Working with Hyperlinks in PDF

23 Jul 202620 minutes to read

In a PDF, hyperlinks can be added to allow users to navigate to another part of the PDF file, a web page, or any other external content. Syncfusion® PDF provides support for all of these hyperlink types.

To quickly get started with working with hyperlinks in PDF documents using the Syncfusion® PDF library for .NET, refer to this video tutorial.

Working with Web navigation

You can navigate to a specified URL from a PDF document by using the PdfTextWebLink class. The PdfTextWebLink class draws the link text in a given color and creates a clickable area that opens the URL in a browser when activated.

The following code example shows how to add a web link to a new PDF document.

using Syncfusion.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Graphics;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;

//Create a new PDF document.
PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument();
//Add a page to the document.
PdfPage page = document.Pages.Add();
//Create the font.
PdfFont font = new PdfStandardFont(PdfFontFamily.Helvetica, 12f);

//Create the text web link.
PdfTextWebLink textLink = new PdfTextWebLink();
//Set the destination URL.
textLink.Url = "http://www.syncfusion.com";
//Set the link text.
textLink.Text = "Syncfusion .NET components and controls";
//Set the font.
textLink.Font = font;
//Draw the hyperlink in the PDF page.
textLink.DrawTextWebLink(page, new PointF(10, 40));

//Save and close the document.
using (FileStream outputStream = new FileStream("Output.pdf", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
{
    document.Save(outputStream);
}
document.Close(true);
using System.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Graphics;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;

//Create a new PDF document.
PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument();
//Add a page to the document.
PdfPage page = document.Pages.Add();
//Create the font.
PdfFont font = new PdfStandardFont(PdfFontFamily.Helvetica, 12f);

//Create the text web link.
PdfTextWebLink textLink = new PdfTextWebLink();
//Set the destination URL.
textLink.Url = "http://www.syncfusion.com";
//Set the link text.
textLink.Text = "Syncfusion .NET components and controls";
//Set the font.
textLink.Font = font;
//Draw the hyperlink in the PDF page.
textLink.DrawTextWebLink(page, new PointF(10, 40));

//Save and close the document.
document.Save("Output.pdf");
document.Close(true);
Imports System.Drawing
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Graphics
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive

'Create a new PDF document.
Dim document As New PdfDocument()
'Add a page to the document.
Dim page As PdfPage = document.Pages.Add()
'Create the font.
Dim font As PdfFont = New PdfStandardFont(PdfFontFamily.Helvetica, 12.0F)

'Create the text web link.
Dim textLink As New PdfTextWebLink()
'Set the destination URL.
textLink.Url = "http://www.syncfusion.com"
'Set the link text.
textLink.Text = "Syncfusion .NET components and controls"
'Set the font.
textLink.Font = font
'Draw the hyperlink in the PDF page.
textLink.DrawTextWebLink(page.Graphics, New PointF(10, 40))

'Save and close the document.
document.Save("Output.pdf")
document.Close(True)

You can download a complete working sample from GitHub.

The following code example shows how to add a web link to an existing PDF document.

using Syncfusion.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Graphics;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Parsing;

//Load the existing PDF document.
PdfLoadedDocument loadedDocument = new PdfLoadedDocument("Input.pdf");
//Load the first page.
PdfLoadedPage loadedPage = loadedDocument.Pages[0] as PdfLoadedPage;
//Create the font.
PdfFont font = new PdfStandardFont(PdfFontFamily.Helvetica, 12f);

//Create the text web link.
PdfTextWebLink textLink = new PdfTextWebLink();
//Set the destination URL.
textLink.Url = "http://www.syncfusion.com";
//Set the link text.
textLink.Text = "Syncfusion .NET components and controls";
//Set the font.
textLink.Font = font;
//Draw the hyperlink in the loaded page graphics.
textLink.DrawTextWebLink(loadedPage.Graphics, new PointF(10, 40));

//Save and close the document.
loadedDocument.Save("Output.pdf");
loadedDocument.Close(true);
using System.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Graphics;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Parsing;

//Load the existing PDF document.
PdfLoadedDocument loadedDocument = new PdfLoadedDocument(@"Input.pdf");
//Load the first page.
PdfLoadedPage loadedPage = loadedDocument.Pages[0] as PdfLoadedPage;
//Create the font.
PdfFont font = new PdfStandardFont(PdfFontFamily.Helvetica, 12f);

//Create the text web link.
PdfTextWebLink textLink = new PdfTextWebLink();
//Set the destination URL.
textLink.Url = "http://www.syncfusion.com";
//Set the link text.
textLink.Text = "Syncfusion .NET components and controls";
//Set the font.
textLink.Font = font;
//Draw the hyperlink in the loaded page graphics.
textLink.DrawTextWebLink(loadedPage.Graphics, new PointF(10, 40));

//Save and close the document.
loadedDocument.Save("Output.pdf");
loadedDocument.Close(true);
Imports System.Drawing
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Graphics
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Parsing

'Load the existing PDF document.
Dim loadedDocument As New PdfLoadedDocument("Input.pdf")
'Load the first page.
Dim loadedPage As PdfLoadedPage = TryCast(loadedDocument.Pages(0), PdfLoadedPage)
'Create the font.
Dim font As PdfFont = New PdfStandardFont(PdfFontFamily.Helvetica, 12.0F)

'Create the text web link.
Dim textLink As New PdfTextWebLink()
'Set the destination URL.
textLink.Url = "http://www.syncfusion.com"
'Set the link text.
textLink.Text = "Syncfusion .NET components and controls"
'Set the font.
textLink.Font = font
'Draw the hyperlink in the loaded page graphics.
textLink.DrawTextWebLink(loadedPage.Graphics, New PointF(10, 40))

'Save and close the document.
loadedDocument.Save("Output.pdf")
loadedDocument.Close(True)

You can download a complete working sample from GitHub.

Working with internal document navigation

To allow the users to navigate to any other part of the same document, PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation class can be used. The below code explains how to add the hyperlink for internal document navigation.

using Syncfusion.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Graphics;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;

//Create a new PDF document.
PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument();
//Create a new page.
PdfPage page = document.Pages.Add();
//Create a new rectangle that defines the clickable area of the annotation.
RectangleF docLinkAnnotationBounds = new RectangleF(10, 40, 30, 30);

//Create a new document link annotation.
PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation documentLinkAnnotation = new PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation(docLinkAnnotationBounds);
//Set the annotation flags.
documentLinkAnnotation.AnnotationFlags = PdfAnnotationFlags.NoRotate;
//Set the annotation text (tooltip).
documentLinkAnnotation.Text = "Document link annotation";
//Set the annotation border color.
documentLinkAnnotation.Color = new PdfColor(Color.Navy);
//Create another page that the link will navigate to.
PdfPage navigationPage = document.Pages.Add();
//Set the destination page.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination = new PdfDestination(navigationPage);
//Set the document link annotation location on the destination page.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination.Location = new PointF(10, 0);
//Set the zoom level used when the destination is opened.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination.Zoom = 5;
//Add this annotation to the source page.
page.Annotations.Add(documentLinkAnnotation);
//Save and close the document.
document.Save("Output.pdf");
document.Close(true);
using System.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Graphics;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;

//Create a new PDF document.
PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument();
//Create a new page.
PdfPage page = document.Pages.Add();
//Create a new rectangle that defines the clickable area of the annotation.
RectangleF docLinkAnnotationBounds = new RectangleF(10, 40, 30, 30);

//Create a new document link annotation.
PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation documentLinkAnnotation = new PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation(docLinkAnnotationBounds);
//Set the annotation flags.
documentLinkAnnotation.AnnotationFlags = PdfAnnotationFlags.NoRotate;
//Set the annotation text (tooltip).
documentLinkAnnotation.Text = "Document link annotation";
//Set the annotation border color.
documentLinkAnnotation.Color = new PdfColor(Color.Navy);
//Create another page that the link will navigate to.
PdfPage navigationPage = document.Pages.Add();
//Set the destination page.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination = new PdfDestination(navigationPage);
//Set the document link annotation location on the destination page.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination.Location = new PointF(10, 0);
//Set the zoom level used when the destination is opened.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination.Zoom = 5;
//Add this annotation to the source page.
page.Annotations.Add(documentLinkAnnotation);

//Save and close the document.
document.Save("Output.pdf");
document.Close(true);
Imports System.Drawing
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Graphics
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive

'Create a new PDF document.
Dim document As New PdfDocument()
'Create a new page.
Dim page As PdfPage = document.Pages.Add()
'Create a new rectangle that defines the clickable area of the annotation.
Dim docLinkAnnotationBounds As New RectangleF(10, 40, 30, 30)

'Create a new document link annotation.
Dim documentLinkAnnotation As New PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation(docLinkAnnotationBounds)
'Set the annotation flags.
documentLinkAnnotation.AnnotationFlags = PdfAnnotationFlags.NoRotate
'Set the annotation text (tooltip).
documentLinkAnnotation.Text = "Document link annotation"
'Set the annotation border color.
documentLinkAnnotation.Color = New PdfColor(Color.Navy)
'Create another page that the link will navigate to.
Dim navigationPage As PdfPage = document.Pages.Add()
'Set the destination page.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination = New PdfDestination(navigationPage)
'Set the document link annotation location on the destination page.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination.Location = New PointF(10, 0)
'Set the zoom level used when the destination is opened.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination.Zoom = 5
'Add this annotation to the source page.
page.Annotations.Add(documentLinkAnnotation)

'Save and close the document.
document.Save("Output.pdf")
document.Close(True)

You can download a complete working sample from GitHub.

The following code example shows how to add a PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation to an existing PDF document.

using Syncfusion.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Parsing;

//Load the existing PDF document.
PdfLoadedDocument loadedDocument = new PdfLoadedDocument("Input.pdf");
//Load the source page.
PdfLoadedPage loadedPage = loadedDocument.Pages[0] as PdfLoadedPage;
//Create a new rectangle that defines the clickable area of the annotation.
RectangleF docLinkAnnotationBounds = new RectangleF(10, 40, 30, 30);

//Create a new document link annotation.
PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation documentLinkAnnotation = new PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation(docLinkAnnotationBounds);
//Set the annotation text (tooltip).
documentLinkAnnotation.Text = "Document link annotation";
//Set the destination page from the loaded document.
PdfLoadedPage navigationPage = loadedDocument.Pages[1] as PdfLoadedPage;
//Set the PDF destination.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination = new PdfDestination(navigationPage);
//Set the location on the destination page.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination.Location = new PointF(10, 0);
//Add this annotation to the source page.
loadedPage.Annotations.Add(documentLinkAnnotation);
//Save and close the document.
loadedDocument.Save("Output.pdf");
loadedDocument.Close(true);
using System.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Parsing;

//Load the existing PDF document.
PdfLoadedDocument loadedDocument = new PdfLoadedDocument(@"Input.pdf");
//Load the source page.
PdfLoadedPage loadedPage = loadedDocument.Pages[0] as PdfLoadedPage;
//Create a new rectangle that defines the clickable area of the annotation.
RectangleF docLinkAnnotationBounds = new RectangleF(10, 40, 30, 30);

//Create a new document link annotation.
PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation documentLinkAnnotation = new PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation(docLinkAnnotationBounds);
//Set the annotation text (tooltip).
documentLinkAnnotation.Text = "Document link annotation";
//Set the destination page from the loaded document.
PdfLoadedPage navigationPage = loadedDocument.Pages[1] as PdfLoadedPage;
//Set the PDF destination.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination = new PdfDestination(navigationPage);
//Set the location on the destination page.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination.Location = new PointF(10, 0);
//Add this annotation to the source page.
loadedPage.Annotations.Add(documentLinkAnnotation);

//Save and close the document.
loadedDocument.Save("Output.pdf");
loadedDocument.Close(true);
Imports System.Drawing
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Parsing

'Load the existing PDF document.
Dim loadedDocument As New PdfLoadedDocument("Input.pdf")
'Load the source page.
Dim loadedPage As PdfLoadedPage = TryCast(loadedDocument.Pages(0), PdfLoadedPage)
'Create a new rectangle that defines the clickable area of the annotation.
Dim docLinkAnnotationBounds As New RectangleF(10, 40, 30, 30)

'Create a new document link annotation.
Dim documentLinkAnnotation As New PdfDocumentLinkAnnotation(docLinkAnnotationBounds)
'Set the annotation text (tooltip).
documentLinkAnnotation.Text = "Document link annotation"
'Set the destination page from the loaded document.
Dim navigationPage As PdfLoadedPage = TryCast(loadedDocument.Pages(1), PdfLoadedPage)
'Set the PDF destination.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination = New PdfDestination(navigationPage)
'Set the location on the destination page.
documentLinkAnnotation.Destination.Location = New PointF(10, 0)
'Add this annotation to the source page.
loadedPage.Annotations.Add(documentLinkAnnotation)

'Save and close the document.
loadedDocument.Save("Output.pdf")
loadedDocument.Close(True)

You can download a complete working sample from GitHub.

Working with external document navigation

You can open external documents such as images, text files, or PDF files using the PdfFileLinkAnnotation class.

The following code example shows how to add a file link annotation that opens an external image when clicked.

using Syncfusion.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;

//Create the PDF document.
PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument();
//Add a new page to the document.
PdfPage page = document.Pages.Add();
//Create a rectangle that defines the clickable area of the annotation.
RectangleF bounds = new RectangleF(10, 40, 30, 30);
//Set the file path of the external file to be opened.
string filePath = "logo.png";

//Create a file link annotation that opens the specified file when clicked.
PdfFileLinkAnnotation fileLinkAnnotation = new PdfFileLinkAnnotation(bounds, filePath);
//Add this annotation to the page.
page.Annotations.Add(fileLinkAnnotation);

//Save and close the document.
using (FileStream outputStream = new FileStream("Output.pdf", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
{
    document.Save(outputStream);
}
document.Close(true);
using System.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;

//Create the PDF document.
PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument();
//Add a new page to the document.
PdfPage page = document.Pages.Add();
//Create a rectangle that defines the clickable area of the annotation.
RectangleF bounds = new RectangleF(10, 40, 30, 30);

//Create a file link annotation that opens the specified file when clicked.
PdfFileLinkAnnotation fileLinkAnnotation = new PdfFileLinkAnnotation(bounds, @"..\..\Data\logo.png");
//Add this annotation to the page.
page.Annotations.Add(fileLinkAnnotation);

//Save and close the document.
document.Save("Output.pdf");
document.Close(true);
Imports System.Drawing
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive

'Create the PDF document.
Dim document As New PdfDocument()
'Add a new page to the document.
Dim page As PdfPage = document.Pages.Add()
'Create a rectangle that defines the clickable area of the annotation.
Dim rectangle As New RectangleF(10, 40, 30, 30)

'Create a file link annotation that opens the specified file when clicked.
Dim fileLinkAnnotation As New PdfFileLinkAnnotation(rectangle, "..\..\Data\logo.png")
'Add this annotation to the page.
page.Annotations.Add(fileLinkAnnotation)

'Save and close the document.
document.Save("Output.pdf")
document.Close(True)

You can download a complete working sample from GitHub.

NOTE

The above link uses the absolute path of the file for navigation. Moving the files to another machine or location may produce a file not found error in PDF reader applications.

To open a file using a relative path, the PdfLaunchAction can be used. When you use a relative path in the launch action, the files can be moved to any machine as long as the relative path is maintained. The following code example demonstrates the same.

//PDF doesn't support external document navigation in C# .NET Cross platforms.
using System.Drawing;
using Syncfusion.Pdf;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive;
using Syncfusion.Pdf.Parsing;

//Create a new PDF document.
PdfDocument document = new PdfDocument();
//Create a new page.
PdfPage page = document.Pages.Add();

//Create the button field.
PdfButtonField submitButton = new PdfButtonField(loadedPage, "submitButton");
submitButton.Bounds = new RectangleF(100, 160, 100, 20);
submitButton.Text = "Launch";
//Create the PdfLaunchAction.
PdfLaunchAction launchAction = new PdfLaunchAction(@"Document.txt", PdfFilePathType.Relative);
//Set the launch action to the submit button.
submitButton.Actions.GotFocus = launchAction;
//Add the form field to the document.
loadedDocument.Form.Fields.Add(submitButton);

//Save and close the document.
loadedDocument.Save("Output.pdf");
loadedDocument.Close(true);
Imports System.Drawing
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Interactive
Imports Syncfusion.Pdf.Parsing

'Create a new PDF document
Dim document As New PdfDocument()
'Create a new page
Dim page As PdfPage = document.Pages.Add()

'Create the button field.
Dim submitButton As New PdfButtonField(loadedPage, "submitButton")
submitButton.Bounds = New RectangleF(25, 160, 100, 20)
submitButton.Text = "Launch"
'Create the PdfLaunchAction.
Dim launchAction As New PdfLaunchAction("Document.txt", PdfFilePathType.Relative)
'Set the launch action to the submit button.
submitButton.Actions.GotFocus = launchAction
'Add the form field to the document.
loadedDocument.Form.Fields.Add(submitButton)

'Save and close the document.
loadedDocument.Save("Output.pdf")
loadedDocument.Close(True)

You can download a complete working sample from GitHub.