FDFMerge Lite Readme

New Features

Please see the FDFMerge Lite Options for the full documentation of the new features.

FDFMerge Lite 7.3

-Comb fields on rotated pages are now supported

FDFMerge Lite 7.0

-mergeflags – Merge F and Ff flags along with the field Values in the FDF. For example, having the following in an FDF file will set the form field to ReadOnly when merging (will not work when stamping form fields, –s on command line)

/T(name)/V(John Smith)//Ff 1

-nowarning – Do not issue warnings about unused fields that are in the FDF/XFDF files but not present in the PDF form

Support for Arabic in form fields

FDFMerge Lite now supports Arabic in form fields.  In order the information to appear correctly, the form field must be set “Right To Left” and contain a font that supports Arabic characters.

FDFMerge Lite 6.0

Document optimization (-optimize)

For document optimization, use -optimize. This flag will do the following:

  1. encode any non-encoded streams using Flate compression
  2. remove ASCII85 filters from all streams
  3. replace LZW encoded streams with Flate encoding
  4. merge identical XObjects and images
  5. optimize common sequences in page content
  6. merge identical font descriptors and encodings

This option will usually result in a smaller file size.

ISO 32000 compliance (-iso32000)

To create a document that is ISO 32000 compliant, use -iso32000. This flag will do the following: Set the file for ISO 32000 compliance, resulting in a document that is PDF version 1.7.

Command collections (-cmds)

To process multiple commands quickly and efficiently, use the -cmds <filename> option. The file specified by -cmds, the commands file, should contain one or more single line commands. Each command is just like an ordinary FDF Merge Lite command-line without the executable name. The commands file does not support wildcards in filenames.

When you use the -cmds option, many of the FDFMerge Lite options should be set in the -cmds file instead of on the command line. The following options are supported on the command line when using the -cmds option: -r, -l, -n, -p

If the same option is set on the command line and in the a record of the -cmds file, the option value from the -cmds file record will be used.

For more information on the -cmds option, see Command Collections.

Known Limitations and Issues

Unicode issues

  • Higher order ASCII characters not supported in XFDF file. If you use higher order ASCII characters, you must use an FDF file, not an XFDF file.
  • Adobe® Acrobat® problem with newline characters. Due to a problem with the way Acrobat handles newline characters in form fields, use either -s option or -norebuild option when merging double-byte characters.
  • First character in a CJK form field must be a CJK character.
  • /octal values no longer supported in XFDF. Use hexadecimal codes for CJK characters or FDF files for higher order ASCII characters.
  • Unicode on rotated pages. Unicode characters do not appear correctly on rotated pages.
  • Do not mix UTF-16 hexadecimal codes with UTF-8 characters or ASCII. If you use UTF-16 hexadecimal codes in a value field, use all UTF-16 characters for that value. Do not mix with UTF-8 characters or ASCII text. Make sure the font for the Field in question is set to one of the supported CJK fonts.

Display problems in Acrobat

  • Acrobat sometimes displays crosses in check boxes in a plain font. This is an issue with Acrobat and not FDFMerge Lite. They should display correctly if you do not use the -norebuild option.

No support for Signatures

  • Although the Adobe Acrobat forms tool may be used to add a Signature field, it will be ignored by FDFMerge Lite. If you flatten the file, the signature field will be removed as well.

No support for FDF Templates

  • The Form Data Format (FDF) supports a construct known as “Templates” where, within the Acrobat environment, the FDF file will cause additional pages to be added to the PDF file as they are needed. FDFMerge Lite does not support FDF Templates and will not add additional pages to a PDF file. Templates also allow use of non-exact names for form fields. FDFMerge Lite will not work unless the field name in the FDF file exactly matches the name of the form field in the PDF file.

Encrypted files may not be used

  • FDFMerge Lite cannot open encrypted files. Users must have Edit permission for any files used by FDFMerge Lite.

Autosize is not supported

  • When using text fields in PDF forms, be sure to specify a point size for the text as the Autosize feature is not supported by FDFMerge Lite.

The sort and multiple select options for list boxes are not supported

  • If your form has one item selected, FDFMerge Lite’s stamped output will show the selection in red (i.e., the list is displayed in full with the selected choice printed in red). If more than one selected list item is entered into the FDF file, FDFMerge Lite will fail. If multiple selection or sort is checked in the form field properties for the list box, it will not display properly (the entire list will not be displayed, and the selected entry will print in black). If your list box is set to be sorted, FDFMerge Lite will not sort the data in the PDF form—any list will be printed as it is listed in the PDF form. This behavior is true for both stamped and merged documents.

Button stamping and merging behavior with regard to formatting

  • In Acrobat, when you put in a button field, you can specify the button to be Text, Icon, or Icon and Text. Buttons containing text (Text or Icon and Text) will be maintained after a merge, but will not be stamped on the form. When stamping a mixed button of Icon and Text, only the icon will stamp.
  • When you set a border around a PDF icon, specify the PDF from within the Acrobat form (so the PDF form displays the button and the border when you view it in Acrobat), and use FDFMerge Lite on the form with the -s option, with no reference to the button in the FormInfo file or the FDF file (i.e., not changing the button in any way using FDFMerge Lite), the button will display with the border. If you use FDFMerge Lite to put the PDF icon into the button, there will not be a border. In other words, if only Acrobat touches the field, the border will come through. If FDFMerge Lite touches the field, the border will not appear.

FDF files must be in PDDocEncoding

  • Files exported directly from Acrobat will work correctly. Files created by hand must use the PDDocEncoding scheme for high ASCII characters. See PDF Reference Appendix D.1.

Stamping landscaped pages into a button

  • This issue concerns using a page of a PDF document to stamp into a button. When using a page for a button that has been rotated to be in a landscape format and it is stamped or merged into a PDF the image in the output document will be rotated. The current workaround is to set the rotation of the button in the form field to be 90 or 270 degrees. To change the rotation of a form field go to the Field Properties, Common Properties tab, Orientation.

To Get Help

Documentation for FDFMerge Lite can be found /fdfmerge-lite/.

Contact technical support by:

emailing support@appligent.com, or calling 610-284-4006

Please provide the following:

Product name and version number
Operating system
Your name, company name, email address, and phone number
Description of your question or problem

Responses are typically emailed within one business day.