Table 34 – PDF data types

Type

Description

Sub-Clause

ASCII string

Bytes containing ASCII characters

7.9.2 7.9.2.4

array

Array object

7.3.6

boolean

Boolean value

7.3.2

byte string

A series of bytes that shall represent characters or other binary data. If such a type represents characters, the encoding shall be determined by the context.

7.9.2

date

Date (ASCII string)

7.9.4

dictionary

Dictionary object

7.3.7

file specification

File specification (string or dictionary)

7.11

function

Function (dictionary or stream)

7.10

integer

Integer number

name

Name object

7.3.5

name tree

Name tree (dictionary)

7.9.6

null

Null object

7.3.9

number

Number (integer or real)

number tree

Number tree (dictionary)

7.9.7

PDFDocEncoded string

Bytes containing a string that shall be encoded using PDFDocEncoding

7.9.2

rectangle

Rectangle (array)

7.9.5

stream

Stream object

7.3.8

string

Any string that is not a text string.

Beginning with PDF 1.7, this type is further qualified as the types: PDFDocEncoded string, ASCII string, and byte string.

7.9.2

text string

Bytes that represent characters that shall be encoded using either PDFDocEncoding or UTF-16BE with a leading byte-order marker (as defined in “Text String Type” on page 86 .)

7.9.2.2 7.9.2

text stream

Text stream

7.9.3