
        new KeyValuePair("User-Agent", "MyApp/2.0"));
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "networkSettings": {
    "requestHeaders": [
        { "key": "User-Agent", "value": "MyApp/2.0" }
    ]
}}

Cookies

Some external resources require cookies, especially when trying to access session-specific resources. PDFreactor features RFC 6265-compliant cookie handling and will send and store appropriate cookies with each request and response. The cookie store persists for the duration of the entire conversion. If you want a persistant cookie store that exists beyond the lifetime of conversions, use a User Agent. Cookies as well as PDFreactor's cookie policy can be specified via the cookies and cookiePolicy configuration parameters of the networkSettings object, respectively.

Cookies have the following properties:

  • name – The name of the cookie. This property is required.

  • value – The value of the cookie. This property is required.

  • domain – The domain attribute of the cookie. Specifies to which hosts the cookie is sent by PDFreactor. Applies to any domain if not specified. Note that this behavior is an intentional deviation from the RFC standard which does not allow cross-domain cookies. This is to ensure ease of use and backwards compatibility.

  • path – The path attribute of the cookie. Specifies the path which must exist in the target URI for PDFreactor to send the cookie. Applies to any path if not specified.

  • secure – The secure attribute of the cookie. Specifies whether this cookie will only be sent over secure connections like HTTPS.

A common use case for a custom cookie are session cookies that need to be sent for each resource request so that PDFreactor has access to a user's session. This is relevant when PDFreactor is integrated into a session-based web application. Usually, you would have to find a way to read the session cookies. The example uses a static example value instead.

config.setNetworkSettings(new NetworkSettings()
    .setCookies(new Cookie()
        .setName("JSESSIONID")
        .setValue("123456789")));
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "networkSettings: {
    "cookies": [
        "name": "JSESSIONID",
        "value": "123456789"
    ]
}}

Cookie Policy

The cookie policy defines how PDFreactor handles cookies set by the server.

  • DISABLED – Disables cookie handling entirely. Cookies specified via the cookies configuration property are still sent, but server cookies are automatically rejected and not processed.

  • STRICT – A strict standard-compliant cookie policy.

  • RELAXED – Same as STRICT, but PDFreactor ignores any date issues in the cookies. This is the default behavior.

A cookie policy can be set like this:

config.setNetworkSettings(new NetworkSettings()
    .setCookiePolicy(CookiePolicy.RELAXED));
--network-cookie-policy RELAXED

URL Rewrites

PDFreactor can rewrite all URLs before connections to resources are even opened. This is done via the urlRewriteSettings configuration property. This object takes one or more rules according to which URLs are rewritten. The new URLs are then used to open the connections.

URL rewrite rules take a regular expression pattern and a substitution. The substitution can include group identifiers and back references.

The following sample rewrites all URLs beginning with "http://myOldHost/" to URLs that begin with "https://myNewHost/".

config.setUrlRewriteSettings(new UrlRewriteSettings()
    .setRules(
        new UrlRewriteRule()
            .setPattern("^http://myOldHost/(.*)$")
            .setSubstitution("https://myNewHost/$1")        
    )
);
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "urlRewriteSettings": {
    "rules": [{
        "pattern": "^http://myOldHost/(.*)$",
        "substitution": "https://myNewHost/$1"
    }]
}}

All URLs that are called by PDFreactor are matched agains all URL rewrite rules. The URLs that are being matched are always absolute and normalized. This means that:

  • If the original URL was not absolute, it is resolved against the document's base URL

  • All non-URI characters are URL encoded

  • Dot segments are resolved or removed

Otherwise the URL is matched as-is, including query parameters and userinfo.

Data URLs are also matched, but before the match the data part is removed. This means you can still match the header, but not the actual data.

Since only the result URLs of the rewrite are used to open connections, security settings only apply to the new URLs and not the original ones.

Additional Resources

In certain cases it is desirable to load additional resources, such as style sheets or scripts, without modifying the contents of the input document. This can be achieved by specifying the resources directly in the PDFreactor integration code instead of the document itself.

All of these resources use the Resource model. They are usually specified by a URL or by content. If both content and uri properties are set, the uri is used as a base URL for the resource.

User Style Sheets

User style sheets represent CSS that is loaded in addition to the CSS specified in the input document. Generally, user style sheets have higher priority as document style sheets, but lower priority as inline styles.

They can be added like this:

config.setUserStyleSheets(
    new Resource().setContent("p { color: red; }"),
    new Resource().setUri("http://myServer/my.css"));
-c "p { color: red; }" http://myServer/my.css

Integration Style Sheets

Integration style sheets are similar to user style sheets, but they have a lower priority than document CSS, and thus also a lower priority than user style sheets.

config.setIntegrationStyleSheets(
    new Resource().setContent("p { font-family: sans-serif }"),
    new Resource().setUri("http://myServer/corporate-identity.css"));
--integration-style-sheets "p { font-family: sans-serif }" http://myServer/corporate-identity.css

User Scripts

User scripts represent additional JavaScripts. They are executed after all document JavaScript has finished processing. You can optionally run certain user scripts before any document JavaScript by specifying the beforeDocumentScripts property. This is useful for e.g. JavaScript-based shims.

User scripts can be added like this:

config.setUserScripts(
    new Resource().setContent("console.log('executed first')")
        .setBeforeDocumentScripts(true),
    new Resource().setUri("http://myServer/my.js"));
-j "console.log('executed first')" http://myServer/my.js

XSLT Style Sheets

When converting XML documents, you can add XSLT style sheets in your integration code to transform the XML into HTML. They can be added like this:

config.setXsltStyleSheets(
    new Resource().setUri("http://myServer/my.xsl"));
--xslt-style-sheets http://myServer/my.xsl

Colors

Color Keywords

Instead of using color functions or the hexadecimal notation a single human readable keyword can be used. For more information which keywords are supported by PDFreactor see the CSS Color Keywords table. The keywords are internally converted into the user-set color space. By default, they are converted into RGB colors.

RGB Colors

In CSS you can specify RGB Red Green Blue, additive color model, consisting of the color components red, blue and green. colors in the following ways:

  • # followed by a 6 digit RGB value in hexadecimal notation, e.g. #00ff00 for perfect green. Adding two more digits defines the alpha channel, with ff being opaque.

    You can abbreviate this notation by using only 3 digits which will be expanded internally, e.g. #0f5 equals #00ff55. The same can be done with 4 digits to also define the alpha channel.

  • Using the function rgb. It takes the 3 RGB component values as parameters in decimal or percent notation, e.g. rgb(0,255,0) or rgb(0%,100%,0%) for perfect green.

RGBA Colors

RGBA Red Green Blue Alpha, a color model similar to RGB, with extra information about the translucency. colors are also supported and can be specified by using the function rgba. It takes the 3 RGB component values as well as 1 alpha component value as parameters in decimal or percent notation, e.g. rgba(0,0,255,0.5) or rgba(0%,100%,0%,50%) for semi-translucent blue.

While it is currently possible to set RGBA colors on any CSS border, complex border settings (e.g. table cells borders) or border styles other than "solid" are not yet supported and may cause unexpected visual outcome.

The functions rgb and rgba share the same syntax and can be used interchangeably, so rgb(0%,100%,0%,50%) will also result in a semi-translucent blue.

CMYK Colors

Besides rgb and rgba PDFreactor also supports the non-standard function cmyk. It takes the 4 CMYK component values as parameters in decimal or percent notation, e.g. cmyk(0,0,1,0) or cmyk(0%,0%,100%,0%) for perfect yellow. An optional fifth parameter can be used to define the color's alpha value, e.g. cmyk(0%,0%,100%,0%,10%) would be a transparent yellow with an alpha of only 10%.

Color keywords can be converted automatically into CMYK using the configuration property colorSpaceSettings.targetColorSpace:

config.setColorSpaceSettings(new ColorSpaceSettings()
    .setTargetColorSpace(ColorSpace.CMYK);
--color-space-target-color-space CMYK

CMYK colors are also supported in SVGs.

HSL Colors

HSL Hue Saturation Lightness, alternative representation of colors of the RGB color model. is another representation of the RGB color space. The hue value is in the range of 0 to 360, the saturation and lightness values range between 0 and 1. It is possible to set HSL colors using the function hsl. It takes the 3 HSL component values as parameters in decimal or percent notation, e.g. hsl(240,0,0) or hsl(66%,0%,0%) for blue. As with rgb, there is also the function hsla, though both functions allow an additional parameter for the alpha value.

Spot Colors

Spot or separation colors, e.g. Pantone colors, are special named colors for professional printing. The specific color name is passed as is to the print workflow. As they cannot be displayed on screen (or printed without the correct named color), a fallback color must be specified, e.g. a similar CMYK color. A spot color can be used via the CSS function -ro-spot and its synonym -ro-separation. The function takes two or three parameters: The spot color name, the color tint (which is optional and defaults to 1.0, which represents maximum "opacity") and the fallback color.

Spot colors are also supported in SVGs.

Color Conversion

Different colors can be converted into a common color space. See for more information.

Compound Formats

In addition to rendering HTML and XML styled with CSS, PDFreactor is also able to render documents with compound formats such as images, SVGs or barcodes, so-called replaced elements.

The replaced elements can be mapped to arbitrary elements using styles.

You can use namespaces to include other document formats to integrate XML elements from a different namespace directly within your document.

Images

PDFreactor has support for the image formats PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, GIF as wells as limited support for WebP (lossy simple VP8).

Images are embedded by PDFreactor "as-is", whenever possible, unless the properties or are used. This means that images are not modified in any way and will be embedded without any re-encoding and without any loss in quality. Possible discrepancies in perceived quality might occur depending on the PDF viewer and the zoom level.

PDFreactor supports the img element per default in HTML. For other XML languages, you can use proprietary CSS extensions to define an image element. For example, in an XML vocabulary where an image element is <image source='test.jpg'>, the corresponding CSS definition would be:

image {
    -ro-replacedelement: image;
    -ro-source: attr(source);
}

To define an element as image element, you must specify the replaced element formatter for images for this element, as displayed in the example above. Using the property and the attr function, you can select an attribute of this element. The value of this attribute must always be of the type URI Uniform Resource Identifier (https://www.w3.org/Addressing/) and is used to load the image.

Corrupted images, embedded "as-is", may lead to corrupted PDF output.

Save Memory Mode

PDFreactor needs to access image data multiple times during the conversion. It needs to know an image's dimensions during layout, and then the actual binary data to embed it in the PDF during rendering. To avoid having to download the image multiple times and thus slowing down the conversion, PDFreactor keeps downloaded images in memory for quick access. However, in certain scenarios, images can be quite large, e.g. high-resolution TIFFs for print. In this case, it can actually be detrimental to keep the image in memory. You can use the processingPreferences configuration object to change the default behavior of PDFreactor. The value SAVE_MEMORY_IMAGES prevents PDFreactor from keeping images in memory. Instead, they are downloaded each time PDFreactor requires data.

config.setProcessingPreferences(
    ProcessingPreferences.SAVE_MEMORY_IMAGES);
--processing-preferences SAVE_MEMORY_IMAGES

SVG

PDFreactor supports the following SVG Scalable Vector Graphics (https://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/) types: SVG and SVGZ. PDFreactor automatically converts SVG documents referenced via the img element. Example:

<img src="diagram.svg" />

Alternatively, you can embed SVG directly into your documents:

a circle:<br/>
<svg width="100" height="100">
    <circle cx="50" cy="50" r="45" fill="yellow" stroke="black" />
</svg>
<br/>sometext.......

When using non-HTML5 documents, an SVG namespace has to be added and used:

<svg:svg xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="100" height="100">
    <svg:circle cx="50" cy="50" r="45" fill="yellow" stroke="black" />
</svg:svg>

Rasterization

SVGs are embedded into the PDF as vector graphics, keeping them resolution independent. However, SVGs containing masks, filters or non-default composites Default composites use the src-over operator with an opacity of 1. Other compositing operations, especially those with an opacity that is not 0, are considered non-default and will cause the SVG to be rasterized. have to be rasterized Rasterization is the task of taking an image described in a vector graphics format and converting it into a raster (pixel) image.. This behavior can be configured using CSS:

The style -ro-rasterization: avoid disables the aforementioned SVG features to avoid having to rasterize the image.

The property configures the resolution of the rasterization. The default value is 2, meaning twice the default CSS resolution of 96dpi. Accepted values are all positive integers. Higher resolution factors increase the quality of the image, but also increase the conversion time and the size of the output documents.

CMYK and Spot Colors in SVG

PDFreactor supports CMYK and spot colors in SVGs. Those are passed to the PDF as-is, as long as the SVG is not rasterized.

stroke="cmyk(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0)"

Text Rendering

When SVGs are converted to PDF vector graphics text can either be embedded as text, using a font, or as shapes. The former allows selecting and copying the text and results in smaller output file size when there is a significant amount of SVG text. It is also the default behavior, which can be overridden via the custom CSS property , specified on the root of the SVG. Specifying a stroke color forces rendering as shapes. In certain complex scenarios embedding as text may also be disabled. The supported styles include the common font styles and letter-spacing. Supported attributes include text-anchor, textLength and lengthAdjust.

MathML

To display MathMLMathematical Markup Language (https://www.w3.org/Math/) in documents we recommend using the JavaScript library MathJaxMathJax (https://www.mathjax.org/ & https://github.com/mathjax/MathJax/) licensed under the Apache License 2.0 using SVG output.

While the combined configuration MML_SVG typically works, it is recommended to use the following configuration which is optimized for use in PDFreactor:

<script type="text/x-mathjax-config">
    MathJax.Hub.Config({
        showMathMenu: false
                 jax: ["input/MathML", "output/SVG"],
          extensions: ["mml2jax.js"],
              MathML: { extensions: ["content-mathml.js"] },
                 SVG: { blacker: 0 }
    });
</script>
<script src="url/to/MathJax.js></script>

The configuration above is automatically applied when using Awesomizr to load MathJax:

import { loadMathJax } from 'url/to/awesomizr.js';
loadMathJax('url/to/MathJax.js');

To use MathJax without modifying the input documents you can add it as a user script (see ), in which case using Awesomizr to load it is recommended.

PDFreactor supports MathJax with the following limitations:

Support for version 2 only. We recommend using the most recent release of that version to display MathML. MathJax v3 is currently not suported.

SVG output only. Other output processors currently don't produce optimal results.

See for more information on how PDFreactor processes JavaScript.

Barcodes

PDFreactor supports displaying numerous linear and 2D barcode symbologies using the following style:

.barcode {
    -ro-replacedelement: barcode;
}

The resulting replaced element can be customized by applying various CSS properties.

The most important one is -ro-barcode-type, which can be used to select a specific type (and subtype) of barcode to be rendered. For some types, the last argument of the property is also used to configure a unique characteristic of the barcode (refer to the appendix for more information).

The behavior of most of the -ro-barcode-* properties depends on the selected barcode type.

A full list of all supported barcode types, their subtypes and applicable CSS properties can be found in the appendix.

Defining the Content

There are multiple ways to define the content of the barcode. To define it directly, you can use the -ro-barcode-content property:

.barcode {
    -ro-replacedelement: barcode;
    -ro-barcode-type: upc-e;
    -ro-barcode-content: "123456";
}
Example UPC-E barcode

As MaxiCodes require a primary string in mode 2 or 3, the last argument of -ro-barcode-type is used to add it.

.barcode {
    -ro-replacedelement: barcode;
    -ro-barcode-type: maxicode mode-3 "999999999840012";
    -ro-barcode-content: "1234567894561230";
}
Example MaxiCode barcode

If -ro-barcode-content is not set, PDFreactor will try to use the value of the element's href attribute:

HTML:

<a id="qrcode" href="https://www.pdfreactor.com/"></a>

CSS:

#qrcode {
    -ro-replacedelement: barcode;
    -ro-barcode-type: qrcode;
    -ro-barcode-ecc-level: H;
    -ro-barcode-size: 2;
}
Example QR code

If both -ro-barcode-content and the href attribute are empty, PDFreactor will use the text content of the element. That content is always trimmed, i.e. whitespace characters at its beginning and end are removed. By default other sequences of whitespace characters are collapsed to single spaces. Collapsing can be disabled by changing the value of white-space from normal to pre.

Automatically resolving relative URLs

If a relative URL is set as the barcode's content using the url function, or if it is retrieved from the href attribute, PDFreactor will automatically try to resolve it according to the document's baseUrl.

HTML:

<a id="gridmatrix" href="#Barcodes"></a>

CSS:

#gridmatrix {
    -ro-replacedelement: barcode;
    -ro-barcode-type: grid-matrix;
}
Example grid matrix

If links are enabled, PDFreactor will automatically check whether the content of the barcode is a valid URL and add the respective link.

Customizing the barcode color

By default, all barcodes will be rendered in black with a transparent background. To change the foreground color, you can use the -ro-barcode-color property. If it is set to currentColor, the value of the color property will be used.

Adjusting the barcode size

When adjusting the size of the barcode, you should differentiate between two aspects: On the one hand, there is its natural size (also called intrinsic size), which is the size the barcode itself would have without the influence of the layout around it. It depends on factors like the barcode type, its content and certain settings, for example its ecc level.

And on the other hand, there is the specific size (also called extrinsic size), which is the size the barcode actually consumes in the layout and the resulting document. It depends on the context and CSS styles of the barcode element.

Adjusting the specific size

The replaced element will be adjusted automatically to comply with the surrounding document's layout. However, as the aspect ratio is not always preserved, this might result in distorted barcodes, i.e. having an incorrect aspect ratio. This can be prevented by setting the object-fit property to contain.

Adjusting the natural size

For some barcode types, the -ro-barcode-size property can be used to select a certain sized version. E.g. for a QR code, setting -ro-barcode-size to 10 would result in a version 10 QR code, which contains 57 x 57 modules.

For other types, like databar-expanded, the property adjusts the amount of columns which should be used to store data. Applied to PDF417 codes, the property can additionally be used to adjust how many rows are rendered.

The value defined by -ro-barcode-size might be ignored in some cases, like when the selected size is not sufficient to store the specified amount of data.

If applied to a one dimensional barcode, the property sets the bar height.

More detailed descriptions on how -ro-barcode-size behaves depending on the used barcode type can be found in the appendix.

Adjusting human readable text

For all barcode types that possess human readable text, some additional changes can be applied. The used font can be customized using the -ro-barcode-font-size and -ro-barcode-font-family properties. The position and alignment of the human readable text can be changed using the -ro-barcode-human-readable-position property, which can also be used to remove it entirely. The -ro-barcode-letter-spacing property can be used to adjust the human readable text's letter-spacing. If the barcode type allows for affixes to be added to the human readable text, they can be configured using the -ro-barcode-human-readable-affix property. A detailed list on which barcode types possess affixes can be found in the appendix.

HTML:

<a id="code-128-no-human-readable" href="#Barcodes"></a>

CSS:

#code-128-no-human-readable {
    -ro-replacedelement: barcode;
    -ro-barcode-type: code128;
    -ro-barcode-human-readable-position: none;
    -ro-barcode-content: "123456";
}
Example Code 128 without human readable text

Object and Embed

PDFreactor supports the object and embed elements of HTML. You can use either element or a combination of both to embed any type of data such as for example a flash animation. The most simple code to do so is:

<embed src="myflash.swf" width="256" height="256"
       type="application/x-shockwave-flash"/>

Besides flash you can also embed various other formats, e.g. videos. The data is embedded in the PDF, but whether or not it is displayed depends on the formats supported by your PDF viewer.

Form Controls

PDFreactor supports HTML form elements. These form controls are non-interactive by default (but can be made interactive). Their visual appearance may deviate from common web browsers to provide a look and feel that is generally more appropriate for print media.

The default appearance of form elements is also not tied to the operating system like in browsers. In fact, PDFreactor only provides a simple, printer-friendly appearance that is fully stylable via CSS. This means that CSS properties such as color and padding also influence form controls like checkboxes and radio buttons whereas these styles have usually no effect in browsers unless these form elements are styled with appearance: none.

Enforcing browser-like behavior

Using CSS, the behavior can be made more browser-like if desired. The following example simulates the appearance of checkboxes and radio buttons in web browsers and prevents other styles from interfering with them. It contains CSS properties that are commonly used on form elements and uses values to approximate browser rendering.

input[type="checkbox"],
input[type="radio"] {
    background: white !important;
    border: 1pt solid lightgray !important;
    color: white !important;
    padding: 0 !important;
}
input[type="checkbox"]:checked,
input[type="radio"]:checked {
    background: cornflowerblue !important;
    border-color: cornflowerblue !important;
}

Note that the list of styles is not exhaustive and that the styles used are not necessarily ideal for interactive controls.

See for information specifically about interactive form controls.

iframes

An iframe allows another document, for example content from other pages, to be embedded inside an existing one.

The source document

There are two ways to define the inner document of an iframe. The first option is to use the src attribute and specifying the URL from which the document should be loaded. The URL might be absolute or relative and should refer to an HTML document.

The second option is useful if the inner document is very short and simple. When using the srcdoc attribute, its value is set to be the inner document's source code.

<iframe src="https://www.pdfreactor.com" width="600" height="400">
</iframe>

<iframe srcdoc="<p>Hello World</p>">
    <b>This is fallback text in case the user-agent does not support
        iframes.</b>
</iframe>
        

If both attributes have been set, srcdoc has priority over src.

Seamless

If the seamless attribute has been set, the iframe's document behaves as it would be in the document that contains the iframe. That means that the width and height of the iframe are ignored and the inner document is shown completely if possible.

Furthermore, the borders of the iframe are removed and most importantly all styles from the outer document are inherited by the inner document.

When generating the PDF, the headings and other bookmark styles inside the iframe are passed through, so they can be found in the bookmark list.

The seamless attribute is a boolean attribute, which means that if it is true it exists and false otherwise. The only valid values of seamless are an empty string or "seamless". The attribute can also be used without any value:

<iframe src="https://www.pdfreactor.com" width="600" height="400"
            seamless>
</iframe>

Generally, true and false are INVALID values for boolean attributes.

Customization

Using CSS styles, it is possible to customize the look and functionality of iframes.

The border, padding and margin can be set or removed with the appropriate styles.

iframe {
    border: none;
    padding: 0px;
    margin: 0px;
}

By default, if seamless is false neither style sheets nor inline styles are passed down to the iframe's document. However, by using the property , this behavior can be customized.

When generating a PDF with the bookmarks feature enabled, the headings in the document are added as bookmarks to quickly navigate the document.

Using the property it is possible to enable or disable this feature for iframes, thus allowing the headings of the inner document to be added to the bookmarks list or not. The property can be either set to true or false. If the iframe is seamless, it is set to true by default.

<iframe src="https://www.pdfreactor.com" width="600" height="400"
    seamless="seamless" style="-ro-passdown-styles:stylesheets-only;
    -ro-bookmarks-enabled:false;">
</iframe>

Canvas Element

PDFreactor has built-in support for the canvas element of HTML5. The canvas element is a dynamic image for rendering graphics primitives on the fly. In contrast to other replaced elements the content of the canvas element must be generated dynamically via , instead of referencing an external resource that contains the content to be displayed (as is the case for example for images).

Below is a simple code fragment which renders shadowed text into a canvas element:

<head>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        function draw() {
            let ctx = document.getElementById("canvas").getContext('2d');
            ctx.font = "50px 'sans-serif'";
            ctx.shadowBlur = 5;
            ctx.shadowColor = "#aaa";
            ctx.shadowOffsetX = 2;
            ctx.shadowOffsetY = 2;
            ctx.fillStyle = "black";
            ctx.fillText("PDFreactor",0,50);
        }
    </script>
</head>
...
<body onload="draw();">
    <canvas id="canvas" width="400" height="300">
        Canvas element is not supported.
    </canvas>
</body>

Resolution Independence

PDFreactor by default does not use a resolution-dependent bitmap as the core of the canvas. Instead it converts the graphics commands from JavaScript to resolution-independent PDF objects. This avoids resolution-related issues like blurriness or pixelation.

Shadows cannot be convert to PDF objects. So those are added as images. This does not affect other objects in the canvas.

Accessing ImageData of a canvas or setting a non-default composite causes that canvas to be rasterized entirely.

This behavior can be configured using CSS:

The style -ro-rasterization: avoid disables functionality that causes the rasterization of the canvas.

The style -ro-rasterization: always forces the canvas to be rasterized in any case.

The property configures the resolution at which the canvas or shadows are rasterized. The default value is 2, meaning twice the default CSS resolution of 96dpi. Accepted values are 1 to 4. Higher resolution factors increase the quality of the image, but also increase the conversion time and the size of the output documents. This does not affect canvas objects that are not rasterized.

PDF Pages as Images

PDFreactor can losslessly embed pages from other PDFs as images in the document to be converted to PDF or draw them into image output. To use a PDF as an image in a document, simply use the img element, like you would for any other image. Example:

<img src="https://resources.myserver.com/report.pdf" />

In the example above, the PDF image will always display the first page of the PDF. You can select which page should be displayed using the CSS property -ro-source-page. The example below shows how to display page 5 of the PDF:

<img src="https://resources.myserver.com/report.pdf" style="-ro-source-page: 5" />

By default the media box, i.e. the entire sheet, of the PDF page is visible and used for sizing. This can be reduced to any other PDF page box like "crop" or "trim" via the property -ro-source-area. The example below shows how to display only the crop box of the PDF page:

<img src="https://resources.myserver.com/report.pdf" style="-ro-source-area: 'crop'" />

PDF images expose the page count of their source document to JavaScript via the proprietary property roPageCount of the img HTML element. If the object is not a PDF image roPageCount will return 0. In the following example, let's assume we have a PDF image with the id "pdfimage":

let reportPdf = document.getElementById("pdfimage");
let pageCount = reportPdf.roPageCount;

Aside from using image elements, PDFs can be used in most places other images are supported. For example, you can embed PDFs as background images. With the exception of being able to access the page count using JavaScript, the behavior described above also applies to them:

.pdfBackground-2 {
    background-image: url("https://resources.myserver.com/backgrounds.pdf");

    /* Apply styles like -ro-source-page or -ro-source-area to the same element as background image. */
    -ro-source-page: 2;
}

Filters and Shadows

Certain effects, like blurring, are not natively supported by the PDF format. In such cases, PDFreactor has to generate an image of the corresponding element, with the effects already applied. The image can always be displayed in the PDF and if necessary an invisible text overlay above the image ensures, that the text inside the element can still be selected, copied and is accessible, e.g. to screen readers.

The CSS properties that require element rasterization are:

When creating soft shadows or using blur filters, the blurring itself is a time-consuming task and can, depending on the content to be generate, increase the creation time of the PDF significantly. Thus blurs and shadows should be used with caution if the conversion time of the PDF is important.

The resolution of the resulting image can be customized via the -ro-rasterization-supersampling property. The default value is 2, meaning 192dpi, as a compromise between quality, performance and size.

Please note that increasing the resolution or applying shadows and filters on large or many elements will not only increase the size of the converted PDF but may also slow down PDF readers.

As a safeguard against memory and performance issues, the maximum size of a single rasterized image can be limited. By default an image will be rasterized to have less than 2 megapixels. This is still large enough to cover an A4 page-sized image with the default supersampling. The CSS property allows to customize or disable that limit.

If the only filter function used is opacity, consider using the CSS property opacity instead. PDFreactor uses native PDF functionality to render the transparent element, thus avoiding the drawbacks of rasterization.

JavaScript

This chapter refers to JavaScript in the input document, processed by PDFreactor like in a browser. There also:

PDFreactor automatically processes JavaScript that is embedded into or linked from input HTML documents.

It is also possible to manually add scripts:

config.setUserScripts(
    new Resource().setContent("console.log('test')"));
-j "console.log('test')"

If desired, this functionality can be disabled as follows:

config.setJavaScriptSettings(new JavaScriptSettings()
    .setDisabled(true));
-javascript-disabled

Limitations of Browser-Like Behavior

JavaScript processing during PDF conversion works like it does in a browser, with some exceptions:

  • The delays of setTimeout or setInterval are applied only to the virtual time of JavaScript processing and do not actually slow down the conversion.

  • Alerts and other dialogs are logged and do not stop script processing.

  • There are no browser-like security measures based on the origins of URLs ("cross-site scripting"). However, the mechanism of PDFreactor is applied to all connections caused by JavaScript. This has the advantage that XMLHttpRequest and Fetch can access file-URLs, when those are allowed. Module "import" statements also can access any URL, incl. file, that is not prohibited.

JavasScript processing is subject to a few other limitations that will be eliminated in future versions of PDFreactor:

  • DOM access to elements inside embedded SVGs may be subject to minor limitations.

  • Reading from and manipulating form DOM elements via their specific JS attributes and methods is not fully supported.

  • Coordinates (e.g. retrieved via getDOMRects) are relative to their pages, which might lead to unexpected results in some situations.

  • Redirects (e.g. changing window.location) are not possible.

  • Scripting support in iframes is limited.

  • When a module is imported from an absolute URL the modules it imports in-turn, directly or transitively, must be specified as relative paths or absoltue URLs. Absolute paths will errouniously be resolved against the origin of the root document.

  • Support for import maps is limited to the "imports" module specifier map.

JavaScript Engines

PDFreactor uses a JavaScript implementation based on the JavaScript engine Oracle GraalJS. Previous versions used Mozilla Rhino as JavaScript engine and that engine can still be enabled via a setting. However, we recommend to only use it as a temporary solution for the rare cases when it supports scripts that GraalJS does not yet handle correctly. Please note that Rhino only offers partial support for ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) while GraalJS fully supports ECMAScript 2023 syntax.

config.setJavaScriptSettings(new JavaScriptSettings()
    .setJavaScriptEngine(JavaScriptEngine.RHINO));
--javascript-javascript-engine RHINO

Third-Party JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks

PDFreactor supports various third-party JavaScript libraries and frameworks. See for details.

Proprietary Access to Layout Information

PDFreactor allows JavaScript access to some layout information via the proprietary object ro.layout.

Descriptions

Many proprietary JavaScript functions return so-called Description objects: PageDescription, BoxDescription, etc. These objects provide layout information on the specific type of document item, such as a document page.

The description objects contain information about the layout of its content. The properties of , and can be found in the appendix JavaScript Objects And Types

Description objects are snapshots of the particular moment they were created. Changing the document after getting one has no effect on them.

PageDescriptions

Describes the dimensions of a page and its rectangles as well as some further information. The rectangles are described by using DOMRect. A is retrieved via the index of the desired page. The first page has the index 0.

let pageDesc = ro.layout.getPageDescription(1);

BoxDescriptions

Describes the position and dimensions of the rectangles of a box as well as some further information. The rectangles are described by using DOMRect. A is retrieved via a DOM element, which may have a box, multiple ones or none.

let element = document.querySelector("#myElem");
let boxDescriptions = ro.layout.getBoxDescriptions(element);

if (boxDescriptions.length > 0) {
    let boxDescription = boxDescriptions[0];
}

LineDescriptions

Contains information about a line of text. It can be retrieved from a .

let lineDescriptions = boxDescription.lineDescriptions;

DOMRects

A DOMRect contains the position and dimensions of a rectangle. (see MDN)

To retrieve the DOMRect from Page- and BoxDescription use the getter functions that take an optional string parameter. This parameter specifies the length unit of the values of the DOMRect and has to be one of the following absolute CSS units: "px", "pt", "pc", "cm", "mm", "in" or "q". By default this value is "px".

let marginRect = boxDescription.getMarginRect("cm");

Ranges

A Range represents a fragment of a document that can contain nodes and parts of text nodes. (see MDN)

PDF Output Options

It is possible to specify portions of the PDFreactor configuration in document JavaScript at runtime during the conversion. This can be useful if you want to create PDF attachments dynamically, specify PDF-specific settings like encryption on the fly, change the page order according to content-specific criteria, etc.

You can access these PDF output options via the proprietary object ro.pdf. For a full list of supported properties refer to . The default value of these properties is taken from their respective configuration setting from your PDFreactor configuration. For example, if you have specified the author to be "John Smith" in your configuration, the value of the ro.pdf.author property will also be "John Smith" initially and can be changed as desired.

This feature is disabled by default and needs to be explicitely enabled by allowing author API overrides. Trying to access the ro.pdf object when it is disabled causes an error to be thrown, which can be caught and handled in the surrounding JavaScript.

In some cases it might be desirable to specify PDF attachments not in the PDFreactor API, but dynamically via JavaScript, depending on the document. This example shows how to add a PDF attachment from JavaScript.

ro.pdf.attachments.push({
    name: "log.txt",
    data: "My log text.",
    description: "A JavaScript log"
});

The data to attach can also be binary, e.g. an image generated by a canvas.

graphCanvas.toBlob((graphBlob) => {
    ro.pdf.attachments.push({
        name: "graph1975.png",
        data: graphBlob,
        description: "Statistics of 1975"
    });
});

This example uses a custom page order to eliminate the third page from the document.

ro.pdf.pageOrder = "1..2,4..-1";

Even if the integration code specifies an author and a title in the configuration, these values can be overridden at runtime.

Original configuration:

config.setAuthor("Brian Greene");
config.setTitle("The Elegant Universe");
--author "Brian Greene" --title: "The Elegant Universe"

Override at runtime:

ro.pdf.author = "Stephen Hawking";
ro.pdf.title = "The Universe in a Nutshell";

Exporting Data From JavaScript

Sometimes it can be desirable to make data from JavaScript available to the PDFreactor integration for further processing after the conversion has finished. You can export data from document JavaScript by setting the JavaScript property ro.exports. The exported data can then be accessed in the API via the javaScriptExports property of the Result object of the conversion.

You can export any data type with ro.exports. However, since the property javaScriptExports returns a string, the data will be converted internally. If the data type is not a string, PDFreactor will try to convert it to JSON. This means that you can conveniently export JavaScript objects or arrays, and then parse the data back from JSON. If the data can't be converted, a generic string representation of it is used or null if none is available.

While it is possible to export strings directly, it is generally recommended to only export JavaScript arrays or objects which will be converted into JSON. If an empty string is exported, it is converted to null when accessed through the Result object in the PDFreactor integration.

Export an object:

ro.exports = {
    message: "my exported data",
    content: [ 1, 2, 3 ]
};

The resulting string is as follows:

{"message":"my exported data","content":[1,2,3]}

It can be retrieved from the javaScriptExports property of the Result object:

String javaScriptExports = result.getJavaScriptExports();

Not possible.

This string can then be parsed or processed further.

Timeouts and Limits

For various reasons scripts may run unnecessarily long or even endlessly. PDFreactor imposes various limits to avoid long conversion times.

Most limits are intended for scripts that would run for an excessive amount of time because of the script expecting an interactive browser environment. They end JavaScript processing but let the conversion continue on.

Limits that interrupt JavaScript, but not the conversion
Name Description Default Value
maxScriptElements The maximum number of script elements in the document (including ones generated by JavaScript) to be processed.That amount of elements does not have to be in the document simultaneously. 1,000,000
maxQueuedTasks The maximum number of tasks to be processed. Tasks include everything that introduces JavaScript to be run, e.g. the callbacks of events, observers and window.setTimeout. 1,000,000
maxTasksWithoutDomChange The maximum number of tasks to be processed while the DOM is not modified. 1,000
maxTasksRepeated The maximum number of times the same tasks can be processed. These executions of the task do not have to be consecutive. 1,000
maxVirtualTimeOffset The maximum number of seconds the virtual time of the JavaScript environment may be forwarded. Virtual time is forwarded when callbacks of window.setTimeout and similar function are executed. It is not related to the wall-clock time in any way. 3,600 (1h)

However, some limits target erroneous or malicious scripts as well as complex scripts that end up running endlessly due to missing functionality. Reaching one of those terminates the conversion with a matching exception.

Limits that terminate the conversion with an exception
Name Description Default Value
statementLimit The maximum number of JavaScript statements to be executed. Statements include, among other things, method calls, variable assignments and loop iterations. 1,000,000,000 (1 billion)
timeout The maximum number of seconds (wall-clock time) JavaScript processing may take. This is not related to the virtual time in any way. 3,600 (1h)

The following example limits JavaScript processing time to 20 seconds.

config.setJavaScriptSettings(new JavaScriptSettings()
    .setTimeout(20));
--java-script-timeout

awesomizr.js

The JavaScript library awesomizr.js is a collection of helpful functions for the use with PDFreactor. You have to import the JavaScript and in some cases the corresponding CSS. Both the script and the css files are located in the PDFreactor/samples directory.

You can add the library by using the PDFreactor configuration property userScripts. To add the respective CSS, use the property userStyleSheets:

config
    .setUserStyleSheets(new Resource()
        .setUri("awesomizr.css"))
    .setUserScripts(
        new Resource()
            .setContent("import * as Awesomizr from './awesomizr.js'; Awesomizr.createTableOfContents();")
            .setSubtype(ResourceSubtype.JAVASCRIPT_MODULE));
-c awesomizr.css
-j module "import * as Awesomizr from './awesomizr.js'; Awesomizr.createTableOfContents();"

Of course, the library and the style sheet can alternatively be imported by the document itself. However, please note that some functions only work with PDFreactor.

The capabilities of awesomizr.js include:

Output Formats

PDF Output

PDF is the default output format of PDFreactor.

Generally PDFreactor generates PDFs with the Adobe PDF version 1.5. However, some PDF features may require viewers that support newer versions of PDF.

PDF/A and PDF/X conformance may force different PDF versions.

The PDF documents created with PDFreactor may contain additional metadata, which may require a PDF reader that is able to display a later version of Adobe PDF correctly.

Some features of PDFreactor are specific to the PDF output format:

Bookmarks

Bookmarks
Bookmarks in the Adobe Reader

PDFreactor adds bookmarks to your document automatically. This can be disabled by using the disableBookmarks configuration property like this:

config.setDisableBookmarks(true);
--disable-bookmarks

When the default HTML mode is enabled, some bookmark levels are applied by default, e.g. the following ones for heading elements:

h1 { bookmark-level: 1;}
h2 { bookmark-level: 2;}
h3 { bookmark-level: 3;}
h4 { bookmark-level: 4;}
h5 { bookmark-level: 5;}
h6 { bookmark-level: 6;}

Using the bookmark-level style you can create bookmarks which link to arbitrary XML elements in your PDF files.

element { bookmark-level: 1; }
Using this property, one can structure the specified elements within the bookmark view of the PDF viewer. The elements are ordered in ascending order. The element with the lowest bookmark level is on top of the bookmark hierarchy (similar to HTML headlines). Several bookmark levels can be set using the bookmark-level style.

The property bookmark-state defines whether the entry is initially open, showing its descendants in the bookmark view of the PDF viewer. With the property bookmark-label it is possible to define the bookmark title. By default, the element's text content is used.

How the coordinate to scroll to is determined can be changed via the property , e.g. the scroll target can be offset by 1cm or the page the element is on can be used instead of the element itself.

Links

PDFreactor adds links to your documents by default. This can be disabled by using the disableLinks configuration property like this:

config.setDisableLinks(true);
--disable-links

For HTML documents the following link styles are applied by default, enabling external and internal links:

a[href] { -ro-link:   attr(href); }
a[name] { -ro-anchor: attr(name); }
[id]    { -ro-anchor: attr(id);   }

Using the styles and arbitrary elements can be defined to be links or anchors.

linkElement[linkAttribute] { -ro-link: attr(linkAttribute); }
anchorElement[anchorAttribute] { -ro-anchor: attr(anchorAttribute); }

Some PDF viewers recognize URLs written in plain text and convert them to links. This happens independently of PDFreactor and its settings and properties.

Please see for a way to embed target files into the output PDF instead of linking to them.

The clickable areas of links

The proprietary property can be used to specify how the 'clickable' areas of links are determined.

This style is not inherited. It has to be set on the same elements as -ro-link, when those should deviate from the default value: all.

The scroll coordinate for internal links

How the coordinate to scroll to is determined for internal links can be changed via the property on the target element, e.g. the scroll target can be offset by 1cm or the page the element is on can be used instead of the element itself.

Links in Images

When links are enabled the following also create clickable links:

  • Links in SVGs. The target is taken from the a element itself. The clickable area is the bounding rectangle of all elements contained in that element.

  • HTML image map links. The clickable area and target are based on the attributes of the area.

  • Barcodes containing an absolute URL. Those are clickable in their entirety pointing to that URL.

Metadata

The title of a generated PDF document, as well as the additional metadata author, subject and keywords, can be specified in multiple ways:

By default the <title> tag as well as various <meta> tags are read.

The metadata can also be read from other elements using the properties , , and .

When a metadata property applies to multiple elements the values are concatenated. Therefore it is recommended to disable the default set elements when specifying other ones:

/* Disable setting title from title or meta tags */
head * {
    -ro-title: none;
}
/* Set title from first heading */
body > h1:first-of-type {
    -ro-title: content();
}

The metadata of the document can be overridden from the API. The following metadata can be directly set by PDFreactor:

  • author – The author of the document

  • title – The document's title

  • subject – The subject of the document

  • creator – The content creator

  • keywords – Usually a comma-separated list of keywords for search engines

config
    setAuthor("John Doe")
    setTitle("Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One")
    setSubject("Architecture of the world wide web")
    setCreator("John's DoeNuts, Inc.")
    setKeywords("w3c, www");
--author "John Doe" \
--title "Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One" \
--subject "Architecture of the world wide web" \
--creator "John's DoeNuts, Inc." \
--keywords "w3c, www"

The code above creates metadata as shown in the screenshot below:

Document properties
Document properties dialog of Adobe Reader

The PDF "producer" property, also known as "encoding software", cannot be overridden. It will always contain PDFreactor's name and version as well as basic information about the used license. For security purposes, the version number can be suppressed. See for more details.

Custom Properties

You can also add custom properties to the documents, for which you can define the name and value, e.g.

config.setCustomDocumentProperties(
    new KeyValuePair("feedback address", "peter@miller.com"));
--customDocumentProperties "feedback address" "peter@miller.com"

Interactive PDF Forms

HTML forms are rendered automatically by PDFreactor. In addition, you can also convert HTML forms to fully functional interactive PDF forms (sometimes referred to as AcroForms) using the proprietary CSS property . This property must be specified for the forms you wish to convert to an interactive PDF form.

Example form:

<form id="credentials">
    First Name: <input type="text" value="firstname" />
    Last Name: <input type="text" value="lastname" />
    <input type="submit" />
</form>

To convert the form with the ID "credentials" to an AcroForm, you can use this style declaration:

#credentials, #credentials > input { -ro-pdf-format: pdf; }
Using this style declaration, only the form with the ID "credentials" and the input fields contained in this form are converted to an AcroForm when the PDF is rendered. Only the forms and form elements having this CSS style are converted. You can convert all forms and input fields using this CSS code:
form, form input { -ro-pdf-format: pdf; }
HTML form elements are mapped to interactive PDF forms based on their type and attributes as follows:
Markup Mapped Form Type
<input type="text"/> Text Box
<input type="password"/> Text Box
<input type="checkbox"/> Check Box
<input type="radio"/> Radio Button
<input type="submit"/> Push Button
<input type="reset"/> Push Button
<input type="file"/> Text Box
<input type="hidden"/> None
<input type="image"/> Push Button
<input type="button" value="Button"/> Push Button
<input type="color"/> Text Box
<input type="date"/> Text Box
<input type="datetime-local"/> Text Box
<input type="date"/> Text Box
<input type="email"/> Text Box
<input type="month"/> Text Box
<input type="number"/> Text Box
<input type="range"/> Text Box
<input type="search"/> Text Box
<input type="tel"/> Text Box
<input type="time"/> Text Box
<input type="url"/> Text Box
<input type="week"/> Text Box
<button type="submit">Submit</button> Push Button
<button type="button">Button</button> Push Button
<button type="reset">Reset</button> Push Button
<select>
<!-- Options -->
</select>
Combo Box
<select multiple>
<!-- Options -->
</select>
List Box
<textarea></textarea> Text Area

Tagged PDF

Tagged PDF files contain information about the structure of the document. The information about the structure is transported via so-called "PDF tags". Tagging a PDF makes it accessible to assistive technology like screen readers. Please see the chapter for further information. Furthermore, depending on the application, it may improve the results of copy and paste or allow more advanced processing of the PDF.

Using the addTags configuration property, you can add PDF tags to the PDF documents generated with PDFreactor. If you are generating a PDF from HTML input, the HTML elements and the resulting layout are automatically mapped to the appropriate PDF tag structures, so all you have to do is set the following configuration property to enable this feature:

config.setAddTags(true);
--add-tags

PDF tagging is automatically enabled when it is required by a PDF conformance, like PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-3a or PDF/UA.

For documents containing text in RTL direction that have to be accessible the property must not be set to speed, as that does only ensure that the text is in the correct order visually, but not logically.

PDF/A Conformance

PDFreactor supports the creation of PDF/A-1a or PDF/A-3a conformant files, as well as other PDF/A sub-formats, which, however, will not be covered in detail.

PDF/A is a family of ISO standards ("ISO 19005") for long-term archiving of documents. The goal of these standards is to ensure the reproduction of the visual appearance as well as the inclusion of the document's structure. All information necessary for displaying the document in the same way every time is embedded in the file. Dependencies on external resources are not permitted. PDF/A-1a and PDF/A-3a also require the output PDF documents to be tagged, providing accessible documents. PDFreactor will automatically ensure the requirements are met as far as possible.

Many companies and government organizations worldwide require PDF/A compliant documents.

PDF/A-1a is the strictest PDF/A standard while the newer PDF/A-3a is more lenient, e.g. allowing transparency and attachments.

PDF/A imposes the following restrictions, which PDFreactor automatically enforces (overriding configuration settings), so no manual intervention is required unless noted otherwise:

  • All used fonts are embedded.

  • All images are embedded.

  • Multi-media content is forbidden.

  • PDF Script is prohibited. (Does not affect JavaScript in the source HTML document)

  • Encryption is prohibited.

  • Metadata included in the PDF is required to be standard-based XMP.

  • Colors are specified in a device-independent manner. (see below)

  • The PDF must be tagged. (PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-2a and PDF/A-3a only)

  • Attachments are prohibited. (PDF/A-1 only)

  • Transparency is prohibited (PDF/A-1 only), see image alpha channels in PDF/A-1.

PDF/A documents must use either RGB or CMYK colors exclusively (color keywords and gray colors will be converted appropriately). By default RGB colors are expected. Using CMYK requires an output intent including an ICC profile. (It is also possible to specify an RGB profile to replace the default sRGB.) Please see .

To create a PDF/A conformant document, the configuration property conformance is used in the PDFreactor integration, e.g.:

config.setConformance(Conformance.PDFA3A);
--conformance "PDFA3A"

The supported PDF/A conformance levels are PDF/A-1a, PDF/A-1b, PDF/A-2a, PDF/A-2b, PDF/A-2u, PDF/A-3a, PDF/A-3b and PDF/A-3u.

PDF/A-1 alpha channels

Images in PDF/A-1 document may have an alpha channel. However, the values in the channel may only be the minimum and maximum, i.e. fully transparent and fully opaque. For images that violate that requirement PDFreactor applies dithering to the alpha channel to create a valid one that approximates the original.

CSS colors may also not have alpha values. Those are not automatically removed. This can be enabled with the ignoreAlpha configuration property, like this:

config.setIgnoreAlpha(true);
--ignore-alpha

Please note that ignoring the alpha channel may lead to unexpected results.

Validation

PDFreactor can optionally validate the generated PDF against specified PDF/A or PDF/UA conformances using the configuration property validateConformance. Validation is optional and might take several minutes depending on the size and complexity of the document. It can be enabled like this:

config.setValidateConformance(true);
--validate-conformance

When conformance validation is enabled, PDFreactor will throw an exception and terminate the conversion should the document not validate against all specified conformances. If the PDF validates successfully, the conversion will finish normally. In either case, the log will contain additional information about the document’s validation status.

It is also possible to create documents that are PDF/UA compliant in addition to being PDF/A compliant, combining the benefits of both formats for maximum accessibility and archivability. We highly recommend adding PDF/UA conformance when creating PDF/A documents:

config.setConformance(Conformance.PDFA3A_PDFUA);
--conformance "PDFA3A_PDFUA"

PDF/UA Conformance

PDF/UA is a standard for accessible PDF documents, which has been adopted as a recommendation or requirement by many organizations worldwide.

It primarily defines correct PDF tagging. The only other restriction that may require manual intervention is that the document must have a title. (If the title is not specified in the input document, it can be set via the configuration property title.)

When PDF/UA conformance is enabled PDF tagging is automatically enaled as well. Please see the chapter for further information.

To create a PDF/UA conformant document, the configuration property conformance can be used in the PDFreactor integration, e.g.:

config.setConformance(Conformance.PDFUA);
--conformance "PDFUA"

It is also possible to create documents that are PDF/A compliant in addition to being PDF/UA compliant, combining the benefits of both formats for maximum accessibility and archivability. We recommend adding PDF/A-3a conformance when creating PDF/UA documents, as long as the additional restrictions are met by the input document.

config.setConformance(Conformance.PDFA3A_PDFUA);
--conformance "PDFA3A_PDFUA"

PDF/X Conformance

PDFreactor supports the creation of PDF/X conformant files, specifically PDF/X-1a:2001, PDF/X-3:2002, PDF/X-1a:2003, PDF/X-3:2003, PDF/X-4 and PDF/X-4p. PDF/X restrictions and requirements are enforced as far as possible, which may cause configuration settings to be overridden or conversions to fail with an error message describing non-compliant content or settings that have to be resolved manually. The restrictions and requirements of PDF/X include:

  • All Fonts must be embedded.

  • Multimedia content and non-printable annotations are prohibited.

  • Encryption is prohibited.

  • No scripts may be embedded. (This does not affect JavaScript in the input document.)

  • Transparency is prohibited (except in PDF/X-4), see image alpha channels in PDF/A-1.

  • Colors must be specified as CMYK, gray, keywords or spot. (PDF/X-3 relaxes this restriction to allow RGB. However, this requires ICC profile based conversion, which not every print workflow can handle.)

  • An output intent is required, consisting of an output condition identifier string and an ICC profile. (Depending on the exact conformance and target environment it may be legal or required to omit the ICC profile, as long as the identifier is known to the target environment. Constants for the default profiles of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC are available for usage with PDF/X-4p. Please note that the availability of these default profiles may vary between different versions of Acrobat Pro.) Please see .

  • The title metadata is required. Usually, it is set by the document's title element, but it can also be set by the CSS property -ro-title. The third option is to set it via the configuration property title. Please see .

To create a PDF/X conformant document, the configuration property conformance can be used in the PDFreactor integration, e.g.:

config.setConformance(Conformance.PDFX4);
--conformance "PDFX4"

ICC Profiles and Output Intents

PDFreactor allows you to set the output intent of the PDF document, consisting of an identifier and an ICC profile. This is required for certain PDF/A and PDF/X conformance modes, with the ICC profile being optional in some cases. The example below demonstrates how to use the configuration property outputIntent:

config.setOutputIntent(new OutputIntent()
    .setIdentifier("ICC profile identifier")

    // Use this if you are loading the ICC profile via URL (ignored if data is set)
    .setUrl("URL/to/ICC/profile")

    // Use this if you want to specify the ICC profile's binary data
    .setData(iccProfileByteArray)
);
--output-intent-identifier "ICC profile identifier" \
--output-intent-url URL/to/ICC/profile

The property identifier sets a string identifying the intended output device or production condition in human- or machine-readable form. The property url points to an ICC profile file and the property data sets the binary data of such a profile, the latter having priority.

The color space of the output intent profile overrides the target color space.

Color Space Conversion

In cases when output PDF documents must consist only of colors and images of a certain color space, but not all input documents and resources match that, you can enable color space conversion. For example, you can convert all CSS colors and images to CMYK with a specified ICC profile matching the output intent of a PDF/A or a PDF/X for printing:

// The required output intent
config.setOutputIntent(new OutputIntent()
    .setIdentifier("ICC profile identifier")
    .setUrl("URL/to/ICC/profile"));
// Color space conversion settings
config.setColorSpaceSettings(new ColorSpaceSettings()
    // The same profile as the output intent, required for accurate conversion to CMYK
    .setCmykIccProfile(new Resource().setUri("URL/to/ICC/profile"))
    // Not necessary to set in this case (overridden by output intent), but recommended
    .setTargetColorSpace(ColorSpace.CMYK)
    // Enable conversion of RGB colors and images to CMYK
    .setConversionEnabled(true));

You can also create a web version, which is smaller and in RGB:

// (No output intent required)
// Color space conversion settings
config.setColorSpaceSettings(new ColorSpaceSettings()
    // When converting to RGB the profile is used for accurate conversion from CMYK
    .setCmykIccProfile(new Resource().setUri("URL/to/ICC/profile"))
    // Not necessary to set in this case (default), but recommended
    .setTargetColorSpace(ColorSpace.RGB)
    // Enable conversion of CMYK colors and images to RGB
    .setConversionEnabled(true));
// Reduce image sizes by resampling and compression
config.setUserStyleSheets(new Resource().setContent(
    // downsample images that (in the final layout)
    // have a resolution of more then 200dpi
    "* { -ro-image-resampling: 200dpi; "
    // recompress all images to JPEG with a quality of 90%
      + "-ro-image-recompression: jpeg(90%) }"));
--color-space-cmyk-icc-profile URL/to/ICC/profile \
--color-space-target-color-space RGB \
--color-space-conversion-enabled

If cmykIccProfile is not set, naive conversion, similar to the one of PDF viewers, is used.

Print Dialog Prompt

PDFreactor can be configured to immediately display a print dialog when a PDF file created with PDFreactor is opened. To do so, the printDialogPrompt configuration property must be used:

config.setPrintDialogPrompt(true);
--print-dialog-prompt

Compression

There are several factors that contribute to a PDFs resulting file size, such as the number of pages and image resources. To achieve a smaller file size, you can use various compression methods which may be more or less effective depending on the exact use case.

Image Compression

In some cases, the PDF contains many high-resolution images which are appropriate for print PDFs, but may not be ideal for PDFs published on the web. For such a case, you can use CSS to compress and resample images to ensure that their resolution does not exceed a specific value. This can be done with the proprietary CSS property , whose value represents the target resolution.

This example demonstrates how to convert large images into new images with a target resoluton of 72dpi. Images that already have resolution smaller than 72dpi are not converted.

* {
    -ro-image-resampling: 72dpi;
}

Changing the resolution of an image is generally a lossy compression and will reduce the quality of an image. To specify the compression algorithm and the quality of the resampled image, use the proprietary CSS property.

Structure Optimization

PDFreactor automatically compresses certain PDF data strucutres such as tag trees to optimize the file size. There may be certain situations where this optimization is undesired, e.g. when PDF version 1.4 is required. In this case, the optimization can be disabled using the disablePdfStructureOptimization configuration property.

config.setDisablePdfStructureOptimization(true);
--disable-pdf-structure-optimization

Encryption and Restrictions

PDFreactor can protect generated PDF documents via 40 or 128 bit encryption.

To encrypt the output PDF, set the encryption strength to a value other than ENCRYPTION_NONE:

EncryptionSettings encryptionSettings = new EncryptionSettings();
encryptionSettings.setType(Encryption.AES_256);
config.setEncryptionSettings(encryptionSettings);
encryption-type AES_256

When the PDF document is opened, the user has to supply the user password in order to view the content. When no user password is set, the PDF can be viewed by any user. In either case, certain restrictions are imposed. These can be suspended by supplying the owner password. You can set the passwords as follows:

EncryptionSettings encryptionSettings = new EncryptionSettings();
encryptionSettings.setUserPassword("upasswd");
encryptionSettings.setOwnerPassword("opasswd");
config.setEncryptionSettings(encryptionSettings);
--encryption-user-password "upasswd" \
--encryption-owner-password "opasswd"

Though not recommended for security reasons, both passwords can be omitted. However, the owner password must be specified for certain postprocessing steps, e.g. for digital signing or merging.

By default, all restrictions are imposed on the PDF document. You can, however, exclude selected ones by using the following configuration properties:

Encryption as well as restrictions are highly viewer dependent. If a PDF viewer does not implement them, some restrictions may not be taken into account at all.

List of configuration properties to disable restrictions
Property name Allows ...
allowPrinting printing
allowCopy copying or otherwise extracting content
allowAnnotations adding or modifying annotations and interactive form fields
allowModifyContents modifying the content of the document
allowDegradedPrinting printing (same as allowPrinting, however, with a limited resolution) (128 bit encryption only)
allowFillIn filling in form fields (128 bit encryption only)
allowAssembly inserting, removing and rotating pages and adding bookmarks (128 bit encryption only)
allowScreenReaders extracting content for use by accessibility devices (128 bit encryption only)

API docs for further information.

Viewer Preferences

You can configure the initial presentation of the document in the viewer by setting viewer preferences. Setting viewer preferences will activate / deactivate certain options of the viewer, for example it allows to hide the viewer's toolbar when the document is opened.

Note that these preferences are not enforced, i.e. if you decide to set the HIDE_TOOLBAR preference, the user can still display the toolbar again when viewing this PDF if he decides to do so. Setting this preference only affects the default state of the toolbar when the document is opened, but does not enforce this state.

Some viewer preferences also influence the default settings of the print dialog of the viewer.

You can set viewer preferences by using the configuration property viewerPreferences, e.g.:

config.setViewerPreferences(ViewerPreferences.PAGE_LAYOUT_SINGLE_PAGE,
    ViewerPreferences.DISPLAY_DOC_TITLE);
--viewer-preferences PAGE_LAYOUT_SINGLE_PAGE DISPLAY_DOC_TITLE

PDFreactor supports the following viewer preferences:

List of Viewer Preferences
Viewer Preference Effect
PAGE_LAYOUT_SINGLE_PAGE Display one page at a time.
PAGE_LAYOUT_ONE_COLUMN Display the pages in one column.
PAGE_LAYOUT_TWO_COLUMN_LEFT Display the pages in two columns, with odd numbered pages on the left.
PAGE_LAYOUT_TWO_COLUMN_RIGHT Display the pages in two columns, with odd numbered pages on the right.
PAGE_LAYOUT_TWO_PAGE_LEFT Display two pages at a time, with odd numbered pages on the left.
PAGE_LAYOUT_TWO_PAGE_RIGHT Display two pages at a time, with odd numbered pages on the right.
PAGE_MODE_USE_NONE Show no panel on startup.
PAGE_MODE_USE_OUTLINES Show bookmarks panel on startup.
PAGE_MODE_USE_THUMBS Show thumbnail images panel on startup.
PAGE_MODE_FULLSCREEN Switch to full screen mode on startup.
PAGE_MODE_USE_OC Show optional content group panel on startup.
PAGE_MODE_USE_ATTACHMENTS Show attachments panel on startup.
HIDE_TOOLBAR Hide the viewer application's tool bars when the document is active.
HIDE_MENUBAR Hide the viewer application's menu bar when the document is active.
HIDE_WINDOW_UI Hide user interface elements in the document's window.
FIT_WINDOW Resize the document's window to fit the size of the first displayed page
CENTER_WINDOW Position the document's window in the center of the screen.
DISPLAY_DOC_TITLE Display the document's title in the top bar.
NON_FULLSCREEN_PAGE_MODE_USE_NONE Show no panel on exiting full-screen mode. Has to be combined with PageModeFullScreen.
NON_FULLSCREEN_PAGE_MODE_USE_OUTLINES Show bookmarks panel on exiting full-screen mode. Has to be combined with PageModeFullScreen.
NON_FULLSCREEN_PAGE_MODE_USE_THUMBS Show thumbnail images panel on exiting full-screen mode. Has to be combined with PageModeFullScreen.
NON_FULLSCREEN_PAGE_MODE_USE_OC Show optional content group panel on exiting full-screen mode. Has to be combined with PageModeFullScreen.
DIRECTION_L2R Position pages in ascending order from left to right.
DIRECTION_R2L Position pages in ascending order from right to left.
PRINTSCALING_NONE Print dialog default setting: disabled scaling
PRINTSCALING_APPDEFAULT Print dialog default setting: set scaling to application default value
DUPLEX_SIMPLEX Print dialog default setting: simplex
DUPLEX_FLIP_SHORT_EDGE Print dialog default setting: duplex (short edge)
DUPLEX_FLIP_SHORT_EDGE Print dialog default setting: duplex (long edge)
PICKTRAYBYPDFSIZE_FALSE Print dialog default setting: do not pick tray by PDF size
PICKTRAYBYPDFSIZE_TRUE Print dialog default setting: pick tray by PDF size

The PAGE_LAYOUT_ preferences are overridden by the @-ro-preferences properties and .

Merging PDFs

A generated PDF can easily be merged with existing ones. To merge with a single PDF or multiple PDFs use the mergeDocuments configuration property that declares either URLs to or binary data of existing PDF files.

MergeSettings mergeSettings = new MergeSettings();
mergeSettings.setMergeDocuments(
    new Resource().setUri("https://www.myserver.com/overlaid1.pdf"),
    new Resource().setData(pdfBytes));
config.setMergeSettings(mergeSettings);
--merge-documents https://www.myserver.com/overlaid1.pdf

Whether the generated PDF is appended or laid over the existing PDFs depends on the general type of merge:

  • Concatenation

  • Arrange

  • Overlay

Concatenation merges append the generated PDF before or after the existing ones. The following sample shows how to append the generated PDF after the existing one:

MergeSettings mergeSettings = new MergeSettings();
mergeSettings
    .setMergeDocuments(
        new Resource().setUri("https://www.myserver.com/appendDoc.pdf"))
    .setMode(MergeMode.APPEND);
config.setMergeSettings(mergeSettings);
--merge-documents https://www.myserver.com/appendDoc.pdf \
--merge-mode APPEND

To append the generated PDF before the existing ones use MergeMode.PREPEND.

Arrange inserts specified pages of PDFs into the generated PDF. This merge mode has to be combined with pageOrder (see ) in order to specify which page should be inserted where. The following sample shows how to insert the first page of an existing PDF after the second page of the generated one:

MergeSettings mergeSettings = new MergeSettings();
mergeSettings
    .setMergeDocuments(
        new Resource().setUri("https://www.myserver.com/insert1.pdf"),
        new Resource().setUri("https://www.myserver.com/insert2.pdf"))
    .setMode(MergeMode.ARRANGE);
config.setMergeSettings(mergeSettings);
config.setPageOrder("1,1:1,2..-1");
--merge-documents https://www.myserver.com/insert1.pdf https://www.myserver.com/insert2.pdf \
--merge-mode ARRANGE \
--page-order "1,1:1,2..-1"

More information on the syntax can be found at

Overlay merges add the generated PDF above or below existing PDFs. The following sample shows how to overlay an existing PDF:

MergeSettings mergeSettings = new MergeSettings();
mergeSettings
    .setMergeDocuments(
        new Resource().setUri("https://www.myserver.com/overlaid.pdf"))
    .setMode(MergeMode.OVERLAY);
config.setMergeSettings(mergeSettings);
--merge-documents https://www.myserver.com/overlaid.pdf \
--merge-mode OVERLAY

To add the generated PDF below the existing one use MergeMode.OVERLAY_BELOW.

PDFreactor allows to repeat the pages of PDFs with less pages than other PDFs involved in the merger. The configuration property overlayRepeat offers different options to do this:

  • repeat only the last page

  • repeat all pages of the PDF

  • do not repeat any pages

  • trim to page count of the shorter document

In the following example, all pages are repeated:

MergeSettings mergeSettings = new MergeSettings();
mergeSettings
    .setMergeDocuments(
        new Resource().setUri("https://www.myserver.com/overlaid.pdf"))
    .setMode(MergeMode.OVERLAY)
    .setOverlayRepeat(OverlayRepeat.ALL_PAGES);
config.setMergeSettings(mergeSettings);
--merge-documents https://www.myserver.com/overlaid.pdf \
--merge-mode OVERLAY \
--merge-overlay-repeat ALL_PAGES

The default merge behavior of PDFreactor is a concatenation after the pages of the existing PDFs.

When overlaying documents that have differing page sizes, use the overlayFit property to configure how overlay pages that have different dimensions from thepages they are overlaying should be resized.

In the following example, the overlaying page keeps its aspect ratio but will be clipped to fit:

MergeSettings mergeSettings = new MergeSettings();
mergeSettings
    .setMergeDocuments(
        new Resource().setUri("https://www.myserver.com/overlaid.pdf"))
    .setMode(MergeMode.OVERLAY)
    .setOverlayFit(OverlayFit.COVER);
config.setMergeSettings(mergeSettings);
--merge-documents https://www.myserver.com/overlaid.pdf \
--merge-mode OVERLAY \
--merge-overlay-fit COVER

When overlaying pages, annotations present in the overlay are preserved by default. This behaviour can be configured using the property disableOverlayAnnotations.

The following example shows how to disable overlay annotations so that they are not embedded:

MergeSettings mergeSettings = new MergeSettings();
mergeSettings
    .setMergeDocuments(
        new Resource().setUri("https://www.myserver.com/overlaid.pdf"))
    .setMode(MergeMode.OVERLAY)
    .setDisableOverlayAnnotations(true);
config.setMergeSettings(mergeSettings);
--merge-documents https://www.myserver.com/overlaid.pdf \
--merge-mode OVERLAY \
--merge-disable-overlay-annotations

By default, merging documents will if exceptions occur during the merge operation. If you want the merge to proceed and merge documents with errors simply to be omitted if they contain errors, you can enable the error policy IGNORE_INVALID_MERGE_DOCUMENTS_EXCEPTION to do so. Please see Error Policies for details.

Digital Signing

PDFreactor is able to sign the PDFs it creates. This allows to validate the identity of the creator of the document. A self-signed certificate may be used. A keystore file in which the certificate is included, is required to sign PDFs with PDFreactor.

The keystore type is required to be one of the following formats:

  • "pkcs12"

  • "jks"

To create a keystore from certificate(s) or read information of an existing keystore such as the keyAlias, the Oracle Keytool can be used.

PDFreactor supports various certificates types to sign a PDF such as self-signed certificates. Please see the API documentation for details on these modes.

To sign a PDF digitally use the configuration property signPDF:

config.setSignPDF(
new SignPDF()
    .setKeyAlias("keyAlias")
    .setKeystorePassword("keyStorePassword")
    .setKeystoreType(KeystoreType.JKS)
    .setKeystoreURL("http://myServer/Keystore.jks")
    .setSigningMode(SigningMode.SELF_SIGNED));
--sign-pdf-key-alias "keyAlias" \
--sign-pdf-keystore-password "keyStorePassword" \
--sign-pdf-keystore-type JKS \
--sign-pdf-keystore-url http://myServer/Keystore.jks \
--sign-pdf-signing-mode SELF_SIGNED

To specify the keystoreURL as file URL use the following syntax: file:///path/to/Keystore.jks

If a PDF is signed via the VeriSign signing mode, a plugin for the PDF viewer is required to show the signature.

Font Embedding

By default, PDFreactor automatically embeds the required subsets of all fonts used in the document. This can be disable using the configuration property disableFontEmbedding.

config.setDisableFontEmbedding(true);
--disable-font-embedding

Doing so reduces the file size of the resulting PDF documents. However, these documents are likely to not look the same on all systems. Therefore this property should only be used when necessary.

Overprinting

Overprinting means that one color is printed on top of another color. For example, a background is printed completely, before the text is put on top. As this is a feature for printing it should be used with CMYK colors.

PDFreactor can set the values of the PDF graphics state parameters "overprint" and "overprint mode" via CSS. However, before the CSS properties have any effect, overprinting must first be enabled via the configuration property addOverprint:

config.setAddOverprint(true);
--add-overprint

Then using the styles -ro-pdf-overprint and -ro-pdf-overprint-content you can specify the overprint properties of elements and their content to either none (default), mode0 or mode1 (nonzero overprint mode).

-ro-pdf-overprint affects the entire element, while -ro-pdf-overprint-content only affects the content of the element (not its borders and backgrounds). In both cases the children of the element are affected entirely, unless overprint styles are applied to them as well.

The following example sets small text on solid background to overprint, without enabling overprinting for the background of either the paragraphs or the highlighting spans:

p.infobox {
    border: 1pt solid black;
    background-color: lightgrey;
    color: black;
    font-size: 8pt;
    -ro-pdf-overprint-content: mode1;
}
p.infobox span.marked {
    background-color: yellow;
    -ro-pdf-overprint: none;
    -ro-pdf-overprint-content: mode1;
}

When having small text with a background, overprinting can be very helpful to avoid white lines around the text, if the printing registration is imperfect.

Attachments

Alternatively to linking to external URLs (see ) PDFreactor also allows embedding their content into the PDF.

Attachments can be defined via CSS, which can be enabled by the configuration property addAttachments:

config.setAddAttachments(true);
--add-attachments

The following styles can be used to specify attachments:

  • :

    A URL pointing to the file to be embedded. This URL can be relative.

  • :

    The file name associated with the attachment. It is recommended to specify the correct file extension. If this is not specified the name is derived from the URL.

  • :

    The description of the attachment. If this is not specified the name is used.

  • :

    • element (default): The attachment is related to the area of the element. Viewers may show a marker near that area.

    • document: The file is attached to the document with no relation to the element.

Attachments can be specified for specific elements as follows:

#downloadReport {
    -ro-pdf-attachment-url: "../resources/0412/report.doc";
    -ro-pdf-attachment-name: "report-2012-04.doc";
    -ro-pdf-attachment-description: "Report for April of 2012";
}

Strings can be dynamically read from the document using the CSS functions attr and , that read specified attributes or the text content of the element respectively. Using those, certain a-tags can be changed from links to attachments:

.downloadReports a[href] {
    -ro-link: none;
    -ro-pdf-attachment-url: attr(href);
    -ro-pdf-attachment-description: content() " (" attr(href) ")";
}

Attachments can also be set via the configuration property attachments. This configuration property also allows specifying the content of the attachment as a byte array instead of an URL, so dynamically created data can be attached:

config.setAttachments(
    new Attachment()
        .setData("sample attachment text".getBytes())
        .setName("sample.txt")
        .setDescription("a dynamically created attachment containing text"),
    new Attachment()
        .setUrl("../resources/0412/report.doc")
        .setName("report-2012-04.doc")
        .setDescription("Report for April of 2012"));
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "attachments": [
    {
        data: sampleAttachmentTextBytesAsBase64
        name: "sample.txt"
        description: "a dynamically created attachment containing text"
    },
    {
        url: "../resources/0412/report.doc",
        name: "report-2012-04.doc",
        description: "Report for April of 2012"
    }
]}

Attaching Debug Files

PDFreactor offers a number of debug files containing useful information about the conversion, e.g. logs. These can be attached to the PDF by specifying a special URL for the attachment. Please refer to for an overview of all available debug files. Note that some debug files might require additional configuration options, such as .

PDF Script

This chapter refers to Scripts added to the resulting PDFs, processed by the PDF-viewer. There also:

Some PDF viewers (e.g. Adobe Reader) allow the execution of JavaScript, which has been added to the PDF. This way, the document can be changed and dynamic content can be added long after the conversion is complete. Of course the structure of the PDF is different from the HTML and addressing certain elements with PDF scripts has to be done differently.

Please note, that support for PDF scripts is not wide spread among PDF reader software.

PDFreactor allows to add such scripts using the configuration property pdfScriptAction. The parameters are the script as a string and the event which should trigger the script.

The supported events are:

  • open: These scripts are triggered when opening the PDF in a viewer.

  • close: These scripts are triggered when closing the PDF.

  • before save: These events are triggered just before the viewer saves the PDF.

  • after save: These events are triggered after the viewer has saved the PDF.

  • before print: These events are triggered just before the viewer prints the PDF.

  • after print: These events are triggered after the viewer has printed the PDF.

These PDF scripts must not be confused with the JavaScript that is executed while creating the PDF. PDF scripts basically use the JavaScript syntax, however, they are executed (if this feature is supported and enabled by the viewer application) at a completely different time, e.g. when opening the PDF.

The following PDF script will display a message prompt when the PDF is opened.

config.setPdfScriptAction(new PdfScriptAction()
    .setScript("app.alert('hello');")
    .setTriggerEvent(PdfScriptTriggerEvent.OPEN));
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "pdfScriptAction": {
    "script": "app.alert('hello');",
    "triggerEvent": "OPEN"
}}

Preview Images

While most PDF viewers automatically generate page thumbnails to preview pages, PDFreactor can do this during the conversion and embed these preview images. This frees up PDF viewer resources and is especially useful for large documents. You can let PDFreactor create preview images with the addPreviewImages configuration property like this:

config.setAddPreviewImages(true);
--add-preview-images

Custom XMP

When using conformance such as PDF/A, PDF/X or PDF/UA as well as other features, PDFreactor automatically creates and appends an appropriate XMP to the generated PDF.

Custom XMPs can be loaded via content or uri. You also need to specify a priority, which can be HIGH (which means that the custom XMP replaces the one generated by PDFreactor) or LOW (which means that the custom XMP is only attached if PDFreactor did not generate one).

config.setXmp(new Xmp()
    .setPriority(XmpPriority.HIGH)
    .setUri("http://cdn/myXmp.xml"));
--xmp-priority HIGH \
--xmp-uri http://cdn/myXmp.xml

When attaching a custom XMP with high priority (thus overriding the PDFreactor-generated XMP), conformance such as PDF/A cannot be guaranteed.

Image Output

In addition to PDF, PDFreactor, with the optional Raster Image Output, supports the following image output formats:

These can be selected using the configuration property outputFormat, e.g.:

config.setOutputFormat(new OutputFormat()
    .setType(OutputType.PNG)
    .setWidth(512)
    .setHeight(-1));
--output-format-type PNG \
--output-format-width 512 \
--output-format-height -1

The later two parameters set the width and height of the resulting images in pixels. If either of these is set to a value of less than 1 it is computed from the other value and the aspect ratio of the page.

Independent of the image type, the maximum size of any output image that PDFreactor can produce is 500 megapixels.

for the media feature -ro-output-format, which allows setting styles specific for PDF or image output.

Selecting a page

All image output formats, except for the TIFF formats, create an image of a single page. By default, this is the first page. A different page can be selected using the configuration property pageOrder, e.g.:

config.setPageOrder("5");
--page-order "5"

Converting a Document Into Multiple Images

To convert a document into multiple images, you have to set the multiImage parameter of your OutputFormat to true e.g. like this:

config.setOutputFormat(new OutputFormat()
    .setType(OutputType.PNG)
    .setWidth(512)
    .setHeight(-1)
    .setMultiImage(true));
--output-format-type PNG \
--output-format-width 512 \
--output-format-height -1 \
--output-format-multi-image

The documentArray property of the Result object then returns an array of byte arrays, each containing an image representing one page of the document.

Continuous Output

The configuration property continuousOutput sets PDFreactor to continuous mode. In this mode each document is converted into one image. Also screen styles will be used and print styles will be ignored, resulting in a very browser-like look for the output image.

config.setContinuousOutput(new ContinuousOutput()
    .setWidth(1024)
    .setHeight(768));
--continuous-output-width 1024 \
--continuous-output-height 768

The first parameter sets the width of the layout. This has the same effect as the width of a browser window. This only changes the layout. The result will still be scaled to the width specified by outputFormat The second parameter sets the height. This has the same effect as the height of a browser window, i.e. it will cut off the image or increase its height. Values of less than 1 cause the laid out height of the document to be used.

Grayscale Image

PDFreactor can optionally output images that are entirely grayscale, i.e. that are composed exclusively of shades of gray via the forceGrayscaleImage configuration property.

config.setForceGrayscaleImage(true);
--force-grayscale-image

Color Space Conversion

For JPEG and (non-CCITT) TIFF output the images can be converted to CMYK before encoding. Conversion is done using a specified ICC profile or naively if there is none.

config.setColorSpaceSettings(new ColorSpaceSettings()
    .setConversionEnabled(true)
    .setTargetColorSpace(ColorSpace.CMYK)
    .setCmykIccProfile(new Resource().setUri("URL/to/optional/ICC/profile")));

Layout Documents

This chapter provides information on how to lay out documents, while focusing on the differences of the paginated layout of PDFreactor, in contrast to the continuous layout of browsers.

The document layout mostly depends on CSS but there are PDFreactor configuration properties and JavaScript functionality that may also be of use to achieve the desired results. While the common CSS properties known from browsers are supported as well, they are not covered in this chapter. Therefore an understanding of basic CSS is required.

Pagination

PDFreactor renders HTML and XML documents on pages. The rules to achieve that are provided by CSS.

The document content is laid out page by page, whenever there is no more space left on a page, PDFreactor automatically breaks text and boxes to the next.

Basic page styles are provided for HTML. Page styles for XML documents need to be created based on the documents language.

Layout at Breaks

Boxes around or next to breaks are subject to minor adjustments depending on the situation:

Between Blocks

The top margin of the first block on a page or column is ignored, except for the first page or column and for breaks forced via CSS. This difference can be eliminated by setting the proprietary property to always or none to ensure this adjustment is performed in all or no cases, respectively.

Applying styles to an element that change its formatting context, like overflow with a value other than visible, may stop margins from being truncated.

A non-proprietary alternative, that also affects the layout of documents in browsers (especially relevant for multi-column) is to explicitly set specific top margins to 0.

h1 {
    break-before: page;
    margin-top: 0;
}

div.multiColumn > *:first-child {
    margin-top: 0;
}

The bottom margin of the last block on a page or column is always ignored.

Inside Blocks

When a break occurs inside a block (e.g. between two lines of text in a paragraph) the block is split into two parts. There is no border, margin or padding at the bottom of the first part or the top of the second one. Setting the property to clone forces the inclusion of these borders and paddings. This does not affect the margins.

Images

By default no breaks can occur inside images and other replaced elements. In cases when this is required the proprietary property can be set to the values auto or avoid to explicitly allow breaks inside block images. To avoid too small parts of images to be split-off at the beginning or end the and properties, multiplied by the computed , are taken into account.

Page Selectors

To create an individual page layout pages need to be selected with CSS. In principle it works the same way as selecting an element, but the selector is different.

To select all pages of the document, the @page rule is used instead of the usual element selector.

@page {
    margin: 1in;
}

:first, :left, :right and other page specific pseudo-classes make it possible to style specific pages, like the first ones, e.g. for cover pages or subsets, like left pages.

@page {
    margin: 0.5in;
}
@page:left {
    margin-right: 0.75in;
}
@page:right {
    margin-left: 0.75in;
}

Which pages are left or right can be specified via the @-ro-preferences property

Nth Page

It is possible to select any page by using the prefixed CSS3 pseudo-class :-ro-nth(). This pseudo-class takes a function of the form An+B, similar to the pseudo-class :nth-child().

A single page can be selected (e.g. :-ro-nth(3) selects the third page) or the function can be used to select multiple pages. For example, :-ro-nth(2n) selects every second page (i.e. even pages), while :-ro-nth(2n+1) selects the first and every other page (odd pages).

Note that the selected page number is independent of the page counter, which is used to display page numbers and which can be manipulated.

This pseudo-class can also be used in combination with page names. For more information see .

Last Page

As the counterpart to :first, there is the proprietary selector :-ro-last. It allows to select the last page of the document.

Please note that as the content of the last page is only known after its content has been computed, there can be situations where the last page is empty. This can happen if the styles that are applied to the last page influence the layout of the page content, e.g. changing the page margins.

Page Size & Orientation

The size and orientation of a page can be set with the property. PDFreactor supports many different page sizes, see Appendix Supported Page Size Formats.

@page {
    size: letter portrait;
}

To set a page to landscape orientation, "portrait" is replaced by "landscape":

@page {
    size: letter landscape;
}

Instead of setting fixed page formats with a specified orientation it is also possible to set two length values. These then define page size and orientation.

@page {
    size: 4.25in 6.75in;
}

Named Pages

With named pages an element is able to create and appear on a special page that has a name. This name can be used as part of a page selector to attach additional style properties to all pages of that name.

To create a named page, an element receives the property with a page name as identifier.

All HTML <table> elements have to appear on pages with the name pageName.

table {
    page: pageName;
}

A page break will be inserted before an element that has the page property set. Another page break will be inserted for the next element that defines a different page name (or none) to ensure the Named Page only contains elements that specify its name.

To attach styles to a named page, the page name is added to the @page rule. The page name is not a pseudo-class like :first for example. There is a space between @page and the page name, not a colon.

@page pageName {
    size: letter landscape;
}

Page Groups

When setting a page name, a page group of this name is created automatically. Compared to named pages, page groups are more flexible and can be used to select a certain page, e.g. the first page with a name instead of all pages with that name.

While each page can have only one name, it can belong to multiple page groups, thus allowing an author to nest special pages. This means that if an element sets a page name to 'A', that page belongs to a page group of the same name, but can also belong to a group named 'B', if that group was defined by a parent element.

The following sample applies page orientation and page background color to the same page, by using two page groups.

HTML:

<section>
    <table class="landscape"> ... </table>
</section>

CSS:

section {
    page: outerGroup;
}
.landscape {
    page: innerGroup;
}
/* Make all pages named 'outerGroup' lightblue */
@page :-ro-nth(n of outerGroup) {
    background-color: lightblue;
}
/* Make all pages named 'innerGoup' landscape */
@page :-ro-nth(n of innerGroup) {
    size: A4 landscape;
}

In contrast to named pages, it is possible to create a new group even if the page name did not change. To do so, two adjacent elements, both defining the same page name, have to be divided by a forced page break.

Another advantage of page groups, is the possibility to select certain pages belonging to a group name. This is especially useful, if the first page of a group should have different styles. To select the nth-page of a group, the -ro-nth(An+B of pageName) pseudo class is used:

Select the first page of each page group with the name pageName.

@page :-ro-nth(1 of pageName) {
    background-color: lightgrey;
}

For more information on the syntax of the -ro-nth() pseudo class, please see .

Breaking Text

Text is broken whenever there is not enough space left, e.g. inside the line or on the page.

Automatic Hyphenation

Automatic Hyphenation allows breaking words in a way appropriate for the language of the word.

To use Automatic Hyphenation two requirements must be met:

  • The text to hyphenate requires a language set in the document.

  • The language set for the hyphenated text is supported by PDFreactor (see Appendix for more information)

The lang attribute in HTML or the xml:lang attribute in XML allow defining a language for the document and on individual elements, in case they deviate from the document language.

<html lang="en">
    ...
</html>

Hyphenation is enabled or disabled via CSS with the property:

Hyphenation enabled for an entire document except for paragraphs of the noHyphenation class.

html {
    hyphens: auto;
}
p.noHyphenation {
    hyphens: none;
}

In addition it is possible to specify the number of minimum letters before or after which text can be broken within a word. This is done with the and properties.

The number of successive lines that all end with hyphenated words can be limited with the property. Instead of being automatically hyphenated, the word is then moved into the next line, if possible.

Widows & Orphans

If the last line of a paragraph is also the first line of a page it is called a widow.

If the first line of a paragraph is also the last line of a page it is called an orphan.

By default, PDFreactor avoids widows and orphans by adding a page break before the paragraph. This behavior can be changed with the CSS properties and .

p {
    orphans: 2;
    widows: 2;
}

Changing the value to 1 will allow widows and orphans. Changing it to higher integer values will prevent even multiple line widows and orphans. (e.g.: orphans: 5 means that if the first 4 lines of a paragraph are the last 4 lines of a page these lines are considered an orphan.)

Customizing Line Breaks

By default, the rules for breaking words are defined by the Unicode StandardSee Unicode Standard Annex #14 - Unicode Line Breaking Algorithm - https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr14/ . In certain situations however, you may want to define specific break opportunities and forbid others. While this can be done using white-space and soft-hyphens, PDFreactor provides a more convenient way for general rules. The proprietary property -ro-line-break-opportunity allows to precisely define between which characters a break is allowed or forbidden.

Specifying this is done via Regular Expression (Regex), excluding lookaheads or lookbehinds. Though the syntax may look confusing to those that are unfamiliar with Regex, it allows to define any possible break opportunity. The property value is divided in up to three parts:

  1. normal: This optional identifier specifies that the default rules still apply. Thus the existing rules are only extended instead of being completely overridden.

  2. <whitelist>: These regex expression describe where break opportunities should be added.

  3. <blacklist>: The blacklist is separated with a slash and describes where break opportunities should be removed. The blacklist is stronger than the whitelist and overrides it in the case of a conflict.

Both, whitelist and blacklist, describe the character matching using one or two strings. The first string describes the content that must come before, the second what must come after the break opportunity. The second string can be omitted, while the first string can be an empty string if it is not needed. In regex terms, the first string is a lookbehind, the second is a lookahead, hence the slightly reduced syntax.

As the strings are specified in CSS, each backslash must be escaped. For example an escaped opening parenthesis would require two backslashes. One to escape the parenthesis for regex and one to escape the backslash for CSS: "\\("
Alternatively the character can be placed inside brackets instead of escaping it: "[(]"

A common use case of this property is when trying to break a file path or other technical strings where normal breaking rules are not applied.

Examples
Property Value Effect
normal "[(]" Allow breaks after a left parenthesis, in addition to the standard Unicode line breaking rules.
normal / "-" Standard Unicode line breaking rules are applied, but prevents breaks after a dash.
normal "[.]" "\\w" Allow breaks after a dot followed by a word character, in addition to the standard Unicode line breaking rules.
normal / "-" "\\w" Standard Unicode line breaking rules are applied, but prevents breaks after a dash followed by a word character.
normal "\\w" "[(]" / "\\w" "[(][)]" Allow breaks after a word character followed by a left parenthesis, except if a left and a right parenthesis follows, in addition to the standard Unicode line breaking rules.
normal "[(]" / "[(]" '"' Allow breaks after a left parenthesis, except if it is followed by a quote, in addition to the standard Unicode line breaking rules.
"\\s" Only allow breaks after a whitespace character. Standard Unicode line breaking rules aren't applied.
"\\s", "-" / "-" "\\d", "-" "[a-Z]" Only allow breaks after a whitespace character or a dash, except if a dash is followed by a digit or word character. Standard Unicode line breaking rules aren't applied.

Long and complex rules (especially those that include wildcards) can impact the performance depending on the length of the paragraphs, so it is best practice to apply the style only to the elements that may actually need them.

Generated Content

Generated content does not originate from the document. It is created by CSS during the rendering process and appears in the rendered result as if it was part of the document.

The pseudo-elements ::before and ::after are used to generate content before or after an element. The actual content is created with the property.

Generated Text

To create generated text, set a String as value of the content property.

Generated Text on an HTML <div> element.

HTML:

<div>This is a note.</div>

CSS:

div::before {
    /* Adds the text "Note:" at the start of the element. */
    content: "Note:";

    padding-right: 0.1in;
    font-weight: bold;
}
div {
    border: 1px solid black;
    background-color: palegoldenrod;
    padding: 0.1in;
}

As a result, the <div> would look like this:

This is a note.

Sometimes it is necessary to add an explicit line break to generated text. To create such a line break, a "\A " (an escaped line break character followed by a space) needs to be added to the String and the property needs to be set to either pre, pre-wrap or pre-line.

div::before {
    content: "RealObjects\A PDFreactor";
    white-space: pre;
}

The result would look like this:

Generated Images

A generated image can be created with the image's URL set as value of the content property.

h1::before {
    content: url("https://mydomain/pictures/image.svg");
}

Counters

Counters can be used to count elements or pages and then add the value of the Counter to generated text.

A Counter needs to be defined either with the or the property. Its value is read with the counter() function as value of the content property.

A common use-case for Counters are numbered headings. The chapter heading of a document is intended to display a number in front of its text that increases with each chapter.

A chapter heading for HTML <h1> elements using Counters and Generated Text.

h1 {
    /* increases the counter "heading1" by 1 on each <h1> element */
    counter-increment: heading1 1;
}
h1::before {
    /* Adds the current value of "heading1" before the <h1> element's
       text as decimal number */
    content: counter(heading1, decimal)
}

Subchapter headings, work the same way, with a simple addition. The number of each subchapter is intended to be reset whenever a new chapter begins. To restart numbering, the counter-reset property is used.

h1 {
    /* resets the value of counter "heading2" to 0 on every  <h1> element */
    counter-reset: heading2 0;
}
h2 {
    counter-increment: heading2 1;
}

h2::before {
    /* Shows the current value of "heading1" and "heading2", separated by a
       generated text ".", the value of "heading2" is shown as lower-case
       letter */
    content: counter(heading1, decimal) "." counter(heading2, lower-alpha)
}

To define custom counter representations use the @counter-style rule. It is structured like this:

@counter-style <counter-style-name> {

    system:             <counter-system>;
    symbols:            <counter-symbols>;
    additive-symbols:   <additive-symbols>;
    negative:           <negative-symbol>;
    prefix:             <prefix>;
    suffix:             <suffix>;
    range:              <range>;
    pad:                <padding>;
    fallback:           <counter-style-name>;

}

To learn more on how to use the @counter-style rule, see the MDN Documentation.

Page Header & Footer

Header, Footer & Page Side Boxes

It is possible to add Generated Content to a page within the page margin. The page margin is the space between the document content and the edges of a sheet. It is defined on a page using and the property.

Each page provides sixteen Page Margin Boxes that can display Generated Content much like a pseudo-element. To add Generated Content to a page, add a Page Margin Box declaration to an existing @page rule and set the Generated Content to the property as usual.

Page margin boxes
Page Margin Boxes

A Page Margin Box declaration consists of an "@" character followed by the name of the Page Margin Box.

@top-left {
    content: "RealObjects PDFreactor(R)";
}
@top-right {
    content: "copyright 2024 by RealObjects";
}

Running Elements

Running Elements are elements inside the document that are not rendered inside the document content but inside Page Margin Boxes.

They are useful whenever the content of a Page Margin Box needs to be more complex than Generated Content (e.g. a table) or parts of it need to be styled individually.

In case the document does not provide elements to use Running Elements and Generated Content does not suffice, it is possible to add elements to the document with JavaScript to be able to use Running Elements.

To create a Running Element, an element needs to be positioned as "running", using the running() function with an identifier for the element as argument. The function is set as value of the property. This removes the element from the document content.

To display a Running Element inside a Page Margin Box, set the element() function as value of the content property. The argument of the function is the same identifier used to in the running() function of the Running Element.

An HTML <footer> element at the start of the document used as page footer in all pages.

HTML:

<body>
    <footer>...</footer>
    ...
</body>

CSS:

footer {
    position: running(footerIdentifier);
}
@page {
    @bottom-center {
        content: element(footerIdentifier);
    }
}

The <footer> needs to be at the beginning of the HTML document to guarantee, that it will appear on every page of the document.

The reason for that is, that running elements stay anchored to the location they would appear in if they were not Running Elements.

The original position of the running element inside the document plays a key role when designing a document, it provides document designers with additional options.

First of all it is possible to have running elements of the same name, which makes it possible to change the content of a Page Margin Box over the course of the document.

Two Running Elements at the start of the document with the same name. The first appears on page one, the second on every page thereafter because it is the latest Running Element of the name.

HTML:

<body>
    <header id="titlePageHeader">...</header>
    <header id="pageHeader">...</header>
    <!-- first page content -->
    ...
    <!-- second page content -->
    ...
</body>

CSS:

#titlePageHeader, #pageHeader {
    position: running(headerIdentifier);
}
@page {
    @top-center {
        content: element(headerIdentifier);
    }
}

Second of all it is possible to have running elements appear for the first time later in the document than on the first page.

An HTML <footer> element at the end of the document is used as Running Element. The page footer displays it in the last page only, as it is not available earlier.

HTML:

<body>
    ...
    <footer>...</footer>
</body>

CSS:

footer {
    position: running(footerIdentifier);
}
@page {
    @bottom-center {
        content: element(footerIdentifier);
    }
}
Notice how the style does not differ from the one used in the first example of this chapter. This shows how much influence the position of a Running Element is inside the document has.

It is possible that more than one Running Element of the same name would anchor on the same page. Sometimes, it may not be the first Running Element on a page that should be used for that page. For that case it is possible to add one of these identifiers as second argument to the element() function:

  • start

    • Retrieves the latest Running Element of the name from previous pages.

    • If there is none, nothing is displayed.

  • first

    • Retrieves the first Running Element of the name on the page.

    • If there is none, it falls back to the behavior of start.

    • This is the default behavior if no argument is given.

  • last

    • Retrieves the last Running Element of the name on the page.

    • If there is none, it falls back to the behavior of start.

    • This keyword is useful in case a Running Element is displayed as footer throughout the document but the last page should receive a different Running Element, which is placed at the end of the document.

  • first-except

    • If a Running Element of the name is on the page, nothing is displayed.

    • If there is none, it falls back to the behavior of start.

    • This keyword is useful on chapter title pages where the chapter name is already displayed.

If a Running Element or its contents define Generated Content that contains (or ) their value will be the same as if they were defined as content of the Page Margin Box the Running Element is used in.

Running Documents

In case does not suffice and are not an option, it is possible to use Running Documents inside Page Margin Boxes.

A Running Document is a String containing an HTML document or document fragment or a URL that references a document as argument of the xhtml() function.

The xhtml() function is a proprietary extension of CSS and will only work for RealObjects products.

/* document fragment */
content: xhtml("<table>…</table>");
/* complete document */
content: xhtml("<html><head>...</head><body>...</body></html>");
/* external document */
content: xhtml(url("header.html"));

The document is loaded independently inside the Page Margin Box but styles from the document are passed down to it. This can be an advantage as the same style is used throughout all documents. In some cases though this behavior is not desired as this style may break the layout of the document inside the Page Margin Box. To prevent passing down style the -ro-passdown-styles property is used.

When using the xhtml() function in non-HTML5 documents (e.g. XHTML inside the head in a <style> element) the entire CSS needs to be wrapped in an XML comment.

<!--
@page {
    @top-center {
        content: xhtml("<table>...</table>");
    }
}
-->

Running Documents have access to and from their embedding document and may display them, but cannot influence them.

Counters and Named Strings created inside Running Documents have no effect outside of the Running Document.

Generated Content for Pages

Additional features for are available within Page Margin Boxes.

Page Counters

To add page numbers to documents, Page Counters are used. Page Counters work like regular counters, but are defined on pages and accessed in page margin boxes.

The default Page Counter is named page and automatically defined in HTML documents.

@page {
    @bottom-right {
        content: counter(page);
    }
}

For XML documents you can define the Page Counter as follows.

@page:first {
    counter-reset: page applicationValue("com/realobjects/pdfreactor/start-page-number");
}

Additionally there is the pages counter, which is always defined as the total number of pages of the laid out document.

content: "Page " counter(page) " of " counter(pages)

You can add an offset to the pages counter value (e.g. -1 to ignore the cover page) via the @-ro-preferences property .

Named Strings

Named Strings allow to store the text of an element and its as String for use in Page Margin Boxes.

A Named String is defined very similar to a Counter and is used in a similar way. To create a Named String the property is used, which requires an identifier and a definition of the contents of the String. To read a Named String the string() function is used as value of the content property.

A Named String headingString created from the heading's text with the function content() and read with the string() function from the page header:

h1 {
    string-set: headingString content(text);
}
@page {
    @top-left {
        content: string(headingString);
    }
}

The content of a named String is very flexible and can take a combination of Strings, counter() functions and Named String keywords.

/* Creates a Named String in the form of "Chapter [chapter number]: [chapter title]". */
h1 {
    string-set: headingString "Chapter " content(before) ": " content()
}
/* Retrieves the first letter of an address element, useful as part of a page header
    for a sorted list of addresses */
address {
    string-set: addressEntry content(first-letter);
}

When a Named String is set multiple times on the current page, the optional 2nd parameter of the function, defaulting to first, specifies which one to use:

  • first: the first one

  • last: the last one

  • first-except: none, use empty string

  • start: the first one, if it is at the beginning of the page

If there is none on the current page (or, in case of start, none at its beginning), the last one before is used. If there is none, either, the default is the empty string.

Cross-references

A Cross-reference is a piece of text that references another location in the document in order to establish a thematic relationship to that location.

Although it is perfectly possible to add such references by hand, this approach is prone to error when creating and modifying the document. After a change the numbering and page numbers might not match the numbering from when the cross-reference was first defined. The same could happen to the reference text if it includes the chapter title.

To always keep the reference up-to-date with the referenced location, CSS provides the target-counter() and target-text() functions to retrieve the exact numbering, title or page number of the referenced location.

PDFreactor only resolves internal links referring to an anchor in the same input document, see the chapter for more information.

Counter Cross-references

The target-counter() function is used inside the content property the same way a counter() function would be used. It receives a URL to the referenced location and the name of the counter as identifier. It may receive an optional third argument to define the output style of the counter, just like the counter() function.

Cross-references created from an HTML hyperlink to a chapter heading with a numbering. The Cross-reference is declared with generated text and target-counter() functions to retrieve the page and chapter numbers.

HTML:

...
<p>For more information <a href="#chapter">see</a>.
...
<h1 id="chapter">Cross-references</h1>
...

CSS:

@page {
    @bottom-right {
        content: counter(page);
    }
}
h1 {
    counter-increment: chapterCounter;
}
h1::before {
    content: counter(chapterCounter, upper-roman);
}
a[href]::after {
    content: "Chapter " target-counter(attr(href), chapterCounter, upper-roman)
                " on page " target-counter(attr(href), page);
}

Assuming the referenced chapter would render on page 5 as the third chapter, the cross-reference would read:

For more information, see Chapter III on page 5.

Text Cross-references

The target-text() function is used inside the content property in a similar way as the target-counter() function is used. It receives a URL to the referenced location and takes one of these four keywords to specify the text to retrieve:

  • content - Retrieves the textual content of the element. This is the default keyword if no keyword is present.

  • first-letter - Retrieves the first letter of the element's textual content.

  • before - Retrieves the before of an element.

  • after - Retrieves the after of an element.

The following example shows a cross-reference that references a heading and shows its before Generated Content and text:

a[href]{
    content: target-text(attr(href), before) " "
        target-text(attr(href), content);
}

target-text() makes it easy to retrieve the before Generated Content of an element, which may include its numbering. This method does not require any knowledge about how this before Generated Content is created but it also does not allow to rebuild it into something different.

If the before Generated Content of an element is "2.1" and the page header should be "Chapter 2, Section 1" the target-counter() function provides the necessary means to retrieve all the individually.

Footnotes

A footnote is a text note placed on the bottom of a page, a column or a region. It references a specific part of the main content of the document, giving further explanations or information about a citation. A footnote is marked by a defined symbol both in the main content of the page and in the footnote area at the bottom, to show which parts belong together.

For content that is required to have a footnote, the following style can be applied:

float: footnote;
The text content of the element that the style applied to, will appear in the footnote area at the bottom of the page. The footnote area of pages can be styled via CSS using the footnote at-rule.

HTML (snippet)

<p>This is a CSS<span class="footnote">Cascading Style Sheet</span> generated footnote.</p>

CSS

.footnote {
    float: footnote;
}
@page {
    @footnote {
        border-top: solid black 1px;
    }
}

The pseudo-element ::-ro-footnote-area allows to select the footnote area of multi-column or region elements for styling.

.multiColumn {
    columns: 2;
}
.multiColumn::-ro-footnote-area {
    border-top: solid black 1px;
}

By defining a footnote, a footnote call is left behind in the main content. Its content and style can be influenced by the footnote-call pseudo-element.

For every footnote element, there is also a footnote-marker pseudo-element added. Usually this contains the same number or symbol as the footnote-call it belongs to.

.footnote::footnote-call {
    content: counter(footnote, decimal);
}
.footnote::footnote-marker {
    content: counter(footnote, decimal);
}

By default, the footnote counter is available and is automatically incremented for every element with the style:

float: footnote
By default, this counter numbers the footnotes sequentially for the entire document. To number footnotes on a per-page basis, the counter has to be reset on every page, using the following style:
@page {
    counter-reset: footnote;
}

PDFreactor currently does not support nested footnotes.

Normally, footnotes are laid out as block elements, which means that they are stacked on top of each other. When having several short footnotes, it can make sense to place them next to each other, as if they were inline elements. This can be achieved by using the property, which can either be set to block or inline:

.footnote {
    float: footnote;
    footnote-display: inline;
}

Sidenotes

Sidenotes, also known as marginalia, are short notes that are put into the left or right page margin. They are similar to footnotes in function and usage, but have no influence on the layout.

In contrast to footnotes, a sidenote can be moved to the left or right. As the preferred side may depend on other factors like whether a page is a left page or the document's text direction (e.g. right-to-left), sidenotes are created by setting a CSS function with a parameter for the direction on the float property of the element that should become a sidenote.

As sidenotes are moved to the page margin, that margin should be increased to give them enough space. This can either be done directly by setting a margin on the page itself, or by setting a width on the sidenote area itself. The second option will be further explained in the Sidenote Area chapter below.

HTML (snippet)

<p>This is the normal page content.<span class="sidenote">This is the sidenote</span></p>

CSS

.sidenote {
    float: -ro-sidenote(right);
}
@page {
    margin-right: 5cm;
}

By default, the sidenotes will be placed at the same height as the content surrounding it. The CSS property -ro-sidenote-align allows to specify a few other vertical positions that depend on the sidenote's context. For example, setting it to container-start will align the sidenote with the top of its surrounding paragraph.

.sidenote {
    float: -ro-sidenote(right);
    -ro-sidenote-align: container-start;
}

PDFreactor currently does not support nested sidenotes or footnotes inside sidenotes.

Modifying Alignment

When sidenotes are too close together, the upper sidenotes will generally push the lower sidenotes down to avoid overlapping. However, a sidenote can be prioritized so that it tries to prevent overlapping by pushing previous sidenotes up, thus maintaining its intended position. This can be done for baseline, container-start and container-end alignments by appending the keyword strict.

.sidenote {
    float: -ro-sidenote(right);
    -ro-sidenote-align: baseline strict;
}

Note that a sidenote with strict alignment may still be moved up or down to prevent overlapping if there is not enough space for all sidenotes.

When aiming for a certain style, it may be useful to offset the position of sidenotes. This can be done for baseline, container-start and container-end alignment by using the CSS property -ro-sidenote-offset. It allows to shift a sidenote up or down by a specified length (with negative length shifting up). Percentage values are resolved with the sidenote's border-box height.

.sidenote {
    float: -ro-sidenote(right);
    -ro-sidenote-align: container-start;
    -ro-sidenote-offset: 5mm;
}

It is possible to define an avoid area via an element in the page content by using the CSS property -ro-sidenote-avoid. If possible, the placement of sidenotes next to that element is avoided. An additional parameter allows to specify which box is used to determine the avoided area (e.g. the margin or content box). This is useful if the element should overflow into the sidenote area in order to use the maximum avaiblable space on the page. However, sidenotes may still end up overlapping if there is not enough space left.

Calls and Markers

Although it is uncommon, in certain situations it may be useful to have calls and markers, similar to footnotes. They are not used by default, but pseudo-elements are provided to create them. A call is generated in the content where the sidenote originates and a marker is placed just before the sidenote content.

By creating and using a global counter for sidenotes, it is possible to number them, thus showing exactly what each sidenote refers to.

HTML (snippet)

<p>This is the normal page content.<span class="sidenote">This is the sidenote</span></p>

CSS

:root {
    /* Declare the sidenote counter for the whole document */
    counter-reset: sidenote;
}
.sidenote {
    float: -ro-sidenote(right);
    counter-increment: sidenote;
}
.sidenote::-ro-sidenote-call {
    content: "[" counter(sidenote) "]";
}
.sidenote::-ro-sidenote-marker {
    content: counter(sidenote) ")";
}
@page {
    margin-right: 5cm;
}

Note that the numbering of the sidenotes is in DOM order, so depending on the layout (e.g. multi-column) or the vertical alignment, they are not necessarily sorted by that numbering when appearing in the sidenote area.

The Sidenote Area

The sidenote area is the container in which the sidenotes are positioned. Each page can have a left and a right one. Styles can be applied to sidenote areas by selecting them via the at-rule @-ro-sidenote inside a page-rule, similar to how page margin boxes are selected. However, using this at-rule alone will select both sidenote areas. To select only one area, a pseudo-class has to be appended:

Pseudo Classes for Selecting Only One Sidenote Area
Psuedo Class Description
:left Selects the sidenote area that is visually on the left or right.
:right
:verso Selects a different sidenote area depending on the text direction of the document. Verso is left in left-to-right documents and right in right-to-left documents. Recto is right in left-to-right documents and left in right-to-left documents.
:recto
:inside Selects a different sidenote area depending on the side of the page, which is useful when having different styles for left and right pages. Inside is right for left pages and left for right pages. Outside is left for left pages and right for right pages.
:outside

Note that the styles set on the sidenote area are not inherited to the sidenotes themselves. They still inherit from their parent elements in the DOM. Making the sidenote styles completely independent from the styles of the rest of the document can be achieved by applying all:initial:

.sidenote {
    /* Prevent style inheritance */
    all: initial;
    float: -ro-sidenote(outside);
}

Sizing the Sidenote Area

When setting the size of a sidenote area, there are several special behaviors that have to be taken into account. Firstly, some properties cannot be applied. The height of the area is always determined via the height of the page content. And as its width is fixed and will not be changed by its content, the minimum and maximum size properties are ignored.

Secondly, the width property is handled a bit differently. A width of auto is resolved to a sidenote area with an outer width that is exactly as wide as the page margin of the respective side. This means that the width that is available to the page content remains unchanged.

Percentage widths are relative to that page margin width defined by its page rule:

@page {
    margin-right: 2cm;
    @-ro-sidenote:right {
        /* Make area content twice as wide as margin-right of the page (4cm). */
        width: 200%;
        /* Add the right margin of the page to the area (2cm). */
        margin-right: 100%;
    }
}

If a sidenote area is larger than the respective page margin, the page content width is reduced by that difference, as if the page margin was increased. However, the page margin boxes themselves remain unchanged and still use the margin widths that have been defined in their respective page rule.

Note that when specifying both areas on the same page, then neither of them may occupy more than half of the page width or else they may overlap with the page content.

Logical Properties on the Sidenote Area

When defining a sidenote area that should always be on the outside of a page, their margin or border styles also have to depend on the page side. This can be achieved by defining different @-ro-sidenote rules for each page side:

@page {
    margin: 2cm;
    /* Styles that are the same for both page sides */
    @-ro-sidenote:outside {
        width: 3cm;
        background-color: #eee;
    }
}
@page:left {
    @-ro-sidenote:left {
        border-right: 1mm solid grey;
        margin-left: 2cm;
    }
}
@page:right {
    @-ro-sidenote:right {
        border-left: 1mm solid grey;
        margin-right: 2cm;
    }
}

The styles above create sidenote areas on the outside of all pages, with a margin to the page edge and a border towards the page content. However, the same can be achieved far easier by the special behavior of logical properties on sidenote areas.

Under normal circumstances logical properties are mapped to their physical counterparts depending on the text direction. However, logical properties set on sidenote areas are resolved depending on whether the area is on the left or the right side of a page. The "inline start" properties are resolved to the outside side (i.e. right on right pages and left and left pages) and "end" properties are resolved to the inside side (i.e. left on right pages and right on left pages). Imagine the area growing from the page edge towards the page content.

@page {
    margin: 2cm;
    @-ro-sidenote:outside {
        width: 3cm;
        background-color: #eee;
        border-inline-end: 1mm solid grey;
        margin-inline-start: 2cm;
    }
}

Continuation Markers

When content is fragmented it can be helpful to show a hint that it is continued on the next page or a fragment is a continuation from a previous one. PDFreactor allows to specify such continuation markers.

The markers are generated content and as such they are addressed with proprietary pseudo-elements. The pseudo-element ::-ro-before-break creates markers at the bottom or before a break (e.g. "Continued on next page"), while ::-ro-after-break creates markers at the top or after the break. These continuation markers are only created if there is a next or previous fragment, i.e. the respective element is split.

In the current implementation, the continuation markers can only be applied on block elements (display: block). This means that when intending to apply them on a table, they must be used on a container element that wraps the table:

HTML:

<div class="table">
    <table> ... </table>
</div>

CSS:

div.table::-ro-before-break {
    content: "Continued on page " -ro-counter-offset(page, 1);
    text-align: center;
    font-weight: bold;
}
div.table::-ro-after-break {
    content: "Continuation from page " -ro-counter-offset(page, -1);
    text-align: center;
    font-weight: bold;
}

In order to hint to the next page number, the proprietary function -ro-counter-offset is used in this sample to modify the current page number by one.

Transforms

PDFreactor is capable of applying two dimensional transformations on elements with the property, which makes moving, rotating and scaling document content possible.

Transforms do not have an impact on the document layout, e.g. content with scaled up size will not push other content away to prevent overlapping.

Reduce Table Width with Rotated Table Headers

is able to reduce the width of table headers with transforms.

The rotateTableHeaders() function transforms and rotates a table header, in order to reduce its width. If there is no table header, the first line is converted to one.

This function takes two parameters:

  • table: The HTML node of the table

  • params: An object of optional parameters

Options
Key Description Default
angle The angle in degrees at which the header will be rotated. Should be between -90 and 90 45
width The width that the header cells should have after the transformation, e.g. "20pt". "auto"
firstCol Whether to prevent the first column from being transformed. false
lastCol Whether to prevent the last column from being transformed. false
footer Whether to create a <tfoot> element from the last row in the table. Has no effect if the table already contains a <tfoot>. false

Multi-column Layout

The content of a document can be arranged in columns with elements like images or titles spanning through all columns if desired. Elements are laid out in a way similar to pages, text and boxes will break whenever no space is left in a column.

Multi-column layout is often used in print products like newspapers or magazines, it is intended to reduce the line width to make text easier to read.

The following box shows how text flows in a three-column layout. The paragraphs are numbered to better visualize the effect of multi-column layout.

[1] Lorem ipsum dolor sit a­met, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nulla in libero turpis. Sed sed dolor diam, eu da­pibus quam. Quisque ut nulla purus, iaculis sollicitu­din erat. Nullam dictum suscipit porttitor.

[2] Aliquam aliquam ele­mentum elementum. Donec vel odio nec diam ullamcor­per ultricies vel sit amet elit. Cras non aliquet lectus.

[3] Donec sollicitudin lorem placerat est condimentum rutrum. Fusce tempor cursus rutrum. Duis mattis mattis sapien. Pha­sellus tempus iaculis tellus sed vestibulum.

[4] Etiam faucibus consec­tetur augue, sit amet inter­dum elit dapibus at.

To create a multi-column layout inside an element add either the property or or both. By adding them the element becomes a multi-column element.

The column-count property defines the number of columns inside the element. Any number greater than 1 will create a multi-column layout. The column-count property is especially useful if the actual width of the columns is not as important as the number of columns.

Alternatively, the column-width property can be used to specify a minimum width for the columns. Based on this width the final column count is computed, thus the resulting column widths are likely larger than the specified value.

/* define two columns */
div.twoColumns { column-count: 2; }

/* define columns with a width of 2in */
div.twoInchColumns { column-width: 2in; }

By default, PDFreactor aims to balance the content of columns so that the content of all individual columns is equally long, if possible. This has the effect of keeping the height of each column at the possible minimum, which automatically determines the height of the multi-column element as a whole if it wasn't defined by a height property or attribute.

This behavior can also be modified to fill columns sequentially. In this case, the columns are filled until no more space is available in one column and the rest of the content needs to be moved to the next column. With this behavior a multi-column element whose height is not restricted will take up all the remaining space inside the multi-column-element, up to the remaining space available on the page until it breaks to another column.

The filling behavior can be controlled with the property:

/* sequential filling behavior */
div.sequentialFill { column-fill: auto; }

/* balanced filling behavior */
div.balancedFill { column-fill: balance; }

A defined height on the multi-column element will be used for an element, regardless of the filling behavior. If there is less content than there is space inside the multi-column element a balanced filling behavior will create shorter columns, leaving space at the bottom of the multi-column element. Sequential filling behavior may not have enough content to fill all the columns, thus columns may be left empty. If there is more content than there is space inside the multi-column element, the multi-column element will create a page break and continue on the next page, at the first column.

Usually elements inside a multi-column element are laid out one after another in columns as defined by the filling behavior. Some elements, however, may require a certain behavior when inside columns.

There are elements that are required to span all columns inside the multi-column element instead of only one. Headings, pictures or tables are the most common examples. To have an element span all columns the property is used.

/* a heading that spans all columns */
h1 { column-span: all; }

/* a table in a single column */
table { column-span: none; }

To add some visual appeal to the multi-column element borders, backgrounds and padding can be used. Beside these standard styles multi-column elements can also receive additional styles for the space between columns.

To visually separate columns it is possible to define the gap width. Gaps can be considered as padding between columns. To define the gap width for a multi-column element the column-gap property is used.

/* a gap of 0.25in */
div.multiColumn { column-gap: 0.25in; }

In addition to the gap a rule can be added between the columns as additional visual aid for separating columns. To define rules for a multi-column element the property either the shorthand or the individual properties , or can be used.

/* a solid black rule with 0.1in width*/
div.multiColumn {
    column-rule-width: 0.1in;
    column-rule-style: solid;
    column-rule-color: black;
}

/* the same definition as shorthand */
div.multiColumn { column-rule: 0.1in solid black; }

A Multi-column layout with justified text looks best when the text is laid out with enabled.

Line Grids and Snapping

With CSS it is possible to align lines of text to invisible grids in the document. This greatly improves readability of duplex printing or for documents with multi-column layouts. Lines remain at the same position on every page, thus keeping a vertical rhythm which is very beneficial to the reading experience.

The below images show how snapping to the line grid works and how it improves readability in a text with two columns (the line grid is visualized by the dotted lines).

Lines not snapped
Lines not snapped
Lines snapped
Lines snapped to grid

Snapping to grid can be enabled by using the CSS property . In addition to snapping to the baseline of the grid, it is also possible snap line boxes to the center of two of the grid's lines. The latter may be beneficial for text that contains small and large font sizes because the space in the grid is used more efficiently.

/* snapping to baseline */
p {
    -ro-line-snap: baseline;
}

/* snapping between grid lines */
p {
    -ro-line-snap: contain;
}

Line grids are created automatically. Normally, one line grid is created for the root element on each page and is then used by all its block-level descendants. It is also possible to create a new line grid for a block using its own font and line height settings. This is very useful for multi-column containers as it might be undesirable for such a container to use its parent's grid. A new grid can be created with the following style declaration, using the CSS property :

div {
    -ro-line-grid: create;
}

When using Page Floats and line grids, make sure that top floated elements are also set to snap to the grid, otherwise they may push the text below them downwards, so that the lines are no longer aligned with the grid.

Also avoid mixing different line grid settings with page floats, as on each page only the last page float that snaps to a grid can be taken into account, so using different line grids may also lead to misaligned text.

Applying styles to an element that change its formatting context, like overflow with a value other than visible, may change the position of the grid's baselines.

Region Layout

Regions are containers for document content similar to pages or columns, but they can be positioned individually. In contrast to automatically created pages and columns, regions are based on block elements from the document, which presents them with more styling options.

Regions belong to a region chain, that connects them and tells how their contents flows from one to another. The content of a region chain is called the named flow and elements can be added to a named flow to be displayed in regions.

Regions
A named flow flows through a region chain.

Adding Regions to Region Chains

Most block elements can be defined as a region. They are not required to be of the same size nor are they required to be the same node name.

To create a region from a block element, the property is used. It receives an identifier. A region chain contains all regions of the same identifier in document order. The identifier is also the name of the named flow these regions will display.

A region element will not have its subtree rendered. It either displays content from a named flow or nothing.

A chain of two regions defined for two HTML div elements with IDs region1 and region2.

#region1, #region2 {
    -ro-flow-from: regionChainName;
}

PDFreactor lays out content into regions and breaks text and boxes where no space is left. The number of regions inside a region chain is limited by the number of associated Region elements though and it is possible that the content of a named flow occupies more space than is available inside the regions of a region chain. In that case content from the named flow overflows the last region inside the region chain.

A region does not influence the style of the content it contains. No style is inherited from a region into the displayed named flow and style that would influence the content of an element has no effect on a region's content.

Adding Content to a Named Flow

The -ro-flow-into property adds document content to a named flow. The content may consist of content from one or more elements. Content assigned to a named flow is not rendered at its position inside the document but inside one of the regions inside the region chain.

The property receives an identifier which is the name of the named flow the content belongs to. An optional keyword defines what part of the styled element should be taken into the named flow:

  • element

    • Adds the entire element to the named flow.

    • If no keyword is given, this is the default behavior.

  • content

    • Adds the element's content to the named flow.

Creation of a named flow for two HTML <article> elements while an HTML <section> element from one of the articles is moved to a different named flow.

HTML:

<article>...</article>
<article>
    ...
    <section id="info">...</section>
</article>

CSS:

article {
    -ro-flow-into: articleNamedFlowName;
}
section#info {
    -ro-flow-into: infoNamedFlowName;
}

The content of a named flow may be rendered inside regions, but it still inherits style and computes its style the same way it would as if it did not appear inside a region.

Region Generated Content

A region element can have before and after just like any other element. This generated content is rendered above or below the region's content and is not moved to the next region due to lack of space. Instead the available space inside a region is reduced. If there is not enough space left, the region's content flows over.

Controlling Breaks

Although PDFreactor performs automatic breaks between boxes for pages, columns and regions, it is often necessary to add explicit breaks in certain situations or breaks should be avoided to keep content together where it belongs together. This chapter explains how both can be achieved.

PDFreactor provides styles for HTML that influence the break behavior for certain elements like headings. Break Styles for XML documents need to be created based on the document language.

Breaking Around Boxes

To manipulate the break behavior before and after boxes, the break-before and break-after properties are used. They provide keywords to force or avoid page, column and region breaks.

A manual page break before an HTML <h1> element, used to make a chapter start on top of a new page.

h1 {
    break-before: page;
}

A manual page break before an HTML <h1> element, that makes the chapter start on a right page.

h1 {
    break-before: right;
}

This style creates a page break before the h1 and moves it to the next page. In case this is a left page another page break is performed, to move it to a right page again.

h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
    break-after: avoid;
}

PDFreactor also supports the CSS 2.1 properties page-break-before and page-break-after. They are resolved as shorthands for break-before and break-after.

Avoid Breaking Inside Boxes

To manipulate the break behavior inside a box, the property is used. It specifies whether breaking should be avoided inside the box or not.

Avoid breaks inside an HTML <div> element.

div {
    break-inside: avoid;
}

PDFreactor also accepts the CSS 2.1 property page-break-inside and resolves it as shorthand for break-inside.

Adaptive Page Breaks

is able to automatically add page breaks depending on the amount of space left below an element with the help of the applyAdaptivePageBreaks() function.

A possible use case is to prevent a new section from beginning at the bottom of a page.

The function also prevents large whitespaces that occur when in situations where only a couple of sentences from a previous section are followed by a page break as the next section begins.

The function takes two parameters:

  • selector: (optional) The CSS selector for the elements that may require a new page break. Default value: "h1, h2"

  • threshold: (optional) If an element is below this percentage of the page height, a page break is inserted. Default value: 67

Page Floats

Page floats are an extension of regular floats, also called inline floats, as they float in inline direction, i.e. left and right. Page floats on the other hand allow to float up and down, to the top or the bottom of a fragmentation container (page, column or region). If there is not enough space left, the page float is moved to the next fragmentation container, e.g. to the top/bottom of the following page, while the rest of the content continues on the current page.

The current implementation of page floats does come with some limitations:

The CSS property float has been extended with the values -ro-top and -ro-bottom to enable page floats. To set the distance between two page floats of the same side or to the corresponding edge of the page, the new property -ro-float-offset can be used.

With this sample, elements with the class pageFloatTop float to the top of their page with a gap of 5 mm to the page margin areas at the top.

CSS:

.pageFloatTop {
    float: -ro-top;
    -ro-float-offset: 5mm;
}

When inline floats (left or right floated) precede the page float, the inline float may overflow the page. The same may happen in wrapped column flex items. Basically, when blocks of content are next to each other, problems can arise when the page float does not originate from the first one. This is a known issue that will be addressed in a future version.

Print Specific Page Properties

PDFreactor provides additional means for professional printing that allow to specify oversized pages, a bleed area and marks for cutting sheets to the final page size and color proofing.

PDF Page Boxes

Page boxes are used to specify the page geometry, especially in professional printing. PDFreactor supports the TrimBox, MediaBox, BleedBox, CropBox and ArtBox.

TrimBox

The TrimBox defines the size of the final print result, the final page. It contains the page content.

The size of the TrimBox is defined equivalent to the page size, as mentioned in chapter , using the property.

The value of the size property also automatically specifies the TrimBox.

size: A4 portrait;

MediaBox

In prepress, a printed document can contain more information than just the actual content in the TrimBox (e.g. bleed or ).

As this information does not belong to the print result and instead needs to be printed around it, a print sheet larger than the print result is needed. The MediaBox defines the size of the print sheet.

Special oversize formats are used as print sheet in such cases. For DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung, in English: German Institute for Standardization, Germany's ISO member body. standard-based formats, the matching oversize formats to the A series are the DIN-RA and DIN-SRA formats. An overview of all supported page sizes can be found in the Appendix

The property is used to specify the media size.

The document should be printed in DIN-SRA4 and the MediaBox is set to this size

-ro-media-size: SRA4;

The MediaBox is the largest of all 5 page boxes and contains all others which can be smaller or equal than this box.

BleedBox

The BleedBox contains the TrimBox and is slightly larger. Content from the TrimBox may "bleed" into the BleedBox where it is still painted.

This is necessary for content that should reach to the edge of the print result. It prevents having unprinted areas due to unprecise trimming of the printed sheet.

The size of the BleedBox is defined as a width that adds to the TrimBox' size on all four sides. Common bleed values are 3-5 mm or 1/8 inch.

Setting the bleed size can be achieved by using the property bleed.

A bleed width of 3mm around the print result. The Bleed Box determines it's size from the TrimBox and this width.

bleed: 3mm;

By default, any content is cut off at the end of the bleed box. If you need content to overflow into the media box, you can use the -ro-page-clip CSS property to adjust this behavior.

CropBox

The CropBox defines the complete area of the document that should be displayed on screen or printed out.

The crop size can be defined using the property .

The crop size can be set to a specific page size format (like setting the trim size) or to one of the page boxes. It is set to none by default.

The CropBox is set to match the MediaBox.

-ro-crop-size: media;

ArtBox

The ArtBox is used to define a specific area inside which the page's content is located.

Using the property , the ArtBox can be set to a specific page size or one of the page boxes. It is set to none by default.

When generating a PDF/A conformant file (see PDF/A conformance), the ArtBox must not to be defined, so the property must be set to none.

Printer Marks

Printer Marks are special pieces of information located outside of the actual print result. They are used to prove the correctness of the result in prepress printing and are placed outside the .

Cutting out the print result of the print sheet is done inside the bleed area. Trim and bleed marks indicate where this area starts and ends. Both types of marks are displayed as hairlines in the corner of the print sheet.

Registration marks show whether the printer's colors are aligned properly. They are printed as crosshair-shaped objects located on each side of the print sheet.

Color bars show if the colors of the print result meet the expected result. They consist of a variety of colors that can be checked individually.

Printer marks
Printer Marks

The property is used to add crop, bleed and cross marks. The property sets the width of the mark lines, sets their color. The properties , and set the offset of the corresponding marks relative to the trim box. The property sets the offset of bleed marks relative to the bleed box. The properties and set the length of the corresponding marks and sets the size of registration marks.

marks: crop -ro-bleed cross;
-ro-marks-width: 1pt;
-ro-marks-color: red;

Setting one of the -ro-colorbar-* properties defines where a color bar is added to the document.

-ro-colorbar-bottom-left: gradient-tint;
-ro-colorbar-bottom-right: progressive-color;

Positioning Content Relative to Page Boxes

Using the proprietary property allows content with position: absolute to be positioned relative to any page box of its page. This is especially useful to place decorative content relative to the bleed box, thus making it exceed the trim box so bleed is properly utilized.

@page {
    bleed: 3mm; 
    -ro-media-size: SRA4 portrait; 
    -ro-crop-size: media;
    marks: trim bleed registration; 
    @top-right-corner {
        content: counter(page);
        vertical-align: top;
        text-align: right;
        padding: 1cm;
        position: absolute;
        top: 0;
        right: 0;
        width: 5cm;
        height: 5cm;
        background-image: radial-gradient(at 100% 0%, lightblue 0%, white 50%);
        -ro-position-origin: -ro-bleed-box; /* Position in the bleed box of the page */
    }
}

Leaders

Leaders are often used to draw a visual connection between an entry in a table of contents or similar structures, and a corresponding value.

In CSS, drawing leaders is accomplished via the use of the leader() function. This function accepts the following values:

A leader may be added using the content property, and can be combined freely with other generated content such as counters.

a.toc_ah2::after {
         content: leader(dotted) " " target-counter(attr(href), page);
}

This may result in a display such as:

Leaders

Table of Contents

A table of contents can be inserted into a document to generate a list of the chapters or other important sections in the document.

This feature is usually used together with cross-references to add links to a table of contents. With the addition of counters, it can be complemented with the page numbers of the linked chapters.

The createTableOfContents() function provided by allows to insert a table of contents that is generated from given elements.

The table of contents requires certain styles to work properly. These styles are included in the awesomizr.css and should be added either to the document or by using the userStyleSheets configuration property of the PDFreactor API.

The table of contents is inserted as an HTML div element with the class ro-toc. Inside this div can be two headings (document title and a heading for the table of contents with the class ro-toc-heading) and the div elements with links to the pages and a class depending on the level of the referenced element (ro-toc-heading1, ro-toc-heading2, ...)

The level of a TOC entry is determined by the position of its selector in the elements array.

Awesomizr.createTableOfContents({elements: ["h1", "h2", "h3"]});

The function's optional parameter is an object with several options:

Values of the option object
Key Type Description Default
insertiontarget string CSS selector string of the element where the table of contents should be inserted. "body"
insertiontype string Specifies where exactly the table of contents should be inserted:
  • "beforebegin": Before the element

  • "afterbegin": As new first-child

  • "beforeend": As new last-child

  • "afterend": After the element

"afterbegin"
elements array An array of the CSS selector strings of elements that should be added to the table of contents. Each TOC entry gets a class name based on the index of the corresponding selector in this array, e.g. by default the h2 entries have the class ro-toc-level-2. ["h1", "h2"]
toctitle string The title of the table of contents. If an empty string is set, no title is inserted. "Table of Contents"
disabledocumenttitle boolean Whether the document title should NOT be inserted before the table of contents. false
text function By default, the text for the entries of the TOC is the text content of the element matching the specified selector. Alternatively, you can specify a function, the return value of which will be used as text for the respective entry. The element representing the entry is passed as an argument to the function. Returning false will skip the entry entirely and not include it in the TOC. null

Simple table of contents created with Awesomizr based on HTML <h2> elements.

<link href="css/awesomizr.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" />
<script type="module">
    import * as Awesomizr from "./awesomizr.js";
    
    Awesomizr.createTableOfContents({elements:['h2']});
</script>
...
Awesomizr.createTableOfContents({
    elements: ['img'],
    text: function(elem) {
        // the entry text should be the image's alt text
        let txt = elem.alt;

        if (txt) {
            return txt;
        }

        // skip images without alt text
        return false;
    }
});

Alternatively, a table of contents can also be created by using XSLT. Both approaches are demonstrated by the two versions of the "Children's Novel" sample. You can find them in the PDFreactor/samples/novel directory.

Shrink-to-Fit

For some documents parts of the content are too wide to fit the pages. In most cases this is caused by HTML documents containing fixed widths intended for screens, e.g. 1024px for the main container element.

While the best solution is adding a print style sheet to override the critical styles with relative widths, such content can also be shrunk automatically without changing the source document or adding specific styles.

There are two different shrink-to-fit functionalities available in PDFreactor, pixelsPerInchShrinkToFit and . These are non-exclusive and are applied in the aforementioned order.

Shrink-to-fit is only recommended when you need to force content into the boundaries of pages. For high-fidelity print output, these modes should not be used.

Scaling Pixel Lengths

This configuration property adapts the "pixels per inch" value used for laying out the document, i.e. it only scales lengths set as px including such set via HTML attributes.

config.setPixelsPerInchShrinkToFit(true);
--pixels-per-inch-shrink-to-fit

The pixels per inch can also be specified manually.

Scaling Down Page Content

This property must be part of the @page rule affecting the first page:

@page {
    -ro-scale-content: auto;
}

For further details see .

Page content scaling, if used, always applies to all pages equally. It cannot be applied to only a subset pages or page groups.

Scaling Down Text

The proprietary value -ro-scale-down of the CSS property allows visually scaling down paragraphs that overflow at the end of lines to automatically make their text fit their width.

Contrary to normal text overflow styles, -ro-scale-down also works with multi-line text. It then applies the scaling to all lines, so that the whole text content is scaled down equally. However, only overflow in inline (i.e. horizontal) direction is taken into account to determine whether scaling needs to be applied, not overflow in block (i.e. vertical) direction.

This feature is especially useful if you want to force text whose length you can't control into a pre-defined container, such as forcing user-supplied text into an existing form field.

Vertical Position

You can control the vertical position of the scaling effect with the CSS property and its usual values: start, end, center, baseline (default) and stretch.

The value stretch won't scale down the text vertically, instead the text is skewed to keep its original height.

.scaleDown {
    /* Enable text scale down */
    text-overflow: -ro-scale-down;
    /* Make sure we only have a single line */
    white-space: nowrap;
    /* Don't scale vertically */
    align-content: stretch;
}

Fit Wide Tables

In cases where an HTML document contains tables that are very wide, usual shrinking strategies may not be appropriate since the table might have to be scaled down so much that it becomes illegible. In these cases you could use to convert the table into a compact version that displays the table columns as rows. The compactifyTable() function takes the following one or two arguments and automatically converts a wide table into a narrow variant.

  • table — The HTML node of the table.

  • params — An optional object of parameters. Refer to the Awesomizr API documentation for more information.

This conversion only works on uniform tables without any column or row spans.

Page Order

Usually, the page order of a PDF is only determined by its input document. However, using the configuration property pageOrder, the page order can be set by providing a string parameter.

For ease of use the following constants are available for the most common cases of page orders:

Instead of using a predefined order the parameter can also provide a custom order as comma-separated list of page numbers and ranges:

config.setPageOrder("2,5,6*2,8..10,-1,-2");
--page-order "2,5,6*2,8..10,-1,-2"

The page order shown above results in a PDF having the following page numbers from the original document, assuming it has 20 pages total: 2, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 10, 20, 19.

On the Python command line instead of --pageOrder "-1..1" we recommend using --pageOrder="-1..1" to specify the page order.

Merge Mode Arrange

The syntax of page order is extended when setting the merge mode to MERGE_MODE_ARRANGE.

As usual, when the merge mode is selected PDFreactor requires one or more merge PDFs to be set (see ).

The merge documents specified with the array are numbered, beginning with one for the first PDF (when specifying a single document, it is also addressed with "1").

To select pages from a merge document, first use its number followed by a colon, which then is followed by the page order syntax described above. Note that the converted document can be addressed using 0:, however, this is not necessary, as it is used by default if no document is specified.

MergeSettings mergeSettings = new MergeSettings();
mergeSettings
    .setMergeDocuments(
        new Resource().setUri("https://www.myserver.com/insert1.pdf"),
        new Resource().setUri("https://www.myserver.com/insert2.pdf"))
    .setMode(MergeMode.ARRANGE);
config.setMergeSettings(mergeSettings);
config.setPageOrder("1,1:1,2..-1");
--merge-documents https://www.myserver.com/insert1.pdf https://www.myserver.com/insert2.pdf \
--merge-mode ARRANGE \
--page-order "1,1:1,2..-1"

The order shown above would be:

  • "1" — Page 1 from the converted PDF.

  • "1:1" — Page 1 from insert1.pdf.

  • "2:A" — All Pages from insert2.pdf.

  • "2..-1" — Pages 2 to the last page from the converted PDF.

  • "1:2" — Page 2 from insert1.pdf.

Pages Per Sheet

Instead of containing only one page of the input document per PDF page, multiple pages of the input document can be displayed on one sheet.

The pages will be arranged in a grid on the sheet. The number of columns and rows of this grid are user-defined.

To utilize Pages Per Sheet use the configuration property pagesPerSheetProperties.

The properties rows and cols define the corresponding number of pages that get laid out on a single page. Their values are required. The values for sheetSize, sheetMargin and spacing can be set as CSS width values. direction defines in which way the single pages are ordered.

There are the following options to set a direction:

config.setPagesPerSheetProperties(new PagesPerSheetProperties()
    .setCols(2)
    .setRows(2)
    .setSheetSize("A4 landscape")
    .setSheetMargin("2.5cm")
    .setSpacing("2cm")
    .setDirection(PagesPerSheetDirection.RIGHT_UP));
--pages-per-sheet-properties-cols 2 \
--pages-per-sheet-properties-rows 2 \
--pages-per-sheet-properties-sheet-size "A4 landscape" \
--pages-per-sheet-properties-sheet-margin "2,5cm" \
--pages-per-sheet-properties-spacing "2cm" \
--pages-per-sheet-properties-direction RIGHT_UP

Disabled Features. Bookmarks, comments, links, and tags will be automatically disabled when using pages-per-sheet mode.

Booklet

A Booklet is a set of folded pages meant to be read like a book. PDFreactor supports creating Booklets by combining the functionality with the feature.

It orders the pages in booklet or rtl booklet page order and places two of these pages on each sheet, rotated by 90 degrees and side-to-side.

A configuration property allows to configure the page size and margins of the container page as well as to use the default booklet page order or a reversed order:

config.setBookletMode(new BookletMode()
    .setSheetSize("A4 landscape")
    .setSheetMargin("1cm")
    .setRtl(false));
--booklet-mode-sheet-size "A4 landscape" \
--booklet-mode-sheet-margin "1cm"

Filling in Pages

If you don't want to produce N-up output right away or if you plan duplex printing, it is sometimes desirable to produce a PDF that always has an even page count or a page count which is a multiple of N for the N-up layout you want to achieve down the line. To automatically append pages to the PDF to achieve such a page count, you can use the Awesomizr JavaScript library.

The autoFillPages() function dynamically inserts pages until the total page count is a multiple of the indicated number. This function takes one object as optional parameter with the following properties:

Parameter Properties
Name Type Description Default
multiple number Pages will be filled up until the page count is a multiple of this property. 2
target string The filler page objects will be inserted as new children of the element matching this selector. "body"
template function A function that must return an HTMLElement which will be used as the filler pages. Returning null or undefined skips the page. If no function is specified, a custom element is inserted. The function receives the following three arguments: The current index of the inserted filler page (starting at 0), the total number of filler pages to be inserted, the total (original) page count of the document.

The empty pages that are inserted this manner can be styled further. The pages have the roFillerPage name and the HTML elements that create them have the roFillerPage class.

Pixels per Inch

By default, lengths specified in pixels (i.e. via the CSS unit px or HTML attributes) are converted to physical lengths at a rate of 96 pixels per inch. With the configuration property pixelsPerInch this can be changed, e.g.:

config.setPixelsPerInch(120);
--pixels-per-inch 120

Increasing the pixels per inch can be used to shrink documents that would be to wide for pages due to fixed widths originally intended for screens.

Finding the optimum value can be automated using shrink to fit.

Internationalization

Languages

PDFreactor supports Unicode and includes default fonts for various non-Latin languages. See for more information on the included fonts and on how to add additional fonts.

You can specify a language for the whole document either by using the HTML lang attribute or by specifying a default in the API:

<html lang="de-DE">
config.setDocumentDefaultLanguage("de-DE");
--document-default-language "de-DE"

The specified language will be used for automatic hyphenation of text and also conveys important information to screen readers when reading accessible PDFs. It is required to specify the document language when producing accessible PDFs, otherwise PDFreactor may use "en-US" as the default.

Counters and list item markers can also be displayed in numerous languages and writing systems. See for all supported styles.

lang attributes can also be used to change the language for parts of the document.

Right-to-Left

PDFreactor analyzes the document to handle both left-to-right and right-to-left text correctly.

The base direction of the document defaults to left-to-right. You can set it to right-to-left by specifying the dir attribute on the root element as in the following example:

<html dir="rtl">

You can also override the base direction specifically for certain elements via the property :

div.hebrew {
  direction: rtl;
}

You can override the implicit text direction by combining direction with the property :

span.forcertl {
  unicode-bidi: bidi-override;
  direction: ltr;
}

Text Direction Dependent Layouts

Using "logical" properties and values, as opposed to the common "physical" ones, allows layouts based on the text direction, instead of fixed "left" and "right" sides. They are mapped to physical sides based on the value of the direction property, which may be ltr (left-to-right, default) or rtl (right-to-left).

The "International Sample" document in the PDFreactor package demonstrates the usage of these properties and values. It can be found in the PDFreactor/samples/i18n directory.

The following tables list the direction dependent logical properties and values as well as the resulting physical ones for both left-to-right and right-to-left direction:

Logical Properties
Property LTR RTL
padding-inline padding-left padding-right padding-right padding-left
padding-inline-start padding-left padding-right
padding-inline-end padding-right padding-left
border-inline-start border-left border-right
border-inline-end border-right border-left
border-inline-start-color border-left-color border-right-color
border-inline-end-color border-right-color border-left-color
border-inline-start-style border-left-style border-right-style
border-inline-end-style border-right-style border-left-style
border-inline-start-width border-left-width border-right-width
border-inline-end-width border-right-width border-left-width
border-start-start-radius border-top-left-radius border-top-right-radius
border-start-end-radius border-top-right-radius border-top-left-radius
border-end-start-radius border-bottom-left-radius border-bottom-right-radius
border-end-end-radius border-bottom-right-radius border-bottom-left-radius
margin-inline margin-left margin-right margin-right margin-left
margin-inline-start margin-left margin-right
margin-inline-end margin-right margin-left
inset-inline left right right left
inset-inline-start left right
inset-inline-end right left
New Logical Values for float and clear
Property LTR RTL
inline-start left right
inline-end right left

Media Queries

Media Types

Media Queries are a CSS3 extension of media types. Media types allow to have styles that are only applied if the device or application displaying the document accepts the specified type. For example the following media rule will only be applied if the device accepts the media type print (which PDFreactor does):

@media print {
    p {
        background-color: transparent;
    }
}

If the styles of a certain media type have to be applied, but that media type is not accepted by PDFreactor (e.g. @media screen), the required media types can be set via API:

config.setMediaTypes("screen", "projection", "print");
--media-types "screen" "projection" "print"

This example sets the three media types screen, projection and print, thereby overriding PDFreactor's default types.

CSS that should only be used by PDFreactor can either be added by using the API or if they depend on the specific document you can use the proprietary media type -ro-pdfreactor.

For example the following rule disables the page background color only if the document is used by PDFreactor:

@media -ro-pdfreactor {
    @page {
        background-color: transparent;
    }
}

Media Features

Media Queries allow to make styles dependent on certain device features like width and height of the viewport. As they extend media types they may start with one type which can be followed by media features, each linked with the keyword and.

Media features describe certain device properties, are always enclosed by parentheses and resemble CSS properties. Additionally, some features may be prefixed with min- or max- in order to express "greater or equal to" and "less or equal to" relationships to their value.

@media print and (max-device-width: 1024px) {
    ...
}

The styles of this media rule are only applied if the device width is 1024px or less.

The device properties for conversions can be set using the API:

config.setMediaFeatureValues(new MediaFeatureValue()
    .setMediaFeature(MediaFeature.DEVICE_WIDTH)
    .setValue("1024px"));
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "mediaFeatureValues": [{
    "mediaFeature": "DEVICE_WIDTH",
    "value": "1024px"
}]}

The following table provides an overview of the supported media features. The default values can also be found in the PDFreactor API documentation.

Supported media features
Feature Name Description min-/ max-
Page Characteristics Media Features
aspect-ratio Calculated from width and height. The value is a fraction, e.g. 16/10. The default value is derived from width and height. Yes
device-aspect-ratio Calculated from the device-width and device-height. The value is a fraction, e.g. 16/9. The default value is derived from device-width and device-height. Yes
device-height The height of the rendering surface. The default value is 297mm (i.e. A4 height) Yes
device-width The width of the rendering surface. The default value is 210mm (i.e. A4 width). Yes
display-mode Represents certain aspects of how a web application shows the content. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is fullscreen. No
height The height of the targeted display area. The default value is 257mm (i.e. A4 height with 2cm top and bottom margin). Yes
horizontal-viewport-segments The number of horizontal segments that the display has. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is 1. No
orientation Is portrait if height is greater than or equal to width, or landscape otherwise. The default value is derived from device-width and device-height. No
overflow-block How overflowing content in block (i.e. vertical) direction is handled when it is larger than the viewport. The default value is paged, except when enabling continuous output (see ), in which case it is set to none. No
overflow-inline How overflowing content in inline (i.e. horizontal) direction is handled when it is larger than the viewport. The default value is none. No
vertical-viewport-segments The number of vertical segments that the display has. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is 1. No
width The width of the targeted display area. The default value is 170mm (i.e. A4 width with 2cm left and right margin). Yes
Color Media Features
color The number of bits per color component of the output device. The default value is 8, except if the output was set to forceGrayscaleImage (see ) in which case it is set to 0. Yes
color-gamut Describes the approximate range of colors that are supported by the UA and output device. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is srgb. No
color-index The number of entries in the color lookup table. The default value is 0, except if the output format was set to gif in which case it is 256. Yes
dynamic-range Combination of brightness, contrast ratio, and color depth that are supported by the user agent and the output device. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is standard. No
inverted-colors Indicates whether the content is displayed normally, or whether colors have been inverted. The default value is none. No
monochrome The number of bits per pixel in a monochrome frame buffer. The default value is 0, except if the output was set to forceGrayscaleImage (see ) or to a monochrome output format (certain tiff variants). In the first case it is set to 8 and in the latter it is set to 1 (which means there is only either black or white, but no grey). Yes
Display Quality Media Features
environment-blending Used to query the characteristics of the user’s display so the author can adjust the style of the document. The default value is opaque. No
grid Whether the device is grid or bitmap based. The default value is 0. No
resolution The device resolution in dpi, dpcm or dppx. This also defines the value of the window.devicePixelRatio property available from JavaScript. Yes
scan Describes the scanning process of some output devices. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is progressive. No
update Used to query the ability of the output device to modify the appearance of content once it has been rendered. The default value is none. No
-ro-output-format (proprietary) The output format of the conversion, either pdf, image or viewer (i.e. PDFreactor Preview app). This value can not be overridden via the API configutation. No
Interaction Media Features
any-hover Whether there is any available input device that allows the user to hover over elements. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is none. No
any-pointer Whether there is any available input mechanism that is a pointing device, and if so, how accurate is it. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is none. No
hover Whether the primary input device allows the user to hover over elements. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is none. No
nav-controls Whether there is a user interfaces that provides navigation controls (e.g. moving back in session history and changing the URL). The default value is none. No
pointer Whether the primary input mechanism is a pointing device, and if so, how accurate is it. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is none. No
Video Media Features
video-color-gamut Describes the approximate range of colors that are supported by the UA and output device's video plane. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is srgb. No
video-dynamic-range Represents the combination of max brightness, color depth, and contrast ratio that are supported by the UA and output device's video plane. This is not applicable for PDFreactor. The default value is standard. No
Scripting Media Features
scripting Detects whether JavaScript is available. The default value depends on whether JavaScript is enabled. It is either initial-only or none. No
-ro-scripting Is initial-only when JavaScript is explicitly enabled, none otherwise. This value can not be overridden via the API configutation. No
User Preference Media Features
forced-colors Tells whether the user-agent enforces a limited color palette. The default value is none. No
prefers-color-scheme Reflects whether the user prefers light or dark color themes. The default value is light. No
prefers-contrast Detects if the user has requested more or less contrast in the page. The default value is no-preference. No
prefers-reduced-data Detects if the user has a preference for being served alternate content that uses less data for the page to be rendered. The default value is no-preference. No
prefers-reduced-motion Detects if the user has requested the system minimize the amount of animation or motion it uses. The default value is reduce. No
prefers-reduced-transparency Detects if the user has requested the system minimize the amount of transparent or translucent layer effects it uses. The default value is no-preference. No

PDFreactor does not take account of the values of CSS properties in the document when determining the values of media features. For example, setting the page height to 50mm will have no effect on a media query that tests the max-height of the document. Instead, the media features supported by PDFreactor all have default values (for details see the Configuration.MediaFeature class in the PDFreactor API documentation). These default values can be overridden through the PDFreactor API, with some exceptions that are determined automatically.

Document-Specific Preferences

PDFreactor allows setting certain configurations via the CSS of the document that is converted. This is done using the proprietary at-rule @-ro-preferences.

Example:

@-ro-preferences {
    /* The first page of the document should not be a cover page */
    first-page-side: verso;
}
@-ro-preferences properties
Property Name Values Description
first-page-side
  • left

  • right

  • verso

  • recto

  • auto (default)

Sets on which side the first page of the document should be. By default it is right, unless the document direction is right-to-left.
first-page-side-view
  • left

  • right

  • verso

  • recto

  • auto (default)

Sets on which side the first page of the document should appear in viewers, without impact on styles or layout. By default it is the same side as set by first-page-side.
page-layout
  • 1 column

  • 2 column

  • 1 page

  • 2 page

  • auto (default)

Sets the initial view mode for the document. Whether two pages should be next to each other and how scrolling between the pages should work.
initial-zoom
  • [percentage]

  • fit-page

  • fit-page-width

  • fit-page-height

  • fit-content

  • fit-content-width

  • fit-content-height

  • auto (default)

Sets the initial zoom factor when opening the document. Can either be a specific percentage value or the zoom factor can be computed dynamically so that the page (or its content) fits into the window of the viewer application. Please note, that not all fit-values are supported by all viewers. Generally, fit-page support is more common.
initial-page
  • [number]

Sets number of the page that should be scrolled to when opening the document. The default value is 1. Values smaller than 1 are invalid.
pages-counter-offset
  • [number]

Sets an optional offset to be added to the value of the pages counter. Negative values are valid. The default value is 0.
pdf-shape-optimization
  • visual (default)

  • none

Sets whether shapes should be written into the PDF in a way that prevents visualization issues in certain PDF viewers.

Converting Large Documents

In most cases, PDFreactor is able to handle even very large documents, provided that enough memory is made available. However, if there is not enough memory available or if large tables cause conversions to be too slow, PDFreactor offers specialized functionalities that disable certain resource intensive features to allow processing such documents much more efficiently in regards to memory and time. Those can be used separately or in combination.

Segmentation

Enabling segmentation allows PDFreactor to internally split conversions into multiple parts, drastically reducing the amount of memory required for large documents. The minimum document size for this to be noticeable depends on the complexity of the input document, but 5000 pages is a good estimate. This has no visible influence on the resulting PDF document, i.e. the edges of segments are not discernible. However there are some limitations:

  • Regions are not supported.

  • Shrink-to-Fit via pixelsPerInchShrinkToFit or -ro-scale-content is not supported.

  • The pageOrder setting is not supported.

  • The pages counter is not supported. This does not affect the "page" counter, other counters or named strings.

  • Using the function outside of page margin boxes may cause unpredictable results. When it is absolutely necessary it is highly recommended to use on an ancestor element of the ones using the value.

  • tfoot and thead elements must be placed before the tbody or tr elements of the same table. (If the document is not too large this can be corrected via JavaScript.)

  • All style elements must be in the header.

  • Due to the total amount of pages being unknown during the conversion of any segment but the last, log output and progress monitoring cannot estimate the progress of the conversion.

  • For the CSS functions target-counter and target-text to be able to access information from previous segments the property must be used. It is also important that ID attributes are unique through the entire document.

  • , when enabled, is run in a preprocessing step with no access to any layout information and increases memory consumption to some extend.

If these restrictions are acceptable, the feature can be enabled in the PDFreactor configuration:

config.setSegmentationSettings(new SegmentationSettings()
    .setEnabled(true));
--segmentation-enabled

Some optional functionalities increase the amount of memory required, due to data accumulating over the course of the entire conversion. These include links, bookmarks, tagging and logging at levels more verbose than info.

Fast Tables

Very large tables have a significant impact on performance. Tables that have simple structures and only basic sets of styles can be declared as fast tables, providing significantly better performance and lower memory requirements at the cost of the following restrictions:

  • Cell content is handled as a single line of text with uniform style and no influence on the table layout. If there is too much content, it will overflow.

  • Styles applied to the cells of the first two body rows are used for the rest of the table's content. Applying different styles to the second row allows alternating even/odd styles. Styles set on the child nodes of cells or other table body rows are ignored. Vertical borders (i.e. border-right) can not be alternated between rows.

  • The structure is homogeneous, with all body rows having the same height and the cells of the first row (header or body) defining the widths of their columns. Widths are taken from style only, without measuring content. Column or row spans are not supported. Missing row elements and other incorrect structuring will lead to unexpected results.

  • Supported styles on cells are: , , , , , , , , , , , , border-right, border-bottom, and related shorthands.

  • Supported styles on rows are: , and related shorthands.

  • Supported styles on col elements are: , and related shorthands.

  • The cell borders are created by using the border-right and border-bottom styles, creating a grid between the cells, similar to the effect of border-collapse: collapse. The borders at the table edges are created from the styles of the table element.

    Table footer cells are an exception as they use their border-top styles (instead of border-bottom) to create the horizontal border between body and footer cells.

  • Repeating table header and footer groups are limited to one row each. Those are styled independently from the table body.

  • All lengths must be absolute, except for the widths of columns which also support percentages.

  • The style set on the table element is also used for all cells. The property is not supported. BiDi processing is applied to the text when necessary as usual. Font fallback is done based on the first character of each cell only. Specifying a font with sufficient glyphs is recommended.

  • The property only supports the values top, middle and bottom, all others defaulting to top. This makes top the default behavior, except for HTML based tables, which default to middle as usual. does not support the values justify or justify-all.

  • PDF tagging functionality has no access to the content of such tables. By default fast tables are marked as artifacts, making them not accessible.

If these restrictions are acceptable, the feature can be enabled by setting the style : -ro-fast-table on table elements. The style can be applied selectively, to affect only specific tables of the document.

Recommendation for Large Documents

An OutputStream should be passed to the convert method, so the document is streamed directly to disk or socket instead of keeping it in memory.

Many PDF viewers and processors will not properly handle PDF files that are larger than 2GB.

Annotations

When using PDFs in a review process it is helpful to be able to effectively annotate the document. While HTML already provides elements like ins and del, PDFreactor also offers more specialized features.

Comments

It is possible to add PDF comments to the document using the addComments configuration property like this:

config.setAddComments(true);
--add-comments

Depending on how the comment information is stored in your HTML source document, there are several style rules that can be applied. The most common use-cases are to either create a comment from an empty element (where any information is stored in its attributes) or to create a comment from a non-empty element (where the content is the text encompassed by the element):

HTML

<span class="comment" text="My Comment."></span>

CSS

span.comment {
    -ro-comment-content: attr(text);
}

HTML

<span class="comment">This text is commented</span>

CSS

span.comment {
    -ro-comment-content: content();
}

There are different styles to visualize a comment in the PDF:

  • note: Creates a small icon. This is the default style for all comments.

  • invisible: Does not create any visual effects.

  • highlight: Highlights the background of a section of text.

  • underline: Underlines a section of text with a straight line.

  • strikeout: Strikes out a section of text.

  • squiggly: Underlines a section of text with a squiggly line.

The comment styles highlight, underline, strikeout and squiggly are only applicable to comments that encompass a section of text.

The following example demonstrates how to style a simple comment.

HTML

<span class="comment">This is a styled comment</span>

CSS

span.comment {
    -ro-comment-content: content();
    -ro-comment-style: underline;
}

The visualization is ultimately dependent on the PDF viewer and may vary across viewers and/or platforms.

Comments can be customized further by using a variety of style rules. Besides content and style, you can also customize the following properties:

  • Title: The title of the comment. In some cases, this is also used for the author. Use the CSS property to specify the title.

  • Color: The color of the comment. The default value for the color depends on the comment style chosen. Use the CSS property to set a color.

  • Date: The date of the comment. When no date is specified, the current date is used. Use the CSS property to set the date.

  • Date Format: The format of the date you specified. The syntax is identical to Java's SimpleDateFormat SimpleDateFormat API documentation: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html . Use the CSS property to specify a date format for the comment's date.

  • Position: The position of the comment icon (only applicable for the comment style note). Use the CSS property to specify a position for the comment's note icon.

  • Initial state: The initial state of the comment, i.e. whether the comment should be open or closed when the PDF is opened in a viewer. Use the CSS property to specify the initial state of the comment bubbles. The state can be either open or closed with the latter being the default value.

The following sample shows how to customize all of the aforementioned properties.

.comment {
    /* Content: get the content of the comment from the text content of the element */
    -ro-comment-content: content();
    /* Title: get the title from the "author" attribute of the element */
    -ro-comment-title: attr(author);
    /* Style: set the comment style to "note" */
    -ro-comment-style: note;
    /* Color: specify a color for the comment */
    -ro-comment-color: steelblue;
    /* Date: get the date from the "date" attribute of the element */
    -ro-comment-date: attr(date);
    /* Date Format: specify a custom date format */
    -ro-comment-dateformat: "yyyy/dd/MM HH:mm:ss";
    /* Position: shift the comment icon to the right side of the page */
    -ro-comment-position: page-right;
    /* Initial state: open comment bubbles when the PDF is opened */
    -ro-comment-state: open;
    /* additional styles */
}

Please see the documentation of the individual CSS properties for more information.

Advanced Comments

In some cases, comments have a separate start and end tag. In this case the additional style rules -ro-comment-start or -ro-comment-end have to be set to match the comment's start and end elements.

commentstart {
    /* some customizations */
    -ro-comment-content: attr(text);
    -ro-comment-title: attr(author);
    -ro-comment-style: highlight;

    /* define the comment start element */
    -ro-comment-start: attr(uid)
}

commentend {
    /* define the comment end element */
    -ro-comment-end: attr(uid);
}

To actually create a comment, you need to specify at least one of the following CSS properties: , , -ro-comment-start, or -ro-comment-end.

Change Bars

Especially when marking only a single word or even less, the usual highlighting styles may not be enough. In such cases, PDFreactor's Change Bars can help to draw attention. A change bar is simply a colored line next to the content, on the same height as the element that enabled it.

The proprietary property -ro-change-bar-color enables them when set to a color.

ins {
    -ro-change-bar-color: yellowgreen;
}

del {
    -ro-change-bar-color: orangered;
}

To prevent different kinds (i.e. colors) of change bars from overlapping, each change bar can be assigned a different offset from the page content edge, by setting -ro-change-bar-offset.

Alternatively, it is also possible to move a change bar to the other page side altogether by using -ro-change-bar-align. This property defines where the change bars are positioned. By default, the bars are positioned in the left (or right) page margin area. If they come from a multi-column element, however, it makes sense to position them next to the columns.

.multi-column ins {
    -ro-change-bar-color: yellowgreen;
    -ro-change-bar-width: thick;
    -ro-change-bar-align: outside column;
}

In the sample above, the bars will be placed next the respective column, while the side of the column depends on the side of the page. With outside meaning right side for right pages and left side for left pages. There is another special setting best used for multi-columns with only two columns. The value distribute-column is combined with page and distributes the change bars on the left and the right side of the page, depending on which side is closer to the column in which the change bar originates.

.multi-column ins {
    -ro-change-bar-color: yellowgreen;
    -ro-change-bar-align: outside distribute-column page;
}

Lastly, it is also possible to block change bars next to certain elements. This is done via the CSS property -ro-change-bar-exclusion. By setting it to all, the painting of every change bar on the same vertical position as the respective element is blocked.

By giving change bars specific names via the CSS property -ro-change-bar-name, the exclusion can also be applied to selected change bars only.

ins {
    -ro-change-bar-color: yellowgreen;
    -ro-change-bar-align: outside distribute-column page;
    -ro-change-bar-name: insertion;
}
.exclude {
    /* Block two named change bars next to elements with this class */
    -ro-change-bar-exclusion: insertion, deletion;
}

Note that different change bars may share the same name, which allows to exclude them by groups.

Accessibility

Accessibility describes the possibility of making the content of a document available to the reader in a non-traditional or augmented way. When properly implemented, this grants readers with certain disabilities such as visual impairments or reading disorders access to all the information in the document.

There may also be various legal requirements in your country, such as Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in the United States, which demand accessible PDFs. Since this topic is highly complex and depends on your and your customers' countries, we will not go into further detail and this chapter is without any claim to completeness.

Accessible PDF documents require tagging. Tagged PDF files contain information about the structure, semantics and reading flow of the document. This information is stored in a tree structure of so-called "PDF tags"https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/editing-document-structure-content-tags.html#standard_pdf_tags.

For accessible documents it is recommended to use PDF/UAPDF/Universal Accessibility conformance. PDF/UA is the informal name for ISO 14289, the international standard for accessible PDF technology. Enabling PDF/UA conformance in PDFreactor automatically enables tagging and adds the required metadata to the PDF so that viewers or readers recognize the document as an accessible PDF/UA document. It can optionally be combined with PDF/A conformance, in which case we recommend PDF/A-3a over PDF/A-1a, as the latter imposes some limitations on the fidelity of tagging.

Automatic PDF Tagging

PDFreactor automatically determines the PDF tags not only from the HTML elements and CSS styles of the input document, but also from the resulting layout. This means that PDFreactor can even correctly tag complex structures automatically, including the following example cases. Block elements that directly contain text are always tagged as paragraphs so that the tag tree of the PDF remains valid. Tables spanning multiple pages with repeating headers and footers don't have those repeated in the tagging structure. Special document areas such as the footnote area are tagged as an "artifact", meaning the area is ignored by screen readers. The footnotes themselves are tagged in such a way that they are read as natural part of the normal text flow, so that the reading experience is not interrupted.

WAI-ARIAWeb Accessibility Initiative – Accessible Rich Internet Applications attributes in the input document are taken into account and can be used to manually override automatically determined tag types. There are also custom CSS properties that allow overriding the automatic determination or configuring it for best results.

Authoring Requirements

The quality of automatic tagging depends highly on the quality of the input documents. Authors must ensure the content is properly structured and contains all required metadata. The following are the most important points to consider:

For example, the following HTML markup is syntactically valid, but produces non-optimal accessibility data:

<h1>Document Title</h1>
<h1>Heading</h1>
<img src="image.png">
<table>
    <tr>
        <td>Col 1</td>
        <td>Col 2</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>A</td>
        <td>B</td>
    </tr>
</table>

Better markup would be the following, which includes additional information such as alternative text for images as well as table captions and column headers:

<h1>Document Title</h1>
<section>
    <h1>Heading</h1>
    <img src="image.png" alt="My Image">
    <table>
        <caption>My Table</caption>
        <thead>
            <tr>
                <th>Col 1</th>
                <th>Col 2</th>
            </tr>
        </thead>
        <tbody>
            <tr>
                <td>A</td>
                <td>B</td>
            </tr>
        </tbody>
    </table>
</section>

Even without any further information or configuration, PDFreactor will automatically create an appropriate tag tree for the document snippet above. The result can be seen in the following screenshot:

the tag tree of a PDF/UA document
The tag tree of a PDF/UA document

Controlling Tagging with WAI-ARIA

WAI-ARIA is a technical specification published by the W3CWorld Wide Web Consortium. It specifies how to enhance the accessibility of web content and web applications. PDFreactor supports a subset of version 1.2 of this specification to enhance the accessibility of HTML documents intended for paginated output. It allows overriding the automatically determined tag types.

Roles

The role HTML attribute is used to convey semantic meaning of document components to screen readers. Roles are mapped to PDF tag types as follows:

Supported Roles
Role Tag Notes
Document structure roles
article Art Identical to HTML article element.
Note: PDFreactor tags article as "Div" for backwards compatibility.
cell TD Identical to HTML td element.
columnheader TH Identical to HTML th[scope="column"]. The Scope attribute of the tag is set to Column.
heading H
H1 With aria-level="1". Then identical to HTML h1 element.
H2 With aria-level="2". Then identical to HTML h2 element.
H3 With aria-level="3". Then identical to HTML h3 element.
H4 With aria-level="4". Then identical to HTML h4 element.
H5 With aria-level="5". Then identical to HTML h5 element.
H6 With aria-level="6". Then identical to HTML h6 element.
img Figure Child elements and content are ignored.
list L Identical to HTML ol and ul elements.
listitem LI Only inside role="list". Then identical to HTML li element.
TOCI Only inside role="directory".
directory TOC
math Formula
row TR Identical to HTML tr element.
rowgroup TBody Identical to HTML tbody element.
THead When first rowgroup and containing more columnheaders than cells.
Then identical to HTML thead element.
rowheader TH Identical to HTML th[scope="row"]. The Scope attribute of the tag is set to Row.
separator artifact Ignored, including child elements and content. Identical to HTML hr element.
table Table Identical to HTML table element.
caption Caption Identical to HTML caption element.
tooltip artifact Ignored, including child elements and content.
code Code Identical to HTML code element.
paragraph simple-block Div or P depending on content.
generic simple Results in Div, P or Span depending on context.
Landmark roles
banner Part Identical to HTML header element.
complementary Part Identical to HTML aside element.
contentinfo Part Identical to HTML footer element.
form auto Tagged like a container with no role. See below for details on form elements.
main Part Identical to HTML main element.
navigation Part Identical to HTML nav element.
region Sect Identical to HTML section element.
Form widget roles.
button Form Tagged as button. Supports the ARIA attribute aria-checked.
checkbox Tagged as checkbox. Supports the ARIA attribute aria-checked.
combobox Tagged as text field.
listbox Tagged as text field.
menuitemcheckbox Tagged as checkbox. Supports the ARIA attribute aria-checked.
menuitemradio Tagged as radio button. Supports the ARIA attribute aria-checked.
radio Tagged as radio button. Supports the ARIA attribute aria-checked.
searchbox Tagged as text field.
slider Tagged as text field.
spinbutton Tagged as text field.
switch Tagged as checkbox. Supports the ARIA attribute aria-checked.
textbox Tagged as text field.
Other widget roles.
grid Table
gridcell TD
scrollbar artifact Ignored, including child elements and content.
tree L
treegrid Table
treeitem LI Only inside role="tree".
Live region and window roles.
alert artifact Ignored, including child elements and content.
alertdialog
dialog
log
marquee
status
timer
Presentation roles
none none Ignored by tagging, but child elements are tagged normally.
The only exceptions are table and list elements, for which a presentation role affects the whole structure, turning it into a sequence of blocks.
presentation

States and Properties

WAI-ARIA attributes can be used to convey specific states to assistive technology. While most of the states are intended for interactive websites, PDFreactor supports a small subset that can be translated into accessibility information of static PDFs. Supported states and properties are:

  • aria-checked
  • aria-hidden
  • aria-describedby
  • aria-label
  • aria-labelledby
  • aria-level
  • aria-selected
  • aria-valuenow
  • aria-valuetext

Accessible Name and Description

The ARIA specification uses certain attributes (such as aria-describedby) and HTML elements (such as label) to determine an accessible name and description for document components. PDFreactor supports this approach and automatically maps this accessibility information to appropriate PDF data structures, the PDF tags.

Please refer to the well-documented WAI-ARIA specificationhttps://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.2/ on how to properly use ARIA roles, states and properties to provide accessibility information.

WAI-ARIA-based Tagging Examples

If your document uses custom elements for headings, you can tag those as proper headings like this:

<div aria-role="heading" aria-level="1">My heading</div>

Using ARIA attributes to specify headings also sets the matching PDF bookmark level.

Content such as components that don't work in PDFs and should be ignored by screen readers can be tagged as artifact, eliminating the element and its subtree from being tagged, like this:

<div aria-role="dialog">A dialog that cannot be displayed in PDF</div>

Similarly elements, and their subtree, can be removed without changing their role, using the attribute aria-hidden:

<div aria-hidden="true">
    <p>Decorative or otherwise irrelevant content</p>
</div>

Artifacts are excluded from tagging, including their entire subtree. You can also exclude a single container element while keeping its content:

<div aria-role="presentation"> <!-- Irrelevant container -->
    <p>Relevant text</p>
</div>

A structure that is semantically a table, but does not consist of table elements or elements with table display styles, and so is not laid out as a table, just needs table roles for PDFreactor to tag it as a table structure. In cases like the following, the first row group is also automatically tagged as thead, when it has more header cells than other cells.

<div role="table">
    <div role="rowgroup">
        <div role="row">
            <span role="columnheader">Cell H / 1</span>
            <span role="columnheader">Cell H / 2</span>
        </div>
    </div>
    <div role="rowgroup">
        <div role="row">
            <span role="cell">Cell 1 / 1</span>
            <span role="cell">Cell 1 / 2</span>
        </div>
        <div role="row">
            <span role="cell">Cell 2 / 1</span>
            <span role="cell">Cell 2 / 2</span>
        </div>
        <div role="row">
            <span role="cell">Cell 3 / 1</span>
            <span role="cell">Cell 3 / 2</span>
        </div>
        <div role="row">
            <span role="cell">Cell 4 / 1</span>
            <span role="cell">Cell 4 / 2</span>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

When using conflicting ARIA attributes and CSS for tagging, the CSS properties take precedence. Setting -ro-pdf-tag-type to auto disables the processing of role attributes for the affected elements, as that processing is implemented via a user agent style sheet.

Controlling Tagging with CSS

When the automatic determination of PDF tags must be overridden and WAI-ARIA attributes are insufficient or inconvenient, proprietary CSS properties can be used, either in the document or in a user style sheet.

Overriding or Configuring Tag Type Determination

The proprietary CSS property can be used in various ways to ensure the correct tag types for elements and structures. The initial value is auto, which means that PDFreactor will automatically determine the tag type. In most cases this results in correct tagging without the need for manual intervention.

However, there are cases where the structure of the HTML and the resulting layout do not match the intended semantic structure. For example a table could be created from styled div and span elements. Conversely an HTML table could be used just for layout.

If your document uses custom elements for headings, you can tag those as proper headings like this:

div.heading1 {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: h1;
}

For headings set via CSS it is highly recommended to also set the matching bookmark level.

Content such as components that don't work in PDFs and should be ignored by screen readers can be tagged as artifact like this:

div.decoration {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: artifact;
}

Artifacts are excluded form tagging, including their entire subtree. You can also exclude a single container element while keeping its content:

div.irrelevantContainer {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: none;
}

It is also possible to ensure the tag type is determined from layout information, ignoring role attributes:

ol, ul, li {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: auto;
}

Series of Examples for Safely Overriding Tag Types

The following series of example shows how to correctly and safely tag an ol element with the class "nonlist", that is intended to be considered just a sequence of paragraphs instead of a list. It starts with the most simple approach, which is also compatible with older versions of PDFreactor, and then introduces more advanced concepts, which are highly recommended for best results:

With regards to accessibility the ol and li elements should be treated like the div and p elements, respectively.

<div>
    <p>A paragraph</p>
    <p>A paragraph</p>
</div>
<ol class="nonlist">
    <li>A list item, to be considered a paragraph</li>
    <li>A list item, to be considered a paragraph</li>
</ol>
<div>
    <p>A paragraph</p>
    <p>A paragraph</p>
</div>

The most simple style to turn that list into a sequence of paragraphs is to use with a .

ol.nonlist {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: div;
}
ol.nonlist > li {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: p;
}

The previous sample assumes that every li element in such a list only contains inline content, like text. However, the following is also valid HTML:

<div>
    <p>A paragraph</p>
    <p>A paragraph</p>
</div>
<ol class="nonlist">
    <li>A list item, to be considered a paragraph</li>
    <li><p>A paragraph inside a list item, to be considered a paragraph inside a block</p></li>
</ol>
<div>
    <p>A paragraph</p>
    <p>A paragraph</p>
</div>

The first li requires the type p, while the second one requires div. To automatically use the right type for a specific scenario you can specify a instead of a specific type. (See the table below for a list of kinds and their matching types.)

ol.nonlist {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: simple-block-strict;
}
ol.nonlist > li {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: simple-block;
}

While the second example will ensure a valid and useful PDF tag tree for most common scenarios, some complex documents require one further step. Consider the following, comparatively artificial, sample HTML:

<div style="display: table">
    <ol class="nonlist" style="display: table-row-group">
        <li style="display: table-row">
            <p style="display: table-cell">Content</p>
        </li>
    </ol>
</div>

The sample creates a table by using explicit 'display' styles. When no tagging styles are applied the automatic tag type determination will correctly tag the ol and li elements as TBody and TR, respectively, based on them being laid out as parts of a table.

Using the styles from one of the previous examples would change the tags of those elements, breaking the table structure in the tag tree. To automatically avoid this, but still affect HTML structures like in the previous examples, you can add conditions, that ensure types or kinds are only overridden when the automatic tag type determination had a specific result, which can be specified as a type or kind, in this case list-struct.

Each condition is specified as part of a pair, first the condition then the type or kind to use when it is met. Multiple such pairs can be specified, separated by commas. Those are tried in order and the first match is applied. For the case when no condition applies, a single type or kind can be specified after a final comma. When this is omitted the default behavior is auto. "type or kind" also includes auto, none and artifact.

ol.nonlist {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: list-struct simple-block-strict;
}
ol.nonlist > li {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: list-struct simple-block;
}
Full List of PDF Tag Kinds and What Types They Match
Kind Div P Span NonStruct,
artifact, none
L, LI,
Lbl, LBody
Table, TBody, THead, TFoot,
TR, TD, TH, Caption
simple matchesmatchesmatchesmatches
simple-block matchesmatchesmatches
simple-block-strictmatchesmatches
simple-inline matchesmatches
list-struct matches
table-struct matches

Overriding or Specifying Attributes

In addition to the tag type, PDFreactor also automatically determines some attributes for each tag. As with the type, it may be necessary to override or specify those manually. For that you can use the following CSS properties:

PropertySummaryDescription
Alternative textUsed to describe content that does not have a textual representation, such as an image.
Table summaryUsed to provide a summary for a table.
Header cell scopeUsed to indicate whether a table header cell (TH) relates to its column or its row.
Actual textUsed to describe text that is not rendered as it is read, for example as stylized text or in all caps.
Expansion TextUsed to describe an acronym or vernacular.
Form element nameUsed to specify the name for form elements.
Form typeUsed to specify the type of a non-interactive form element.
Form checked stateUsed to specify whether a non-interactive checkbox or radio button is checked.
Radio groupUsed to specify the name for a group of radio buttons.

The default value for the -ro-pdf-tag-* CSS properties is auto, which will automatically populate the matching PDF attributes (or leave them blank if appropriate).

Properties specifying text attribute, like alternative text, optionally take a comma-separated list of items. The first item whose resolved value is non-empty will be used for the resulting value. Each item can consist of multiple space-separated values which are then concatenated. You also have direct access to the ARIA specification's accessible name and description via the CSS values aria-name and aria-description, respectively.

The following style declaration is used to customize the alt text of image elements.

img {
    -ro-pdf-tag-alt: attr("data-alt-text"), auto, "Image " counter(images);
}

To determine the resulting value, PDFreactor iterates the list items from left to right, using the first item with a non-empty value:

  1. The first item in the value list takes the text directly from a custom data-alt-text HTML attribute. If the attribute's value is empty or the attribute is not present, the next item is evaluated.

  2. The second item's value is auto, which means PDFreactor tries to find an alternative text automatically, depending on the element, its styles, attributes and context. If no alternative text can be determined, the next item is evaluated.

  3. The third item consists of a concatenation of the string "Image " and the value of the custom counter "images". Assuming that this is the seventh image, this would result in the string "Image 7". Note that such a string this is not considered best practice since it does not convey any meaningful information. It is presented here merely as a technical example.

In certain cases it might be useful to use both the ARIA name and description for tagging data.

.myAccessibleElements {
    -ro-pdf-tag-alt: aria-name ": " area-description;
}

In this example, a concatenation of the ARIA name and description is used for the alternative text. Since PDF tags don't have attributes for both values, such an approach may only be appropriate for certain use cases.

When using conflicting ARIA attributes and CSS for tagging, the CSS properties take precedence. Setting -ro-pdf-tag-type to auto disables the processing of role attributes for the affected elements, as that processing is implemented via a user agent style sheet.

Creating Tagged PDFs from Non-HTML Input Documents

When using XML documents as input, instead of HTML, PDFreactor will still automatically determine tag types and attributes based on the layout. However, further CSS is necessary to cover semantic information.

Most importantly correct tag types have to be ensured. In DocBook XML, for example, you can map the "title" elements inside "sect1" elements to the PDF tag type H2 (heading, level 2):

sect1 > title {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: simple-block h2;
}

There are also relevant tag attributes, especially the alternative text for images. You can use the "desc" attributes of "image" elements for that, like this:

image {
    -ro-pdf-tag-type: figure;
}
image[desc] {
    -ro-alt-text: attr(desc);
}

For form elements, you can use the CSS property to define which elements or attributes in the input document are used as the source for the names of form elements in the generated PDF. When converting HTML, the names are adopted from the value attribute of the form element.

Using the property, the name for radio button groups can be adopted in the same way. By default, it will be adopted from the name attribute of the radio button element.

User Agent

The User Agent is an optional object that is created independently from PDFreactor and can be passed to multiple PDFreactor conversions. When a User Agent object is used, all PDFreactor conversions that are configured with this object will share a single HTTP client implementation. This means that these conversions share a common cookie store and (if enabled) a HTTP resource cache.

Do not use a common User Agent for conversions from different parties! This is considered insecure as conversions may find out information about other conversions by e.g. sniffing the cookie store or the HTTP cache.

Security Settings

The User Agent uses security settings similar to the Configuration object since it is a security critical component. When using a User Agent, its security settings override any security settings of the Configuration, even if these are more specific. So it is recommended to not specify any security settings at all on the Configuration object when using a User Agent.

Network Settings

Similar to security settings, the User Agent also uses network settings to specify connection behavior. These also override any network settings of the Configuration.

HTTP Cache

Browser-like HTTP caching can be enabled when using a User Agent. This is useful if you convert many documents that use a lot of identical cacheable resources like images. The cache is file system based and persists beyond the lifetime of a single conversion. There are various configuration options to ensure that the cache does not exceed certain limits, as you only have indirect control over its contents.

The HTTP Cache can be configured in several ways:

The maximum size of the HTTP Cache can be determined by multiplying maxEntries by maxObjectSize. So by default, the HTTP cache would not exceed 500MB.

Fonts

To be able to display text PDFreactor requires font data. This font data must be in TTF True Type Font or in OTF Open Type Font format and may come from different types of sources (see Font Sources).

Using OpenType fonts with CFF outlines requires Java SE 9 or higher.

Font Sources

The font data of PDFreactor may come from different types of sources.

Core Fonts Pack

PDFreactor contains fonts that will be used for the Default Font Mapping when no other fonts could be registered on the system, e.g. because of insufficient file permissions or due to the fact that there are no fonts available.

These fonts are distributed by RealObjects and licensed by their respective authors under the SIL Open Font License A free and open source license designed for fonts (https://openfontlicense.org/documents/OFL.txt) , the Apache License A permissive free software license written by the Apache Software Foundation (https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0) or are in the Public Domain.

The packaged core fonts are:
Original Font Name Type PDFreactor Font Name License
Arimo sans-serif RealObjects core sans-serif Apache License, Version 2.0
Tinos serif RealObjects core serif Apache License, Version 2.0
Cousine monospace RealObjects core monospace Apache License, Version 2.0
Dancing Script cursive RealObjects core cursive SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1
Orbitron fantasy RealObjects core fantasy SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1
Quivira symbol RealObjects core symbol Public Domain (http://en.quivira-font.com/notes.php)

Additionally the core fonts contain fallback fonts for symbols and characters from non-Latin languages. Those are the Noto fonts (SIL Open Font License 1.1), Nanum Gothic (SIL Open Font License 1.1), and Droid Sans Fallback (Apache License 2.0).

System and JVM Font Directories

The main sources PDFreactor uses to retrieve font data are:

  • fonts registered with the Java VM

  • fonts located in system font folders

Both provide fonts physically available to PDFreactor.

PDFreactor registers fonts from these sources automatically. Java VM fonts are usually located in JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/fonts. The location of system font folders is platform dependent:

Windows

  • System Root (usually C:\Windows)\fonts
  • User Home\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\fonts

macOS

  • /Library/fonts
  • /System/Library/fonts
  • User Home/Library/fonts
  • /Network/Library/fonts/

Linux/Unix

  • /usr/share/fonts
  • /usr/local/share/fonts
  • User Home/.fonts
  • User Home/.local/share/fonts

On Linux, not all required system libraries may be installed on the system by default.

To use system fonts on Linux, the fontconfig system library and some basic fonts such as dejavu fonts must be installed.
For Image Output PDFreactor also requires X11FontManager, libpng, and libfreetype.
These libraries and basic fonts are dependencies of the Fontconfig package, which is available for common Linux distributions.

PDFreactor can be configured to ignore all system fonts and only use fonts that either have been specifically added via configuration properties or that are web fonts from style sheets. This is useful if the system either has no fonts or if you want to avoid system-dependent output. See for examples.

If PDFreactor was unable to retrieve any font data, fonts from the Core Fonts Pack will be used. (see ).

Additional Fonts & Font Directories

PDFreactor allows setting additional fonts that are neither located in the system font directory nor the font directory of the Java VM. These fonts still need to be physically available to PDFreactor.

To register these fonts with PDFreactor via the API, use the following configuration properties:

  • fontDirectories — The fonts in the specified directories and all their subdirectories will be used by PDFreactor.

  • fonts — Additional fonts from a specified source URL.

For each directory added by the fontDirectories property and for each of their subdirectories, a separate font cache is created. Should the contents of these directories change, please delete the font cache files before running PDFreactor. See the Chapter The Font Cache Mechanism for more information about the font cache.

Font directories can be added like this:

config.setFontDirectories("/myFonts1", "/myFonts2/corporate");
--font-directories "/myFonts1" "/myFonts2/corporate"

Instead of adding entire font directories that PDFreactor will scan, you can also add specific fonts like this:

config.setFonts(
    new Font().setFamily("My Font")
        .setBold(true)
        .setItalic(true)
        .setSource("https://url/to/font.ttf"));
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "fonts": [
    {
        "family": "My Font",
        "bold": true,
        "italic": true,
        "source": "https://url/to/font.ttf"
    }
]}

CSS Defined Fonts

PDFreactor is capable of using fonts defined in CSS via the @font-face rule. These fonts are retrieved by PDFreactor along with other resources of the document (e.g. images) and will only be used to render the document they belong to.

@font-face {
    font-family: "My Font";
    src: url("https://www.my-server.com/fonts/my-font.ttf");
}

The Font Cache Mechanism

PDFreactor uses a font cache to store required information about available fonts.

Font Cache Lifecycle

One of the steps PDFreactor performs on startup is registering fonts. The first time this is done will take some time since every font inside the font directories available to PDFreactor will be identified and registered.

At the end of this step PDFreactor creates a font cache that will be used on subsequent conversions to increase performance. The font cache persists until the Java VM running PDFreactor is terminated.

Font Cache Files

If so configured (see ), PDFreactor can write its font cache onto the file system so that it persists between Java VM restarts. This significantly reduces startup time as it ensures the rendering process will start as soon as possible.

If font cache files are present, new fonts put into the font directories available to PDFreactor will be ignored by PDFreactor unless the font cache files have been deleted. Then PDFreactor will create new font cache files on the next startup as it would on its first one.

To delete the font cache files, visit the user.home/.PDFreactor directory (or a custom directory if you configured one) and delete all files inside it.

Controlling the Font Registration and Caching Mechanism

It is possible to customize the registration and caching of fonts via the API.

The following configuration properties are used to control the font handling behavior of PDFreactor:

  • cacheFonts — Activates or deactivates the file system font cache.

  • fontCachePath — Specifies the location where the font cache files should be stored.

  • disableSystemFonts — If set to true, PDFreactor will neither register system fonts, nor use the font cache file for them if it exists.

  • disableFontRegistration — Specifies that parts of the font caching mechanism should be disabled. This is a legacy property. In nearly all cases you should use either cacheFonts or disableSystemFonts.

To optimize startup time in scenarios where the PDFreactor library's Java VM is frequently restarted, it is recommended to enable a font cache. The PDFreactor Web Service automatically caches fonts.

config.setCacheFonts(true);
--cache-fonts

As mentioned before, the default font cache files are located in the user.home/.PDFreactor directory. To customize this location, you can use the configuration property fontCachePath.

config.setFontCachePath("/myPDFreactor/fontcache");
--font-cache-path "/myPDFreactor/fontcache/cache.dat"

PDFreactor can be configured to ignore all system fonts and only use fonts that either have been specifically added via configuration properties or that are web fonts from style sheets:

config.setDisableSystemFonts(true);
--disable-system-fonts

Font Matching

Matching Generic Font Families

Browsers usually match the generic font families with fonts installed on the host system, but PDFreactor consciously matches them with its own specific core fonts. This is done so that documents which use generic font families look consistent across all systems, no matter which fonts (if any) are installed.

Should it be required to match generic font families with other fonts, it is recommended to use to e.g. map the family name "serif" to the desired font.

The generic font families are mapped as follows:

Generic Font Mapping
Generic Font Family Matched Core Font System Font Example
sans-serif Arimo Arial
serif Tinos Times New Roman
monospace Cousine Courier New
cursive Dancing Script Comic Sans MS
fantasy Orbitron Impact

Font Alias Names

It is possible to add a font alias name for a font available in the system font directory or the font directory of the Java VM. The font alias name allows referencing to a font using a different name.

Authors can thus use a font alias name as the font-family value in CSS instead of the actual font name. Exchanging the font in all these documents can be done by changing the actual font behind the alias.

To define a font alias name via the Java API use the following configuration property:

  • fontAliases — Alias families for registered fonts.

The following example maps the registered font Arial to the name "My Font". So each time you refer to the name "My Font" in CSS, Arial is used internally.

config.setFontAliases(
    new Font().setFamily("My Font")
        .setSource("Arial"));
-C config.json

With the following config.json:

{ "fontAliases": [
    {
        "family": "My Font",
        "source": "Arial"
    }
]}

Automatic Font Fallback

Whenever the current font cannot be used to display a certain character, an automatic font fallback is used to find a replacement font for this character. To do so fonts are iterated according to the following parameters:

  1. The font-family property of the current element

  2. The configuration property fontFallback

  3. An internal list of recommended fonts

  4. All fonts on the system, starting with those with the most glyphs

A list of fallback fonts can be specified like this:

config.setFontFallback("My Font", "Arial");
--font-fallback "My Font" "Arial"

JavaScript Objects and Types

Objects

ro
The ro or window.ro object provides access to PDFreactor's proprietary JavaScript API.
  • exports ?
  • Data that will be made available to the outside integration API. See

  • layout Layout
  • Proprietary layout information.

  • pdf PDF
  • Runtime PDFreactor API

  • terminateConversion Stringmessage
  • Terminates the current PDF conversion at the next possible moment, causing PDFreactor to throw an appropriate exception with a message equal to the parameter of this method.
    • message String
    • The exception message.

layout
PDFreactor allows JavaScript access to some layout information via the proprietary object ro.layout.
  • getPageDescription Numberindex
  • Returns a PageDescription for the page with the given index. The first page has the index 0.
    • index Number
    • The page index.

  • getBoxDescriptions Elementelement
  • Returns an array of BoxDescription objects for the given element. Note that one element can have several boxes (e.g. when a paragraph is spread over multiple pages).
    • element Element
    • The DOM element.

  • String getContent Elementelement StringpseudoElement
  • Returns a string containing the layout text content of the specified element and its descendants. The layout text can differ from the DOM text content due to processing, including white-space collapsing and the addition of generated content.
    • element Element
    • The DOM element.

    • pseudoElement String
    • A string specifying which content to return:

      • "before": Retrieves the "before" generated content of the element.

      • "after": Retrieves the "after" generated content of the element.

      • "text": Retrieves the content of the element, excluding its generated content.

      • "all": Retrieves the content of the element.

      If omitted "all" will be applied as default.

      Both "text" and "all" includes the generated content of all descendants.

  • String getContent NumberpageIndex StringmarginBox
  • Returns a string containing the content of the page margin box of the specified page.
    • pageIndex Number
    • The page of the page margin box. The first page has the index 0.

    • marginBox String
    • A string specifying the page margin box, eg. "top-left", see .

  • numberOfPages Number
  • Returns the current total number of pages of the document.

pdf
It is possible to use certain PDF-specific parts of the PDFreactor API during runtime via the proprietary object ro.pdf.
  • addAttachments Boolean
  • Enables or disables attachments specified in style sheets.

  • addComments Boolean
  • Enables or disables comments in the PDF document.

  • addOverprint Boolean
  • Enables or disables overprinting.

  • addPreviewImages Boolean
  • Enables or disables embedding of image previews per page in the PDF document.

  • addTags Boolean
  • Enables or disables tagging of the PDF document.

  • allowAnnotations Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'annotations' restriction in the PDF document.

  • allowAssembly Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'assembly' restriction in the PDF document.

  • allowCopy Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'copy' restriction in the PDF document.

  • allowDegradedPrinting Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'degraded printing' restriction in the PDF document.

  • allowFillIn Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'fill in' restriction in the PDF document.

  • allowModifyContents Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'modify contents' restriction in the PDF document.

  • allowPrinting Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'printing' restriction in the PDF document.

  • allowScreenReaders Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'screen readers' restriction in the PDF document.

  • attachments
  • Adds a file attachment to PDF document. All attachments that have been set previously in the PDFreactor integration are included as attachments with binary content which will be base64-encoded.

  • author String
  • Sets the value of the author field of the PDF document.

  • bookletMode
  • Convenience method to set pages-per-sheet properties and page order in one step to create a booklet.

  • creator String
  • Sets the value of creator field of the PDF document.

  • customDocumentProperties
  • Adds custom properties to the PDF document. An existing property of the same name will be replaced.

  • disableBookmarks Boolean
  • Disables bookmarks in the PDF document.

  • disableLinks Boolean
  • Disables links in the PDF document.

  • encryptionSettings
  • A type containing settings related to PDF encryption.

  • keywords String
  • Sets the value of the keywords field of the PDF document.

  • ownerPassword Boolean
  • Sets the owner password of the PDF document.

  • pageOrder String
  • Sets the page order of the direct result of the conversion.

    If the merge mode is set to ARRANGE (see ), this property is also used to specify the position of inserted pages from an existing PDF.

    A description of the syntax can be found in the section.

    Additionally, the pageOrder constants can be used:

    • "BOOKLET": Page order mode to arrange all pages in booklet order.

    • "BOOKLET_RTL": Page order mode to arrange all pages in right-to-left booklet order.

    • "EVEN": Page order mode to keep even pages only.

    • "ODD": Page order mode to keep odd pages only.

    • "REVERSE": Page order mode to reverse the page order.

  • pagesPerSheetProperties
  • Sets the properties of a sheet on which multiple pages are being arranged.

    If cols or rows is less than 1, no pages-per-sheet processing is done. This is the case by default.

  • pdfScriptActions
  • Sets a pair of trigger event and PDF script. The script is triggered on the specified event.

    A PDF script is JavaScript that is executed by a PDF viewer (e.g. Adobe Reader). Note that most viewers do not support this feature.

  • printDialogPrompt Boolean
  • Enables or disables a print dialog to be shown upon opening the generated PDF document by a PDF viewer.

  • subject String
  • Sets the value of the subject field of the PDF document.

  • title String
  • Sets the value of the title field of the PDF document.

  • userPassword String
  • Sets the user password of the PDF document.

Proprietary Types

BoxDescription
Describes the position and dimensions of the rectangles of a box as well as some further information. The rectangles are described by using .
  • pageIndex Number
  • The index of the page of this box. The first page has the index 0.

  • pageLeft Boolean
  • Whether the page of this box is on the left.

  • pageDescription PageDescription
  • The PageDescription of the page of this box. It contains the data of the page from the moment when this BoxDescription was created.

  • lineDescriptions
  • Returns an array of LineDescriptions for this box if the box contains text directly.

  • generatedContentDescriptions
  • Returns an object providing access to BoxDescription arrays for the generated content via type name strings. Available generated content type names are "before" and "after" (for normal HTML elements) and "content" (for page margin boxes). Please note that generated content of inline elements is not yet accessible in this way.

  • columnIndex Number
  • For boxes inside a multi-column layout this returns the index of the column the box is in. Otherwise it returns -1. The index starts at 0 for the first column of the multi-column container element. It increases by one for each further column or column-span and is not reset on new pages or by column spans.

  • columnIndexLocal Number
  • For boxes inside a multi-column layout this returns the local index of the column the box is in. Otherwise it returns -1. The local index starts at 0 for the first column of the multi-column container element. It increases by one for each further column and is reset to 0 on new pages as well as on and after column spans.

  • regionIndex Number
  • For boxes inside a Region this returns the index of that region. Otherwise it returns -1. The index starts at 0 for the first region in its chain. It increases by one for each further region in the same chain and is not reset on new pages.

  • regionIndexLocal Number
  • For boxes inside a Region this returns the local index of that region. Otherwise it returns -1. The local index starts at 0 for the first region in its chain. It increases by one for each further region in the same chain and is reset to 0 on new pages.

  • getMarginRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the margin rectangle. The point of origin is the upper left corner of the page content rectangle.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getBorderRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the border rectangle. The point of origin is the upper left corner of the page content rectangle.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getPaddingRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the padding rectangle. The point of origin is the upper left corner of the page content rectangle.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getContentRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the content rectangle. The point of origin is the upper left corner of the page content rectangle.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getMarginRectInPage Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the margin rectangle. The point of origin is the upper left corner of the page rectangle.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getBorderRectInPage Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the border rectangle. The point of origin is the upper left corner of the page rectangle.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getPaddingRectInPage Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the padding rectangle. The point of origin is the upper left corner of the page rectangle.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getContentRectInPage Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the content rectangle. The point of origin is the upper left corner of the page rectangle.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getBoundingLineContentRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the union of the content rectangles of the LineDescriptions contained in this box, i.e. the bounding rectangle of all text content of the box. The coordinates are relative to the box contaning this lines.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

PageDescription
Describes the dimensions of a page and its rectangles as well as some further information. The rectangles are described by using s.
  • pageIndex Number
  • The index of this page. The first page has the index 0.

  • pageLeft Boolean
  • Whether this page is on the left.

  • pageName String
  • The name of this page, if it is a named page and an empty string otherwise.

  • pageGroups String
  • An array containing all names of this page or an empty array if there are none.

  • range
  • The DOM Range of the content of this page. The start- and endContainer are the most deeply nested nodes at the respective page breaks. Returns null if the page is empty.

  • rangeShallow
  • The DOM Range of the content of this page. The start- and endContainer are the least deeply nested nodes at the respective page breaks. Returns null if the page is empty.

  • marginBoxDescriptions
  • Returns an object providing access to BoxDescriptions for the page margin boxes via margin box name strings like "top-left". The BoxDescriptions for the content of a margin box are available via the 'content' key of its generatedContentDescriptions object.

  • getMediaRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the media box of the page.
    The position is relative to the media/trim rectangle, so both values are negative or 0.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getBleedRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the bleed box of the page.
    The position is relative to the media/trim rectangle, so both values are negative or 0.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getTrimRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the trim box of the page. This is a synonym for getMarginRect and matches the page size.
    The position is relative to the media/trim rectangle itself, so both values are always 0.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getMarginRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the margin rectangle of the page. This is a synonym for getTrimRect and matches the page size.
    The position is relative to the media/trim rectangle itself, so both values are always 0.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getBorderRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the border rectangle of the page.
    The position is relative to the media/trim rectangle, so both values are positive or 0.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getPaddingRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the padding rectangle of the page.
    The position is relative to the media/trim rectangle, so both values are positive or 0.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getContentRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the content rectangle of the page.
    The position is relative to the media/trim rectangle, so both values are positive or 0.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getCropRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the crop box of the page or null if none is set.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getArtRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the art box of the page or null if none is set.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

LineDescription
Contains information about a line of text. It can be retrieved from a .
  • range
  • The DOM Range from the beginning to the end of the text of the line or null for empty lines.

  • Number getBaselinePosition Stringunit
  • Returns the vertical distance between the baseline position of the line and the top of the content rectangle of the box containing the line.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

  • getContentRect Stringunit
  • Returns a DOMRect describing the content rectangle of the line, specifically the part of the line actually containing text. The coordinates are relative to the box contaning this line.
    • unit String
    • The desired length unit in which the dimensions and coordinates will be returned. (defaults to "px")

Attachment
A JavaScript object containing data for attachments.
  • data Blob|TypedArray|ArrayBuffer|String
  • The content of the attachment. If it is a string the binary property specifies whether to treat it as UTF-8 or Base64. May be omitted.

  • url String
  • If data is not specified, the attachment will be retrieved from this URL. If this is "#" the input document URL is used instead.

  • name String
  • The file name associated with the attachment. It is recommended to specify the correct file extension. If this is omitted the name is derived from the URL.

  • description String
  • The description of the attachment. If this is omitted the name is used.

  • binary Boolean
  • This property indicates whether the data property, when it contains a string, is decoded as Base64 binary data or UTF-8 text. If omitted it is treated as false, meaning that string content is considered UTF-8 text.

BookletMode
A JavaScript object containing data for bookletMode.
  • sheetSize String
  • The size of the sheet as CSS value, e.g. "A3", "letter landscape", "15in 20in", "20cm 30cm".

  • sheetMargin String
  • The sheet size as CSS size, e.g. "A4", "letter landscape", "15in 20in", "20cm 30cm".

  • rtl Boolean
  • Whether or not the reading order of the booklet should be right-to-left.

EncryptionSettings
A JavaScript object containing data for encryptionSettings.
  • type String
  • The encryption type to be used. The default is "NONE". Value is one of the following constants:

    • "NONE": Indicates that the document will not be encrypted. If encryption is disabled, then no user password or owner password can be used.

    • "RC_40": Indicates that the document will be encrypted using RC4 40 bit encryption.

    • "RC_128": Indicates that the document will be encrypted using RC4 128 bit encryption.

    • "AES_128": Indicates that the document will be encrypted using AES 128 bit encryption.

    • "AES_256": Indicates that the document will be encrypted using AES 256 bit encryption.

  • ownerPassword String
  • Sets the owner password of the PDF document.

  • userPassword String
  • Sets the user password of the PDF document.

  • setAllowAnnotations Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'annotations' restriction in the PDF document. The default value is false.

  • setAllowAssembly Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'assembly' restriction in the PDF document. The default value is false.

  • setAllowCopy Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'copy' restriction in the PDF document. The default value is false.

  • setAllowDegradedPrinting Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'degraded printing' restriction in the PDF document. The default value is false.

  • setAllowFillIn Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'fill in' restriction in the PDF document. The default value is false.

  • setAllowModifyContents Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'modify contents' restriction in the PDF document. The default value is false.

  • setAllowPrinting Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'printing' restriction in the PDF document. The default value is false.

  • setAllowScreenReaders Boolean
  • Enables or disables the 'screen readers' restriction in the PDF document. The default value is false.

KeyValuePair
A JavaScript object containing data for customDocumentProperties.
  • key String
  • The key.

  • value String
  • The value.

PagesPerSheetProperties
A JavaScript object containing data for pagesPerSheetProperties.
  • cols Number
  • The number of columns per sheet.

  • rows Number
  • The number of rows per sheet.

  • sheetSize String
  • The sheet size as CSS size, e.g. "A4", "letter landscape", "15in 20in", "20cm 30cm".

  • sheetMargin String
  • The sheet margin as CSS margin, e.g. "1in", "1cm 1.5cm", "10mm 20mm 10mm 30mm". null is interpreted as 0mm.

  • spacing String
  • The horizontal and vertical space between pages on a sheet as CSS value, for example "0.1in" or "5mm 2mm". null is interpreted as "0mm".

  • direction String
  • The direction in which the pages are ordered on a sheet. Value is one of the following constants:

    • "DOWN_LEFT": Arranges the pages on a sheet from top to bottom and right to left.

    • "DOWN_RIGHT": Arranges the pages on a sheet from top to bottom and left to right.

    • "LEFT_DOWN": Arranges the pages on a sheet from right to left and top to bottom.

    • "LEFT_UP": Arranges the pages on a sheet from right to left and bottom to top.

    • "RIGHT_DOWN": Arranges the pages on a sheet from left to right and top to bottom.

    • "RIGHT_UP": Arranges the pages on a sheet from left to right and bottom to top.

    • "UP_LEFT": Arranges the pages on a sheet from bottom to top and right to left.

    • "UP_RIGHT": Arranges the pages on a sheet from bottom to top and left to right.

PdfScriptAction
A JavaScript object containing data for pdfScriptActions.
  • triggerEvent String
  • The event on which the script is executed. Value is one of the following constants:

    • "AFTER_PRINT": This event is triggered after the PDF has been printed by the viewer application.

    • "AFTER_SAVE": This event is triggered after the PDF has been saved by the viewer application.

    • "BEFORE_PRINT": This event is triggered before the PDF is printed by the viewer application.

    • "BEFORE_SAVE": This event is triggered before the PDF is saved by the viewer application.

    • "CLOSE": This event is triggered when the PDF is closed by the viewer application.

    • "OPEN": This event is triggered when the PDF is opened in the viewer application.

  • script String
  • The script source that should be executed.

Supported Barcode Types and Properties

PDFreactor supports the following barcode symbologies, each handling some of the -ro-barcode-* CSS properties differently.

These -ro-barcode-* properties apply to all barcode types:

These apply to all barcode types with human readable text:

-ro-barcode-encoding applies to all barcode types, however they don't necessarily support all 3 available data types.

-ro-barcode-size applies to most barcode types. If the property is not explicitly mentioned, it adjusts the bar height.

Please refer to the CSS documentation for more information.

Some barcode symbologies impose additional restrictions on the input data besides limiting the allowed characters.

If the -ro-barcode-type property is mentioned below, the entry always refers to its optional last argument.

.barcode {
    -ro-replacedelement: barcode;
    -ro-barcode-type: code2of5 interleaved enabled;
    -ro-barcode-content: "1234567890";
}

QR Code

The QR Code bar code symbology according to ISO/IEC 18004:2015.

Identifier: qrcode

Default Subtype: none

Allowed Characters: The Latin-1 set and Kanji characters which are members of the Shift-JIS encoding scheme.

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc, gs1

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
none A regular QR code.
swiss A specialized type of QR Code symbol used for QR-bill in Switzerland. It is mostly a spec-compliant QR Code, but it must use error correction level M, it cannot hold more than 997 characters, it must always measure 46x46 mm when printed, data must be encoded as UTF-8 without the use of ECI, and it features a Swiss cross logo in the center of the symbol.
upn A specialized type of QR Code symbol used by the Bank Association of Slovenia for their Universal Payment Order. It is mostly a spec-compliant QR Code, but it must use error correction level M, it must use version 15 (size 77x77), it must use ECI 4 (ISO-8859-2). Data is encoded in byte mode.
-ro-barcode-size
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto 1 - 40 Selects a QR code size, refer to the QR code version table for more detailed information.
-ro-barcode-ecc-level
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto L, M, Q, H Sets the error correction level.
QR Code Version Table
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
1 21 x 21
2 25 x 25
3 29 x 29
4 33 x 33
5 37 x 37
6 41 x 41
7 45 x 45
8 49 x 49
9 53 x 53
10 57 x 57
11 61 x 61
12 65 x 65
13 69 x 69
14 73 x 73
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
15 77 x 77
16 81 x 81
17 85 x 85
18 89 x 89
19 93 x 93
20 97 x 97
21 101 x 101
22 105 x 105
23 109 x 109
24 113 x 113
25 117 x 117
26 121 x 121
27 125 x 125
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
28 129 x 129
29 133 x 133
30 137 x 137
31 141 x 141
32 145 x 145
33 149 x 149
34 153 x 153
35 157 x 157
36 161 x 161
37 165 x 165
38 169 x 169
39 173 x 173
40 177 x 177

Code 128

The Code 128 barcode symbology as defined in ISO/IEC 15417:2007.

Identifier: code128

Allowed Characters: 8-bit ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) characters.

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc, gs1

-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
code-set-abc code-set-a,
code-set-b,
code-set-c,
code-set-ab,
code-set-abc

Determines which code sets are used by this barcode:

A can encode ASCII values 0-95, as well as FNC1, FNC2, FNC3 and FNC4.

B can encode ASCII values 32-127, as well as FNC1, FNC2, FNC3 and FNC4.

C can encode pairs of numbers, as well as FNC1.

AB allows A and B code sets.

ABC allows all three code sets.

-ro-barcode-reader-initialization
Default Value Possible Values Description
disabled enabled, disabled Defines whether reader initialization instructions should be added to the barcode.

Code 32

Code 32, also known as Italian Pharmacode.

Identifier: code32

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Code 49

Code 49 according to ANSI/AIM-BC6-2000.

Identifier: code49

Allowed Characters: ASCII

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc, gs1

Code 11

Identifier: code11

Allowed Characters: 0-9 and dash (-).

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

-ro-barcode-human-readable-affix
Default Value Possible Values Description
none One or two strings with a length of 1. Determines the affix characters at the beginning and the end of the human readable text. The first argument sets the prefix, while the second sets the suffix. If the second is omitted, the first argument sets both.
-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
2 1 or 2 Sets the number of checkdigits to be calculated.

Code 93

Identifier: code93

Allowed Characters: ASCII text.

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

-ro-barcode-human-readable-affix
Default Value Possible Values Description
none A string with a length of 1. Determines the affix characters at the beginning and the end of the human readable text. When applied to a Code 93 barcode, this affix sets both the prefix and suffix.
-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
2 1 or 2 Sets the number of checkdigits to be calculated.

Code16k

Identifier: code16k

-ro-barcode-reader-initialization
Default Value Possible Values Description
disabled enabled, disabled Defines whether reader initialization instructions should be added to the barcode.

DPD Code

A linear barcode based on Code 128. Data is expected to be 27 or 28 characters long and use the format "IPPPPPPPTTTTTTTTTTTTTTSSSCCC", where I is the identification tag (omitted if this is a "relabel" barcode), P is the destination postal code (7 alphanumerics), T is the tracking number (4 alphanumerics followed by 10 digits), S is the service code (3 digits) and C is the ISO country code for the destination country (3 digits). A modulo-36 check character is added automatically to the human-readable text, but not to the data encoded in the symbol.

Identifier: dpd

Allowed Characters: alphanumeric

PDF417

The PDF417/MicroPDF417 bar code symbologies according to ISO/IEC 15438:2006 and ISO/IEC 24728:2006.

Identifier: pdf417

Default Subtype: normal

Allowed Characters: ASCII

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
normal A typical PDF417 barcode.
truncated As opposed to a normal PDF417, its truncated version are missing one data codeword and the stop bars from each row.
micro A smaller version of PDF417 codes.
-ro-barcode-ecc-level
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto 0-8 Sets the error correction level. Does not apply to MicroPDF417.
-ro-barcode-size
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto Columns: 1-30 for (truncated) PDF417, 1-4 for MicroPDF417.
Rows: 3-90 for (truncated) PDF417, 4-44 for MicroPDF417.
Sets the number of columns and rows this barcode should contain. The first value defines the columns, the second defines the rows.
-ro-barcode-structured-append
Default Value Possible Values Description
none Positive integers Defines a structured series. The first value sets the total number of barcodes belonging to it, the second value defines the ID of the series, which consists of 3 digits.
-ro-barcode-structured-append-position
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto Positive integers Defines the position of this barcode within a structured series.
-ro-barcode-reader-initialization
Default Value Possible Values Description
disabled enabled, disabled Defines whether reader initialization instructions should be added to the barcode.

Australia Post

Identifier: auspost

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Australia Post Reply Paid

Identifier: ausreply

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Australia Post Routing

Identifier: ausroute

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Australia Post Redirect

Identifier: ausredirect

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Code 3 of 9

The code 3 of 9 bar code symbology according to ISO/IEC 16388:2007.

Identifier: code39

Default Subtype: normal

Allowed Characters: 0-9, A-Z, dash (-), full stop (.), space, dollar ($), slash (/), plus (+) and percent (%). ASCII for Code 3 of 9 extended.

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
normal A standard Code 3 of 9.
extended An extended version which is able to encode all ASCII characters.
-ro-barcode-checkdigit-mode
Default Value Possible Values Description
none mod43, none Sets whether checkdigits should be calculated.

MSI Plessey

Identifier: msiplessey

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

-ro-barcode-checkdigit-mode
Default Value Possible Values Description
none none, mod10, mod11, mod1010, mod1011 Sets how checkdigits should be calculated.

UK Plessey

Identifier: plessey

Allowed Characters: 0-9, A-F

Supported Data Types: eci

-ro-barcode-checkdigit-mode
Default Value Possible Values Description
none none, crc8 Sets whether checkdigits should be calculated.

Channel Code

Channel Code according to ANSI/AIM BC12-1998.

Identifier: channelcode

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto 3 - 8 Sets the preferred amount of channels used to encode the data.

Codabar

Codabar barcode symbology according to BS EN 798:1996.

Also known as NW-7, Monarch, Code 27, Ames Code, USD-4 and ABC Codabar.

Identifier: codabar

Allowed Characters: 0-9, dash (-), dollar ($), colon (:), slash (/), full stop (.) and plus (+)

Content must start and end with "A", "B", "C", or "D"

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

EAN-8

EAN bar code symbology according to BS EN 797:1996

Identifier: ean-8

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto An absolute length. Changes the guard length of the barcode.

EAN-13

EAN bar code symbology according to BS EN 797:1996

Identifier: ean-13

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto An absolute length. Changes the guard length of the barcode.

UPC-A

UPC bar code symbology according to BS EN 797:1996.

Identifier: upc-a

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto An absolute length. Changes the guard length of the barcode.

UPC-E

UPC bar code symbology according to BS EN 797:1996.

Identifier: upc-e

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto An absolute length. Changes the guard length of the barcode.

Ean/UPC Addon

EAN/UPC add-on bar code symbology according to BS EN 797:1996.

Identifier: addon

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Telepen

Also known as Telepen Alpha.

Identifier: telepen

Allowed Characters: ASCII

Default Subtype: normal

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
normal Allows all ASCII content.
numeric Only allows numeric content.

GS1 Databar / Databar 14

GS1 DataBar according to ISO/IEC 24724:2011

Identifier: databar

Default Subtype: normal

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: gs1, but with an omitted Application Identifer and check digit. Thus not considered GS1 format data.

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
normal Standard linear Databar.
stacked A stacked version, which is smaller that a linear databar, but not omnidirectional.
omnidirectional A stacked omnidirectional Databar.
-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto An absolute length Changes the separator length for stacked and omnidirectional databars.

GS1 Databar Expanded / Databar 14 Expanded

GS1 DataBar Expanded according to ISO/IEC 24724:2011

Identifier: databar-expanded

Default Subtype: normal

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: gs1

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
normal Standard GS1 Databar Expanded.
stacked A stacked version of the GS1 Databar Expanded.
-ro-barcode-size
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto An integer between 1 and 10 to set the column count, a length to set the bar length or both. Sets the bar length and the number of columns/symbol segments this barcode should contain.

GS1 Databar Limited

GS1 DataBar Limited according to ISO/IEC 24724:2011

Identifier: databar-limited

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: gs1, but with an omitted Application Identifer and check digit. Thus not considered GS1 format data.

Dutch Post Kix Code

Dutch Post KIX Code as used by Royal Dutch TPG Post (Netherlands).

Identifier: kixcode

Allowed Characters: 0-9, A-Z

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Japan Post

The Japanese Postal Code symbology

Identifier: japan-post

Allowed Characters: 0-9, A-Z and the dash (-) character

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Royal Mail

Royal Mail 4-State Country Code

Identifier: royal-mail

Allowed Characters: 0-9, A-Z

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Korea Post

Identifier: korea-post

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

USPS OneCode (Intelligent Mail)

USPS OneCode (Intelligent Mail Barcode) according to USPS-B-3200F

Identifier: usps-onecode

Allowed Characters: 0-9, dash (-)

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

USPS Package

USPS Intelligent Mail Package Barcode (IMpb), a linear barcode based on GS1-128.

Identifier: usps-package

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: gs1

POSTNET (Postal Numeric Encoding Technique)

The POSTNET (Postal Numeric Encoding Technique) barcode symbology used by the United States Postal Service.

Identifier: postnet

Default Subtype: normal

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
normal A standard POSTNET code.
planet A Postal Alpha Numeric Encoding Technique (PLANET) barcode.

Pharmazentralnummer (PZN-8)

A Code 39 based symbology used by the pharmaceutical industry in Germany.

Identifier: pzn8

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Pharmacode

Identifier: pharmacode

Default Subtype: onetrack

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
onetrack A Pharmacode consisting of one track.
twotrack A Phramacode consisting of two tracks.

Codablock-F

Symbology according to AIM Europe "Uniform Symbology Specification - Codablock F", 1995.

Identifier: codablockf

Allowed Characters: 8-bit ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1)

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Logmars

The LOGMARS (Logistics Applications of Automated Marking and Reading Symbols) standard used by the US Department of Defense.

Identifier: logmars

Allowed Characters: 0-9, A-Z, dash (-), full stop (.), space, dollar ($), slash (/), plus (+) and percent (%).

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Aztec Runes

Aztec Runes bar code symbology according to ISO/IEC 24778:2008 Annex A.

Identifier: aztec-runes

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Aztec Code

Aztec Code bar code symbology According to ISO/IEC 24778:2008.

Identifier: aztec-code

Allowed Characters: 8-bit ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1)

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc, gs1

-ro-barcode-reader-initialization
Default Value Possible Values Description
disabled enabled, disabled Defines whether reader initialization instructions should be added to the barcode.
-ro-barcode-ecc-level
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto
Value Error Correction Capacity
1 > 10% + 3 codewords
2 > 23% + 3 codewords
3 > 36% + 3 codewords
4 > 50% + 3 codewords
Sets the error correction level.
-ro-barcode-size
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto 1 - 4 for "compact" Aztec code symbols,
5 - 36 for "full-range" Aztec code symbols.
Selects a Aztec code size, refer to the Aztec code version table for more detailed information.
-ro-barcode-structured-append
Default Value Possible Values Description
none An integer for the total number of barcodes, a string for the id. Defines a structured series. The first value sets the total number of barcodes belonging to it, the second value defines the ID of the series.
-ro-barcode-structured-append-position
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto Positive integers. Defines the position of this barcode within a structured series.
Aztec Code Version Table
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
1 15 x 15
2 19 x 19
3 23 x 23
4 27 x 27
5 19 x 19
6 23 x 23
7 27 x 27
8 31 x 31
9 37 x 37
10 41 x 41
11 45 x 45
12 49 x 49
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
13 53 x 53
14 57 x 57
15 61 x 61
16 67 x 67
17 71 x 71
18 75 x 75
19 79 x 79
20 83 x 83
21 87 x 87
22 91 x 91
23 95 x 95
24 101 x 101
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
25 105 x 105
26 109 x 109
27 113 x 113
28 117 x 117
29 121 x 121
30 125 x 125
31 131 x 131
32 135 x 135
33 139 x 139
34 143 x 143
35 147 x 147
36 151 x 151

Data Matrix

Data Matrix ECC 200 bar code symbology According to ISO/IEC 16022:2006

Identifier: data-matrix

Default Subtype: square

Allowed Characters: ISO/IEC 8859-1 (Latin-1)

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc, gs1

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
square A square shaped data matrix.
rectangle A rectangular data matrix
-ro-barcode-reader-initialization
Default Value Possible Values Description
disabled enabled, disabled Defines whether reader initialization instructions should be added to the barcode.
-ro-barcode-size
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto 1 - 30 Selects a Data Matrix size, refer to the Data Matrix version table for more detailed information.
-ro-barcode-structured-append
Default Value Possible Values Description
none Two integers. Defines a structured series. The first value sets the total number of barcodes belonging to it, the second value defines the ID of the series.
-ro-barcode-structured-append-position
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto Positive integers. Defines the position of this barcode within a structured series.
Data Matrix Version Table
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
1 10 x 10
2 12 x 12
3 14 x 14
4 16 x 16
5 18 x 18
6 20 x 20
7 22 x 22
8 24 x 24
9 26 x 26
10 32 x 32
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
11 36 x 36
12 40 x 40
13 44 x 44
14 48 x 48
15 52 x 52
16 64 x 64
17 72 x 72
18 80 x 80
19 88 x 88
20 96 x 96
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
21 104 x 104
22 120 x 120
23 132 x 132
24 144 x 144
25 8 x 18
26 8 x 32
27 12 x 26
28 12 x 36
29 16 x 36
30 16 x 48

Code One

Identifier: code-one

Allowed Characters: ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1)

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc, gs1

-ro-barcode-size
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto 1-10 Selects a Code One version, refer to the Code One version table for more detailed information.
Code One Version Table
-ro-barcode-size Version (Size)
1 A: 18 x 16
2 B: 22 x 22
3 C: 32 x 28
4 D: 42 x 40
5 E: 54 x 52
-ro-barcode-size Version (Size)
6 F: 76 x 70
7 G: 98 x 104
8 H: 134 x 148
9 S: ? x 9
10 T: ? x 17

The width of the Code One versions S and T is determined by the amount of encoded data. For version S it is either 13, 23 or 33, for version T it is either 19, 35 or 51.

Grid Matrix

Grid Matrix bar code symbology according to AIMD014

Identifier: grid-matrix

Allowed Characters: ISO/IEC 8859-1 (Latin-1) and GB-2312

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

-ro-barcode-reader-initialization
Default Value Possible Values Description
disabled enabled, disabled Defines whether reader initialization instructions should be added to the barcode.
-ro-barcode-ecc-level
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto
Value Error Correction Capacity
1 ~10%
2 ~20%
3 ~30%
4 ~40%
5 ~50%
Sets the error correction level.
-ro-barcode-size
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto 1 - 13 Selects a Grid Matrix size, refer to the Grid Matrix version table for more detailed information.
Grid Matrix Version Table
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
1 18 x 18
2 30 x 30
3 42 x 42
4 54 x 54
5 66 x 66
6 78 x 78
7 90 x 90
-ro-barcode-size Symbol Size
8 102 x 102
9 114 x 114
10 126 x 126
11 138 x 138
12 150 x 150
13 162 x 162

Maxicode

MaxiCode barcode symbology according to ISO 16023:2000

Identifier: maxicode

Default Subtype: mode-4

Allowed Characters: ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1)

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

The size of MaxiCodes is defined as 1 in. × 1 in. (25,4 mm × 25,4 mm). Because of this, -ro-barcode-symbol-width does not apply to them.

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
mode-2 Formatted data containing a structured Carrier Message with a numeric postal code.
mode-3 Formatted data containing a structured Carrier Message with an alphanumeric postal code.
mode-4 Unformatted data with Standard Error Correction.
mode-5 Unformatted data with Enhanced Error Correction.
mode-6 Used for programming hardware devices.
-ro-barcode-structured-append
Default Value Possible Values Description
none Positive integers. Defines a structured series. The first value sets the total number of barcodes belonging to it. Structured Maxicode series do not have an ID.
-ro-barcode-structured-append-position
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto Positive integers. Defines the position of this barcode within a structured series.
-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto A string whose characters should comform with the following requirements:
  • 1-9 - Postal code data consisting of up to 9 digits (mode 2) or up to 6 alphanumeric characters (mode 3). The remaining characters should be filled with spaces.
  • 10-12 - Three-digit country code according to ISO-3166.
  • 13-15 - Three digit service code. This depends on your parcel courier.
Sets the primary data and should only be used with Maxicode mode 2 or 3.

Micro QR

Micro QR Code according to ISO/IEC 18004:2006

Identifier: microqr

Allowed Characters: The Latin-1 set and Kanji characters which are members of the Shift-JIS encoding scheme.

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

-ro-barcode-size
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto 1 - 4, maps to M1 to M4. Selects a Micro QR code size.
-ro-barcode-ecc-level
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto L, M, Q Sets the error correction level.

Code 2 of 5

The Code 2 of 5 family of barcode standards.

Identifier: code2of5

Default Subtype: matrix

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
matrix Standard Code 2 of 5 mode, also known as Code 2 of 5 Matrix.
industrial Industrial Code 2 of 5.
iata International Air Transport Agency variation of Code 2 of 5.
data-logic Code 2 of 5 Data Logic.
interleaved Interleaved Code 2 of 5.
itf14 ITF-14, also known as UPC Shipping Container Symbol or Case Code. Requires a 13-digit numeric input.
dp-leitcode Deutsche Post Leitcode. Requires a 13-digit numerical input.
dp-identcode Deutsche Post Identcode. Requires an 11-digit numerical input.
-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
disabled enabled, disabled Defines whether a checkdigit should be added, only applicable to Code 2 of 5 interleaved.

ITF-14 (UPC Shipping Container Symbol or Case Code)

Identifier: itf14

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Deutsche Post Leitcode

Identifier: dp-leitcode

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Deutsche Post Identcode

Identifier: dp-identcode

Allowed Characters: 0-9

Supported Data Types: eci, hibc

Nummer der Versandeinheit / Serial Shipping Container Code

Identifier: nve18 or sscc18

Allowed Content: 0-9

Supported Data Types: gs1

GS1 Composite

GS1 Composite symbology according to ISO/IEC 24723:2010.

Identifier: composite

Consists of a linear and 2 dimensional part. The subtypes refer to the 2D one.

Default Subtype: cc-a

Allowed Content: ASCII

Supported Data Types: gs1

Supported Subtypes
Identifier Description
cc-a MicroPDF417 symbol variant, encodes up to 56 alphanumeric digits.
cc-b MicroPDF417 symbol variant, encodes up to 338 alphanumeric digits.
cc-c PDF417 symbol variant, encodes up to 2361 alphanumeric digits.
-ro-barcode-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto An absolute length Changes the separator length.
-ro-barcode-composite-type
Default Value Possible Values Description
code128 Behaves like -ro-barcode-type, but is restricted to the following types/subtypes:
  • code128
  • databar
  • databar stacked
  • databar omnidirectional-stacked
  • databar-expanded
  • databar-expanded stacked
  • databar-limited
  • ean-8
  • upc-a
  • upc-e
Defines the barcode type of the linear part of a GS1 Composite barcode.
-ro-barcode-composite-content
Default Value Possible Values Description
auto Depends on the selected barcode type. Sets the content to be encoded in the linear part of a GS1 composite barcode.

CSS Support

Default Style Rules

The element's default styles are described in the user agent style sheet. While most of these styles are adapted from the specificationssee https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/rendering.html and match the styles of browsers, PDFreactor adds some sets of style rules, for example those related to pagination:

Special PDFreactor Default Style Rules
Selector Declarations
@page size: A4;
margin: 2cm;
white-space: pre-line;
counter-increment: page;
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 break-after: avoid;
@footnote padding-top: 6pt;
border-top: solid black thin;
-ro-border-length: 30%;
margin-top: 6pt;
::footnote-call counter-increment: footnote 1;
content: counter(footnote);
line-height: 100%;
font-size: 65%;
vertical-align: super;
::footnote-marker content: counter(footnote) ". ";

CSS Attribute Selector

PDFreactor supports the following CSS selectors which select elements that have certain attributes:

Supported attribute selectors
Attribute selector Meaning CSS Level
Elem[attr] An Elem element with a attr attribute. CSS 2.1
Elem[attr="val"] An Elem element whose attr attribute value is exactly equal to "val". CSS 2.1
Elem[attr~="val"] An Elem element whose attr attribute value is a list of whitespace-separated values, one of which is exactly equal to "val". CSS 2.1
Elem[attr^="val"] An Elem element whose attr attribute value begins exactly with the string "val". CSS 3
Elem[attr$="val"] An Elem element whose attr attribute value ends exactly with the string "val". CSS 3
Elem[attr*="val"] An Elem element whose attr attribute value contains the substring "val". CSS 3

Supported Page Size Formats

Keywords for the supported A series formats, based on DIN 476/ISO 216, and their corresponding oversize formats
A series Size [mm] RA oversizes Size [mm] SRA oversizes Size [mm]
A0 841 x 1189 RA0 860 x 1220 SRA0 900 x 1280
A1 594 x 841 RA1 610 x 860 SRA1 640 x 900
A2 420 x 594 RA2 430 x 610 SRA2 450 x 640
A3 297 x 420 RA3 305 x 430 SRA3 320 x 450
A4 210 x 297 RA4 215 x 305 SRA4 225 x 320
A5 148 x 210 RA5 152 x 215 SRA5 160 x 225
A6 105 x 148 RA6 107 x 152 SRA6 112 x 160
A7 74 x 105 RA7 76 x 107 SRA7 80 x 112
A8 52 x 74 RA8 53 x 76 SRA8 56 x 80
A9 37 x 52
A10 26 x 37
CSS Keywords for the supported B series formats
B series Size [mm]
B1 707 x 1000
B2 500 x 707
B3 353 x 500
B4 250 x 353
B5 176 x 250
B6 125 x 176
B7 88 x 125
B8 62 x 88
B9 44 x 62
B10 31 x 44
Keywords for the supported C series formats
C series Size [mm]
C1 648 x 917
C2 458 x 648
C3 324 x 458
C4 229 x 324
C5 162 x 229
C6 114 x 162
C7 81 x 114
C8 57 x 81
C9 40 x 57
C10 28 x 40
Keywords for supported international page formats
Page format Size [in]
Letter 8.5 x 11
Legal 8.5 x 14
Ledger 11 x 17
Invoice 5.5 x 8
Executive 7.25 x 10.5
Broadsheet 17 x 22

Supported Hyphenation Languages

Hyphenation languages (a-f)
ISO 639-1 Language
af Afrikaans
as Assamese
bg Bulgarian
bn Bengali, Bangla
ca Catalan
cy Welsh
da Danish
de New German
de-1901 German traditional
de-CH German, Switzerland
el Greek, Modern
el_Polyton.hyp Greek, Polyton
en English (US)
en-GB English (GB)
eo Esperanto
es Spanish
et Estonian
eu Basque
fi Finnish
fr French
fur Friulian
Hyphenation languages (g-m)
ISO 639-1 Language
gl Galician
grc Greek, Ancient
gu Gujarati
hi Hindi
hr Croatian
hsb Upper Sorbian
ia Interlingua
id Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia)
is Icelandic
it Italian
ka Georgian
kmr Kurmanji (Northern Kurdish)
kn Kannada
la Latin
la Latin
la-CL Latin
lt Lithuanian
ml Malayalam
mn Mongolian
mr Marathi
mul Multiple languages
Hyphenation languages (n-z)
ISO 639-1 Language
nb Norwegian Bokmål
nl Dutch
nn Norwegian Nynorsk
oc Occitan
or Oriya
pa Panjabi
pl Polish
pms Piemontese
pt Portuguese
rm Romansh
ro Romanian
ru Russian
sa Sanskrit
sl Slovenian
sr-Cyrl Serbian, Cyrillic
sr-Latn Serbian, Latin
sv Swedish
ta Tamil
te Telugu
th Thai
tk Turkmen
tr Turkish
uk Ukrainian

Supported length units

Absolute length units
Unit Description
mm millimeters
cm centimeters
q quarter-millimeters
in inches
pt points
px pixels
pc pica
Proprietary length units
Unit Description
-ro-pw
-ro-pi
Equal to 1% of the width of the first page, including its margins.
-ro-ph
-ro-pb
Equal to 1% of the height of the first page, including its margins.
-ro-pmin Equal to the smaller of '-ro-pw' and '-ro-ph'.
-ro-pmax Equal to the larger of '-ro-pw' and '-ro-ph'.
-ro-bw
-ro-bi
Equal to 1% of the width of the page bleed box of the first page.
-ro-bh
-ro-bb
Equal to 1% of the height of the page bleed box of the first page.
-ro-bmin Equal to the smaller of '-ro-bw' and '-ro-bh'.
-ro-bmax Equal to the larger of '-ro-bw' and '-ro-bh'.
Relative length units
Unit Description
% percent
em Relative to the font size of the element.
rem Relative to the font size of the root element.
ex Equal to the used x-height of the first available font.
ch Equal to the width of the "0" glyph in the font of the element.
vw
vi
Equal to 1% of the width of the content area of the first page.
vh
vb
Equal to 1% of the height of the content area of the first page.
vmin Equal to the smaller of 'vw' and 'vh'.
vmax Equal to the larger of 'vw' and 'vh'.
cap Equal the capital letter height of the font.
ic Equal to the width of the glyph "水" (U+6C34) in the font of the element.
lh Equal to the line height of the element.
rlh Equal to the line height of the root element.
Viewport-relative lengths that are aliases in PDFreactor
Units Synonymous Units
vw vi lvw, lvi, svw, svi, dvw, dvi
vh vb lvh, lvb, svh, svb, dvh, dvb
vmin lvmin, svmin, dvmin
vmax lvmax, svmax, dvmax

CSS Color Keywords

Supported Color Keywords
Color name Color hex RGB Decimal
aliceblue #F0F8FF 240,248,255
antiquewhite #FAEBD7 250,235,215
aqua #00FFFF 0,255,255
aquamarine #7FFFD4 127,255,212
azure #F0FFFF 240,255,255
beige #F5F5DC 245,245,220
bisque #FFE4C4 255,228,196
black #000000 0,0,0
blanchedalmond #FFEBCD 255,235,205
blue #0000FF 0,0,255
blueviolet #8A2BE2 138,43,226
brown #A52A2A 165,42,42
burlywood #DEB887 222,184,135
cadetblue #5F9EA0 95,158,160
chartreuse #7FFF00 127,255,0
chocolate #D2691E 210,105,30
coral #FF7F50 255,127,80
cornflowerblue #6495ED 100,149,237
cornsilk #FFF8DC 255,248,220
crimson #DC143C 220,20,60
cyan #00FFFF 0,255,255
darkblue #00008B 0,0,139
darkcyan #008B8B 0,139,139
darkgoldenrod #B8860B 184,134,11
darkgray/darkgrey #A9A9A9 169,169,169
darkgreen #006400 0,100,0
darkkhaki #BDB76B 189,183,107
darkmagenta #8B008B 139,0,139
darkolivegreen #556B2F 85,107,47
darkorange #FF8C00 255,140,0
darkorchid #9932CC 153,50,204
darkred #8B0000 139,0,0
darksalmon #E9967A 233,150,122
darkseagreen #8FBC8F 143,188,143
darkslateblue #483D8B 72,61,139
darkslategray/darkslategrey #2F4F4F 47,79,79
darkturquoise #00CED1 0,206,209
darkviolet #9400D3 148,0,211
deeppink #FF1493 255,20,147
deepskyblue #00BFFF 0,191,255
dimgray/dimgrey #696969 105,105,105
dodgerblue #1E90FF 30,144,255
firebrick #B22222 178,34,34
floralwhite #FFFAF0 255,250,240
forestgreen #228B22 34,139,34
fuchsia #FF00FF 255,0,255
gainsboro #DCDCDC 220,220,220
ghostwhite #F8F8FF 248,248,255
gold #FFD700 255,215,0
goldenrod #DAA520 218,165,32
gray/grey #808080 128,128,128
green #008000 0,128,0
greenyellow #ADFF2F 173,255,47
honeydew #F0FFF0 240,255,240
hotpink #FF69B4 255,105,180
indianred #CD5C5C 205,92,92
indigo #4B0082 75,0,130
ivory #FFFFF0 255,255,240
khaki #F0E68C 240,230,140
lavender #E6E6FA 230,230,250
lavenderblush #FFF0F5 255,240,245
lawngreen #7CFC00 124,252,0
lemonchiffon #FFFACD 255,250,205
lightblue #ADD8E6 173,216,230
lightcoral #F08080 240,128,128
lightcyan #E0FFFF 224,255,255
lightgoldenrodyellow #FAFAD2 250,250,210
lightgray/lightgrey #D3D3D3 211,211,211
lightgreen #90EE90 144,238,144
lightpink #FFB6C1 255,182,193
lightsalmon #FFA07A 255,160,122
lightseagreen #20B2AA 32,178,170
lightskyblue #87CEFA 135,206,250
lightslategray/lightslategrey #778899 119,136,153
lightsteelblue #B0C4DE 176,196,222
lightyellow #FFFFE0 255,255,224
lime #00FF00 0,255,0
limegreen #32CD32 50,205,50
linen #FAF0E6 250,240,230
magenta #FF00FF 255,0,255
maroon #800000 128,0,0
mediumaquamarine #66CDAA 102,205,170
mediumblue #0000CD 0,0,205
mediumorchid #BA55D3 186,85,211
mediumpurple #9370DB 147,112,219
mediumseagreen #3CB371 60,179,113
mediumslateblue #7B68EE 123,104,238
mediumspringgreen #00FA9A 0,250,154
mediumturquoise #48D1CC 72,209,204
mediumvioletred #C71585 199,21,133
midnightblue #191970 25,25,112
mintcream #F5FFFA 245,255,250
mistyrose #FFE4E1 255,228,225
moccasin #FFE4B5 255,228,181
navajowhite #FFDEAD 255,222,173
navy #000080 0,0,128
oldlace #FDF5E6 253,245,230
olive #808000 128,128,0
olivedrab #6B8E23 107,142,35
orange #FFA500 255,165,0
orangered #FF4500 255,69,0
orchid #DA70D6 218,112,214
palegoldenrod #EEE8AA 238,232,170
palegreen #98FB98 152,251,152
paleturquoise #AFEEEE 175,238,238
palevioletred #DB7093 219,112,147
papayawhip #FFEFD5 255,239,213
peachpuff #FFDAB9 255,218,185
peru #CD853F 205,133,63
pink #FFC0CB 255,192,203
plum #DDA0DD 221,160,221
powderblue #B0E0E6 176,224,230
purple #800080 128,0,128
rebeccapurple #663399 102,51,153
red #FF0000 255,0,0
rosybrown #BC8F8F 188,143,143
royalblue #4169E1 65,105,225
saddlebrown #8B4513 139,69,19
salmon #FA8072 250,128,114
sandybrown #F4A460 244,164,96
seagreen #2E8B57 46,139,87
seashell #FFF5EE 255,245,238
sienna #A0522D 160,82,45
silver #C0C0C0 192,192,192
skyblue #87CEEB 135,206,235
slateblue #6A5ACD 106,90,205
slategray/slategrey #708090 112,128,144
snow #FFFAFA 255,250,250
springgreen #00FF7F 0,255,127
steelblue #4682B4 70,130,180
tan #D2B48C 210,180,140
teal #008080 0,128,128
thistle #D8BFD8 216,191,216
tomato #FF6347 255,99,71
turquoise #40E0D0 64,224,208
violet #EE82EE 238,130,238
wheat #F5DEB3 245,222,179
white #FFFFFF 255,255,255
whitesmoke #F5F5F5 245,245,245
yellow #FFFF00 255,255,0
yellowgreen #9ACD32 154,205,50
-ro-comment-highlight #FFFF0B 255,255,11
-ro-comment-underline #23FF06 35,255,6
-ro-comment-strikeout #FB0007 251,0,7

Counter and Ordered List Style Types

Supported counter and ordered list style types
Counter style name 1 12 123 1234
decimal
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
decimal-leading-zero
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
super-decimal
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
upper-hexadecimal
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
lower-hexadecimal
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
octal
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
binary
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
upper-roman
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
lower-roman
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
upper-alpha
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
lower-alpha
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
arabic-indic
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
armenian
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
upper-armenian
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
lower-armenian
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
bengali
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
cambodian
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
devanagari
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
georgian
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
upper-greek
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
lower-greek
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
gujarati
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
gurmukhi
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
hebrew
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
hiragana
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
hiragana-iroha
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
japanese-formal
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
japanese-informal
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
kannada
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
katakana
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
katakana-iroha
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
khmer
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
lao
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
upper-latin
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
lower-latin
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
malayalam
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
mongolian
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
myanmar
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
oriya
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
persian
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
simp-chinese-formal
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
simp-chinese-informal
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
telugu
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
thai
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
tibetan
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
urdu
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
-ro-footnote
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
-ro-spelled-out-en
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
-ro-spelled-out-en-ordinal
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
-ro-spelled-out-de
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
-ro-spelled-out-fr
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  
  1.  

Supported Values for Transliteration

The following lists all valid input/output value pairs for the transliterate option of , according to the underlying ICU4J implementation.

AccentsAny amam_FONIPA amam_Latn/BGN amar amchr amfa am_Braiam_Ethi am_Ethiam_Brai am_Ethiam_Ethi/Geminate am_Ethid0_Morse am_FONIPAam AmharicAmharic/Geminate AmharicLatin/BGN AnyAccents Anyam Anyam_Brai Anyam_Ethi Anyam_Ethi/Geminate Anyam_FONIPA Anyam_Latn/BGN AnyAny AnyAny/C AnyAny/Java AnyAny/Perl AnyAny/Unicode AnyAny/XML AnyAny/XML10 Anyar Anyar_Latn/BGN AnyArab AnyArabic AnyArmenian AnyArmn Anyaz/BGN Anybe_Latn/BGN AnyBeng AnyBengali Anybg_Latn/BGN Anyblt_FONIPA AnyBopo AnyBopomofo AnyBraille/Amharic Anybyn_Ethi/Tekie_Alibekit Anybyn_Ethi/Xaleget Anybyn_Latn/Tekie_Alibekit Anybyn_Latn/Xaleget AnyCanadianAboriginal AnyCans AnyCaseFold Anych_FONIPA Anychr Anychr_FONIPA Anycs_FONIPA Anycy_FONIPA AnyCyrillic AnyCyrillic/Gutgarts AnyCyrl AnyCyrl/Gutgarts AnyDeva AnyDevanagari Anydsb_FONIPA Anydv_Latn/BGN Anyel_Latn/BGN Anyeo_FONIPA Anyes_419_FONIPA Anyes_FONIPA AnyEthi AnyEthi/Aethiopi AnyEthi/ALALOC AnyEthi/Beta_Metsehaf AnyEthi/Gurage_2013 AnyEthi/Gutgarts AnyEthi/IES_JES_1964 AnyEthi/Lambdin AnyEthi/SERA AnyEthi/Williamson AnyEthiopic AnyEthiopic/Aethiopica AnyEthiopic/ALALOC AnyEthiopic/Amharic AnyEthiopic/Beta_Metsehaf AnyEthiopic/Gurage AnyEthiopic/Gutgarts AnyEthiopic/IES_JES_1964 AnyEthiopic/Lambdin AnyEthiopic/SERA AnyEthiopic/Tekie_Alibekit AnyEthiopic/Williamson AnyEthiopic/Xalaget Anyfa Anyfa_FONIPA Anyfa_Latn/BGN AnyFCC AnyFCD AnyGeor AnyGeorgian AnyGreek AnyGreek/UNGEGN AnyGrek AnyGrek/UNGEGN AnyGujarati AnyGujr AnyGurmukhi AnyGuru Anygz_Ethi Anyha_NE AnyHang AnyHangul AnyHans AnyHant Anyhe_Latn/BGN AnyHebr AnyHebrew AnyHex AnyHex/C AnyHex/Java AnyHex/Perl AnyHex/Plain AnyHex/Unicode AnyHex/XML AnyHex/XML10 AnyHira AnyHiragana Anyhy_AREVMDA_FONIPA Anyhy_FONIPA Anyhy_Latn/BGN Anyia_FONIPA Anyja Anyja_Latn/BGN AnyJamo Anyka_Latn/BGN Anyka_Latn/BGN_1981 AnyKana AnyKannada AnyKatakana Anykk_FONIPA Anykk_Latn/BGN AnyKnda Anyko Anyko_Latn/BGN Anyky_FONIPA Anyky_Latn/BGN Anyla_FONIPA AnyLatin AnyLatin/Aethiopica AnyLatin/Aethiopica_Geminate AnyLatin/ALALOC AnyLatin/ALALOC_Geminate AnyLatin/Beta_Metsehaf AnyLatin/BetaMetsehaf_Geminate AnyLatin/BGN AnyLatin/ES3842 AnyLatin/IES_JES_1964 AnyLatin/IES_JES_1964_Geminate AnyLatin/Lambdin AnyLatin/Names AnyLatin/SERA AnyLatin/Tekie_Alibekit AnyLatin/UNGEGN AnyLatin/Williamson AnyLatin/Xaleget AnyLatn AnyLatn/Aethiopi AnyLatn/Aethiopi_Geminate AnyLatn/ALALOC AnyLatn/ALALOC_Geminate AnyLatn/Beta_Metsehaf AnyLatn/Beta_Metsehaf_Geminate AnyLatn/ES3842 AnyLatn/IES_JES_1964 AnyLatn/IES_JES_1964_Geminate AnyLatn/Lambdin AnyLatn/SERA AnyLatn/UNGEGN AnyLatn/Williamson AnyLower AnyMalayalam Anymk_Latn/BGN AnyMlym Anymn_Latn/BGN Anymn_Latn/MNS Anymy Anymy_FONIPA Anymy_Latn AnyName AnyNFC AnyNFD AnyNFKC AnyNFKD AnyNull Anynv_FONIPA AnyOriya AnyOrya Anypl_FONIPA Anyps_Latn/BGN AnyPublishing AnyRemove Anyrm_FONIPA_SURSILV Anyro_FONIPA Anyru Anyru/BGN Anyru_Latn/BGN AnySarb Anysat_FONIPA Anysgw_Ethi/Gurage_2013 Anysi_FONIPA Anysi_Latn Anysk_FONIPA Anysr_Latn/BGN AnySyrc AnySyriac Anyta_FONIPA AnyTamil AnyTaml AnyTelu AnyTelugu AnyThaa AnyThaana AnyThai AnyTitle Anytk/BGN Anyug_FONIPA Anyuk_Latn/BGN Anyund_FONIPA Anyund_FONXSAMP AnyUpper Anyur Anyuz/BGN Anyuz_Cyrl Anyuz_Latn Anyvec_FONIPA Anyxh_FONIPA Anyyo_BJ Anyzh Anyzu_FONIPA arar_Latn/BGN ArabLatn ArabicLatin ArabicLatin/BGN ArmenianLatin ArmenianLatin/BGN ArmnLatn ASCIILatin azLower azTitle azUpper az_Cyrlaz/BGN AzerbaijaniLatin/BGN bebe_Latn/BGN BelarusianLatin/BGN BengArab BengDeva BengGujr BengGuru BengKnda BengLatn BengMlym BengOrya BengTaml BengTelu Bengur BengaliArabic BengaliDevanagari BengaliGujarati BengaliGurmukhi BengaliKannada BengaliLatin BengaliMalayalam BengaliOriya BengaliTamil BengaliTelugu bgbg_Latn/BGN bltblt_FONIPA BopoLatn BopomofoLatin BrailleEthiopic/Amharic BulgarianLatin/BGN BurmeseLatin byn_Ethibyn_Latn/Tekie_Alibekit byn_Ethibyn_Latn/Xaleget byn_Latnbyn_Ethi/Tekie_Alibekit byn_Latnbyn_Ethi/Xaleget CanadianAboriginalLatin CansLatn cham char chch_FONIPA chchr chfa chrchr_FONIPA csam csar cschr cscs_FONIPA csfa csja csko cs_FONIPAja cs_FONIPAko cycy_FONIPA CyrillicEthiopic/Gutgarts CyrillicLatin CyrlEthi/Gutgarts CyrlLatn d0_Morseam_Ethi deASCII DevaArab DevaBeng DevaGujr DevaGuru DevaKnda DevaLatn DevaMlym DevaOrya DevaTaml DevaTelu Devaur DevanagariArabic DevanagariBengali DevanagariGujarati DevanagariGurmukhi DevanagariKannada DevanagariLatin DevanagariMalayalam DevanagariOriya DevanagariTamil DevanagariTelugu DigitTone dsbdsb_FONIPA dvdv_Latn/BGN elel_Latn/BGN elLower elTitle elUpper eoam eoar eochr eoeo_FONIPA eofa esam esar eschr eses_FONIPA esfa esja eszh es_419am es_419ar es_419chr es_419fa es_419ja es_419zh es_FONIPAam es_FONIPAes_419_FONIPA es_FONIPAja es_FONIPAzh EthiCyrl/Gutgarts EthiLatn EthiLatn/Aethiopi EthiLatn/Aethiopi_Geminate EthiLatn/ALALOC EthiLatn/ALALOC_Geminate EthiLatn/Beta_Metsehaf EthiLatn/Beta_Metsehaf_Geminate EthiLatn/ES3842 EthiLatn/IES_JES_1964 EthiLatn/IES_JES_1964_Geminate EthiLatn/Lambdin EthiLatn/SERA EthiLatn/Williamson Ethisgw_Ethi/Gurage_2013 EthiopicBraille/Amharic EthiopicCyrillic/Gutgarts EthiopicEthiopic/Gurage EthiopicLatin EthiopicLatin/Aethiopica EthiopicLatin/Aethiopica_Geminate EthiopicLatin/ALALOC EthiopicLatin/ALALOC_Geminate EthiopicLatin/Beta_Metsehaf EthiopicLatin/BetaMetsehaf_Geminate EthiopicLatin/ES3842 EthiopicLatin/IES_JES_1964 EthiopicLatin/IES_JES_1964_Geminate EthiopicLatin/Lambdin EthiopicLatin/SERA EthiopicLatin/Tekie_Alibekit EthiopicLatin/Williamson EthiopicLatin/Xaleget fafa_FONIPA fafa_Latn/BGN FullwidthHalfwidth GeezEthiopic GeezMusnad GeorLatn GeorgianLatin GeorgianLatin/BGN GreekLatin GreekLatin/BGN GreekLatin/UNGEGN GrekLatn GrekLatn/UNGEGN GujaratiArabic GujaratiBengali GujaratiDevanagari GujaratiGurmukhi GujaratiKannada GujaratiLatin GujaratiMalayalam GujaratiOriya GujaratiTamil GujaratiTelugu GujrArab GujrBeng GujrDeva GujrGuru GujrKnda GujrLatn GujrMlym GujrOrya GujrTaml GujrTelu Gujrur GurageEthiopic GurmukhiArabic GurmukhiBengali GurmukhiDevanagari GurmukhiGujarati GurmukhiKannada GurmukhiLatin GurmukhiMalayalam GurmukhiOriya GurmukhiTamil GurmukhiTelugu GuruArab GuruBeng GuruDeva GuruGujr GuruKnda GuruLatn GuruMlym GuruOrya GuruTaml GuruTelu Guruur gz_EthiSarb haha_NE HalfwidthFullwidth HanLatin HanLatin/Names HangLatn HangulLatin HaniLatn HansHant HantHans hehe_Latn/BGN HebrLatn HebrewLatin HebrewLatin/BGN HexAny HexAny/C HexAny/Java HexAny/Perl HexAny/Unicode HexAny/XML HexAny/XML10 HiraKana HiraLatn HiraganaKatakana HiraganaLatin hyam hyar hychr hyfa hyhy_FONIPA hyhy_Latn/BGN hy_AREVMDAam hy_AREVMDAar hy_AREVMDAchr hy_AREVMDAfa hy_AREVMDAhy_AREVMDA_FONIPA iaam iaar iachr iafa iaia_FONIPA IPAXSampa itam itja ja_Hrktja_Latn/BGN ja_Latnko ja_Latnru JamoLatin JamoLatn kaka_Latn/BGN kaka_Latn/BGN_1981 KanaHira KanaLatn KannadaArabic KannadaBengali KannadaDevanagari KannadaGujarati KannadaGurmukhi KannadaLatin KannadaMalayalam KannadaOriya KannadaTamil KannadaTelugu KatakanaHiragana KatakanaLatin KatakanaLatin/BGN KazakhLatin/BGN KirghizLatin/BGN kkam kkar kkchr kkfa kkkk_FONIPA kkkk_Latn/BGN KndaArab KndaBeng KndaDeva KndaGujr KndaGuru KndaLatn KndaMlym KndaOrya KndaTaml KndaTelu Kndaur koko_Latn/BGN KoreanLatin/BGN kyam kyar kychr kyfa kyky_FONIPA kyky_Latn/BGN lala_FONIPA LatinArabic LatinArmenian LatinASCII LatinBengali LatinBopomofo LatinCanadianAboriginal LatinCyrillic LatinDevanagari LatinEthiopic LatinEthiopic/Aethiopica LatinEthiopic/ALALOC LatinEthiopic/Beta_Metsehaf LatinEthiopic/IES_JES_1964 LatinEthiopic/Lambdin LatinEthiopic/SERA LatinEthiopic/Tekie_Alibekit LatinEthiopic/Williamson LatinEthiopic/Xalaget LatinGeorgian LatinGreek LatinGreek/UNGEGN LatinGujarati LatinGurmukhi LatinHangul LatinHebrew LatinHiragana LatinJamo LatinKannada LatinKatakana LatinMalayalam LatinNumericPinyin LatinOriya LatinRussian/BGN LatinSyriac LatinTamil LatinTelugu LatinThaana LatinThai LatnArab LatnArmn LatnBeng LatnBopo LatnCans LatnCyrl LatnDeva LatnEthi LatnEthi/Aethiopi LatnEthi/ALALOC LatnEthi/Beta_Metsehaf LatnEthi/IES_JES_1964 LatnEthi/Lambdin LatnEthi/SERA LatnEthi/Williamson LatnGeor LatnGrek LatnGrek/UNGEGN LatnGujr LatnGuru LatnHang LatnHebr LatnHira LatnJamo LatnKana LatnKnda LatnMlym LatnOrya LatnSyrc LatnTaml LatnTelu LatnThaa LatnThai ltLower ltTitle ltUpper MacedonianLatin/BGN MalayalamArabic MalayalamBengali MalayalamDevanagari MalayalamGujarati MalayalamGurmukhi MalayalamKannada MalayalamLatin MalayalamOriya MalayalamTamil MalayalamTelugu MaldivianLatin/BGN mkmk_Latn/BGN MlymArab MlymBeng MlymDeva MlymGujr MlymGuru MlymKnda MlymLatn MlymOrya MlymTaml MlymTelu Mlymur mnmn_Latn/BGN mnmn_Latn/MNS MongolianLatin/BGN myam myar mychr myfa mymy_FONIPA mymy_Latn myZawgyi MyanmarLatin NameAny nlTitle NumericPinyinLatin NumericPinyinPinyin nvnv_FONIPA OriyaArabic OriyaBengali OriyaDevanagari OriyaGujarati OriyaGurmukhi OriyaKannada OriyaLatin OriyaMalayalam OriyaTamil OriyaTelugu OryaArab OryaBeng OryaDeva OryaGujr OryaGuru OryaKnda OryaLatn OryaMlym OryaTaml OryaTelu Oryaur PashtoLatin/BGN PersianLatin/BGN PinyinNumericPinyin plam plar plchr plfa plja plpl_FONIPA pl_FONIPAja psps_Latn/BGN PublishingAny rm_SURSILVam rm_SURSILVar rm_SURSILVchr rm_SURSILVfa rm_SURSILVrm_FONIPA_SURSILV roam roar rochr rofa roja roro_FONIPA ro_FONIPAja ruja ruru_Latn/BGN ruzh ru_Latnru/BGN RussianLatin/BGN Sarbgz_Ethi satam satar satchr satfa sat_Olcksat_FONIPA SerbianLatin/BGN sgw_EthiEthi/Gurage_2013 siam siar sichr sifa sisi_FONIPA sisi_Latn SimplifiedTraditional skam skar skchr skfa skja sksk_FONIPA sk_FONIPAja srsr_Latn/BGN SyrcLatn SyriacLatin tata_FONIPA TamilArabic TamilBengali TamilDevanagari TamilGujarati TamilGurmukhi TamilKannada TamilLatin TamilMalayalam TamilOriya TamilTelugu TamlArab TamlBeng TamlDeva TamlGujr TamlGuru TamlKnda TamlLatn TamlMlym TamlOrya TamlTelu Tamlur TeluArab TeluBeng TeluDeva TeluGujr TeluGuru TeluKnda TeluLatn TeluMlym TeluOrya TeluTaml Teluur TeluguArabic TeluguBengali TeluguDevanagari TeluguGujarati TeluguGurmukhi TeluguKannada TeluguLatin TeluguMalayalam TeluguOriya TeluguTamil ThaaLatn ThaanaLatin ThaiLatin ThaiLatn tk_Cyrltk/BGN tlham tlhar tlhchr tlhfa tlhtlh_FONIPA ToneDigit trLower trTitle trUpper TraditionalSimplified TurkmenLatin/BGN ugug_FONIPA ukuk_Latn/BGN UkrainianLatin/BGN und_FONIPAar und_FONIPAchr und_FONIPAfa und_FONIPAund_FONXSAMP und_FONXSAMPund_FONIPA uz_Cyrluz/BGN uz_Cyrluz_Latn uz_Latnuz_Cyrl UzbekLatin/BGN vecvec_FONIPA xham xhar xhchr xhfa xhxh_FONIPA XSampaIPA yoyo_BJ Zawgyimy zh_Latn_PINYINru zuam zuar zuchr zufa zuzu_FONIPA

CSS Documentation

PDFreactor supports the following CSS properties and functions.

Properties

additive-symbols
The additive-symbols descriptor lets you specify symbols when the value of a counter system descriptor is additive.
Value: [ <integer> && [<string> | <identifier>] ]#
Initial: 0 ""
Applies To: @counter-style
Inherited: No
MDN documentation:

additive-symbols

align-content
Sets how the space of a box is distributed among its content items along the cross-axis of a flex container or in block-direction for block containers. Note that some values only work for flex containers or block containers.
Value: normal | [first | last]? baseline | stretch | space-between | space-around | space-evenly | [safe | unsafe]? [start | center | end | flex-start | flex-end]
Initial: normal
Applies To: block containers, flex containers and grid containers
Inherited: No
MDN documentation:

align-content

align-items
This property specifies the default align-self for all of the child boxes participating in this box’s formatting context.
Value: normal | stretch | [first | last]? baseline | [safe | unsafe]? [center | start | end | self-start | self-end | flex-start | flex-end]
Initial: normal
Inherited: No
MDN documentation:

align-items

See also:

align-self

align-self
Aligns the box within its containing block along the block/column/cross axis of the alignment container. This property can override the behavior that was set for them via their parent's 'align-items' property.
Value: auto | normal | stretch | [first | last]? baseline | [safe | unsafe]? [center | start | end | self-start | self-end | flex-start | flex-end]
Initial: auto
Applies To: flex items, grid items and absolutely-positioned boxes
Inherited: No
MDN documentation:

align-self

See also:

align-items

all
The all property is a shorthand that resets all CSS properties except 'direction' and 'unicode-bidi'. It does not reset custom properties or prefixed properties.
Value: initial | inherit | unset
Initial:
Inherited: No
MDN documentation:

all

-ro-alt-text
The property -ro-alt-text is used to specify the alternative description for elements for PDF tagging. Other properties that support the values aria-name and aria-description may use the specified string as well.
Value: auto | none | <string>
Initial: auto
Inherited: No
  • auto
  • The alternate text is not specified and will be determined by other means, if necessary.

  • none
  • Deprecated synonym of auto.

  • <string>
  • Specific alternate text for the element. Often specified via the attr function, e.g. attr(src)

See also:

-ro-pdf-tag-alt

More information:

-ro-anchor
This property allows to define an anchor via style. Note: an element defined as an anchor automatically also is assigned a PDF ID ("named destination") equal to the given identifier.
Value: none | <string>+
Initial: none
Inherited: No
  • none
  • The element is not an anchor.

  • <string>
  • The element is an anchor with the given name.

More information:

-ro-art-size
Specifies the size of the ArtBox, one of the PDF page boxes.
Value: none | <length>{1,2} | [ <page-size> || [ portrait | landscape] ] | media | trim | crop
Initial: none
Applies To: @page
Inherited: No
  • none
  • The element does not specify an ArtBox.

  • media
  • The ArtBox is specified with the same dimensions as the MediaBox.

  • trim
  • The ArtBox is specified with the same dimensions as the TrimBox.

  • crop
  • The ArtBox is specified with the same dimensions as the CropBox.

More information:

-ro-author
Sets the author in the metadata of the PDF document. Multiple values are concatenated to one string. (When applied to multiple elements the values are concatenated, separated by a comma.)
Value: none | [ <string> | content() ]+
Initial: none
Applies To: all elements
Inherited: No
  • none
  • Does not set a author.

  • <string>
  • Sets the specified string as author.

  • content()
  • Sets the author from the content of the element.

More information:

background
This property is a shorthand property for setting most background properties at the same place in the style sheet. Note that only the final background layer may have a background-color.
Value: [ <bg-layer>, ]* <final-bg-layer>
Initial: see individual properties
Inherited: No
MDN documentation:

background

background-attachment
If background images are specified, this property specifies whether they are fixed with regard to the viewport ('fixed') or scroll along with the element ('scroll'). <attachment> = scroll | fixed
Value: <attachment>#
Initial: scroll
Inherited: No
  • scroll
  • The background is fixed with regard to the element itself and does not scroll with its contents. (It is effectively attached to the element's border.)

  • fixed
  • The background is fixed with regard to the viewport. For pages this means that the background is repeated on every page.

MDN documentation:

background-attachment

background-clip
Determines the background painting area, which determines the area within which the background is painted.
Value: [ border-box | padding-box | content-box ]#
Initial: border-box
Inherited: No
MDN documentation:

background-clip

background-color
This property sets the background color of an element. The color is drawn behind any background images.
Value: <color>
Initial: transparent
Inherited: No
MDN documentation:

background-color

More information:

background-image
This property sets the background image of an element. When setting a background image, authors should also specify a background color that will be used when the image is unavailable. When the image is available, it is rendered on top of the background color. (Thus, the color is visible in the transparent parts of the image).
Value: <bg-image>#
Initial: none
Inherited: No
MDN documentation:

background-image

background-origin
For elements rendered as a single box, specifies the background positioning area. For elements rendered as multiple boxes (e.g. boxes on several pages), specifies which boxes 'box-decoration-break' operates on to determine the background positioning area(s).
Value: <box>#
Initial: padding-box
Inherited: No
  • <box>
  • border-box | padding-box | content-box | -ro-page-box | -ro-bleed-box

  • -ro-page-box
  • Only valid for background-images of pages. The background is positioned relative to the page box (including the page margins)

  • -ro-bleed-box
  • Only valid for background-images of pages. The background is positioned relative to the bleed box.

MDN documentation:

background-origin

background-position
If a background image has been specified, this property specifies its initial position.
Value: <position>#
Initial: 0% 0%
Inherited: No
MDN documentation: