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Orbeon Forms

Automatic PDF

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Introduction

The PDF is produced based on the appearance of the form in your web browser. This is similar to printing a read-only version of your form. As a form author, you do not need to take any action to enable this mode. In addition, a header and footer is provided by default.

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Header and footer configuration

See Header and footer configuration.

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Font configuration and embedding

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Overview

These properties allow specifying fonts to embed in PDF files. You do this with 2 properties, which are tied together by a name you choose, and which doesn't have any significance outside the properties-local.xml. For instance, say you want to use the Robotoarrow-up-right font. You first map the family name, which you use in your CSS (here Roboto, with an uppercase R) to the name you chose (here roboto, with a lowercase r):

<property
    as="xs:string"
    name="oxf.fr.pdf.font.family.roboto"
    value="Roboto"/>

Then you indicate where the TTF file for the name you chose is located on disk, using either one of the following two properties. Use the first [SINCE Orbeon Forms 2019.2] if you want to place your font inside the Orbeon Forms WIB-INF/resources directory, or use the second if you want to place it somewhere else, referring to the file using an absolute path.

<property
     as="xs:string"  
     name="oxf.fr.pdf.font.resource.roboto"                                  
     value="/forms/resources/Roboto-Medium.ttf"/>
<property
    as="xs:string"
    name="oxf.fr.pdf.font.path.roboto"
    value="/absolute/path/to/Roboto-Medium.ttf"/>

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Changing the default font

To change the main font, you must map your TTF file to the Helvetica Neue family. You often need to do this if you are using characters that are not included in the default font used by the PDF engine, for instance to have Chinese characters show in the PDF. To change this, you need to obtain a Unicode font, and configure it as follows, here assuming the file is named arialuni.ttf:

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New default font

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2022.1]

Orbeon Forms now includes the Inter fontarrow-up-right by default. This provides more characters out of the box (see Language supportarrow-up-right).

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PDF color mode

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2023.1]

By default, the PDF is output with most colors removed and a black-and-white scheme. With the oxf.fr.detail.pdf.color-mode property, you can change that default. This impacts the following form controls:

  • Explanatory Text

  • Formatted Text

  • Calculated Value (if the value is in HTML format)

Allowed values:

  • black-and-white (default): Most colors are removed and a black-and-white scheme is used.

  • keep-field-colors: Field colors are preserved in the PDF output.

  • [SINCE Orbeon Forms 2025.1]arrow-up-right color: Field colors are preserved, and CSS variables related to colors can be overridden in a custom @media print section and will be used by the PDF generator. For more information, see Overriding CSS variables.

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Accessibility and PDF/A support

[SINCE Orbeon Forms 2022.1.5 and 2023.1]

Experimentally, the following properties allow enabling accessibility and PDF/A support:

  • oxf.fr.pdf.accessibility

    • enable or disable accessibility support

    • values: true or false

    • default: false

  • oxf.fr.pdf.pdf/a

    • enable or disable PDF/A support

    • values:

      • none: disabled

      • 1a: PDF/A-1a – Level A (accessible) conformance

      • 1b: PDF/A-1b – Level B (basic) conformance

      • 2a: PDF/A-2a

      • 2b: PDF/A-2b

      • 2u: PDF/A-2b plus Unicode

      • 3a: PDF/A-3a

      • 3b: PDF/A-3b

      • 3u: PDF/A-3b plus Unicode

    • default: none

Note that the values above are simply passed to the PDF renderer library used by Orbeon Forms. There is currently no guarantee of compliance with the PDF/A standard.

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See also

PreviousPDF productionNextAutomatic PDF header and footer configuration

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