`dump_annots`

Dump annotation info

Usage

pdftl <input> dump_annots [<selector>...] [output <output>]

Details

Extracts all annotations from the PDF and dumps them in a structured JSON format.

Unlike dump_data_annots, this operation provides a raw, comprehensive view of the annotation dictionaries, including all properties (e.g., Rect, Contents, Colors, Flags).

The output is a JSON list where each entry represents an annotation, grouped by page. This is useful for debugging, analysis, or processing annotation data in other tools that consume JSON.

Filtering

Annotations can be filtered using the same selector syntax as modify_annots. Selectors are optional; without them, all annotations are dumped.

The syntax is selector or selector(Key=Value, ...), where:

selector is a page range (e.g., 1-5, odd, see [[page_specs]]) and/or an annotation type (e.g., /Link, /Highlight).
Key=Value pairs filter annotations by property value.

Value Syntax

PDF Names: /Name
PDF Strings: (My String)
PDF Arrays: [0 0 1]
PDF Booleans: true / false
Numbers: 1.5, 10
Plain strings are treated as PDF Strings: Value is interpreted as (Value)

Examples

Show all annotation data for a file:

pdftl in.pdf dump_annots

Show only Link annotations on pages 1-5:

pdftl in.pdf dump_annots 1-5/Link

Show only Highlight annotations on odd pages:

pdftl in.pdf dump_annots odd/Highlight

Show only Link annotations with a zero border:

pdftl in.pdf dump_annots "/Link(Border=[0 0 0])"

Tags: in_place, annotations, info

Source: pdftl.operations.annots_filters

Read online: https://pdftl.readthedocs.io/en/stable/operations/dump_annots.html

Type: Operation

dump_annots