formspdf
I'd like to create a LaTeX document that when rendered into PDF, has forms that can be filled out using Adobe Reader or other such programs. Then I'd like to be able to extract the data. I deliberately would like to avoid using Acrobat for all the usual reasons (non-free, need different versions for different platforms etc).
Can this be done ?
The new version Adobe Reader XI allows to save the filled-out version of any form - special treatment with the commercial Adobe Acrobat thus isn't necessary any more.
You can create fillable forms with hyperref which can be filled out in the free Adobe Reader and send back to you by e-mail. A minimal example would be (replace forms@stackexchange.invalid by your own e-mail address):
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\begin{document}
\begin{Form}[action=mailto:forms@stackexchange.invalid?subject={The submitted form},method=post]
\noindent\TextField[name=name]{Name:}\\[1mm]
\ChoiceMenu[radio,name=gender]{Gender:}{male=male,female=fem}\\[1mm]
\TextField[name=email,width=5cm]{E-mail:}\\[5mm]
\Reset{Reset} \quad \Submit{Submit} \quad \Acrobatmenu{Print}{Print}
\end{Form}
\end{document}
Your customers can fill the form, and by pressing the Submit button, an e-mail will be sent to you with an attachment called <filename>.fdf which contains all the provided data.
You can examine this file using e.g. the free PDF-XChange Viewer: Open the PDF file containing the form, select File->Form Data->Import Data to Form... and open the e-mail attachment you received. Now all the form fields will be filled with the results. (Update: You can even use Adobe Reader X itself: Just open the PDF file containing the form and double-click on the .fdf file afterwards. You may have to accept to trust the document with the yellow notification bar on top, then the form fields will display the results.)
The advantage of this solution is that it doesn't require your customers to install an additional program: They can use the Adobe Reader which is installed on many systems by default. You can even create forms that sends the results directly to a script running on your server to store it e.g. in a database - see the hyperref manual for more details.
In order to be able to sign a document using Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat, you need a so-called signature field in your PDF, which is a special kind of form field. In order to add it to a file you have the choice between two different LaTeX packages:
digsig packageThis is a small package that enhances the form capabilities of the hyperref package to support signature fields. It is not available on CTAN, but you can find it on the author's website. To use it, simply add \usepackage{digsig} to the preamble of your document (if you're already using hyperref, load it after \usepackage{hyperref}). Now you can add signature fields to your document using the \digsigfield macro, which expects the width and height of the form field and a freely chosen name. Note that you have to enclose the command in a Form environment, like this:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{digsig}
\begin{document}
\begin{Form}
\digsigfield{5cm}{3cm}{My signature}
\end{Form}
\end{document}
eforms packageeforms is another package to create PDF forms, with support for signature fields. You can find it on CTAN, but it is not included in TeX Live, so you may have to install it manually. It is very similar in use to the digsig package:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{eforms}
\begin{document}
\sigField{My signature}{5cm}{3cm}
\end{document}
In both cases, the output is a rectangular field you can fill with a digital signature using e.g. Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat:
Note that many other PDF viewers don't support these fields and won't display anything at all. A "live" example of a signature field can be found in the eforms manual on page 17.
Best Answer
The
hyperrefpackage provides a method to create PDF forms. The way I understand it, the form is either to be printed or to be transmitted to a webserver like a HTML form.Here a small example:
Gives: