--- title: "Annotation Overlay" canonical_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/samples/annotation-overlay-java/" md_url: "https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/samples/annotation-overlay-java.md" last_updated: "2026-05-15T19:10:04.916Z" description: "Display annotations in overlay mode as separate Android Views above the page." --- # Annotation Overlay Display annotations in overlay mode as separate Android Views above the page. [Get Started](https://www.nutrient.io/sdk/android/getting-started.md) [All Samples](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/samples.md) [Download](https://www.nutrient.io/guides/android/downloads.md) [Launch Demo](https://www.nutrient.io/demo/) --- ```java /* * Copyright © 2018-2026 PSPDFKit GmbH. All rights reserved. * * The PSPDFKit Sample applications are licensed with a modified BSD license. * Please see License for details. This notice may not be removed from this file. */ package com.pspdfkit.catalog.examples.java; import android.content.Context; import android.content.Intent; import android.net.Uri; import android.os.Bundle; import android.view.ContextMenu; import android.view.Menu; import android.view.MenuItem; import android.view.View; import androidx.annotation.NonNull; import com.google.android.material.floatingactionbutton.FloatingActionButton; import com.pspdfkit.annotations.Annotation; import com.pspdfkit.annotations.AnnotationType; import com.pspdfkit.catalog.R; import com.pspdfkit.catalog.SdkExample; import com.pspdfkit.catalog.tasks.ExtractAssetTask; import com.pspdfkit.configuration.activity.PdfActivityConfiguration; import com.pspdfkit.ui.PdfActivity; import com.pspdfkit.ui.PdfActivityIntentBuilder; import com.pspdfkit.ui.annotations.OnAnnotationSelectedListener; import com.pspdfkit.ui.rendering.AnnotationOverlayRenderStrategy; import java.util.EnumSet; import java.util.List; /** Showcases how to display annotations in overlay mode. */ public class AnnotationOverlayExample extends SdkExample { public AnnotationOverlayExample(@NonNull final Context context) { super(context, R.string.annotationOverlayExampleTitle, R.string.annotationOverlayExampleDescription); } @Override public void launchExample( @NonNull final Context context, @NonNull final PdfActivityConfiguration.Builder configuration) { // Use custom layout with FAB for per-annotation overlay toggle. configuration.layout(R.layout.activity_annotation_overlay); // Extract the document from the assets. ExtractAssetTask.extract(ANNOTATIONS_EXAMPLE, getTitle(), context, documentFile -> { // To start the example create a launch intent using the builder. final Intent intent = PdfActivityIntentBuilder.fromUri(context, Uri.fromFile(documentFile)).configuration(configuration.build()).activityClass(AnnotationOverlayActivity.class).build(); context.startActivity(intent); }); } /** Showcases how to enable overlay mode for annotations. */ public static class AnnotationOverlayActivity extends PdfActivity implements OnAnnotationSelectedListener { /** * Holds per-type overlay overrides. When overlay is globally off, these types are * included in overlay. When overlay is globally on, these types are excluded from overlay. */ @NonNull private final EnumSet perTypeOverrides = EnumSet.noneOf(AnnotationType.class); /** Current strategy used for rendering annotations in overlay. */ @NonNull private AnnotationOverlayRenderStrategy.Strategy currentOverlayRenderingStrategy = AnnotationOverlayRenderStrategy.Strategy.AP_STREAM_RENDERING; /** Flag indicating whether annotation overlay is enabled. */ private boolean annotationOverlayEnabled = false; /** FAB for toggling overlay on selected annotations. */ private FloatingActionButton overlayFab; @Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); // Set up the FAB for toggling overlay on selected annotation types. overlayFab = findViewById(R.id.fab_toggle_annotation_overlay); registerForContextMenu(overlayFab); overlayFab.setOnClickListener(View::showContextMenu); // Listen for annotation selection changes to show/hide the FAB. requirePdfFragment().addOnAnnotationSelectedListener(this); // We'll set overlay render strategy that just returns currently configured strategy for all // annotations. requirePdfFragment().setAnnotationOverlayRenderStrategy(annotation -> currentOverlayRenderingStrategy); // We'll enable overlay for all supported annotation types immediately after activity // creation. enableOverlayForSupportedAnnotationTypes(); invalidateOptionsMenu(); } @Override public void onDestroy() { super.onDestroy(); requirePdfFragment().removeOnAnnotationSelectedListener(this); } @Override public void onAnnotationSelected(@NonNull Annotation annotation, boolean annotationCreated) { overlayFab.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE); } @Override public void onAnnotationDeselected(@NonNull Annotation annotation, boolean reselected) { if (!reselected) { overlayFab.setVisibility(View.GONE); } } @Override public boolean onOptionsItemSelected(@NonNull MenuItem item) { final int itemId = item.getItemId(); if (itemId == R.id.toggle_annotation_overlay) { if (annotationOverlayEnabled) { disableOverlayForAllAnnotationTypes(); } else { enableOverlayForSupportedAnnotationTypes(); } invalidateOptionsMenu(); return true; } else if (itemId == R.id.fire_low_memory_notification) { // We fire low memory notification manually // to showcase how annotation overlay mode // behaves when system is low on memory. requirePdfFragment().onLowMemory(); return true; } else if (itemId == R.id.toggle_overlay_rendering_strategy) { // Toggle the current overlay rendering strategy. if (currentOverlayRenderingStrategy == AnnotationOverlayRenderStrategy.Strategy.AP_STREAM_RENDERING) { currentOverlayRenderingStrategy = AnnotationOverlayRenderStrategy.Strategy.PLATFORM_RENDERING; } else { currentOverlayRenderingStrategy = AnnotationOverlayRenderStrategy.Strategy.AP_STREAM_RENDERING; } // Invalidate options to change button text to current state. invalidateOptionsMenu(); return true; } return super.onOptionsItemSelected(item); } private void disableOverlayForAllAnnotationTypes() { annotationOverlayEnabled = false; perTypeOverrides.clear(); applyOverlayTypes(); } private void enableOverlayForSupportedAnnotationTypes() { annotationOverlayEnabled = true; perTypeOverrides.clear(); applyOverlayTypes(); } private void applyOverlayTypes() { final EnumSet overlayTypes; if (annotationOverlayEnabled) { // Start with all types, then remove manually excluded ones. overlayTypes = EnumSet.allOf(AnnotationType.class); overlayTypes.removeAll(perTypeOverrides); } else { // Start with none, then add manually included ones. overlayTypes = EnumSet.noneOf(AnnotationType.class); overlayTypes.addAll(perTypeOverrides); } requirePdfFragment().setOverlaidAnnotationTypes(overlayTypes); } @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(@NonNull Menu menu) { super.onCreateOptionsMenu(menu); if (annotationOverlayEnabled) { menu.add(0, R.id.toggle_annotation_overlay, 0, "Disable annotation overlay"); // Toggling overlay strategy does not make sense when annotation overlay is disabled. if (currentOverlayRenderingStrategy == AnnotationOverlayRenderStrategy.Strategy.PLATFORM_RENDERING) { menu.add(0, R.id.toggle_overlay_rendering_strategy, 0, "Use AP stream rendering"); } else { menu.add(0, R.id.toggle_overlay_rendering_strategy, 0, "Use platform rendering"); } } else { menu.add(0, R.id.toggle_annotation_overlay, 0, "Enable annotation overlay"); } menu.add(0, R.id.fire_low_memory_notification, 0, "Fire low memory notification"); return true; } @Override public void onCreateContextMenu(ContextMenu menu, View v, ContextMenu.ContextMenuInfo menuInfo) { super.onCreateContextMenu(menu, v, menuInfo); List selectedAnnotations = requirePdfFragment().getSelectedAnnotations(); if (selectedAnnotations.size()!= 1) return; final AnnotationType annotationType = selectedAnnotations.get(0).getType(); // The effective overlay state for this type is: globally on XOR overridden. final boolean effectivelyOverlaid = annotationOverlayEnabled ^ perTypeOverrides.contains(annotationType); menu.add(0, R.id.toggle_annotation_overlay, 0, effectivelyOverlaid? "Disable overlay" : "Enable overlay"); } @Override public boolean onContextItemSelected(@NonNull MenuItem item) { if (requirePdfFragment().getSelectedAnnotations().size()!= 1) { return super.onContextItemSelected(item); } final Annotation annotation = requirePdfFragment().getSelectedAnnotations().get(0); final AnnotationType annotationType = annotation.getType(); final int itemId = item.getItemId(); if (itemId == R.id.toggle_annotation_overlay) { if (perTypeOverrides.contains(annotationType)) { perTypeOverrides.remove(annotationType); } else { perTypeOverrides.add(annotationType); } applyOverlayTypes(); return true; } return super.onContextItemSelected(item); } } } ``` This code sample is an example that illustrates how to use our SDK. Please adapt it to your specific use case. --- ## Related pages - [Application Policy](/guides/android/samples/application-policy-kotlin.md) - [Custom Form Highlight Color](/guides/android/samples/custom-form-highlight-color-java.md) - [Custom Page Templates](/guides/android/samples/custom-page-templates-java.md) - [Digital Signature (Basic)](/guides/android/samples/digital-signature-basic-kotlin.md) - [Disabled Annotation Property](/guides/android/samples/disabled-annotation-property-java.md) - [Image Document](/guides/android/samples/image-document-kotlin.md) - [Compose Image Document](/guides/android/samples/compose-image-document-kotlin.md) - [Inline Multimedia](/guides/android/samples/inline-multimedia-kotlin.md) - [JavaScript Form Filling](/guides/android/samples/javascript-form-filling-kotlin.md) - [Overlay Visibility](/guides/android/samples/overlay-visibility-kotlin.md) - [PdfFragment](/guides/android/samples/pdffragment-kotlin.md) - [Reader View](/guides/android/samples/reader-view-kotlin.md) - 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