ISO 19444-1:2016

INTERNATIONAL ISO
STANDARD 19444-1
First edition
2016-12-15
Document management — XML Forms
Data Format —
Part 1:
Use of ISO 32000-2 (XFDF 3.0)
Gestion de documents — Format de Données des Formulaires XML —
Partie 1: Utilisation de l’ISO 32000-2 (XFDF 3.0)
Reference number
©
ISO 2016
© ISO 2016, Published in Switzerland
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior
written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of
the requester.
ISO copyright office
Ch. de Blandonnet 8 • CP 401
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva, Switzerland
Tel. +41 22 749 01 11
Fax +41 22 749 09 47
copyright@iso.org
www.iso.org
ii © ISO 2016 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .vi
Introduction .vii
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Notation . 1
5 Introduction to XFDF . 1
5.1 General . 1
5.2 Forms data and annotations . 1
5.3 How to use this specification . 3
5.4 PDF, FDF and XFDF . 3
5.4.1 General. 3
5.4.2 Sample form in FDF and XFDF . 5
5.4.3 Sample annotation in FDF and XFDF. 6
5.5 Writing XFDF . 7
5.5.1 General. 7
5.5.2 Encoding and Namespace . 7
5.6 Understanding forms . 7
5.6.1 General. 7
5.6.2 Simple XFDF form . 7
5.6.3 Hierarchical XFDF form . 8
5.7 Understanding annotations . 9
5.7.1 General. 9
5.7.2 Simple XFDF annotation .10
5.7.3 Annotation with popup text .11
5.7.4 Annotation with comment .11
5.8 Implementation notes .13
5.8.1 General.13
5.8.2 String encoding conventions .13
5.8.3 Rich text strings .13
5.8.4 XML content model syntax .14
6 XFDF reference .15
6.1 General .15
6.2 XFDF elements .15
6.2.1 Elements .15
6.2.2 xfdf .15
6.2.3 f .15
6.2.4 ids .16
6.3 Form field elements .16
6.3.1 Fields .16
6.3.2 Field.17
6.3.3 value . .17
6.3.4 value-richtext .17
6.4 Annotation elements .18
6.4.1 annots .18
6.4.2 text .18
6.4.3 highlight . .19
6.4.4 underline .20
6.4.5 strikeout .20
6.4.6 squiggly .21
6.4.7 line .22
6.4.8 circle .23
6.4.9 square .24
6.4.10 caret .25
6.4.11 polygon .26
6.4.12 polyline .27
6.4.13 stamp .28
6.4.14 ink .29
6.4.15 freetext .30
6.4.16 fileattachment .31
6.4.17 sound.32
6.4.18 link .33
6.4.19 redact .33
6.4.20 projection .34
6.5 Annotation sub-elements .35
6.5.1 Action .35
6.5.2 appearance .35
6.5.3 BorderStyleAlt . . .35
6.5.4 contents .36
6.5.5 contents-richtext . .36
6.5.6 data .37
6.5.7 defaultappearance .37
6.5.8 defaultappearance .38
6.5.9 defaultstyle .38
6.5.10 Dest .38
6.5.11 File .39
6.5.12 gesture .39
6.5.13 Fit .39
6.5.14 FitB .40
6.5.15 FitBH . .40
6.5.16 FitBV .41
6.5.17 FitH .41
6.5.18 FitR . .41
6.5.19 FitV .42
6.5.20 GoTo .42
6.5.21 GoToR .43
6.5.22 inklist .43
6.5.23 Launch.43
6.5.24 Named .44
6.5.25 Named .44
6.5.26 OnActivation .44
6.5.27 overlayappearance .45
6.5.28 popup .45
6.5.29 resource .46
6.5.30 URI .46
6.5.31 vertices .47
6.5.32 XYZ .47
6.6 Annotation attributes .47
6.6.1 Overview .47
6.6.2 FDF annotation attributes .48
6.6.3 Common annotation attributes .48
6.6.4 Markup annotation attributes .49
6.6.5 Text markup annotation attributes .50
6.6.6 Text annotation attributes .51
6.6.7 Line annotation attributes .52
6.6.8 Circle and Square annotation attributes .54
6.6.9 Caret annotation attributes .55
6.6.10 Polygon and Polyline annotation attributes .56
6.6.11 Freetext annotation attributes .57
6.6.12 Stamp annotation attributes.58
iv © ISO 2016 – All rights reserved

6.6.13 Fileattachment annotation attributes .59
6.6.14 Sound annotation attributes .59
6.6.15 Popup annotation attributes .60
6.6.16 Link annotation attributes .60
6.6.17 Redaction annotation attributes .61
6.6.18 Border effect attributes .61
6.6.19 Border style attributes . .62
6.6.20 Border array attributes .62
6.6.21 Embedded file parameter attributes .63
6.6.22 Stream attributes .63
6.6.23 File specification attributes .64
6.6.24 Destination syntax attributes .64
6.6.25 Remote go-to attributes .64
6.6.26 Launch attributes .64
6.6.27 Named action attributes .65
6.6.28 URI attributes .65
6.6.29 Mac OS file information attributes .65
6.6.30 Miscellaneous attributes .66
Bibliography .67
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment,
as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the
Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 171, Document management applications,
Subcommittee SC 2, Document file formats, EDMS systems and authenticity of information.
A list of all parts in the ISO 19444 series can be found on the ISO website.
vi © ISO 2016 – All rights reserved

Introduction
This document describes the XML Forms Data Format, which is used to represent form data from PDF
(ISO 32000-2) in an XML tagset.
This format is derived from the Forms Data Format in PDF and is intended to be a more interchangeable
format for forms data.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO 19444-1:2016(E)
Document management — XML Forms Data Format —
Part 1:
Use of ISO 32000-2 (XFDF 3.0)
1 Scope
This document specifies an XML format for representing forms data and annotations in the Portable
Document Format, ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0).
This document does not change or add any definitions for any components of ISO 32000-2.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO 32000-2 apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp
4 Notation
All XFDF element names, XFDF attributes names and examples (XFDF and PDF) are written in fixed
width font. All inline PDF and FDF operators, keywords and the names of keys in PDF dictionaries are
written in bold font. All inline words that denote operands of PDF and FDF operators or values of PDF
dictionary keys are written in italic sans serif font.
Ellipses (…) are used within XFDF examples to indicate omitted detail.
5 Introduction to XFDF
5.1 General
XML Forms Data Format (XFDF) is a format for representing forms data and annotations in a PDF
document. This specification describes XFDF compatible with ISO 32000-2. XFDF is the XML version
of Forms Data Format (FDF), a simplified version of PDF for representing forms data and annotations.
5.2 Forms data and annotations
Form fields in a PDF document may include many interactive elements (see ISO 32000-2:—, 12.7).
Figure 1 shows a sample PDF which utilizes edit boxes, buttons, and radio buttons:
Figure 1 — Sample PDF utilizing edit boxes, buttons and radio buttons
The XFDF exported from this PDF document might look like the following example:



modified=”BEF7724317B311718E8675B677EF9B4E”/>

...


XFDF is often used as the format to send and receive PDF form data from a server. Form data are
submitted to a server, modifications are made and sent back; the new form data are imported into the
interactive PDF form. XFDF is also often used as a format to export form data to stand-alone files that can
be stored, transmitted electronically, and imported back into the corresponding PDF interactive form.
Annotations (see ISO 32000-2:—, 12.5) are attached to a PDF document. Figure 2 shows an example
PDF which includes text notes, highlights, stamps, and file attachments:
2 © ISO 2016 – All rights reserved

Figure 2 — Example PDF shown with text notes, highlights, stamps and file attachments
5.3 How to use this specification
This specification documents the correspondence between an XFDF element or attribute and its
equivalent PDF dictionary and key. A short description is provided for each element and attribute; for
complete information, see the description of the corresponding dictionary and key in ISO 32000-2.
There are also a few attributes that do not correspond to a specific PDF dictionary and key.
5.4 PDF, FDF and XFDF
5.4.1 General
PDF, FDF, and XFDF are related specifications with PDF as the parent format for representing documents,
including interactive forms and annotations. FDF and XFDF contain the subset of a PDF document that
describes interactive forms and annotations. Complete information on PDF and FDF may be found in
ISO 32000-2.
FDF is a simplified version of PDF. PDF and FDF represent information with a key/value pair, also
referred to as an entry. This example shows the T and V keys with values enclosed in parentheses:
/T (Street) /V (345 Park Ave.)
XFDF, on the other hand, represents an entry with an XML element/content or attribute/value pair, as
shown in the corresponding XFDF:

345 Park Ave.

XFDF implements a subset of FDF containing forms and annotations. There are XFDF equivalents for
the Annots, Fields, F, and ID keys of the FDF dictionary. There are no XFDF equivalents for the other
entries in the FDF dictionary such as the Status, Encoding, JavaScript, EmbeddedFDFs, Differences,
Target, and Pages keys.
XFDF conforms to the XML standard (see W3C, Extensible Markup Language 1.0).
In the simplest case, an XFDF element or attribute maps directly to a key in a particular dictionary of PDF.
For example, the creationdate attribute is documented as corresponding to the CreationDate key
in the markup annotation dictionary. This specification provides a description of the creationdate
attribute, but more detailed information can be found in ISO 32000-2.
An example creationdate attribute in XFDF:
creationdate=”D:20030425095243-07’00”
An equivalent entry in PDF or FDF would look like:
/CreationDate (D:20030425095243-07’00)
In the example above, the underlying data stored within XFDF or PDF is identical. However, in other
cases, the name and value differ. For example, the flags attribute corresponds to the F key in the
annotation dictionary. The value of the flags attribute is a comma separated list of the descriptive
names of the flags, while the value of the F key is an integer with each bit representing a flag.
This is the XFDF flags attribute:
flags=”print,nozoom,norotate”
This is the equivalent F entry in PDF or FDF:
/F 28
Finally, an element with multiple attributes can map to a single key with multiple values. The ids
element in XFDF has attributes original and modified that map to the ID key in the FDF dictionary.
Below is an example ids element in XFDF:
modified=”BEF7724317B311718E8675B677EF9B4E” />
This is the corresponding ID entry in FDF:
/ID [<7a0631678ed475f0898815f0a818cfa1>]
4 © ISO 2016 – All rights reserved

5.4.2 Sample form in FDF and XFDF
Both FDF and XFDF for forms contain the same information: field name and value. In this FDF example,
with line returns added for readability, the Fields key contains two fields named Street and City:
%FDF-1.2
%âãÏÓ
1 0 obj
<< /FDF
<< /F (Document.pdf)
/ID [ <7a0631678ed475f0898815f0a818cfa1>
]
/Fields [
<< /T (Street)
/V (345 Park Ave.) >>
<< /T (City) /V (San Jose)>>
] >>
>>
endobj
trailer
<< /Root 1 0 R >>
%%EOF
This is the XFDF version of the same form fields. The fields element contains two field elements with
attribute name set to Street and City:



modified=”BEF7724317B311718E8675B677EF9B4E”/>


345 Park Ave.


San Jose



5.4.3 Sample annotation in FDF and XFDF
XFDF and FDF contain similar information but XFDF is represented in the XML format. This is a snippet
of an FDF file containing a note annotation (line breaks added for readability):
%FDF-1.2
%âãÏÓ
1 0 obj
<< /FDF
<< /F (/C/Samples/Document.pdf)
/ID [ <7a0631678ed475f0898815f0a818cfa1>
]
/Annots [4 0 R 3 0 R] >>
>>
endobj
3 0 obj
<< . >>
endobj
4 0 obj
<< /F 28
/Page 0
...
/Type /Annot
/Subj (Note)
/Rect [271.850464 690.255371 291.850464 708.255371]
/CreationDate (D:20030425095243-07’00’)
/NM (apYVRecPEj75sYIwSxME7C)
...
/Subtype /Text
... >>
endobj
trailer
<< /Root 1 0 R >>
%%EOF
This is the same data in XFDF format:



7724317B311718E8675B677EF9B4E”
/>

4,690.255371,291.850464,708.255371”
6 © ISO 2016 – All rights reserved

creationdate=”D:20030425095243-07’00’” name=”apYVRecPEj75sYIwSxME7C” .
>
...




5.5 Writing XFDF
5.5.1 General
This clause describes XML implementation details specific to XFDF.
5.5.2 Encoding and Namespace
The encoding in the XFDF file shall be UTF-8. Each XFDF file shall begin with the line:

The namespace for XFDF shall be:
http://ns.adobe.com/xfdf/
The XML shall always specify that space is preserved in the XFDF files as follows:
xml:space=”preserve”
Therefore, an XFDF document shall always begin with the following two lines:


5.6 Understanding forms
5.6.1 General
An XFDF file with form data contains form field names and values. When importing XFDF into a PDF
processor, the target PDF file must already contain the form fields. Importing XFDF updates the form
field values in the PDF file. Exporting to XFDF puts the current value of the field in the value element.
Using XFDF, it is not possible to create a new form field in a PDF document, or change anything other
than the value of an existing form field.
5.6.2 Simple XFDF form
Figure 3 depicts a simple PDF document representing an address label containing text box form fields
named Name, Street and CityState.
Figure 3 — PDF representing an address label showing example form field names
In the example below, the href attribute on the f element points to the PDF document that contains
the form fields. The ids element’s original attribute contains a permanent identifier for the file, and
the modified attribute contains an identifier that changes with each modification to the file. The fields
element contains the three form fields and their respective values.



modified=”BEF7724317B311718E8675B677EF9B4E”/>


Adobe Systems, Inc.


345 Park Ave.


San Jose, CA 95110



5.6.3 Hierarchical XFDF form
Hierarchical form fields are commonly represented using a dot notation. If Name, Street and CityState
are part of an Address, the fields are named:
Address.Name Address.Street Address.CityState
Figure 4 show the same PDF rendition as Figure 3, but the field names are changed to hierarchical
form fields.
Figure 4 — PDF representing an address label showing example hierarchical form field names
8 © ISO 2016 – All rights reserved

In XFDF exported from this PDF file, hierarchical form fields are represented using nested field
elements. The Address field contains the Name, Street and CityState fields:





Adobe Systems, Inc.


345 Park Ave.


San Jose, CA 95110




5.7 Understanding annotations
5.7.1 General
XFDF annotations contain full information to recreate the annotation in a PDF document, including size
and position on the page, the open or closed state of the annotation, colour, and attached comments.
Unlike forms, a new annotation can be created when XFDF is imported into a PDF file. However, this
means that the XFDF for annotations is more complex than for forms.
Markup and Popup annotations are represented in XFDF; there are only eight annotations that are not
represented in XFDF. Each annotation is represented by an element: for example, a Text annotation is
represented by the text element, and a Polygon annotation is represented by the polygon element.
This table lists annotations that are supported and unsupported by XFDF.
Table 1 — List of supported and unsupported annotations
Supported annotation types Unsupported annotations
Text Movie
FreeText Widget
Line Screen
Square PrinterMark
Circle TrapNet
Polygon RichMedia (PDF 2.0)
Polyline
3D (PDF 2.0)
Highlight
Watermark (PDF 2.0)
Underline
Squiggly
StrikeOut
Stamp
Caret
Ink
Table 1 (continued)
Supported annotation types Unsupported annotations
Popup
FileAttachment
Sound
Link
Redact
Projection (PDF 2.0)
5.7.2 Simple XFDF annotation
Figure 5 shows an example where a stamp annotation has been applied to a page in a PDF file.
Figure 5 — Stamp annotation applied to a PDF file
In the example below, the href attribute on the f element contains the name of the PDF file that
exported the annotations. The ids element’s original attribute contains a permanent identifier for the
file, and the modified attribute contains an identifier that changes with each modification to the file.
Next is the annots element, which contains all annotations in the document. In this case, there is
only one stamp annotation. In contrast to forms, annotations have many attributes, such as color or
title, that can be modified and imported back into the PDF file to change the look of the annotation.
The stamp element contains a popup element which corresponds to the popup window for adding
comments that is attached to the annotation. In this example, the popup window is empty and closed
(open=”no”).



7724317B311718E8675B677EF9B4E”/>

,216.486893,718.539551”
creationdate=”D:20030528192526-07’00’” name=”jNrKlQf-J0kz3Y3a0cPjzA” icon=”S-
BApproved” color=”#FF0000” date=”D:20030528192529-07’00”
title=”cmy”>
9,792.000000,739.065979”
open=”no”/>



10 © ISO 2016 – All rights reserved

5.7.3 Annotation with popup text
Figure 6 shows an example of the rubber stamp annotation with an open popup note with text.
Figure 6 — Example of a rubber stamp annotation with an open popup note
In the exported XFDF for the stamp element, the text of the popup is contained in a contents-
richtext element which contains elements that conform to a subset of the XFA text specification.
These are commonly referred to as rich text strings. For more information on rich text strings, see
5.8.3. Here is the new stamp element
...