Printing and Production Annotations

• Jul 24, 2026
• 2 minutes to read

A PDF document can contain annotations that are specifically intended for printing and production purposes. These annotations may include comments, instructions, or other information that is relevant to the printing process.

The PDF Document API supports the following types of printing and production annotations:

Printer Mark Annotations

Identify printer marks in a PDF document. Printer marks include registration marks, crop marks, color bars, and other marks used during commercial printing.

Trap Network Annotations

Identify a trap network in a PDF document. Trap networks define trapping information used during commercial printing to compensate for slight misalignment between printing plates.

Note

Printer mark and trap network annotations are intended for pre-press workflows and PDF processing. They identify or preserve printer marks and trap networks in a document. PDF viewers may ignore these annotations or display them differently.

Create Printer Mark Annotations

Use the PrinterMarkAnnotation class to create a printer mark annotation. Specify the annotation bounds and add the annotation to a page.

The following code snippet marks an area that contains printer marks in a document prepared for commercial printing:

C#

using DevExpress.Docs.Pdf;
using System.Drawing;

using (PdfDocument pdfDocument =
    new PdfDocument(File.OpenRead(@"Document.pdf")))
{
    // Create a printer mark annotation
    PrinterMarkAnnotation annotation =
               new PrinterMarkAnnotation(
                       new RectangleF(15, 15, 25, 25));

    //  Add the annotation to the first page of the PDF document
    pdfDocument.Pages[0].Annotations.Add(annotation);

    pdfDocument.Save(File.OpenWrite(@"DocumentWithPrinterMark.pdf"));
}

VB.NET

Imports DevExpress.Docs.Pdf
Imports System.Drawing

Using pdfDocument As New PdfDocument(File.OpenRead("Document.pdf"))
    ' Create a printer mark annotation
    Dim annotation As New PrinterMarkAnnotation(New RectangleF(15, 15, 25, 25))

    ' Add the annotation to the first page of the PDF document
    pdfDocument.Pages(0).Annotations.Add(annotation)

    pdfDocument.Save(File.OpenWrite("DocumentWithPrinterMark.pdf"))
End Using

Create Trap Network Annotations

Use the TrapNetAnnotation class to create a trap network annotation. Specify annotation bounds and add the annotation to a page.

The following code snippet marks an area that contains trapping information in a document prepared for commercial printing:

C#

using DevExpress.Docs.Pdf;
using System.Drawing;

using (PdfDocument pdfDocument =
    new PdfDocument(File.OpenRead(@"Document.pdf")))
{
    // Create a trap network annotation
    TrapNetAnnotation annotation =
            new TrapNetAnnotation(
                    new RectangleF(15, 15, 25, 25));

    //  Add the annotation to the first page of the PDF document
    pdfDocument.Pages[0].Annotations.Add(annotation);

    pdfDocument.Save(File.OpenWrite(@"DocumentWithTrapNetwork.pdf"));
}

VB.NET

Imports DevExpress.Docs.Pdf
Imports System.Drawing

Using pdfDocument As New PdfDocument(File.OpenRead("Document.pdf"))
    ' Create a trap network annotation
    Dim annotation As New TrapNetAnnotation(New RectangleF(15, 15, 25, 25))

    ' Add the annotation to the first page of the PDF document
    pdfDocument.Pages(0).Annotations.Add(annotation)

    pdfDocument.Save(File.OpenWrite("DocumentWithTrapNetwork.pdf"))
End Using