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PDF Spec 12 General
Marc Jones edited this page Dec 30, 2025
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Part of: PDF-Spec-12-Interactive-Features
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For purposes of the trigger events E (enter), X (exit), D (down), and U (up), the term mouse denotes a generic pointing device with the following characteristics:
- A selection button that can be pressed , held down , and released . If there is more than one mouse button, the selection button is typically the left button.
- A notion of location -that is, an indication of where on the screen the device is pointing. Location is typically denoted by a screen cursor.
- A notion of focus -that is, which element in the document is currently interacting with the with the user. In many systems, this element is denoted by a blinking caret, a focus rectangle, or a colour change.
This clause describes the PDF features that allow a user to interact with a document on the screen, using the mouse and keyboard (with the exception of multimedia features, which are described in 13, 'Multimedia Features'):
- Preference settings to control the way the document is presented on the screen (12.2, 'Viewer Preferences')
- Navigation facilities for moving through the document in a variety of ways (Sections 12.3, 'Document-Level Navigation' and 12.4, 'Page-Level Navigation')
- Annotations for adding text notes, sounds, movies, and other ancillary information to the document (12.5, 'Annotations')
- Actions that can be triggered by specified events (12.6, 'Actions')
- Interactive forms for gathering information from the user (12.7, 'Interactive Forms')
- Digital signatures that authenticate the identity of a user and the validity of the document's contents (12.8, 'Digital Signatures')
- Measurement properties that enable the display of real-world units corresponding to objects on a page (12.9, 'Measurement Properties')
The ViewerPreferences entry in a document's catalogue (see 7.7.2, 'Document Catalog') designates a viewer preferences dictionary (PDF 1.2) controlling the way the document shall be presented on the screen or in print. If no such dictionary is specified, conforming readers should behave in accordance with their own current user preference settings. Table 150 shows the contents of the viewer preferences dictionary.
Table 150 - Entries in a viewer preferences dictionary
| Key | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
| HideToolbar | boolean | (Optional) A flag specifying whether to hide the conforming reader's tool bars when the document is active. Default value: false . |
| HideMenubar | boolean | (Optional) A flag specifying whether to hide the conforming reader's menu bar when the document is active. Default value: false . |
Table 150 - Entries in a viewer preferences dictionary (continued)
| Key | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
| HideWindowUI | boolean | (Optional) A flag specifying whether to hide user interface elements in the document's window (such as scroll bars and navigation controls), leaving only the document's contents displayed. Default value: false . |
| FitWindow | boolean | (Optional) A flag specifying whether to resize the document's window to fit the size of the first displayed page. Default value: false . |
| CenterWindow | boolean | (Optional) A flag specifying whether to position the document's window in the center of the screen. Default value: false . |
| DisplayDocTitle | boolean | (Optional; PDF 1.4) A flag specifying whether the window's title bar should display the document title taken from the Title entry of the document information dictionary (see 14.3.3, 'Document Information Dictionary'). If false , the title bar should instead display the name of the PDF file containing the document. Default value: false . |
| NonFullScreenPageMode | name | (Optional) The document's page mode , specifying how to display the document on exiting full-screen mode: UseNone Neither document outline nor thumbnail images visible UseOutlines Document outline visible UseThumbs Thumbnail images visible UseOC Optional content group panel visible This entry is meaningful only if the value of the PageMode entry in the Catalog dictionary (see 7.7.2, 'Document Catalog') is FullScreen; it shall be ignored otherwise. Default value: UseNone. |
| Direction | name | (Optional; PDF 1.3) The predominant reading order for text: L2R Left to right R2L Right to left (including vertical writing systems, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) This entry has no direct effect on the document's contents or page numbering but may be used to determine the relative positioning of pages when displayed side by side or printed n -up. Default value: L2R. |
| ViewArea | name | (Optional; PDF 1.4) The name of the page boundary representing the area of a page that shall be displayed when viewing the document on the screen. The value is the key designating the relevant page boundary in the page object (see 7.7.3, 'Page Tree' and 14.11.2, 'Page Boundaries'). If the specified page boundary is not defined in the page object, its default value shall be used, as specified in Table 30. Default value: CropBox. This entry is intended primarily for use by prepress applications that interpret or manipulate the page boundaries as described in 14.11.2, 'Page Boundaries.' NOTE 1 Most conforming readers disregard it. |
Table 150 - Entries in a viewer preferences dictionary (continued)
| Key | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
| ViewClip | name | (Optional; PDF 1.4) The name of the page boundary to which the contents of a page shall be clipped when viewing the document on the screen. The value is the key designating the relevant page boundary in the page object (see 7.7.3, 'Page Tree' and 14.11.2, 'Page Boundaries'). If the specified page boundary is not defined in the page object, its default value shall be used, as specified in Table 30. Default value: CropBox. This entry is intended primarily for use by prepress applications that interpret or manipulate the page boundaries as described in 14.11.2, 'Page Boundaries.' NOTE 2 Most conforming readers disregard it. |
| PrintArea | name | (Optional; PDF 1.4) The name of the page boundary representing the area of a page that shall be rendered when printing the document. The value is the key designating the relevant page boundary in the page object (see 7.7.3, 'Page Tree' and 14.11.2, 'Page Boundaries'). If the specified page boundary is not defined in the page object, its default value shall be used, as specified in Table 30. Default value: CropBox. This entry is intended primarily for use by prepress applications that interpret or manipulate the page boundaries as described in 14.11.2, 'Page Boundaries.' NOTE 3 Most conforming readers disregard it. |
| PrintClip | name | (Optional; PDF 1.4) The name of the page boundary to which the contents of a page shall be clipped when printing the document. The value is the key designating the relevant page boundary in the page object (see 7.7.3, 'Page Tree' and 14.11.2, 'Page Boundaries'). If the specified page boundary is not defined in the page object, its default value shall be used, as specified in Table 30. Default value: CropBox. This entry is intended primarily for use by prepress applications that interpret or manipulate the page boundaries as described in 14.11.2, 'Page Boundaries.' NOTE 4 Most conforming readers disregard it. |
| PrintScaling | name | (Optional; PDF 1.6) The page scaling option that shall be selected when a print dialog is displayed for this document. Valid values are None, which indicates no page scaling, and AppDefault, which indicates the conforming reader's default print scaling. If this entry has an unrecognized value, AppDefault shall be used. Default value: AppDefault. If the print dialog is suppressed and its parameters are provided from some other source, this entry nevertheless shall be honored. |
| Duplex | name | ( Optional; PDF 1.7 ) The paper handling option that shall be used when printing the file from the print dialog. The following values are valid: Simplex Print single-sided DuplexFlipShortEdge Duplex and flip on the short edge of the sheet DuplexFlipLongEdge Duplex and flip on the long edge of the sheet |
Table 150 - Entries in a viewer preferences dictionary (continued)
| Key | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
| PickTrayByPDFSize | boolean | ( Optional; PDF 1.7 ) A flag specifying whether the PDF page size shall be used to select the input paper tray. This setting influences only the preset values used to populate the print dialog presented by a conforming reader. If PickTrayByPDFSize is true , the check box in the print dialog associated with input paper tray shall be checked. This setting has no effect on operating systems that do not provide the ability to pick the input tray by size. Default value: as defined by the conforming reader |
| PrintPageRange | array | ( Optional; PDF 1.7 ) The page numbers used to initialize the print dialog box when the file is printed. The array shall contain an even number of integers to be interpreted in pairs, with each pair specifying the first and last pages in a sub-range of pages to be printed.The first page of the PDF file shall be denoted by 1. Default value: as defined by the conforming reader |
| NumCopies | integer | ( Optional; PDF 1.7 ) The number of copies that shall be printed when the print dialog is opened for this file. Values outside this range shall be ignored. Default value: as defined by the conforming reader, but typically 1 |
The features described in this sub-clause allow a conforming reader to present the user with an interactive, global overview of a document in either of two forms:
- As a hierarchical outline showing the document's internal structure
- As a collection of thumbnail images representing the pages of the document in miniature form
Each item in the outline or each thumbnail image may be associated with a corresponding destination in the document, so that the user can jump directly to the destination by clicking with the mouse.
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