Exporting Annotated PDFs

Export pipeline

1. The original PDF bytes stay in memory as a Uint8Array.
2. When you click Export PDF, Ultra PDF Editor loads the bytes into pdf-lib 1.17.1.
3. Each page is replayed with your annotations:
   • Text boxes draw with embedded Helvetica, Helvetica Bold, Helvetica Oblique, or Helvetica Bold Oblique fonts.
   • Draw annotations convert to SVG paths to retain vector fidelity.
   • Highlights and redactions render as filled rectangles with configurable opacity.
4. The resulting PDF is written back to a byte array and saved locally with the suffix -annotated.pdf.

File names and metadata

• Exports default to <original-name>-annotated.pdf.
• Original document metadata (author, subject, keywords) persists. A future release will expose metadata editing in the UI.

Maintaining text searchability

• Text annotations draw as vector glyphs, not raster images. They remain searchable and copyable in Acrobat, Preview, and Chrome’s PDF viewer.
• Redactions remove the underlying text entirely; they are not overlay masks.

Controlling file size

• Because annotations are vectors, file size increases are minimal (typically under 2%).
• Large draw annotations may add path data. If you need a smaller export, break long strokes into shorter segments.

Verifying exports

1. Open the exported PDF in a standalone viewer.
2. Zoom to 400% to confirm highlight edges look crisp.
3. Use text search to verify newly added notes appear in results.

Troubleshooting

• Encrypted PDFs: Files with open passwords load normally. Owner-locked PDFs that disallow modification cannot be rewritten; Ultra PDF Editor will warn you before export.
• Missing umlauts or special glyphs: Helvetica covers Western European character sets. Full Unicode font embedding is on the roadmap.