PDF Forms Info Reader

Get information about fillable form fields inside a PDF file.

Common Use Cases

• List field names on a fillable PDF before automating form filling
• Discover checkboxes, radio buttons, and text boxes on a tax or application form
• Map form fields into an integration so later steps can fill or read them
• Read existing field values from a submitted form for validation or data capture

Try it live: PDF Forms Info Reader → API Tester — send a real request from your browser.

POST /v1/pdf/info/fields

For one-time check of PDF file information and find form fields please use PDF Edit Add Helper.

Extracts information about fillable PDF fields (fillable edit boxes, fillable check-boxes, radio buttons, combo-boxes) from input PDF file along with general information about the input PDF document. The purpose of this endpoint is to get information about fillable PDFs for use with PDF.co PDF Add method.

Attributes

Attributes are case-sensitive and should be inside JSON for POST request. for example: { "url": "https://example.com/file1.pdf" }

Attribute	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	string	Yes	-	URL to the source file url attribute
callback	string	No	-	The callback URL (or Webhook) used to receive the POST data. see Webhooks & Callbacks. This is only applicable when async is set to true.
httpusername	string	No	-	HTTP auth user name if required to access source URL.
httppassword	string	No	-	HTTP auth password if required to access source URL.
password	string	No	-	Password for the PDF file.
async	boolean	No	false	Set async to true for long processes to run in the background, API will then return a jobId which you can use with the Background Job Check endpoint. Also see Webhooks & Callbacks
profiles	object	No	-	See Profiles for more information.
DataEncryptionAlgorithm	string	No	-	Controls the encryption algorithm used for data encryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information. The available algorithms are: AES128, AES192, AES256.
DataEncryptionKey	string	No	-	Controls the encryption key used for data encryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information.
DataEncryptionIV	string	No	-	Controls the encryption IV used for data encryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information.
DataDecryptionAlgorithm	string	No	-	Controls the decryption algorithm used for data decryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information. The available algorithms are: AES128, AES192, AES256.
DataDecryptionKey	string	No	-	Controls the decryption key used for data decryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information.
DataDecryptionIV	string	No	-	Controls the decryption IV used for data decryption. See User-Controlled Encryption for more information.

Query parameters

No query parameters accepted.

Responses

Parameter	Type	Description
info	object	Info details.

Example Payload

To see the request size limits, please refer to the Request Size Limits.

{
  "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-form/f1040.pdf",
  "async": false
}

Example Response

To see the main response codes, please refer to the Response Codes page.

{
  "info": {
    "PageCount": 3,
    "Author": "SE:W:CAR:MP",
    "Title": "2019 Form 1040",
    "Producer": "macOS Version 10.15.1 (Build 19B88) Quartz PDFContext",
    "Subject": "U.S. Individual Income Tax Return",
    "CreationDate": "8/7/2020 11:17:29 AM",
    "Bookmarks": "",
    "Keywords": "Fillable",
    "Creator": "Adobe LiveCycle Designer ES 9.0",
    "Encrypted": false,
    "PasswordProtected": false,
    "PageRectangle": {
      "Location": {
        "IsEmpty": true,
        "X": 0,
        "Y": 0
      },
      "Size": "612, 792",
      "X": 0,
      "Y": 0,
      "Width": 612,
      "Height": 792,
      "Left": 0,
      "Top": 0,
      "Right": 612,
      "Bottom": 792,
      "IsEmpty": false
    },
    "ModificationDate": "8/7/2020 11:17:29 AM",
    "EncryptionAlgorithm": "None",
    "PermissionPrinting": true,
    "PermissionModifyDocument": true,
    "PermissionContentExtraction": true,
    "PermissionModifyAnnotations": true,
    "PermissionFillForms": true,
    "PermissionAccessibility": true,
    "PermissionAssemble": true,
    "PermissionHighQualityPrint": true,
    "FieldsInfo": {
      "Fields": [
        {
          "PageIndex": 1,
          "Type": "CheckBox",
          "FieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].FilingStatus[0].c1_01[3]",
          "Value": "False",
          "Left": 340.39898681640625,
          "Top": 67.99798583984375,
          "Width": 8,
          "Height": 8
        },
        {
          "PageIndex": 1,
          "Type": "CheckBox",
          "FieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].FilingStatus[0].c1_01[4]",
          "Value": "False",
          "Left": 441.1990051269531,
          "Top": 67.99798583984375,
          "Width": 8,
          "Height": 8
        },
        {
          "PageIndex": 1,
          "Type": "EditBox",
          "FieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page1[0].f1_03[0]",
          "Value": "",
          "Left": 238.60000610351562,
          "Top": 111.9990234375,
          "Width": 228.39999389648438,
          "Height": 14.0009765625
        },
        {
          "PageIndex": 2,
          "Type": "EditBox",
          "FieldName": "topmostSubform[0].Page2[0].PaidPreparer[0].Preparer[0].f2_37[0]",
          "Value": "",
          "Left": 509.7449951171875,
          "Top": 474.0010070800781,
          "Width": 66.2550048828125,
          "Height": 11.998992919921875
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "error": false,
  "status": 200,
  "remainingCredits": 59987
}

Inconsistent URL Encoding in cURL Output: When using cURL to make API requests, the output JSON may show URL characters encoded as Unicode escape sequences. For example, the ampersand character (&) may appear as \u0026 in the cURL output. This is normal JSON encoding behavior and does not affect the validity of the URL. The URL will function correctly when used, as JSON parsers automatically decode these escape sequences. If you’re parsing the response programmatically, your JSON parser will handle this conversion automatically.

Code Samples

CURL

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/info/fields' \
--header 'x-api-key: *******************' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
"url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-form/f1040.pdf",
"async": false
}'

JavaScript/Node.js

var request = require('request');

// You can also upload your own file into PDF.co and use it as url. Check "Upload File" samples for code snippets: https://github.com/pdfdotco/pdf-co-api-samples/tree/master/File%20Upload/    
var options = {
  'method': 'POST',
  'url': 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/info/fields',
  'headers': {
    'x-api-key': '{{x-api-key}}'
  },
  formData: {
    'url': 'https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-form/f1040.pdf'
  }
};
request(options, function (error, response) {
  if (error) throw new Error(error);
  console.log(response.body);
});

Python

import os
import requests # pip install requests

# The authentication key (API Key).
# Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co
API_KEY = "***************************"

# Base URL for PDF.co Web API requests
BASE_URL = "https://api.pdf.co/v1"

# Source PDF file url. You can also upload your own file into PDF.co and use it as url. Check "Upload File" samples for code snippets: https://github.com/pdfdotco/pdf-co-api-samples/tree/master/File%20Upload/
SourceFileURL = "https://pdf-temp-files.s3.amazonaws.com/R2FBM39LFX1BFC860O06XU0TL613JTZ9/f1040-form-filled.pdf "
Async = "False"

# Destination PDF file name
DestinationFile = ".\\result.pdf"

parameters = {}
parameters["async"] = Async
parameters["name"] = os.path.basename(DestinationFile)
parameters["url"] = SourceFileURL

# Prepare URL for 'Info Fields' API request
url = "{}/pdf/info/fields".format(BASE_URL)

response = requests.post(url, data=parameters, headers={ "x-api-key": API_KEY })

if (response.status_code == 200):
    json = response.json()
for field in json["info"]["FieldsInfo"]["Fields"]:print(field["FieldName"] + "=>" + field["Value"])

C#

using System;
using RestSharp;
namespace HelloWorldApplication {
    class HelloWorld {
        static void Main(string[] args) {
            var client = new RestClient("https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/info/fields");
            client.Timeout = -1;
            var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST);
            request.AddHeader("x-api-key", "{{x-api-key}}");
            request.AlwaysMultipartFormData = true;

            // You can also upload your own file into PDF.co and use it as url. Check "Upload File" samples for code snippets: https://github.com/pdfdotco/pdf-co-api-samples/tree/master/File%20Upload/						
            request.AddParameter("url", "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-form/f1040.pdf");
            IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);
            Console.WriteLine(response.Content);
        }
    }
}

Java

import java.io.*;
import okhttp3.*;
public class main {
    public static void main(String []args) throws IOException{
        OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient().newBuilder()
            .build();
        MediaType mediaType = MediaType.parse("text/plain");
          // You can also upload your own file into PDF.co and use it as url. Check "Upload File" samples for code snippets: https://github.com/pdfdotco/pdf-co-api-samples/tree/master/File%20Upload/    
        RequestBody body = new MultipartBody.Builder().setType(MultipartBody.FORM)
            .addFormDataPart("url", "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-form/f1040.pdf")
            .build();
        Request request = new Request.Builder()
            .url("https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/info/fields")
            .method("POST", body)
            .addHeader("x-api-key", "{{x-api-key}}")
            .build();
        Response response = client.newCall(request).execute();
        System.out.println(response.body().string());
    }
}

PHP

todo
<?php

$curl = curl_init();

// You can also upload your own file into PDF.co and use it as url. Check "Upload File" samples for code snippets: https://github.com/pdfdotco/pdf-co-api-samples/tree/master/File%20Upload/    
curl_setopt_array($curl, array(
    CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/info/fields",
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
    CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
    CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 0,
    CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
    CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
    CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => array('url' => 'https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-form/f1040.pdf'),
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => array(
        "x-api-key: {{x-api-key}}"
    ),
));

$response = json_decode(curl_exec($curl));

curl_close($curl);
echo "<h2>Output:</h2><pre>", var_export($response, true), "</pre>";


var request = require('request');

// You can also upload your own file into PDF.co and use it as url. Check "Upload File" samples for code snippets: https://github.com/pdfdotco/pdf-co-api-samples/tree/master/File%20Upload/    
var options = {
  'method': 'POST',
  'url': 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/pdf/info/fields',
  'headers': {
    'x-api-key': '{{x-api-key}}'
  },
  formData: {
    'url': 'https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/pdf-form/f1040.pdf'
  }
};
request(options, function (error, response) {
  if (error) throw new Error(error);
  console.log(response.body);
});