NAME

PDF::Builder::Basic::PDF::Dict - PDF Dictionaries and Streams. Inherits from PDF::Builder::Basic::PDF::Objind

INSTANCE VARIABLES

There are various special instance variables which are used to look after, particularly, streams. Each begins with a space:

' stream': Holds the stream contents for output
' streamfile': Holds the stream contents in an external file rather than in memory. This is not the same as a PDF file stream. The data is stored in its unfiltered form.
' streamloc': If both ' stream' and ' streamfile' are empty, this indicates where in the source PDF the stream starts.

METHODS

new

    $d = PDF::Builder::Basic::PDF->new()

Creates a new instance of a dictionary. The usual practice is to call "PDFDict()" instead.

type

    $type = $d->type($type)

Get/Set the standard Type key. It can be passed, and will return, a text value rather than a Name object.

filter

    @filters = $d->filter(@filters)

Get/Set one or more filters being used by the optional stream attached to the dictionary.

outobjdeep

    $d->outobjdeep($fh, $pdf)

Outputs the contents of the dictionary to a PDF file. This is a recursive call.

It also outputs a stream if the dictionary has a stream element. If this occurs then this method will calculate the length of the stream and insert it into the stream's dictionary.

read_stream

    $d->read_stream($force_memory)

Reads in a stream from a PDF file. If the stream is greater than "PDF::Dict::mincache" (defaults to 32768) bytes to be stored, then the default action is to create a file for it somewhere and to use that file as a data cache. If $force_memory is set, this caching will not occur and the data will all be stored in the $self->{' stream'} variable.

val

    $d->val()

Returns the dictionary, which is itself.