How to set PDF document information and PDF reader settings

Introduction

Every PDF document can have a handful of information regarding its author, title, summary, associated keywords and so on. All these records are stored in so-called Document Information Dictionary described in section 14.3.3 Document Information Dictionary of the PDF specification. It’s possible to alter this information in order to provide the document with descriptive metadata suitable for further automated analysis and identification. E.g. a search engine may quickly analyze the Keywords set instead of indexing the complete document. These predefined “fields” are standardized, and can be used for various purposes by all applications in addition to custom document form fields.

Besides setting document’s Author or Title, you can also set its default appearance when it becomes opened in a conforming PDF reader. E.g. indicate full-screen mode or whether the toolbars should be visible. See the section 12.2 Viewer Preferences for details. It’s worth mentioning that some readers don’t respect these settings, so don’t be surprised

The Apitron PDF Kit .NET component provides an easy access to document’s information, and its API can be used to change or add it when needed. See the code samples in the corresponding sections showing how to work with document information and set viewer preferences.

Setting PDF document information

This operation is easy and simple, see the code below:

public void SetDocumentInfomation()

{

    // open document

    using (Stream stream = File.Open("document.pdf", FileMode.Open))

    {

        // create document object

        FixedDocument doc = new FixedDocument(stream);       

        // set document information

        doc.Author = "Apitron";

        doc.Title = "Sample document";

        doc.Subject = "Apitron PDF Kit API usage sample";

        doc.Keywords = "document information,c# sample,apitron pdf kit";               

        // save as incremental update

        doc.Save();

    }

}

If you open this document in Adobe Reader, you’ll be able to see its new properties (click on File -> Properties and select Description tab)

Pic. 1 Setting document properties

Setting PDF viewer preferences

The code below shows how to change viewer preferences:

public void SetPDFViewerPrerences()

{

    // open document

    using (Stream stream = File.Open("document.pdf", FileMode.Open))

    {

        // create document object

        FixedDocument doc = new FixedDocument(stream);

        // set viewer and page preferences

        doc.ViewerPreferences.HideToolbar = true;

        doc.ViewerPreferences.DisplayDocTitle = true;       

        doc.PageMode = PageMode.FullScreen;

        doc.PageLayout = PageLayout.SinglePage;        

       

        // save as incremental update

        doc.Save();

    }

}

When you run this sample and open the changed document in Acrobat Reader, it may warn you that document tries to go to full screen mode. It’s normal, and you can proceed and allow or disallow this behavior. It will also take into account the other settings, so there will be no toolbar visible and so on.

Conclusion

When it comes to setting the PDF information and viewer settings, you may rely on Apitron PDF Kit .NET component, it does its job flawlessly. If you are interested in more complex PDF manipulation scenarios, you can read our other posts or the free book which contains lots of useful information and ready to use samples. If you have questions regarding the API or PDF manipulation, contact us and our support will be happy to help you.

Downloadable version of this article can be found by the following link [PDF].