Import annotations, form fields, and form values into your PDF documents with our XFDF API.
Seamlessly bring in highlights, comments, form field definitions, and field values using the XFDF (XML Forms Data Format) standard.
Automatically import XFDF annotations into PDF files using our Zapier integration. Just upload the XFDF and PDF to Google Drive. Nutrient handles the merge without manual intervention.
Perfect for workflows that involve form prefilling, automated review comments, or importing markup from external systems.
This example will import an XFDF file with annotations into your PDF.
Try it out in three steps
annotations.pdf and an XFDF file named annotations.xfdf to your project folder.result.pdf to see the output.curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build \ -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" \ -o result.pdf \ --fail \ -F document=@annotations.pdf \ -F annotations.xfdf=@annotations.xfdf \ -F instructions='{ "parts": [ { "file": "document" } ], "actions": [ { "type": "applyXfdf", "file": "annotations.xfdf" } ] }'curl -X POST https://api.nutrient.io/build ^ -H "Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here" ^ -o result.pdf ^ --fail ^ -F document=@annotations.pdf ^ -F annotations.xfdf=@annotations.xfdf ^ -F instructions="{\"parts\": [{\"file\": \"document\"}], \"actions\": [{\"type\": \"applyXfdf\", \"file\": \"annotations.xfdf\"}]}"package com.example.pspdfkit;
import java.io.File;import java.io.IOException;import java.nio.file.FileSystems;import java.nio.file.Files;import java.nio.file.StandardCopyOption;
import org.json.JSONArray;import org.json.JSONObject;
import okhttp3.MediaType;import okhttp3.MultipartBody;import okhttp3.OkHttpClient;import okhttp3.Request;import okhttp3.RequestBody;import okhttp3.Response;
public final class PspdfkitApiExample { public static void main(final String[] args) throws IOException { final RequestBody body = new MultipartBody.Builder() .setType(MultipartBody.FORM) .addFormDataPart( "document", "annotations.pdf", RequestBody.create( MediaType.parse("application/pdf"), new File("annotations.pdf") ) ) .addFormDataPart( "annotations.xfdf", "annotations.xfdf", RequestBody.create( MediaType.parse("application/octet-stream"), new File("annotations.xfdf") ) ) .addFormDataPart( "instructions", new JSONObject() .put("parts", new JSONArray() .put(new JSONObject() .put("file", "document") ) ) .put("actions", new JSONArray() .put(new JSONObject() .put("type", "applyXfdf") .put("file", "annotations.xfdf") ) ).toString() ) .build();
final Request request = new Request.Builder() .url("https://api.nutrient.io/build") .method("POST", body) .addHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here") .build();
final OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient() .newBuilder() .build();
final Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();
if (response.isSuccessful()) { Files.copy( response.body().byteStream(), FileSystems.getDefault().getPath("result.pdf"), StandardCopyOption.REPLACE_EXISTING ); } else { // Handle the error throw new IOException(response.body().string()); } }}using System;using System.IO;using System.Net;using RestSharp;
namespace PspdfkitApiDemo{ class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { var client = new RestClient("https://api.nutrient.io/build");
var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST) .AddHeader("Authorization", "Bearer your_api_key_here") .AddFile("document", "annotations.pdf") .AddFile("annotations.xfdf", "annotations.xfdf") .AddParameter("instructions", new JsonObject { ["parts"] = new JsonArray { new JsonObject { ["file"] = "document" } }, ["actions"] = new JsonArray { new JsonObject { ["type"] = "applyXfdf", ["file"] = "annotations.xfdf" } } }.ToString());
request.AdvancedResponseWriter = (responseStream, response) => { if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK) { using (responseStream) { using var outputFileWriter = File.OpenWrite("result.pdf"); responseStream.CopyTo(outputFileWriter); } } else { var responseStreamReader = new StreamReader(responseStream); Console.Write(responseStreamReader.ReadToEnd()); } };
client.Execute(request); } }}// This code requires Node.js. Do not run this code directly in a web browser.
const axios = require('axios')const FormData = require('form-data')const fs = require('fs')
const formData = new FormData()formData.append('instructions', JSON.stringify({ parts: [ { file: "document" } ], actions: [ { type: "applyXfdf", file: "annotations.xfdf" } ]}))formData.append('document', fs.createReadStream('annotations.pdf'))formData.append('annotations.xfdf', fs.createReadStream('annotations.xfdf'))
;(async () => { try { const response = await axios.post('https://api.nutrient.io/build', formData, { headers: formData.getHeaders({ 'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here' }), responseType: "stream" })
response.data.pipe(fs.createWriteStream("result.pdf")) } catch (e) { const errorString = await streamToString(e.response.data) console.log(errorString) }})()
function streamToString(stream) { const chunks = [] return new Promise((resolve, reject) => { stream.on("data", (chunk) => chunks.push(Buffer.from(chunk))) stream.on("error", (err) => reject(err)) stream.on("end", () => resolve(Buffer.concat(chunks).toString("utf8"))) })}import requestsimport json
response = requests.request( 'POST', 'https://api.nutrient.io/build', headers = { 'Authorization': 'Bearer your_api_key_here' }, files = { 'document': open('annotations.pdf', 'rb'), 'annotations.xfdf': open('annotations.xfdf', 'rb') }, data = { 'instructions': json.dumps({ 'parts': [ { 'file': 'document' } ], 'actions': [ { 'type': 'applyXfdf', 'file': 'annotations.xfdf' } ] }) }, stream = True)
if response.ok: with open('result.pdf', 'wb') as fd: for chunk in response.iter_content(chunk_size=8096): fd.write(chunk)else: print(response.text) exit()<?php
$FileHandle = fopen('result.pdf', 'w+');
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, array( CURLOPT_URL => 'https://api.nutrient.io/build', CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST', CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true, CURLOPT_ENCODING => '', CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array( 'instructions' => '{ "parts": [ { "file": "document" } ], "actions": [ { "type": "applyXfdf", "file": "annotations.xfdf" } ] }', 'document' => new CURLFILE('annotations.pdf'), 'annotations.xfdf' => new CURLFILE('annotations.xfdf') ), CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array( 'Authorization: Bearer your_api_key_here' ), CURLOPT_FILE => $FileHandle,));
$response = curl_exec($curl);
curl_close($curl);
fclose($FileHandle);POST https://api.nutrient.io/build HTTP/1.1Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=--customboundaryAuthorization: Bearer your_api_key_here
--customboundaryContent-Disposition: form-data; name="instructions"Content-Type: application/json
{ "parts": [ { "file": "document" } ], "actions": [ { "type": "applyXfdf", "file": "annotations.xfdf" } ]}--customboundaryContent-Disposition: form-data; name="document"; filename="annotations.pdf"Content-Type: application/pdf
(document data)--customboundaryContent-Disposition: form-data; name="annotations.xfdf"; filename="annotations.xfdf"Content-Type: application/octet-stream
(annotations.xfdf data)--customboundary--Most common next steps
Use the following:
Get started:
Platform resources:
No input or resulting documents are stored on our infrastructure. All files are deleted as soon as a request finishes. Alternatively, check out our self-hosted product.
All communication between your application and Nutrient is done via HTTPS to ensure your data is encrypted when it’s sent to us.
All payments are handled by Paddle. Nutrient DWS Processor API never has direct access to any of your payment data.
An XFDF import API merges XFDF annotation and form data into a PDF with a single API call. With Nutrient’s DWS Processor API, you can apply saved annotations and form field values to a document without building your own PDF tooling.
XFDF (XML Forms Data Format) is an XML-based standard in the PDF specification for representing annotations and form field data separately from the document, so it can be stored, transmitted, and reapplied.
Send your PDF and the XFDF data to the Nutrient DWS Processor API, and it returns the PDF with the annotations and form values applied. You can call it via REST, Postman, curl, JavaScript, Python, Java, C#, or PHP.
You can call the API from any language that can make HTTP requests. We provide quick start examples for JavaScript, Python, Java, C# (.NET), and PHP, plus REST and a Postman collection.
Yes. You can start for free — sign up to receive processing credits and try the XFDF import API before choosing a Processor API plan.
Create an account to get your DWS Processor API key and start making API calls.