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Lack of clarity on requirement of existence of `V` key on Text fields #387

Open lrosenthol opened 2 months ago

lrosenthol commented 2 months ago

12.7.5.3 (paragraphs after table 231) does not clearly specify whether the V key is required for text fields - I don't see why it would need to be - and what behavior is when not present.

petervwyatt commented 2 months ago

I combine this statement from the para below Table 231: "The field’s text shall be held in a text string (or, beginning with PDF 1.5, a stream) in the V (value) entry of the field dictionary." with "Table 226 — Entries common to all field dictionaries" and "Table 228 — Additional entries common to all fields containing variable text" to conclude that V is optional, but if its value needs to be defined then V "shall" be present as a text-string or stream (only).

I agree that this could be clearer as DV is also not mentioned at all.

I also see an error that was introduced in ISO 32000-2:2017 - the last bullet starting "XML format..." is supposed to be just one sentence. Instead, the general normative text describing MaxLen has been merged with that bullet, rather than standing alone - since MaxLen applies to all text fields, not just XML file selection. See ISO 32000-1:2008 and earlier Adobe specs.

petervwyatt commented 1 month ago

@lrosenthol - could you please propose improved wording/clarifications for this and related errata?