Text is defined in the PDF file format as a display value (normally what you see onscreen) and an extraction value. It is useful to have 2 options because some characters are displayed differently to what you extract (for example fl is one glyf onscreen but two in extracted text).
But did you know you can have an additional value set to show the actual Text enclosed in a Tj command? If you are using MArked Content, the Dictionary can contain a Dictionary value /ActualText which will be used in place of whatever is shown in the Tj command, which is ignored. So if you want to add something different (or just ensure that the value comes out exactly as you want, it is a useful feature. What would you use it for?
This post is part of our “Understanding the PDF File Format” series. In each article, we aim to take a specific PDF feature and explain it in simple terms. If you wish to learn more about PDF, we have 13 years worth of PDF knowledge and tips, so click here to visit our series index!
Did you know...
IDRsolutions offers a whole range of online file converters to convert PDF and Microsoft Excel, Word and Office Documents to HTML5, SVG or image formats?
It is free to use for single file conversions and also includes Developer links if you want to use our commercial software for bulk conversions. Find out more on this page
