PDF Filler#

This uses the PDF Add API.

Create Fillable PDF Forms#

You can create fillable PDF forms by adding editable text boxes and checkboxes.

By using the annotations[] attribute and setting the type to textfield or checkbox you can create form elements to be placed on your PDF.

Payload#

{
    "async": false,
    "inline": true,
    "name": "newDocument",
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-edit/sample.pdf",
    "annotations":[
       {
            "text":"sample prefilled text",
            "x": 10,
            "y": 30,
            "size": 12,
            "pages": "0-",
            "type": "TextField",
            "id": "textfield1"
        },
        {
            "x": 100,
            "y": 150,
            "size": 12,
            "pages": "0-",
            "type": "Checkbox",
            "id": "checkbox2"
        },
        {
            "x": 100,
            "y": 170,
            "size": 12,
            "pages": "0-",
            "link": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-edit/logo.png",
            "type": "CheckboxChecked",
            "id":"checkbox3"
        }

    ]
}

Response 2#

{
    "url": "https://pdf-temp-files.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/d5c6efa549194ffaacb2eedd318e0320/newDocument.pdf?X-Amz-Expires=3600&x-amz-security-token=FwoGZXIvYXdzECMaDJJV7qKrpnGUrZHrwSKBATR5rxVlQoU0zj3r4jyHPt7yj4HoCIBi65IbMRWVX8qZZtKL9YGUzP%2FcemlqVd4Vi5%2B80Sg%2BymqQtaQ8qSFqKA82JnV%2BNBDatIigZIZha%2BrQM3jSC%2FZhX1zxsfLLsaH3K5nBnkjT3gi%2FZnx%2FgqrlIhf3m2xRFaTlgHrBADlK9KKPIijSusD4BTIo%2FQ433xx%2FQEaGWdX0nu4NuiByyXNPsBCAI3im9LMUCujjqF79ocyLHA%3D%3D&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIA4NRRSZPHCSWKUQ4T/20200716/us-west-2/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20200716T092641Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host;x-amz-security-token&X-Amz-Signature=2aa88d39aaf4b5891e4cb42d5675a64486098558d7159b37b75252209bdd6a95",
    "pageCount": 1,
    "error": false,
    "status": 200,
    "name": "newDocument",
    "remainingCredits": 77762
}

CURL#

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/edit/add' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'x-api-key: ' \
--data-raw '{
    "async": false,
        "inline": true,
    "name": "newDocument",
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-edit/sample.pdf",
    "annotations":[
       {
            "text":"sample prefilled text",
            "x": 10,
            "y": 30,
            "size": 12,
            "pages": "0-",
            "type": "TextField",
            "id": "textfield1"
        },
        {
            "x": 100,
            "y": 150,
            "size": 12,
            "pages": "0-",
            "type": "Checkbox",
            "id": "checkbox2"
        },
        {
            "x": 100,
            "y": 170,
            "size": 12,
            "pages": "0-",
            "link": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-edit/logo.png",
            "type": "CheckboxChecked",
            "id":"checkbox3"
        }

    ]
}'

Fill PDF Forms#

You can fill existing form fields in a PDF after identifying the form field names.

Once form fields are identified then the fields[] attribute should be used to populate the fields by fieldName.

Payload#

{
  "async": false,
  "inline": true,
  "name": "f1040-filled",
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-form/f1040.pdf",
  "fields": [
      {
          "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].FilingStatus[0].c1_01[1]",
          "pages": "1",
          "text": "True"
      },
      {

          "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].f1_02[0]",
          "pages": "1",
          "text": "John A."
      },
      {

          "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].f1_03[0]",
          "pages": "1",
          "text": "Doe"
      },
      {
          "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].YourSocial_ReadOrderControl[0].f1_04[0]",
          "pages": "1",
          "text": "123456789"
      },
      {
          "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].YourSocial_ReadOrderControl[0].f1_05[0]",
          "pages": "1",
          "text": "Joan B.",
          "fontName": "Arial",
          "size": 6,
          "fontBold": true,
          "fontItalic": true,
          "fontStrikeout": true,
          "fontUnderline": true
      },
      {
          "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].YourSocial_ReadOrderControl[0].f1_05[0]",
          "pages": "1",
          "text": "Joan B."
      },
      {
          "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].YourSocial_ReadOrderControl[0].f1_06[0]",
          "pages": "1",
          "text": "Doe"
      },
      {
          "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].YourSocial_ReadOrderControl[0].f1_07[0]",
          "pages": "1",
          "text": "987654321"
      }
  ]

Response 2#

{
    "hash": "e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855",
    "url": "https://pdf-temp-files.s3.amazonaws.com/cd15a09771554bed88d6419c1e2f2b16/f1040-filled.pdf",
    "pageCount": 3,
    "error": false,
    "status": 200,
    "name": "f1040-filled.pdf",
    "remainingCredits": 99999369,
    "credits": 63
}

CURL#

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/edit/add' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'x-api-key: ' \
--data-raw '{
    "async": false,
    "inline": true,
    "name": "f1040-filled",
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-form/f1040.pdf",
    "fields": [
        {
            "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].FilingStatus[0].c1_01[1]",
            "pages": "1",
            "text": "True"
        },
        {

            "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].f1_02[0]",
            "pages": "1",
            "text": "John A."
        },
        {

            "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].f1_03[0]",
            "pages": "1",
            "text": "Doe"
        },
        {
            "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].YourSocial_ReadOrderControl[0].f1_04[0]",
            "pages": "1",
            "text": "123456789"
        },
        {
            "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].YourSocial_ReadOrderControl[0].f1_05[0]",
            "pages": "1",
            "text": "Joan B.",
            "fontName": "Arial",
            "size": 6,
            "fontBold": true,
            "fontItalic": true,
            "fontStrikeout": true,
            "fontUnderline": true
        },
        {
            "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].YourSocial_ReadOrderControl[0].f1_05[0]",
            "pages": "1",
            "text": "Joan B."
        },
        {
            "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].YourSocial_ReadOrderControl[0].f1_06[0]",
            "pages": "1",
            "text": "Doe"
        },
        {
            "fieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].YourSocial_ReadOrderControl[0].f1_07[0]",
            "pages": "1",
            "text": "987654321"
        }
    ],
    "annotations":[
        {
            "text":"Sample Filled with PDF.co API using /pdf/edit/add. Get fields from forms using /pdf/info/fields. This text is be added on the first (0) and the last (!0) pages.",
            "x": 400,
            "y": 10,
            "width": 200,
            "height": 500,
            "size": 12,
            "pages": "0-",
            "color": "FF0000",
            "link": "https://pdf.co"
        }
    ]
  }'

Code samples#

Footnotes

1

Supports links from Google Drive, Dropbox, and PDF.co Built-In Files Storage. To upload files via the API check out the File Upload section. Note: If you experience intermittent Too Many Requests or Access Denied errors, please try to add cache: to enable built-in URL caching. (e.g cache:https://example.com/file1.pdf) For data security, you have the option to encrypt output files and decrypt input files. Learn more about user-controlled data encryption.

2(1,2)

Main response codes as follows:

Code

Description

200

Success

400

Bad request. Typically happens because of bad input parameters, or because the input URLs can’t be reached, possibly due to access restrictions like needing a login or password.

401

Unauthorized

402

Not enough credits

445

Timeout error. To process large documents or files please use asynchronous mode (set the async parameter to true) and then check status using the /job/check endpoint. If a file contains many pages then specify a page range using the pages parameter. The number of pages of the document can be obtained using the /pdf/info endpoint.

Note

For more see the complete list of available response codes.