Shape Annotations via Java

Shape annotations in this section cover geometric annotation types such as squares, circles, polygons, polylines, and lines.

Add square, circle, polygon, and polyline annotations

Use these examples when you need to place geometric annotations with custom colors, opacity, popup data, or point arrays.

Open the source PDF Document.
Create the required shape annotation and configure its rectangle, points, and visual properties.
Add the annotation to the page and save the updated document.

public static void squareAnnotationAdd(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        SquareAnnotation squareAnnotation = new SquareAnnotation(
                document.getPages().get_Item(1),
                new Rectangle(60, 600, 250, 450, true));
        squareAnnotation.setTitle("John Smith");
        squareAnnotation.setColor(Color.getBlue());
        squareAnnotation.setInteriorColor(Color.getBlueViolet());
        squareAnnotation.setOpacity(0.25);

        document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations().add(squareAnnotation);
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

public static void circleAnnotationAdd(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        CircleAnnotation circleAnnotation = new CircleAnnotation(
                document.getPages().get_Item(1),
                new Rectangle(270, 160, 483, 383, true));
        circleAnnotation.setTitle("John Smith");
        circleAnnotation.setColor(Color.getRed());
        circleAnnotation.setInteriorColor(Color.getMistyRose());
        circleAnnotation.setOpacity(0.5);
        circleAnnotation.setPopup(new PopupAnnotation(
                document.getPages().get_Item(1),
                new Rectangle(842, 316, 1021, 459, true)));

        document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations().add(circleAnnotation);
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

public static void polygonAnnotationAdd(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        PolygonAnnotation polygonAnnotation = new PolygonAnnotation(
                document.getPages().get_Item(1),
                new Rectangle(200, 300, 400, 400, true),
                new Point[]{
                        new Point(200, 300),
                        new Point(220, 300),
                        new Point(250, 330),
                        new Point(300, 304),
                        new Point(300, 400)
                });
        polygonAnnotation.setTitle("John Smith");
        polygonAnnotation.setColor(Color.getBlue());
        polygonAnnotation.setInteriorColor(Color.getBlueViolet());
        polygonAnnotation.setOpacity(0.25);

        document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations().add(polygonAnnotation);
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

public static void polylineAnnotationAdd(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        PolylineAnnotation polylineAnnotation = new PolylineAnnotation(
                document.getPages().get_Item(1),
                new Rectangle(270, 193, 571, 383, true),
                new Point[]{
                        new Point(545, 150),
                        new Point(545, 190),
                        new Point(667, 190),
                        new Point(667, 110),
                        new Point(626, 111)
                });
        polylineAnnotation.setTitle("John Smith");
        polylineAnnotation.setColor(Color.getRed());
        polylineAnnotation.setPopup(new PopupAnnotation(
                document.getPages().get_Item(1),
                new Rectangle(842, 196, 1021, 338, true)));

        document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations().add(polylineAnnotation);
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

Get square, circle, polygon, and polyline annotations

These examples inspect the page annotation collection and print the rectangles of geometric annotations by type.

Open the source PDF Document.
Iterate through the page annotations.
Filter by the required AnnotationType value and print the rectangle.

public static void squareAnnotationGet(Path inputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        for (Annotation annotation : document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations()) {
            if (annotation.getAnnotationType() == AnnotationType.Square) {
                System.out.println(annotation.getRect());
            }
        }
    }
}

public static void circleAnnotationGet(Path inputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        for (Annotation annotation : document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations()) {
            if (annotation.getAnnotationType() == AnnotationType.Circle) {
                System.out.println(annotation.getRect());
            }
        }
    }
}

public static void polygonAnnotationGet(Path inputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        for (Annotation annotation : document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations()) {
            if (annotation.getAnnotationType() == AnnotationType.Polygon) {
                System.out.println(annotation.getRect());
            }
        }
    }
}

public static void polylineAnnotationGet(Path inputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        for (Annotation annotation : document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations()) {
            if (annotation.getAnnotationType() == AnnotationType.PolyLine) {
                System.out.println(annotation.getRect());
            }
        }
    }
}

Delete square, circle, polygon, and polyline annotations

Use these examples when shape annotations of a specific type should be removed from the page.

Open the source PDF Document.
Collect annotations of the required geometric type.
Delete the collected annotations and save the output file.

public static void squareAnnotationDelete(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        List<Annotation> toDelete = new ArrayList<>();
        for (Annotation annotation : document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations()) {
            if (annotation.getAnnotationType() == AnnotationType.Square) {
                toDelete.add(annotation);
            }
        }
        for (Annotation annotation : toDelete) {
            document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations().delete(annotation);
        }
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

public static void circleAnnotationDelete(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        List<Annotation> toDelete = new ArrayList<>();
        for (Annotation annotation : document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations()) {
            if (annotation.getAnnotationType() == AnnotationType.Circle) {
                toDelete.add(annotation);
            }
        }
        for (Annotation annotation : toDelete) {
            document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations().delete(annotation);
        }
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

public static void polygonAnnotationDelete(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        List<Annotation> toDelete = new ArrayList<>();
        for (Annotation annotation : document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations()) {
            if (annotation.getAnnotationType() == AnnotationType.Polygon) {
                toDelete.add(annotation);
            }
        }
        for (Annotation annotation : toDelete) {
            document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations().delete(annotation);
        }
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

public static void polylineAnnotationDelete(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        List<Annotation> toDelete = new ArrayList<>();
        for (Annotation annotation : document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations()) {
            if (annotation.getAnnotationType() == AnnotationType.PolyLine) {
                toDelete.add(annotation);
            }
        }
        for (Annotation annotation : toDelete) {
            document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations().delete(annotation);
        }
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

Add a line annotation

This example creates a line annotation with arrow endings, border formatting, and a popup note.

Open the source PDF Document.
Create a LineAnnotation with start and end points.
Configure the appearance, add the popup, and save the document.

public static void lineAnnotationAdd(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        LineAnnotation lineAnnotation = new LineAnnotation(
                document.getPages().get_Item(1),
                new Rectangle(550, 93, 562, 439, true),
                new Point(556, 99),
                new Point(556, 443));
        lineAnnotation.setTitle("John Smith");
        lineAnnotation.setColor(Color.getRed());
        lineAnnotation.setStartingStyle(LineEnding.OpenArrow);
        lineAnnotation.setEndingStyle(LineEnding.OpenArrow);

        Border border = new Border(lineAnnotation);
        border.setWidth(3);
        lineAnnotation.setBorder(border);

        PopupAnnotation popup = new PopupAnnotation(
                document.getPages().get_Item(1),
                new Rectangle(842, 124, 1021, 266, true));
        lineAnnotation.setPopup(popup);

        document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations().add(lineAnnotation);
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

Get line annotations

This example reads line annotations and prints their start and end coordinates.

Open the source PDF Document.
Iterate through the page annotations and select AnnotationType.Line.
Cast each match to LineAnnotation and print its coordinates.

public static void lineAnnotationsGet(Path inputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        for (Annotation annotation : document.getPages().get_Item(1).getAnnotations()) {
            if (annotation.getAnnotationType() == AnnotationType.Line) {
                LineAnnotation la = (LineAnnotation) annotation;
                System.out.printf("[%s,%s]-[%s,%s]%n",
                        la.getStarting().getX(), la.getStarting().getY(),
                        la.getEnding().getX(), la.getEnding().getY());
            }
        }
    }
}

Delete line annotations

Use this approach when line annotations should be removed from the page.

Open the source PDF Document.
Collect annotations of type AnnotationType.Line.
Delete the collected annotations and save the document.

public static void lineAnnotationsDelete(Path inputFile, Path outputFile) {
    try (Document document = new Document(inputFile.toString())) {
        Page page = document.getPages().get_Item(1);
        List<Annotation> toDelete = new ArrayList<>();
        for (Annotation annotation : page.getAnnotations()) {
            if (annotation.getAnnotationType() == AnnotationType.Line) {
                toDelete.add(annotation);
            }
        }
        for (Annotation annotation : toDelete) {
            page.getAnnotations().delete(annotation);
        }
        document.save(outputFile.toString());
    }
}

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