1. Home
2. Developer Connection
3. Acrobat Developer Center

Acrobat Developer Center

JavaScript for Acrobat

One of the easiest and most powerful ways to customize PDF files is by using JavaScript. Based on JavaScript version 1.5 of ISO-16262 (formerly known as ECMAScript), JavaScript in Adobe Acrobat software implements objects, methods, and properties that enable you to manipulate PDF files, produce database-driven PDF files, modify the appearance of PDF files, and much more. You can tie Acrobat JavaScript code to a specific PDF document, a page, field, or button within that document, or a field or button within the PDF file, and even to a user action.

JavaScript is particularly useful for XML forms. JavaScript enables automated forms handling, Web and database communication, commenting, and user-interface capabilities. PDF files created with Acrobat and Adobe LiveCycle tools allow data to be extracted as XML into custom schemas. Applications written in Java and other languages easily integrate Acrobat with Web services using Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).

Beginning with Acrobat 7, there have been extensive improvements to the JavaScript functionality. There is now support for multimedia, improved printing control, controlling layers, 3D support, and more.

Acrobat 9

JavaScript for Acrobat documentation

Develop Acrobat applications using JavaScript, get JavaScript for Acrobat API Reference and JavaScript for Acrobat 3D Annotations API Reference, and learn about Acrobat Tracker and batch sequences.

Acrobat 8

JavaScript for Acrobat API Reference, Version 8 (PDF, 7.5M)

JavaScript is the cross-platform scripting language of the Adobe Acrobat family of products that includes Acrobat Professional, Acrobat Standard, and Adobe Reader. Through JavaScript extensions, the viewer application and its plug-ins expose much of their functionality to document authors, form designers, and plug-in developers. This document describes the JavaScript for Acrobat API. All objects, properties and methods are documented and extensive code examples are presented. This document is intended for users familiar with core JavaScript 1.6.

Acrobat 8 TestDebugger

testdebugger8.zip (Mac/Win, 6K)

Developing Acrobat Applications Using JavaScript (PDF, 2.7M)

This guide is designed to provide you with an overview of how you can use JavaScript to develop and enhance standard workflows. This guide contains detailed information on JavaScript for Acrobat and extensive examples of the capabilities of JavaScript, as well as descriptions of the usage of the SDK tools. After reading this guide and completing the exercises, you should be equipped to start using JavaScript for Acrobat. This guide assumes that you are familiar with the non-scripting elements of the Acrobat 8 user interface that are described in Acrobat’s accompanying online help documentation. To work through the exercises in this guide, you will need to use Acrobat 8.0 Professional.

Acrobat 7.x

Acrobat JavaScript Scripting Guide (PDF, 2.5M)

(Sept 2005)
Use Acrobat JavaScript to develop and enhance standard workflows.

Acrobat 7 TestDebugger

testdebugger7.zip (Mac/Win)

Acrobat JavaScript Scripting Reference (PDF, 7.1M)

(Oct 2005)
Get detailed descriptions of all objects, properties and methods within the Acrobat extension to JavaScript, as well as code samples. (Errata, 30K, Dec 2005)

Connecting Document JavaScript to 3D Views (PDF, 1.8M)

(Sept 2005)
Acrobat 7 Professional contains a new tool, the 3D Tool which allows you to embed U3 (Universal 3D) objects in a PDF document. Once this 3D model is embedded in a PDF, it can be distributed and viewed by anyone with Acrobat or Adobe Reader 7.x

Converting Acrobat JavaScript for Use in LiveCycle Designer Forms (PDF, 549k)

(Jun 2005)
This document explains how to convert JavaScript contained in Adobe® Acrobat® Professional and Acrobat Standard forms for use in Adobe LiveCycle Designer forms. Acrobat forms and LiveCycle Designer forms have different scripting object models, although most of the Acrobat forms model is supported in LiveCycle Designer forms. This document describes the differences and explains how to handle the conversion to help make the conversion as easy and effective as possible.

Acrobat Tracker (PDF, 503k)

(July 2005)
Acrobat Tracker, available in Acrobat Standard and Professional, is an XML-based tool, based on Really Simple Syndication (RSS) 2.0, for presenting and describing lists of items. Some common uses of the Tracker are to manage subscriptions to document reviews or to produce a visual client for a web service application.

Acrobat 6.0

Acrobat 6 TestDebugger

• For Windows (ZIP, 21K)
• For Macintosh (HQX, 30K)

Acrobat JavaScript Scripting Guide (PDF, 1.0M)

Use Acrobat JavaScript to develop and enhance standard workflows.

Acrobat JavaScript Scripting Reference PDF, 2.1M)

(Jun 2005)
Get detailed descriptions of all objects, properties and methods within the Acrobat extension to JavaScript, as well as code samples.

Programming Acrobat JavaScript Using Visual Basic (PDF, 347k)

Acrobat 6.0 provides a rich set of JavaScript programming interfaces that are designed to be used from within the Acrobat environment. It also provides a mechanism, JSObject, that allows external clients to access the same functionality from environments such as Visual Basic.

This document gives you the information you need to get started using the extended functionality of JavaScript from a Visual Basic programming environment. It provides a set of examples to illustrate the key concepts.

Multimedia JavaScript Reference (PDF, 764k)

(Apr 2004)
Acrobat 6.0 provides a rich set of JavaScript programming interfaces exposes much of the functionality of the viewer and its plug-ins to the document author/form designer and developer. This document is the JavaScript reference to the Multimedia plug-in. It documents the objects, properties and methods that can be used to control multimedia events.

Acrobat 5.0

Acrobat JavaScript Object Specification (PDF, 1.7M)

Acrobat® 5.0 extends the core JavaScript language, ECMAScript version 1.5, to accommodate PDF-related features and functionality. This document provides detailed descriptions of all objects, properties and methods within the Acrobat extension to JavaScript, as well as code samples.