How to extract AcroForm interactive form fields from a PDF using PDFMiner

Before you start, make sure you have installed pdfminer.six.

The second thing you need is a PDF with AcroForms (as found in PDF files with fillable forms or multiple choices). There are some examples of these in the GitHub repository under samples/acroform.

Only AcroForm interactive forms are supported, XFA forms are not supported.

from pdfminer.pdfparser import PDFParser
from pdfminer.pdfdocument import PDFDocument
from pdfminer.pdftypes import resolve1
from pdfminer.psparser import PSLiteral, PSKeyword
from pdfminer.utils import decode_text


data = {}


def decode_value(value):

    # decode PSLiteral, PSKeyword
    if isinstance(value, (PSLiteral, PSKeyword)):
        value = value.name

    # decode bytes
    if isinstance(value, bytes):
        value = decode_text(value)

    return value


with open(file_path, 'rb') as fp:
    parser = PDFParser(fp)

    doc = PDFDocument(parser)
    res = resolve1(doc.catalog)

    if 'AcroForm' not in res:
        raise ValueError("No AcroForm Found")

    fields = resolve1(doc.catalog['AcroForm'])['Fields']  # may need further resolving

    for f in fields:
        field = resolve1(f)
        name, values = field.get('T'), field.get('V')

        # decode name
        name = decode_text(name)

        # resolve indirect obj
        values = resolve1(values)

        # decode value(s)
        if isinstance(values, list):
            values = [decode_value(v) for v in values]
        else:
            values = decode_value(values)

        data.update({name: values})

        print(name, values)

This code snippet will print all the fields’ names and values and save them in the “data” dictionary.

How it works:

  • Initialize the parser and the PDFDocument objects

parser = PDFParser(fp)
doc = PDFDocument(parser)

res = resolve1(doc.catalog)

  • Check if the catalog contains the AcroForm key and raise ValueError if not

    (the PDF does not contain Acroform type of interactive forms if this key is missing in the catalog, see section 12.7.2 of PDF 32000-1:2008 specs)

if 'AcroForm' not in res:
    raise ValueError("No AcroForm Found")

  • Get the field list resolving the entry in the catalog

fields = resolve1(doc.catalog['AcroForm'])['Fields']
for f in fields:
    field = resolve1(f)

  • Get field name and field value(s)

name, values = field.get('T'), field.get('V')

  • Decode field name.

name = decode_text(name)

  • Resolve indirect field value objects

values = resolve1(value)

  • Call the value(s) decoding method as needed

    (a single field can hold multiple values, for example, a combo box can hold more than one value at a time)

if isinstance(values, list):
    values = [decode_value(v) for v in values]
else:
    values = decode_value(values)

(the decode_value method takes care of decoding the field’s value, returning a string)

  • Decode PSLiteral and PSKeyword field values

if isinstance(value, (PSLiteral, PSKeyword)):
    value = value.name

  • Decode bytes field values

if isinstance(value, bytes):
    value = utils.decode_text(value)