Programmatically create annotations in React Native

PSPDFKit for React Native offers APIs to manipulate (get, add, and remove) annotations programmatically. All of these functions use the Instant JSON format to represent annotations.

Function	Description
`getAnnotations(type)`	Get all annotations of the given type. See the list of all supported annotation types.
`getAnnotationsForPage(pageIndex, type)`	Get all annotations on the given page index of the given type. See the list of all supported annotation types.
`getAllUnsavedAnnotations()`	Get all the unsaved annotations from the entire document.
`addAnnotations(jsonAnnotations)`	Add the given annotations to the document.
`removeAnnotations([jsonAnnotations])`	Remove the given annotations from the document. If the given annotations don’t exist, this method does nothing.

Getting all annotations

The example below shows how to get all annotations on the first page of a document:

// Get all ink annotations on the first page of the document.
const allInkAnnotations = await this.pdfRef.current?.getDocument().getAnnotationsForPage(0, "pspdfkit/ink");

// Get all annotations on the entire document.
const allAnnotations = await this.pdfRef.current?.getDocument().getAnnotations();

Removing all annotations

The example below shows how to remove an existing ink annotation from the first page of a document:

// Get all ink annotations on the first page of the document.
const inkAnnotations = this.pdfRef.current?.getDocument()
  .getAnnotationsForPage(0, "pspdfkit/ink");

// Get the first ink annotation.
const firstInkAnnotation = inkAnnotations["annotations"][0];

// Remove the first ink annotation.
this.pdfRef.current?.getDocument()
  .removeAnnotations([firstInkAnnotation]);

Adding annotations

The example below shows how to add an ink annotation programmatically:

const annotationsJSON = {
	annotations: [
		{
			v: 1,
			createdAt: '2018-07-30T15:34:48Z',
			bbox: [
				89.58633422851562,
				98.5791015625,
				143.12948608398438,
				207.1583251953125,
			],
			type: 'pspdfkit/ink',
			lines: {
				points: [
					[
						[92.08633422851562, 101.07916259765625],
						[92.08633422851562, 202.15826416015625],
						[138.12950134277344, 303.2374267578125],
					],
					[
						[184.17266845703125, 101.07916259765625],
						[184.17266845703125, 202.15826416015625],
						[230.2158203125, 303.2374267578125],
					],
				],
				intensities: [
					[0.5, 0.5, 0.5],
					[0.5, 0.5, 0.5],
				],
			},
			isDrawnNaturally: false,
			strokeColor: '#AA47BE',
			name: 'A167811E-6D10-4546-A147-B7AD775FE8AC',
			updatedAt: '2018-07-30T15:34:48Z',
			pageIndex: 0,
			opacity: 1,
			lineWidth: 5,
			blendMode: 'normal',
			id: '01CKNX7TVEGWMJDPTS9BN3RH9M',
		},
		{
			v: 1,
			createdAt: '2018-07-30T15:29:54Z',
			creatorName: 'radazzouz',
			lines: {
				points: [
					[
						[243.78179931640625, 510.1141357421875],
						[244.36361694335938, 510.1141357421875],
						[258.9090881347656, 506.033203125],
						[295.5636291503906, 496.7054443359375],
						[349.6726989746094, 489.1265869140625],
						[365.3818054199219, 489.1265869140625],
						[393.8908996582031, 489.1265869140625],
						[406.10906982421875, 489.1265869140625],
						[411.92724609375, 496.7054443359375],
						[411.92724609375, 526.4378051757812],
						[389.236328125, 578.3236694335938],
						[375.272705078125, 602.2261962890625],
						[364.2181701660156, 618.5498046875],
						[354.3272399902344, 631.95849609375],
						[349.09088134765625, 639.537353515625],
						[351.9999694824219, 645.9501953125],
						[392.7272644042969, 661.10791015625],
						[477.09088134765625, 672.7677001953125],
						[557.3817749023438, 673.93359375],
						[591.1272583007812, 673.3506469726562],
						[616.7272338867188, 669.8527221679688],
						[635.92724609375, 665.7718505859375],
						[642.9090576171875, 661.10791015625],
						[642.9090576171875, 657.6099853515625],
						[638.8363037109375, 654.695068359375],
						[632.4363403320312, 652.3630981445312],
						[625.4545288085938, 652.3630981445312],
					],
				],
				intensities: [
					[
						1,
						1,
						0.7831191420555115,
						0.43985339999198914,
						0.1946841925382614,
						0.7731151580810547,
						0.5821600556373596,
						0.8237775564193726,
						0.8645909428596497,
						0.5631009936332703,
						0.16183285415172577,
						0.5931986570358276,
						0.7281508445739746,
						0.7529339790344238,
						0.8639607429504395,
						0.90201336145401,
						0.38276368379592896,
						0,
						0,
						0.5024968385696411,
						0.6254040002822876,
						0.7100088000297546,
						0.8816311359405518,
						0.9544336199760437,
						0.932301938533783,
						0.905599057674408,
						0.9035883545875549,
					],
				],
			},
			isDrawnNaturally: true,
			strokeColor: '#1E59FF',
			updatedAt: '2018-07-30T15:29:54Z',
			pageIndex: 0,
			name: '1F291E11-0696-436B-A8E5-0386371E07B7',
			opacity: 1,
			note: '',
			lineWidth: 4,
			blendMode: 'normal',
			type: 'pspdfkit/ink',
			bbox: [
				243.78179931640625,
				486.64892578125,
				397.9429931640625,
				188.1041259765625,
			],
			id: '01CKNX7TVF7ESF8Z4FR5Q4APEJ',
		},
	],
	format: 'https://pspdfkit.com/instant-json/v1',
};

// Add the ink annotation.
await this.pdfRef.current?.getDocument()
  .addAnnotations(annotationsJSON);

The following example shows how to add an image annotation programmatically:

const annotationJSON = {
	"annotations": [
		{
			"bbox": [
				229,
				426,
				125,
				125
			],
			"contentType": "image/png",
			"createdAt": "2023-08-30T17:15:13Z",
			"creatorName": "Test User",
			"description": "Test",
			"id": "455f261c88f94294a05ebeb494c96cb9",
			"imageAttachmentId": "492adff9842bff7dcb81a20950870be8a0bb665c8d48175680c1e5e1070243ff",
			"name": "my-custom-image-annotation",
			"opacity": 1,
			"pageIndex": 0,
			"rotation": 0,
			"subject": "Test",
			"type": "pspdfkit/image",
			"updatedAt": "2024-05-07T17:15:13Z",
			"v": 2
		}
	],
	"format": "https://pspdfkit.com/instant-json/v1",
	"attachments": {
		"492adff9842bff7dcb81a20950870be8a0bb665c8d48175680c1e5e1070243ff": {
			"binary": "base64-image-data",
			"contentType": "image/png"
		}
	},
};

// Add the image annotation.
await this.pdfRef.current?.getDocument()
  .addAnnotations(annotationJSON);

For more details and sample code, see the ProgrammaticAnnotations.tsx example from the Catalog example project.