How to attach files to a PDF in Java (Tutorial)

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In this article I will show you how you can attach PDF files in Java using our JPedal PDF SDK toolkit, using a few lines of Java code.

JPedal offers other PDF manipulation features, to aid Java developers working with the PDF format.

Introduction

PDF is a powerful format, and one such feature is the ability to embed/attach files within a PDF document. This is useful if you want to bundle resources with a document but do not want to distribute them as a ZIP or RAR file, and is great for PDF/A compliance.

Adding attachments to PDF

If you want to be able to programmatically attach files to a PDF document using Java, you may use our PDF toolkit JPedal.

First, download the trial JAR
Second, add JPedal to your project
Finally, add the following Java code to your app:

final PdfManipulator pdf = new PdfManipulator();

pdf.loadDocument(new File("inputFile.pdf"));

pdf.embedFile(new File("embed.png"), "embedded-image");

pdf.apply();

pdf.writeDocument(new File("outputFile.pdf"));

pdf.closeDocument();

If you want to include a FileAttachment annotation on a page to reference the attached file, you can specify a color and a bounding box like so:

pdf.attachFile(1, new File("embed.png"), "embedded-image",

        new float[] {10.0f, 10.0f, 100.0f, 100.0f}, new float[] {0.7f, 0.3f, 0.4f});

Learn more about the PdfManipulator class.

Viewing attachments

If you want to view the files attachments that you have embedded in your PDF document, you may use a PDF viewer such as the JPedal Viewer.

java -jar jpedal.jar --view "inputFile.pdf"

Learn more about the JPedal Viewer.

We’ve been working with PDF files for over two decades and can help you understand the PDF format…

The JPedal PDF library allows you to solve these problems in Java

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ExtractClippedImages.writeAllClippedImagesToDir("inputFileOrDirectory", "outputDir", "outputImageFormat", new String[] {"imageHeightAsFloat", "subDirectoryForHeight"});

final PdfManipulator pdf = new PdfManipulator();
pdf.loadDocument(new File("inputFile.pdf"));
pdf.addPage(1, PaperSize.A4_LANDSCAPE);
pdf.addText(1, "Hello World", 10, 10, BaseFont.HelveticaBold, 12, 1, 0.3f, 0.2f);
pdf.addImage(1, new BufferedImage(), new float[] {0, 0, 100, 100});
pdf.rotatePage(1, 90);
pdf.apply();
pdf.writeDocument(new File("outputFile.pdf"));

Viewer viewer = new Viewer();
viewer.setupViewer();
viewer.executeCommand(ViewerCommands.OPENFILE, "pdfFile.pdf");

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ExtractTextAsWordList.writeAllWordlistsToDir("inputFileOrDirectory", "outputDir", -1);

PdfMerge.mergeFiles(new File("inputFile1.pdf"), new File("inputFile2.pdf"), new File("outputFile.pdf"));

PdfManipulator.splitInHalf(new File("inputFile.pdf"), new File("outputFolder"), pageToSplitAt);

PrintPdfPages print = new PrintPdfPages("C:/pdfs/mypdf.pdf");

if (print.openPDFFile()) {
    print.printAllPages("Printer Name");
}

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ExtractClippedImages.writeAllClippedImagesToDir("inputFileOrDirectory", "outputDir", "outputImageFormat", new String[] {"imageHeightAsFloat", "subDirectoryForHeight"});

//Convenience static method (see class for additional options)
ArrayList resultsForPages = FindTextInRectangle.findTextOnAllPages("/path/to/file.pdf", "textToFind");

java -jar jpedal.jar --inspect "inputFile.pdf"

PdfSigner.signPdf(
        "inputFile.pdf",
        "outputFile.pdf",
        "keystorePassword",
        "keystoreFile.p12",
        "signerName",
        "signerLocation",
        "signingReason",
        ACCESS_PERMISSION.P1
);

How to attach files to a PDF in Java (Tutorial)

Introduction

Adding attachments to PDF

Viewing attachments

The JPedal PDF library allows you to solve these problems in Java

What is JPedal?

Why use JPedal?

What licenses are available?

How to use JPedal?

How to extract text from a PDF as Markdown

JPedal: Java PDF Parser

How to add annotations to a PDF file