PDF Association Cheat Sheet – Common Objects

Graphics State Annotations (28)

Parameter Type(s) Version ExtGState Key(s) Operator(s) Initial Value Subtype Version Description
Caret 1.5 Caret mark, indicating presence of text edit. ‸
CTM array (matrix) 1.0 - cm Identity matrix: [ 1 0 0 1 0 0 ]
Circle 1.3 Ellipse-shaped markup.
Clipping path path 1.0 - W, W*, MediaBox of page.
ET (if Tr=4-7) BBox for XObjects. FileAttachment 1.3 File attachment linked to a file specification
dictionary.
Color space name or array 1.0 - various DeviceGray
FreeText 1.3 Displays free (variable) text directly on top of the
Color various 1.0 - various black (0.0) in DeviceGray page as a callout.
Tm, Td, TD, Highlight 1.3 Highlight-style annotation. Highlight
Text matrix array (matrix) 1.0 - Identity matrix: [ 1 0 0 1 0 0 ]
T*, ', " Ink 1.3 Freehand "scribble" (arbitrary disjoint paths).
Text font and size name and number 1.0 Font Tf no initial value (unset) Line 1.3 Single straight line, with caption, leader lines,

Markup Annotations (18)

- Tz 100.0 measurement.
Text horizontal scaling number (> 0, percentage) 1.0
Polygon 1.5 Display closed polygons, with lines or curves and
Text Knockout boolean 1.4 TK - false
various line ending styles.
Text character spacing number 1.0 - Tc, " 0.0 PolyLine 1.5 Polyline annotation, with lines or curves (not closed)
Device Independent (25)

Text word spacing number 1.0 - Tw, " 0.0 with various line ending styles.
Projection 2.0 Comments within 3D environments.
Text Leading number 1.0 - TL, TD, T* 0.0
Redact 1.7 Redaction annotation for content identification that
Text rendering mode integer (0-7) 1.0 - Tr 0 (fill) is to be removed.
Text rise number 1.0 - Ts 0.0 Sound 1.2 Sound annotation, with associated text.
LW w 1.0
(Deprecated in PDF 2.0) Use RichMedia annotation instead.
Line Width number 1.0
Square 1.3 Rectangular markup.
Line Cap integer (0-3) 1.0 LC J 0 (butt cap)
Squiggly 1.4 Squiggly-underline markup. Squiggly.
Line Join integer (0-3) 1.0 LJ j 0 (miter join)
Stamp 1.3 Rubber stamp style annotation.
Miter Limit number 1.0 ML M 10.0
StrikeOut 1.3 Strikethrough annotation (strikethrough)
Dash pattern array and number 1.0 D d [] 0 (solid undashed line) Text 1.0 "Sticky note" style annotation.
Rendering Intent name 1.3 RI ri RelativeColorimetric Does not rotate or scale with page.
SA - false Underline 1.3 Underline markup. Underline.
Stroke Adjustment boolean 1.2
Blend Mode name or array (array 1.4 BM - Normal 3D 1.6 3D artwork using U3D or PRC 3D data formats.
deprecated in PDF 2.0) Link 1.0 Hyperlink to destination in a PDF or perform an
Soft Mask dictionary or name 1.4 SMask - None action (e.g. URL).
Movie 1.2 Movie annotation.
Constant Alpha number 1.4 ca, CA - 1.0 (fully opaque) (Deprecated in PDF 2.0) Use RichMedia annotation instead.
Alpha Is Source boolean 1.4 AIS - false Popup 1.3 Popup annotation. Must be used with markup
Black Point Compensation name 2.0 UseBlackPtComp - Default. Values are ON, OFF and Default. annotations.
PrinterMark 1.4 Printer’s marks such as registration targets, color
OverPrint boolean 1.3 op, OP - false bars, cut marks, etc.
OverPrint Mode number 1.3 OPM - 0 RichMedia 2.0 Rich media content such as 3D, audio or video.
Device Dependent (9)

Black Generation function or name 1.2 BG, BG2 - implementation dependent Screen 1.5 Region of a page where media clips are played, with
rendition actions.
UnderColor Removal function or name 1.2 UCR, UCR2 - implementation dependent
TrapNet 1.3 Defines any page trapping. Only one per page.
TRansfer function function, name, or array 1.2 TR, TR2 - implementation dependent (Deprecated in PDF 2.0) Must be last annotation on a page.
HalfTone dictionary, stream, or name 1.2 HT - implementation dependent
Flatness error
tolerance Watermark 1.6 Fixed size and position watermark annotation.
HalfTone Origin array (2 numbers, point) 2.0 HTO - implementation dependent Widget 1.2 Widget annotations for field appearances on
interactive forms.
FLatness tolerance number 1.0 FL i 1.0 (output device pixels)
See §12.5 and §13 in ISO 32000-2:2020.
SMoothness tolerance number 1.3 SM - implementation dependent
• UPPERCASE = stroking
lowercase = filling (non-stroking)

© 2024 PDF Association, https://pdfa.org Date:

2024.10.25
12:26:18
-04'00'
 PDF Association Cheat Sheet – Common Objects
Color Spaces (11) Fonts (7)
Color Space Comp. Version Type PDF object / description Subtype Description
Device Gray 1 1.1 name • /DeviceGray Type 0 Type0 A composite font — a font composed of glyphs from a
• Additive color space descendant CIDFont. (PDF 1.2)
Device (3)

Device RGB 3 1.0 name • /DeviceRGB Type 1 Type1 A simple font that defines glyphs using Type 1 (PostScript
• Additive color space based) font technology

Device CMYK 4 1.1 name • /DeviceCMYK MMType1 A multiple master font — an extension of Type 1 fonts that
• Subtractive color space allows generation of a wide variety of typeface styles from a
single font.
Calibrated Gray 1 1.1 array • [ /CalGray dict ]
Type 3 Type3 A simple font where glyph descriptions are PDF content
• << /WhitePoint [X W 1.0 Z W ] /BlackPoint [X B Y B Z B ] /Gamma g >>
streams defined in the CharProcs array. Each content stream
Calibrated RGB 3 1.1 array • [ /CalRGB dict ] must start with either the d0 or d1 operator.
• << /WhitePoint [X W 1.0 Z W ] /BlackPoint [X K Y K Z K ] TrueType TrueType A simple font based on TrueType or OpenType.
/Gamma [G R G G G B ] /Matrix [ … 9 numbers … ] >>
CIDFont CIDFontType0 A CIDFont whose glyph descriptions are based on CFF font
L*a*b* 3 1.1 array • [ /Lab dict ] technology. Cannot be used with Tf operator. (PDF 1.2)
• << /WhitePoint [X W 1.0 Z W ] /BlackPoint [X B Y B Z B ]
/Range [ a min a max b min b max ] >> CIDFontType2 A CIDFont whose glyph descriptions are based on TrueType
CIE-Based Color Spaces (4)

• Default Range is [ -128 127 -128 127 ]. 0 ≤ L* ≤ 100. glyph technology. Cannot be used with Tf operator. (PDF 1.2)

Document Catalog Names name-trees (10)

Key Version String maps to…
AlternatePresentations 1.4 Alternate presentations.
(deprecated in PDF 2.0)
AP 1.3 Annotation appearances.
Dests 1.2 Destinations.
EmbeddedFiles 1.4 File specifications for embedded files.
IDS 1.3 ID strings mapped to Web Capture content sets.
JavaScript 1.3 Document-level ECMAScript actions.
Pages 1.3 Visible pages for use with interactive forms.
ICC based 1,3,4 1.3 array • [ /ICCBased stream ]
Renditions 1.5 Rendition objects.
• Additional stream dictionary entries for ICCBased:
<< /N n /Alternate altCS /Range [… 2×n numbers …] … >> Templates 1.3 Invisible (template) pages for use with forms.
URLS 1.3 URLs mapping to Web Capture content sets.
Separation 1 1.2 array • [ /Separation spotname altCS tintTransform ]
• spotname: All, None, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black, or custom. See Table 32 in ISO 32000-2:2020
• altCS: any device or CIE-based colour space with m components.
• tintTransform: PDF function object with 1 in → m out.
• Treated as subtractive color space: 0.0 (lightest) ≤ tint ≤ 1.0 (darkest) Resource dictionary objects (8)
Special Color Spaces (4)

Device N N 1.3 array • [ /DeviceN [ spot1 … spotN ] altCS tintTransform attributes ] Key Version Type Description
• [ spot1 … spotN ]: an array containing N names of the spot colors ColorSpace 1.0 dictionary Names of a device-dependent color space, or color
• altCS: any device or CIE-based colour space with m components. space array objects.
• tintTransform: PDF function object with N in → m out. ExtGState 1.0 dictionary Graphic state parameter dictionaries.
• attributes: optional attributes dictionary. /Subtype DeviceN or NChannel Font 1.0 dictionary Font dictionaries.
• Treated as subtractive color space: 0.0 (lightest) ≤ tint i ≤ 1.0 (darkest)
Pattern 1.0 dictionary Pattern objects.
Indexed 1-256 1.1 array • [ /Indexed baseCS hival lookup ]
ProcSet 1.0 array Pre-defined PostScript procedure set names.
• baseCS: any device or CIE-based colour space or (PDF 1.3) a Separation or DeviceN space, but not a
Pattern or another Indexed color space. (Deprecated in PDF 1.4)
• 0 ≤ hival ≤ 255. All indices snapped to-range 0 - hival, 0.5 is rounded up to next valid index. Properties 1.2 dictionary Property list dictionaries for Marked Content.
• lookup is a byte string (PDF 1.2) or stream which is hival × m bytes, where m is the number of Shading 1.3 dictionary Shading dictionaries.
components (channels) in baseCS
XObject 1.0 dictionary Form and Image XObjects.
Pattern n/a 1.2 array • [ /Pattern baseCS ]
See Table 34 in ISO 32000-2:2020

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