iText to add annotations into PDF from FMP?

[nleon307]

Is it possible to use Scriptmaster with iText to add highlight or comment annotations into a PDF from Filemaker?

[john renfrew]

Adding comments is possible but adding 'highlighting' is a significantly more difficult task, which has to do with the way that content is stored inside the PDF.

A 'word' as you see it on screen may be stored as separate glyphs with position information, and after getting the content from the streams, you then need to re-assemble the position information to be able to have any chance of getting where you want. And if it is a document where the text was converted to outlines before creation then you pretty much have no chance.

Searching a reading the iText questions archives will give you an idea of the scale of the job. And you are likely to reach a 'not for the fainthearted' conclusion.

Getting the book is the best way to learn what you need, chapter 7 particularly.

It is the most amazing library but requires some willingness to really work hard at getting to grips with it.

[nleon307]

thanks a lot for the advice

when I was looking at the FDF file, I saw the coordinates and was afraid I would need to pull them somehow to do this.

I will take a look at the book.

Thank you