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Open Source Python API for Adding Annotations to PDFs

Free Python Library that enables Software Developers to Add Annotations like Text, Images, Shapes & Links to PDFs. It supports Metadata, Scaling, Rotation and o on.

PDF documents have been a staple in the world of digital documentation for years. From contracts and reports to presentations and forms, PDFs offer a convenient way to share information while maintaining a consistent format across devices and platforms. However, sometimes you need to go beyond mere viewing and actually interact with the content. This is where the Python library PDF-Annotate comes into play. This library abstracts the complexities of the PDF format, allowing software developers to focus on their application's functionality rather than grappling with the intricacies of the PDF specification.

PDF-Annotate is a powerful Python library designed to manipulate PDF documents programmatically by adding annotations, highlights, comments, and other interactive elements. Whether you're looking to automate document processing, collaborate on reviewing documents, or enhance the user experience of your PDF-based application, it provides the tools to achieve these goals. The library supports several advanced features for handling complex scenarios, such as multi-page annotations, custom JavaScript actions, and importing/exporting annotations in standardized formats and many more. The library automatically generate PDF reports with dynamic annotations based on data analysis.

The PDF-Annotate library is an open-source project designed to simplify the process of interacting with PDFs programmatically. It provides a comprehensive set of tools to perform tasks such as adding text, highlighting, underlining, and drawing shapes on PDF documents. The Python library serves as a bridge between the intricacies of the PDF format and the ease of modern programming. Its robust feature set, coupled with its user-friendly interface, makes it a valuable tool for software professionals looking to enhance their applications with PDF annotation capabilities. Explore its capabilities and see how it can transform your PDF-based projects into more engaging and user-friendly experiences.

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Getting Started with PDF-Annotate

The recommend way to install PDF-Annotate is via PyPi. To run PDF-Annotate first you need to install python python3.6 and above and after that use the following command for a smooth installation of the library.

Install PDF-Annotate via PyPi

 pip install pdf-annotate

You can also download the compiled shared library from the GitHub repository and install it.

Add Annotation to PDF via Python

The open source PDF-Annotate library makes it easy for software developers to add and manage annotations to PDF inside Python applications. The library supports a variety of annotation types, including text annotations, highlights, underlines, circles, squares, and more. This versatility enables developers to create comprehensive annotations tailored to their specific needs. The following example demonstrates how software developers can add a text annotation to a PDF with just a couple of lines of Python code.

How to Add a Text Annotation to PDFs via Python ?

from pdf_annotate import PdfAnnotator, Location

def add_text_annotation(pdf_path, output_path):
    # Initialize the PdfAnnotator
    pdf = PdfAnnotator(pdf_path)
    
    # Define the annotation properties
    text = "This is an example annotation."
    location = Location(x=100, y=100, width=200, height=50)
    
    # Add the annotation to the PDF
    pdf.add_annotation("text", location=location, content=text)
    
    # Save the annotated PDF
    pdf.save(output_path)

# Usage
input_pdf = "input.pdf"
output_pdf = "output.pdf"
add_text_annotation(input_pdf, output_pdf)

Annotation Customization via Python API

The open source PDF-Annotate library has provided complete support for customizing the Annotation inside PDF documents using Python commands. Annotations aren't one-size-fits-all, and the library understands this. Software developers can customize the appearance of annotations by specifying properties such as color, opacity, and size. Beyond annotations, the library allows to add interactive elements like clickable links, buttons, and form fields, turning the PDFs into dynamic documents that users can engage with.

PDF Text Extraction via Python

Need to extract text from annotated PDFs? The open source PDF-Annotate library enables software developers to do just that, making it convenient to gather annotated data for further analysis. Annotations aren't one-size-fits-all, and the library understands this. Please note that text extraction from PDFs can be complex due to the layout, fonts, and encoding used in the document. The extracted text may not always be perfectly formatted and might require further processing to clean it up. The following example shows a simple example for extracting text from PDF file using Python code.

How to Perform Text Extraction from a PDF via Python API?

import fitz  # PyMuPDF

def extract_text_from_pdf(pdf_path):
    text = ""
    doc = fitz.open(pdf_path)
    
    for page_num in range(doc.page_count):
        page = doc.load_page(page_num)
        text += page.get_text("text")
    
    doc.close()
    return text

# Usage
pdf_path = "your_pdf_file.pdf"
extracted_text = extract_text_from_pdf(pdf_path)
print(extracted_text)

JavaScript Integration Support

The PDF-Annotate library enables the integration of JavaScript actions with annotations. This opens up possibilities for dynamic interactions within PDF documents, such as triggering events when an annotation is clicked. If you're looking to incorporate JavaScript interactions within your PDF documents, you would need to use a PDF viewer that supports JavaScript execution. Adobe Acrobat and certain web-based PDF viewers are examples of platforms that can handle JavaScript within PDFs. These viewers can execute JavaScript code when specific events, such as clicking on an annotation, occur.

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