Annot

This class is supported for PDF documents only.

Quote from the Adobe PDF References: “An annotation associates an object such as a note, sound, or movie with a location on a page of a PDF document, or provides a way to interact with the user by means of the mouse and keyboard.”

There is a parent-child relationship between an annotation and its page. If the page object becomes unusable (closed document, any document structure change, etc.), then so does every of its existing annotation objects – an exception is raised saying that the object is “orphaned”, whenever an annotation property or method is accessed.

Note

Unfortunately, there exists no single, unique naming convention in PyMuPDF: examples for all of CamelCases, mixedCases and lower_case_with underscores can be found all over the place. We are now in the process of cleaning this up, step by step.

This class, Annot, is the first candidate for this execise. In this chapter, you will for example find Annot.get_pixmap() – and no longer the old name getPixmap. The method with the old name however continues to exists and you can continue using it: your existing code will not break. But we do hope you will start using the new names – for new code at least.

Class API

class Annot

• get_pixmap(matrix=fitz.Identity, dpi=None, colorspace=fitz.csRGB, alpha=False)

  • Changed in v1.19.2: added support of dpi parameter.

  Creates a pixmap from the annotation as it appears on the page in untransformed coordinates. The pixmap’s IRect equals Annot.rect.irect (see below). All parameters are keyword only.

  • Parameters

    • matrix (matrix_like) – a matrix to be used for image creation. Default is Identity.

    • dpi (int) – (new n v1.19.2) desired resolution in dots per inch. If not None, the matrix parameter is ignored.

    • colorspace (Colorspace) – a colorspace to be used for image creation. Default is fitz.csRGB.

    • alpha (bool) – whether to include transparency information. Default is False.

    Return type

    Pixmap

  Note

  If the annotation has just been created or modified, you should reload the page first via page = doc.reload_page(page).

• get_text(opt, clip=None, flags=None)

  • New in 1.18.0

  Retrieves the content of the annotation in a variety of formats – much like the same method for Page.. This currently only delivers relevant data for annotation types ‘FreeText’ and ‘Stamp’. Other types return an empty string (or equivalent objects).

  • Parameters

    • opt (str) –

      (positional only) the desired format - one of the following values. Please note that this method works exactly like the same-named method of Page.

      • ”text” – TextPage.extractTEXT(), default

      • ”blocks” – TextPage.extractBLOCKS()

      • ”words” – TextPage.extractWORDS()

      • ”html” – TextPage.extractHTML()

      • ”xhtml” – TextPage.extractXHTML()

      • ”xml” – TextPage.extractXML()

      • ”dict” – TextPage.extractDICT()

      • ”json” – TextPage.extractJSON()

      • ”rawdict” – TextPage.extractRAWDICT()

    • clip (rect-like) – (keyword only) restrict the extraction to this area. Should hardly ever be required, defaults to Annot.rect.

    • flags (int) – (keyword only) control the amount of data returned. Defaults to simple text extraction.

• get_textbox(rect)

  • New in 1.18.0

  Return the annotation text. Mostly (except line breaks) equal to Annot.get_text() with the “text” option.

  • Parameters

    rect (rect-like) – the area to consider, defaults to Annot.rect.

• set_info(info=None, content=None, title=None, creationDate=None, modDate=None, subject=None)

  • Changed in version 1.16.10

  Changes annotation properties. These include dates, contents, subject and author (title). Changes for name and id will be ignored. The update happens selectively: To leave a property unchanged, set it to None. To delete existing data, use an empty string.

  • Parameters

    • info (dict) – a dictionary compatible with the info property (see below). All entries must be strings. If this argument is not a dictionary, the other arguments are used instead – else they are ignored.

    • content (str) – (new in v1.16.10) see description in info.

    • title (str) – (new in v1.16.10) see description in info.

    • creationDate (str) – (new in v1.16.10) date of annot creation. If given, should be in PDF datetime format.

    • modDate (str) – (new in v1.16.10) date of last modification. If given, should be in PDF datetime format.

    • subject (str) – (new in v1.16.10) see description in info.

• set_line_ends(start, end)

  Sets an annotation’s line ending styles. Each of these annotation types is defined by a list of points which are connected by lines. The symbol identified by start is attached to the first point, and end to the last point of this list. For unsupported annotation types, a no-operation with a warning message results.

  Note

  • While ‘FreeText’, ‘Line’, ‘PolyLine’, and ‘Polygon’ annotations can have these properties, (Py-) MuPDF does not support line ends for ‘FreeText’, because the call-out variant of it is not supported.

  • (Changed in v1.16.16) Some symbols have an interior area (diamonds, circles, squares, etc.). By default, these areas are filled with the fill color of the annotation. If this is None, then white is chosen. The fill_color argument of Annot.update() can now be used to override this and give line end symbols their own fill color.

  • Parameters

    • start (int) – The symbol number for the first point.

    • end (int) – The symbol number for the last point.

• set_oc(xref)

  Set the annotation’s visibility using PDF optional content mechanisms. This visibility is controlled by the user interface of supporting PDF viewers. It is independent from other attributes like Annot.flags.

  • Parameters

    xref (int) – the xref of an optional contents group (OCG or OCMD). Any previous xref will be overwritten. If zero, a previous entry will be removed. An exception occurs if the xref is not zero and does not point to a valid PDF object.

  Note

  This does not require executing Annot.update() to take effect.

• get_oc()

  Return the xref of an optional content object, or zero if there is none.

  • Returns

    zero or the xref of an OCG (or OCMD).

• set_irt_xref(xref)

  • New in v1.19.3

  Set annotation to be “In Response To” another one.

  • Parameters

    xref (int) –

    The xref of another annotation.

    Note

    Must refer to an existing annotation on this page. Setting this property requires no subsequent update().

• set_open(value)

  • New in v1.18.4

  Set the annotation’s Popup annotation to open or closed – or the annotation itself, if its type is ‘Text’ (“sticky note”).

  • Parameters

    value (bool) – the desired open state.

• set_popup(rect)

  • New in v1.18.4

  Create a Popup annotation for the annotation and specify its rectangle. If the Popup already exists, only its rectangle is updated.

  • Parameters

    rect (rect_like) – the desired rectangle.

• set_opacity(value)

  Set the annotation’s transparency. Opacity can also be set in Annot.update().

  • Parameters

    value (float) – a float in range [0, 1]. Any value outside is assumed to be 1. E.g. a value of 0.5 sets the transparency to 50%.

  Three overlapping ‘Circle’ annotations with each opacity set to 0.5:

  

• blendmode

  • New in v1.18.4

  The annotation’s blend mode. See Adobe PDF References, page 324 for explanations.

  • Return type

    str

    Returns

    the blend mode or None.

    >>> annot=page.first_annot
    >>> annot.blendmode
    'Multiply'

• set_blendmode(blendmode)

  • New in v1.16.14

  Set the annotation’s blend mode. See Adobe PDF References, page 324 for explanations. The blend mode can also be set in Annot.update().

  • Parameters

    blendmode (str) –

    set the blend mode. Use Annot.update() to reflect this in the visual appearance. For predefined values see PDF Standard Blend Modes. Use PDF_BM_Normal to remove a blend mode.

    >>> annot.set_blendmode(fitz.PDF_BM_Multiply)
    >>> annot.update()
    >>> # or in one statement:
    >>> annot.update(blend_mode=fitz.PDF_BM_Multiply, ...)

• set_name(name)

  • New in version 1.16.0

  Change the name field of any annotation type. For ‘FileAttachment’ and ‘Text’ annotations, this is the icon name, for ‘Stamp’ annotations the text in the stamp. The visual result (if any) depends on your PDF viewer. See also Annotation Icons in MuPDF.

  • Parameters

    name (str) – the new name.

  Caution

  If you set the name of a ‘Stamp’ annotation, then this will not change the rectangle, nor will the text be layouted in any way. If you choose a standard text from Stamp Annotation Icons (the exact name piece after “STAMP_”), you should receive the original layout. An arbitrary text will not be changed to upper case, but be written in font “Times-Bold” as is, horizontally centered in one line and be shortened to fit. To get your text fully displayed, its length using fontsize 20 must not exceed 190 pixels. So please make sure that the following inequality is true: fitz.get_text_length(text, fontname="tibo", fontsize=20) <= 190.

• set_rect(rect)

  Change the rectangle of an annotation. The annotation can be moved around and both sides of the rectangle can be independently scaled. However, the annotation appearance will never get rotated, flipped or sheared.

  • Parameters

    rect (rect_like) – the new rectangle of the annotation (finite and not empty). E.g. using a value of annot.rect + (5, 5, 5, 5) will shift the annot position 5 pixels to the right and downwards.

  Note

  You need not invoke Annot.update() for activation of the effect.

• set_rotation(angle)

  Set the rotation of an annotation. This rotates the annotation rectangle around its center point. Then a new annotation rectangle is calculated from the resulting quad.

  • Parameters

    angle (int) – rotation angle in degrees. Arbitrary values are possible, but will be clamped to the interval 0 <= angle < 360.

  Note

  • You must invoke Annot.update() to activate the effect.

  • For PDF_ANNOT_FREE_TEXT, only one of the values 0, 90, 180 and 270 is possible and will rotate the text inside the current rectangle (which remains unchanged). Other values are silently ignored and replaced by 0.

  • Otherwise, only the following Annotation Types can be rotated: ‘Square’, ‘Circle’, ‘Caret’, ‘Text’, ‘FileAttachment’, ‘Ink’, ‘Line’, ‘Polyline’, ‘Polygon’, and ‘Stamp’. For all others the method is a no-op.

• set_border(border=None, width=0, style=None, dashes=None)

  • Changed in version 1.16.9: Allow specification without using a dictionary. The direct parameters are used if border is not a dictionary.

  PDF only: Change border width and dashing properties.

  • Parameters

    • border (dict) – a dictionary as returned by the border property, with keys “width” (float), “style” (str) and “dashes” (sequence). Omitted keys will leave the resp. property unchanged. To e.g. remove dashing use: “dashes”: []. If dashes is not an empty sequence, “style” will automatically be set to “D” (dashed).

    • width (float) – see above.

    • style (str) – see above.

    • dashes (sequence) – see above.

• set_flags(flags)

  Changes the annotation flags. Use the | operator to combine several.

  • Parameters

    flags (int) – an integer specifying the required flags.

• set_colors(colors=None, stroke=None, fill=None)

  • Changed in version 1.16.9: Allow colors to be directly set. These parameters are used if colors is not a dictionary.

  Changes the “stroke” and “fill” colors for supported annotation types – not all annotations accept both.

  • Parameters

    • colors (dict) – a dictionary containing color specifications. For accepted dictionary keys and values see below. The most practical way should be to first make a copy of the colors property and then modify this dictionary as required.

    • stroke (sequence) – see above.

    • fill (sequence) – see above.

*Changed in v1.18.5:* To completely remove a color specification, use an empty sequence like `[]`. If you specify `None`, an existing specification will not be changed.

• delete_responses()

  • New in version 1.16.12

  Delete annotations referring to this one. This includes any ‘Popup’ annotations and all annotations responding to it.

• update(opacity=None, blend_mode=None, fontsize=0, text_color=None, border_color=None, fill_color=None, cross_out=True, rotate=- 1)

  Synchronize the appearance of an annotation with its properties after relevant changes.

  You can safely omit this method only for the following changes:

  • Annot.set_rect()

  • Annot.set_flags()

  • Annot.set_oc()

  • Annot.update_file()

  • Annot.set_info() (except any changes to “content”)

  All arguments are optional. (Changed in v1.16.14) Blend mode and opacity are applicable to all annotation types. The other arguments are mostly special use, as described below.

  Color specifications may be made in the usual format used in PuMuPDF as sequences of floats ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 (including both). The sequence length must be 1, 3 or 4 (supporting GRAY, RGB and CMYK colorspaces respectively). For GRAY, just a float is also acceptable.

  • Parameters

    • opacity (float) – (new in v1.16.14) valid for all annotation types: change or set the annotation’s transparency. Valid values are 0 <= opacity < 1.

    • blend_mode (str) – (new in v1.16.14) valid for all annotation types: change or set the annotation’s blend mode. For valid values see PDF Standard Blend Modes.

    • fontsize (float) – change font size of the text. ‘FreeText’ annotations only.

    • text_color (sequence,float) – change the text color. ‘FreeText’ annotations only.

    • border_color (sequence,float) – change the border color. ‘FreeText’ annotations only.

    • fill_color (sequence,float) –

      the fill color.

      • ’Line’, ‘Polyline’, ‘Polygon’ annotations: use it to give applicable line end symbols a fill color other than that of the annotation (changed in v1.16.16).

    • cross_out (bool) – (new in v1.17.2) add two diagonal lines to the annotation rectangle. ‘Redact’ annotations only. If not desired, False must be specified even if the annotation was created with False.

    • rotate (int) – new rotation value. Default (-1) means no change. Supports ‘FreeText’ and several other annotation types (see Annot.set_rotation()), 1. Only choose 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees for ‘FreeText’. Otherwise any integer is acceptable.

    Return type

    bool

  Note

  Using this method inside a Page.annots() loop is not recommended! This is because most annotation updates require the owning page to be reloaded – which cannot be done inside this loop. Please use the example coding pattern given in the documentation of this generator.

• file_info()

  Basic information of the annot’s attached file.

  • Return type

    dict

    Returns

    a dictionary with keys filename, ufilename, desc (description), size (uncompressed file size), length (compressed length) for FileAttachment annot types, else None.

• get_file()

  Returns attached file content.

  • Return type

    bytes

    Returns

    the content of the attached file.

• update_file(buffer=None, filename=None, ufilename=None, desc=None)

  Updates the content of an attached file. All arguments are optional. No arguments lead to a no-op.

  • Parameters

    • buffer (bytes|bytearray|BytesIO) –

      the new file content. Omit to only change meta-information.

      (Changed in version 1.14.13) io.BytesIO is now also supported.

    • filename (str) – new filename to associate with the file.

    • ufilename (str) – new unicode filename to associate with the file.

    • desc (str) – new description of the file content.

• get_sound()

  Return the embedded sound of an audio annotation.

  • Return type

    dict

    Returns

    the sound audio file and accompanying properties. These are the possible dictionary keys, of which only “rate” and “stream” are always present.

    Key	Description
    rate	(float, requ.) samples per second
    channels	(int, opt.) number of sound channels
    bps	(int, opt.) bits per sample value per channel
    encoding	(str, opt.) encoding format: Raw, Signed, muLaw, ALaw
    compression	(str, opt.) name of compression filter
    stream	(bytes, requ.) the sound file content

• opacity

  The annotation’s transparency. If set, it is a value in range [0, 1]. The PDF default is 1. However, in an effort to tell the difference, we return -1.0 if not set.

  • Return type

    float

• parent

  The owning page object of the annotation.

  • Return type

    Page

• rotation

  The annot rotation.

  • Return type

    int

    Returns

    a value [-1, 359]. If rotation is not at all, -1 is returned (and implies a rotation angle of 0). Other possible values are normalized to some value value 0 <= angle < 360.

• rect

  The rectangle containing the annotation.

  • Return type

    Rect

• next

  The next annotation on this page or None.

  • Return type

    Annot

• type

  A number and one or two strings describing the annotation type, like [2, ‘FreeText’, ‘FreeTextCallout’]. The second string entry is optional and may be empty. See the appendix Annotation Types for a list of possible values and their meanings.

  • Return type

    list

• info

  A dictionary containing various information. All fields are optional strings. If an information is not provided, an empty string is returned.

  • name – e.g. for ‘Stamp’ annotations it will contain the stamp text like “Sold” or “Experimental”, for other annot types you will see the name of the annot’s icon here (“PushPin” for FileAttachment).

  • content – a string containing the text for type Text and FreeText annotations. Commonly used for filling the text field of annotation pop-up windows.

  • title – a string containing the title of the annotation pop-up window. By convention, this is used for the annotation author.

  • creationDate – creation timestamp.

  • modDate – last modified timestamp.

  • subject – subject.

  • id – (new in version 1.16.10) a unique identification of the annotation. This is taken from PDF key /NM. Annotations added by PyMuPDF will have a unique name, which appears here.

  • Return type

    dict

• flags

  An integer whose low order bits contain flags for how the annotation should be presented.

  • Return type

    int

• line_ends

  A pair of integers specifying start and end symbol of annotations types ‘FreeText’, ‘Line’, ‘PolyLine’, and ‘Polygon’. None if not applicable. For possible values and descriptions in this list, see the Adobe PDF References, table 1.76 on page 400.

  • Return type

    tuple

• vertices

  A list containing a variable number of point (“vertices”) coordinates (each given by a pair of floats) for various types of annotations:

  • ‘Line’ – the starting and ending coordinates (2 float pairs).

  • ‘FreeText’ – 2 or 3 float pairs designating the starting, the (optional) knee point, and the ending coordinates.

  • ‘PolyLine’ / ‘Polygon’ – the coordinates of the edges connected by line pieces (n float pairs for n points).

  • text markup annotations – 4 float pairs specifying the QuadPoints of the marked text span (see Adobe PDF References, page 403).

  • ‘Ink’ – list of one to many sublists of vertex coordinates. Each such sublist represents a separate line in the drawing.

  • Return type

    list

• colors

  dictionary of two lists of floats in range 0 <= float <= 1 specifying the “stroke” and the interior (“fill”) colors. The stroke color is used for borders and everything that is actively painted or written (“stroked”). The fill color is used for the interior of objects like line ends, circles and squares. The lengths of these lists implicitely determine the colorspaces used: 1 = GRAY, 3 = RGB, 4 = CMYK. So “[1.0, 0.0, 0.0]” stands for RGB color red. Both lists can be empty if no color is specified.

  • Return type

    dict

• xref

  The PDF xref.

  • Return type

    int

• irt_xref

  The PDF xref of an annotation to which this one responds. Return zero if this is no response annotation.

  • Return type

    int

• popup_xref

  The PDF xref of the associated Popup annotation. Zero if non-existent.

  • Return type

    int

• has_popup

  Whether the annotation has a Popup annotation.

  • Return type

    bool

• is_open

  Whether the annotation’s Popup is open – or the annotation itself (‘Text’ annotations only).

  • Return type

    bool

• popup_rect

  The rectangle of the associated Popup annotation. Infinite rectangle if non-existent.

  • Return type

    Rect

• border

  A dictionary containing border characteristics. Empty if no border information exists. The following keys may be present:

  • width – a float indicating the border thickness in points. The value is -1.0 if no width is specified.

  • dashes – a sequence of integers specifying a line dash pattern. [] means no dashes, [n] means equal on-off lengths of n points, longer lists will be interpreted as specifying alternating on-off length values. See the Adobe PDF References page 126 for more details.

  • style – 1-byte border style: “S” (Solid) = solid rectangle surrounding the annotation, “D” (Dashed) = dashed rectangle surrounding the annotation, the dash pattern is specified by the dashes entry, “B” (Beveled) = a simulated embossed rectangle that appears to be raised above the surface of the page, “I” (Inset) = a simulated engraved rectangle that appears to be recessed below the surface of the page, “U” (Underline) = a single line along the bottom of the annotation rectangle.

  • Return type

    dict

Annotation Icons in MuPDF

This is a list of icons referencable by name for annotation types ‘Text’ and ‘FileAttachment’. You can use them via the icon parameter when adding an annotation, or use the as argument in Annot.set_name(). It is left to your discretion which item to choose when – no mechanism will keep you from using e.g. the “Speaker” icon for a ‘FileAttachment’.

Example

Change the graphical image of an annotation. Also update the “author” and the text to be shown in the popup window:

doc = fitz.open("circle-in.pdf")
page = doc[0]                          # page 0
annot = page.first_annot                # get the annotation
annot.set_border(dashes=[3])           # set dashes to "3 on, 3 off ..."
# set stroke and fill color to some blue
annot.set_colors({"stroke":(0, 0, 1), "fill":(0.75, 0.8, 0.95)})
info = annot.info                      # get info dict
info["title"] = "Jorj X. McKie"        # set author
# text in popup window ...
info["content"] = "I changed border and colors and enlarged the image by 20%."
info["subject"] = "Demonstration of PyMuPDF"     # some PDF viewers also show this
annot.set_info(info)                   # update info dict
r = annot.rect                         # take annot rect
r.x1 = r.x0 + r.width  * 1.2           # new location has same top-left
r.y1 = r.y0 + r.height * 1.2           # but 20% longer sides
annot.set_rect(r)                      # update rectangle
annot.update()                         # update the annot's appearance
doc.save("circle-out.pdf")             # save

This is how the circle annotation looks like before and after the change (pop-up windows displayed using Nitro PDF viewer):

Footnotes

1

Rotating an annotation generally also changes its rectangle. Depending on how the annotation was defined, the original rectangle in general is not reconstructible by setting the rotation value to zero. This information may be lost.