converting pdf form to pdf document

jonnyfolk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I'm using CAM::PDF to generate a completed pdf form, following node: Filling out PDF forms with data from DBI? However to send it I want to remove the editable fields and convert it into a pdf document. Can anyone help me to do this, please?

#!/usr/bin/perl
# pdf-filler-test.pl
use strict;
use warnings;
use CAM::PDF;
#
my $infile  = 'input.pdf';
my $outfile = 'output.pdf';
my $pdf     = CAM::PDF->new($infile) or die 'wtf';
my @FIELDS  = $pdf->getFormFieldList();
#
foreach ( @FIELDS ) {
    my $fieldnum = $_;
    $pdf->fillFormFields($_ => $fieldnum);
}
$pdf->cleanoutput($outfile);
[download]

Update: I used the following code to achieve this:

$pdf->clearAnnotations();
$pdf->cleanoutput($outfile);
[download]

Comment on converting pdf form to pdf document Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: converting pdf form to pdf document by zentara (Cardinal) on May 30, 2008 at 18:22 UTC
Just a quick glance at the CAM-PDF examples, especially rewritepdf.pl, shows an option `-C --clearannots remove all annotations (including forms)` [download] I don't know if that will do the trick, but you might want to look at the examples. The man pages also talk about $self->clearFormFieldTriggers(fieldname, fieldname, ...) I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth CandyGram for Mongo	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: converting pdf form to pdf document by jonnyfolk (Vicar) on May 31, 2008 at 12:57 UTC
Hi, Thanks very much for your input - you were bang on the money! I've annotated the code in the OP for clarity. The only reservation I have is that in one set of form fields the input text is right justified whereas that is ignored on using the clearannots, leaving the layout slightly deficient. I suppose that the right justification is in itself an annotation - can I exempt it? Cheers.	[reply]
Re: converting pdf form to pdf document by almut (Canon) on May 30, 2008 at 20:45 UTC
Not a Perl solution, but if all else fails, you could try pdftk's `flatten` option (worked fine for me so far) `$ pdftk filled-form-doc.pdf output flat-doc.pdf flatten` [download] ___ `[flatten] Use this option to merge an input PDF's interactive form fields (and their data) with the PDF's pages. Only one input PDF may be given. Sometimes used with the fill_form operation.` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]