1. PDF Basics

Overview

At first, we will take a look at the structure of PDF files. Then we'll add a simple text using one of the default fonts. These texts (written from right to left) is rather simple to understand. Layout of complex fonts with varying encodings / non-latin fonts will be done later.

This chapter shows the graphical capabilities of PDF files, like the possibility draw shapes, as well as to embed JPEG and PǸG files. At last, we'll take a look at the special features of PDF: Table of contents, hyperlinks and special functions for presentations.

Notation

This wiki uses fixed width fonts to indicate the content of a PDF. Regarding numbers, we will use both regular decimal numbers as well as hex codes. The latter ones are prefixed with a "0x" (following the C convention). For example, the number 255 is written as 0xFF.

After the chapter about Syntax we will be using segments expressed in the PDF Syntax. For example hex strings to indicate the contents of binary files. These segments are indicated using fixed width fonts.

Next up: File structure and syntax