Pdfkit

by dpearson26998d90fd121a26No license1.1K starsListed Oct 8, 2026Updated Oct 8, 2026Repository updated 2 months ago

Display and manipulate PDF documents using PDFKit. Use when embedding PDFView to show PDF files, creating or modifying PDFDocument instances, adding annotations (highlights, notes, signature widgets), extracting text with PDFSelection, navigating pages, generating thumbnails, filling PDF forms, or wrapping PDFView in SwiftUI.

AI-generated overview

Guides Swift developers in displaying, navigating, searching, annotating and manipulating PDF documents with Apple's PDFKit framework.

What it does
This skill provides reference guidance and code examples for working with Apple's PDFKit framework in Swift. It covers rendering PDFs with PDFView, loading and saving PDFDocument instances, page navigation, text search and extraction with PDFSelection, adding annotations such as highlights and notes, generating thumbnails, and wrapping PDFView in SwiftUI. It also lists common mistakes and a review checklist.
When to use it
Use it when building iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, or visionOS apps that need to display or modify PDF files. It fits tasks like embedding a PDF viewer, adding annotations, extracting text, filling forms, or integrating PDFView into SwiftUI.
Requirements
Requires Apple's PDFKit framework and a Swift development environment with Xcode. No entitlements or Info.plist entries are needed. It ships instructions only, with no scripts, and references an additional patterns document.

PDFKit

Display, navigate, search, annotate, and manipulate PDF documents with PDFView, PDFDocument, PDFPage, PDFAnnotation, and PDFSelection.

Contents

Setup

PDFKit requires no entitlements or Info.plist entries.

swift
import PDFKit
APIAvailability
PDFKit frameworkiOS/iPadOS/tvOS 11+, Mac Catalyst 13.1+, macOS 10.4+, visionOS 1.0+
Find interaction and page overlaysiOS/iPadOS 16+

Displaying PDFs

PDFView renders PDF content and handles zoom, scrolling, text selection, and page navigation.

swift
import PDFKitimport UIKit
class PDFViewController: UIViewController {    let pdfView = PDFView()
    override func viewDidLoad() {        super.viewDidLoad()        pdfView.frame = view.bounds        pdfView.autoresizingMask = [.flexibleWidth, .flexibleHeight]        view.addSubview(pdfView)
        pdfView.autoScales = true        pdfView.displayMode = .singlePageContinuous        pdfView.displayDirection = .vertical
        if let url = Bundle.main.url(forResource: "sample", withExtension: "pdf") {            pdfView.document = PDFDocument(url: url)        }    }}

Display Modes

ModeBehavior
.singlePageOne page at a time
.singlePageContinuousPages stacked vertically, scrollable
.twoUpTwo pages side by side
.twoUpContinuousTwo-up with continuous scrolling

Scaling and Appearance

swift
pdfView.autoScales = truepdfView.minScaleFactor = pdfView.scaleFactorForSizeToFitpdfView.maxScaleFactor = 4.0
pdfView.displaysPageBreaks = truepdfView.pageShadowsEnabled = truepdfView.interpolationQuality = .high

Loading Documents

PDFDocument loads from a URL, Data, or can be created empty.

swift
let fileDoc = PDFDocument(url: fileURL)let dataDoc = PDFDocument(data: pdfData)let emptyDoc = PDFDocument()

Password-Protected PDFs

swift
guard let document = PDFDocument(url: url) else { return }if document.isLocked {    if !document.unlock(withPassword: userPassword) {        // Show password prompt    }}

Saving and Page Manipulation

swift
document.write(to: outputURL)document.write(to: outputURL, withOptions: [    .ownerPasswordOption: "ownerPass", .userPasswordOption: "userPass"])let data = document.dataRepresentation()
// Pages are zero-based. Validate indices; out-of-range calls raise exceptions.let count = document.pageCountdocument.insert(PDFPage(), at: count)if document.pageCount > 2 {    document.removePage(at: 2)}if document.pageCount > 3 {    document.exchangePage(at: 0, withPageAt: 3)}

Page Navigation

PDFView provides built-in navigation with history tracking.

swift
// Go to a specific pagelet pageIndex = 5if let document = pdfView.document,   pageIndex >= 0,   pageIndex < document.pageCount,   let page = document.page(at: pageIndex) {    pdfView.go(to: page)}
// Sequential navigationpdfView.goToNextPage(nil)pdfView.goToPreviousPage(nil)pdfView.goToFirstPage(nil)pdfView.goToLastPage(nil)
// Check navigation stateif pdfView.canGoToNextPage { /* ... */ }
// History navigationif pdfView.canGoBack { pdfView.goBack(nil) }
// Go to a specific point on the current pageif let page = pdfView.currentPage {    let destination = PDFDestination(page: page, at: CGPoint(x: 0, y: 500))    pdfView.go(to: destination)}

Observing Page Changes

swift
NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(    self, selector: #selector(pageChanged),    name: .PDFViewPageChanged, object: pdfView)
@objc func pageChanged(_ notification: Notification) {    guard let page = pdfView.currentPage,          let doc = pdfView.document else { return }    let index = doc.index(for: page)    pageLabel.text = "Page \(index + 1) of \(doc.pageCount)"}

Text Search and Selection

Synchronous Search

swift
let results: [PDFSelection] = document.findString(    "search term", withOptions: [.caseInsensitive])

Asynchronous Search

Use PDFDocumentDelegate for background searches on large documents. Implement didMatchString(_:) to receive each match and documentDidEndDocumentFind(_:) for completion.

Incremental Search and Find Interaction

swift
// Find next match from current selectionlet next = document.findString("term", fromSelection: current, withOptions: [.caseInsensitive])
// System find bar; apply the Setup availability gatepdfView.isFindInteractionEnabled = true

Text Extraction

swift
let fullText = document.string                          // Entire documentlet firstPage = document.pageCount > 0 ? document.page(at: 0) : nillet pageText = firstPage?.string                        // Single pagelet attributed = firstPage?.attributedString            // With formatting
// Region-based extractionif let page = firstPage {    let selection = page.selection(for: CGRect(x: 50, y: 50, width: 400, height: 200))    let text = selection?.string}

Highlighting Search Results

swift
let results = document.findString("important", withOptions: [.caseInsensitive])for selection in results { selection.color = .yellow }pdfView.highlightedSelections = results
if let first = results.first {    pdfView.setCurrentSelection(first, animate: true)    pdfView.go(to: first)}

Annotations

Annotations are created with PDFAnnotation(bounds:forType:withProperties:) and added to a PDFPage.

Highlight Annotation

swift
func addHighlight(to page: PDFPage, selection: PDFSelection) {    let highlight = PDFAnnotation(        bounds: selection.bounds(for: page),        forType: .highlight, withProperties: nil    )    highlight.color = UIColor.yellow.withAlphaComponent(0.5)    page.addAnnotation(highlight)}

Text Note Annotation

swift
let note = PDFAnnotation(    bounds: CGRect(x: 100, y: 700, width: 30, height: 30),    forType: .text, withProperties: nil)note.contents = "This is a sticky note."note.color = .systemYellownote.iconType = .commentpage.addAnnotation(note)

Free Text Annotation

swift
let freeText = PDFAnnotation(    bounds: CGRect(x: 50, y: 600, width: 300, height: 40),    forType: .freeText, withProperties: nil)freeText.contents = "Added commentary"freeText.font = UIFont.systemFont(ofSize: 14)freeText.fontColor = .darkGraypage.addAnnotation(freeText)

Link Annotation

swift
let link = PDFAnnotation(    bounds: CGRect(x: 50, y: 500, width: 200, height: 20),    forType: .link, withProperties: nil)link.url = URL(string: "https://example.com")page.addAnnotation(link)
// Internal page linklink.destination = PDFDestination(page: targetPage, at: .zero)

Removing Annotations

swift
for annotation in page.annotations {    page.removeAnnotation(annotation)}

Common subtypes include .highlight, .underline, .strikeOut, .text, .freeText, .ink, .link, .line, .square, .circle, .stamp, and .widget.

Thumbnails

PDFThumbnailView

PDFThumbnailView shows a strip of page thumbnails linked to a PDFView.

swift
let thumbnailView = PDFThumbnailView()thumbnailView.pdfView = pdfViewthumbnailView.thumbnailSize = CGSize(width: 60, height: 80)thumbnailView.layoutMode = .verticalthumbnailView.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = falseview.addSubview(thumbnailView)

Generating Thumbnails Programmatically

swift
let thumbnail = page.thumbnail(of: CGSize(width: 120, height: 160), for: .mediaBox)
// All pageslet thumbnails = (0..<document.pageCount).compactMap {    document.page(at: $0)?.thumbnail(of: CGSize(width: 120, height: 160), for: .mediaBox)}

SwiftUI Integration

Wrap PDFView in a UIViewRepresentable for SwiftUI. PDF-specific wrappers that configure PDFView, pages, annotations, search, thumbnails, or overlays belong in this skill; route only generic representable lifecycle, layout, or SwiftUI state architecture questions to SwiftUI/UIKit interop guidance.

swift
import SwiftUIimport PDFKit
struct PDFKitView: UIViewRepresentable {    let document: PDFDocument
    func makeUIView(context: Context) -> PDFView {        let pdfView = PDFView()        pdfView.autoScales = true        pdfView.displayMode = .singlePageContinuous        pdfView.document = document        return pdfView    }
    func updateUIView(_ pdfView: PDFView, context: Context) {        if pdfView.document !== document {            pdfView.document = document        }    }}

Usage

swift
struct DocumentScreen: View {    let url: URL
    var body: some View {        if let document = PDFDocument(url: url) {            PDFKitView(document: document)                .ignoresSafeArea()        } else {            ContentUnavailableView("Unable to load PDF", systemImage: "doc.questionmark")        }    }}

For interactive wrappers with page tracking, annotation hit detection, and coordinator patterns, see references/pdfkit-patterns.md [blocked].

Page Overlays

PDFPageOverlayViewProvider places UIKit views on top of individual pages for interactive controls or custom rendering beyond standard annotations.

swift
class OverlayProvider: NSObject, PDFPageOverlayViewProvider {    func pdfView(_ view: PDFView, overlayViewFor page: PDFPage) -> UIView? {        let overlay = UIView()        // Add custom subviews        return overlay    }}
class PDFOverlayController: UIViewController {    let pdfView = PDFView()    private let overlayProvider = OverlayProvider()
    override func viewDidLoad() {        super.viewDidLoad()        pdfView.pageOverlayViewProvider = overlayProvider    }}

pageOverlayViewProvider is weak, so keep the provider strongly owned. For overlay lifecycle and save handling, read references/pdfkit-patterns.md [blocked].

Common Mistakes

DON'T: Force-unwrap PDFDocument init

PDFDocument(url:) and PDFDocument(data:) are failable initializers.

swift
// WRONGlet document = PDFDocument(url: url)!
// CORRECTguard let document = PDFDocument(url: url) else { return }

DON'T: Forget autoScales on PDFView

Without autoScales, the PDF renders at its native resolution.

swift
// WRONGpdfView.document = document
// CORRECTpdfView.autoScales = truepdfView.document = document

DON'T: Ignore PDF coordinate system in annotations

PDF page coordinates have origin at the bottom-left with Y increasing upward -- opposite of UIKit.

swift
// WRONG: UIKit coordinateslet bounds = CGRect(x: 50, y: 50, width: 200, height: 30)
// CORRECT: PDF coordinates (origin bottom-left)let pageBounds = page.bounds(for: .mediaBox)let pdfY = pageBounds.height - 50 - 30let bounds = CGRect(x: 50, y: pdfY, width: 200, height: 30)

DON'T: Modify annotations on a background thread

PDFKit classes are not thread-safe.

swift
// WRONGDispatchQueue.global().async { page.addAnnotation(annotation) }
// CORRECTDispatchQueue.main.async { page.addAnnotation(annotation) }

DON'T: Compare PDFDocument with == in UIViewRepresentable

PDFDocument is a reference type. Use identity (!==).

swift
// WRONG: Always replaces documentfunc updateUIView(_ pdfView: PDFView, context: Context) {    pdfView.document = document}
// CORRECTfunc updateUIView(_ pdfView: PDFView, context: Context) {    if pdfView.document !== document {        pdfView.document = document    }}

Review Checklist

  • PDFDocument init uses optional binding, not force-unwrap
  • pdfView.autoScales = true set for proper initial display
  • Page indices checked against pageCount before access
  • displayMode and displayDirection configured to match design
  • Annotations use PDF coordinate space (origin bottom-left, Y up)
  • All PDFKit mutations happen on the main thread
  • Password-protected PDFs handled with isLocked / unlock(withPassword:)
  • SwiftUI wrapper uses !== identity check in updateUIView
  • PDFViewPageChanged notification observed for page tracking
  • PDFThumbnailView.pdfView linked to the main PDFView
  • Large-document search uses async beginFindString with delegate
  • Saved documents use write(to:withOptions:) when encryption needed

References

Source and attribution

Source:dpearson2699/swift-ios-skillsinskills/pdfkitat commit8d90fd1

License: No license

Content belongs to its original authors. SourceWeft indexes it from a public repository.

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