Python port of the PHP forge_fdf library by Sid Steward

PDF forms work with FDF data. I ported a PHP FDF library to Python a while back when I had to do this and released it as fdfgen. I use that to generate an fdf file with the data for the form, then use pdftk to push the fdf into a PDF form and generate the output.

The whole process works like this:

You (or a designer) design the PDF in Acrobat or whatever and mark the form fields and take note of the field names (I'm not sure exactly how this is done; our designer does this step). Let's say your form has fields "name" and "telephone".

Use fdfgen to create a FDF file:

#!python
from fdfgen import forge_fdf
fields = [('name','John Smith'),('telephone','555-1234')]
fdf = forge_fdf("",fields,[],[],[])
fdf_file = open("data.fdf","w")
fdf_file.write(fdf)
fdf_file.close()

Then you run pdftk to merge and flatten:

pdftk form.pdf fill_form data.fdf output output.pdf flatten

and a filled out, flattened (meaning that there are no longer editable form fields) pdf will be in output.pdf.

CHANGELOG:

• 0.10.1 -- 2013-04-22 -- unbalanced paren bugfix from Brandon Rhodes brandon@rhodesmill.org
• 0.10.0 -- 2012-06-14 -- support checkbox fields and parenthesis in strings from Guangcong Luo zarelsl@gmail.com
• 0.9.2 -- 2011-01-12 -- merged unicode fix from Sébastien Fievet zyegfryed@gmail.com