Validation error for (73,0): Type of field Annots is invalid: HexaPDF::Dictionary (HexaPDF::Error)

[work-wajeeh]

I'm trying to run this Hello World example on a pdf document. Opened the document, made changes and when writing changes to the document, I'm getting this error. Anyone can help me understand/get it fixed?

require 'hexapdf'

doc = HexaPDF::Document.open(path_to_doc)
canvas = doc.pages.add.canvas
canvas.font('Helvetica', size: 100)
canvas.text("Hello World!", at: [20, 400])
doc.write("hello_world.pdf", optimize: true)

The error I get is

hexapdf-0.36.0/lib/hexapdf/document.rb:719 'block in write': Validation error for (73,0): Type of field Annots is invalid: HexaPDF::Dictionary (HexaPDF::Error)

When I try opening this document (before making any chnage) in Adobe Reader , this error pops up on one of the pages

[gettalong]

So the document fails to show in Adobe Reader before you change in with HexaPDF? That would be consistent with HexaPDF showing the validation error.

In your case the validation error says that the field /Annots, which is one the fields a page can have, is of the wrong type. If you look at the documentation for the Page class at https://hexapdf.gettalong.org/documentation/api/HexaPDF/Type/Page.html, you can see the field definitions. And /Annots needs to be an array (or HexaPDF's wrapper class PDFArray) and not a PDF dictionary (hash in Ruby).

You can also run hexapdf info --check path_to_file to check for validation problems of the file.

If you can provide the PDF in question, I could have a look at it and maybe make it valid.

[work-wajeeh]

@gettalong sorry for responding you late. I'm sharing the PDF in the email. Thanks

[gettalong]

Thanks for the file! The file is indeed invalid because it references an invalid object as the annotation array. I will have to think about whether to apply a general solution for this or a specific one for just that case.

[work-wajeeh]

@gettalong were you able to check this issue?

[gettalong]

As I wrote I still need to think about a solution for this.