Add and Delete PDF Bookmarks in Java

Use the document outline collection to manage bookmarks programmatically.

Add a top-level bookmark

Use this example when the document should include a single top-level outline entry.

1. Open the source PDF Document.
2. Create an OutlineItemCollection and configure its title, style, and action.
3. Add the bookmark to the document outlines and save the file.

public static void addBookmark(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        OutlineItemCollection pdfOutline = new OutlineItemCollection(document.getOutlines());
        pdfOutline.setTitle("Test Outline");
        pdfOutline.setItalic(true);
        pdfOutline.setBold(true);
        pdfOutline.setAction(new GoToAction(document.getPages().get_Item(1)));

        document.getOutlines().add(pdfOutline);
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

Add a child bookmark

This example creates a parent bookmark and nests a child bookmark under it.

1. Open the source PDF Document.
2. Create parent and child OutlineItemCollection objects.
3. Add the child to the parent, add the parent to the outline collection, and save the document.

public static void addChildBookmark(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        OutlineItemCollection pdfOutline = new OutlineItemCollection(document.getOutlines());
        pdfOutline.setTitle("Parent Outline");
        pdfOutline.setItalic(true);
        pdfOutline.setBold(true);

        OutlineItemCollection pdfChildOutline = new OutlineItemCollection(document.getOutlines());
        pdfChildOutline.setTitle("Child Outline");
        pdfChildOutline.setItalic(true);
        pdfChildOutline.setBold(true);

        pdfOutline.add(pdfChildOutline);
        document.getOutlines().add(pdfOutline);
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

Delete all bookmarks

Use this approach when the entire outline collection should be removed from the document.

1. Open the source PDF Document.
2. Delete the full outlines collection.
3. Save the cleaned output file.

public static void deleteBookmarks(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        document.getOutlines().delete();
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

Delete a specific bookmark

Use this example when one named bookmark should be removed without clearing the whole outline tree.

1. Open the source PDF Document.
2. Delete the bookmark by title from the outlines collection.
3. Save the updated document.

public static void deleteBookmark(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        document.getOutlines().delete("Child Outline");
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}