What are PDF Forms?

Have you ever seen a PDF file with interactive buttons, fillable fields, checkboxes, text, or radio buttons? These interactive elements are PDF forms….

You can see some more example forms on our FormVu sales page.

This is one of my favourite features on the PDF file format because it makes the documents interactive and much more useful. This makes them very useful for collecting data, placing orders and creating invoices. People have even written games using them! This data can be saved as part of the document or submitted to a server.

There are 2 types of PDF Form

There are currently 2 types of PDF form based on 2 different technologies – AcroForms and XFA. They are very different technically and most PDF libraries do not support XFA.

1. The AcroForms dates back to the beginning of time. It stores data in standard COS object format.

2. An alternative XML based format called XFA (XML Forms Architecture). There is also a legacy mode in which both AcroForms and XFA versions are present in a Document.

AcroForms was the original format and is well supported. XFA is the newer format which has now been deprecated and removed from the PDF file format. It is not as well supported as AcroForms. You need to use Adobe LiveCycle to process them (Itext and our FormVu converter can also handle them).

Although each has its own specification, they both have things like borders, colors etc as you would expect. They also have actions defined within each. PDF forms can also include JavaScript to do calculations – for example adding 2 values together and filling in a total field.

What are fillable PDF forms?

Fillable PDF forms, as the name suggests, are forms in PDF that contain fields that can be filled with the text or numbers. In addition you can also choose from a list of options with a drop down menu, check boxes for selection and also sign documents electronically. These types of PDFs are used for surveys, applications where the users input is required.

Fillable PDF forms are often embedded into websites where user data is collected. They erase the need for manual entry and also support additional features like calculation and data validation.

What is an Interactive PDF?

Interactive PDF come from a wider category and include other interactive elements as well. With these types of PDFs you introduce features such as hyperlinks, scripts and buttons. Furthermore you can embed media such as videos, audio and GIFs which makes the content overall more engaging.

Interactive PDFs include uses such as that for educational purposes. By diversifying the type of content within the PDF and allowing greater level of interaction by the user, the end user experience is much more collaborative.

You can learn more about commonly used PDF terms through our extensive PDF glossary.

FormVu allows you to