Attach Files to PDF Documents

• Aug 07, 2026
• 2 minutes to read

The PDF Document API enables you to embed external files inside a PDF document. Each attachment is stored as an Attachment object that defines file metadata and binary content.

Use the PdfDocument.getAttachments() method to access the collection of attachments in a document. The method returns an IAttachmentCollection object that manages Attachment instances.

IAttachmentCollection attachments = pdfDocument.getAttachments();

Add a File Attachment

Create an Attachment object and add it to the document’s attachment collection.

The following code snippet attaches a text file to a PDF document:

import com.devexpress.docs.pdf.*;
import com.devexpress.drawing.printing.DXPaperKind;

import java.nio.channels.*;
import java.nio.file.*;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        try (PdfDocument pdfDocument = new PdfDocument()) {

            // Add an A4-size page to the document.
            pdfDocument.getPages().add(DXPaperKind.A4);

            // Create an attachment.
            Attachment attachment = new Attachment();
            attachment.setFileName("sample.txt");
            attachment.setData(Files.readAllBytes(Path.of("sample.txt")));
            attachment.setMimeType("text/plain");
            attachment.setDescription("Sample text file");
            attachment.setRelationship(AssociatedFileRelationship.SOURCE);

            // Add attachment to the document.
            pdfDocument.getAttachments().add(attachment);

            // Save the document.
            try (WritableByteChannel channel =
                     FileChannel.open(Path.of("result.pdf"),
                         StandardOpenOption.CREATE,
                         StandardOpenOption.WRITE,
                         StandardOpenOption.TRUNCATE_EXISTING)) {

                pdfDocument.save(channel);
            }
        }
    }
}

Attachment Settings

Setting	Description	API
FileName	The name of the attached file.	getFileName(), setFileName()
Data	The binary content of the file.	getData(), setData()
MimeType	MIME type of the file (for example, text/plain, application/pdf).	getMimeType(), setMimeType()
Description	The attachment description.	getDescription(), setDescription()
CreationDate	The date when the attachment was created.	getCreationDate(), setCreationDate()
ModificationDate	The date when the attachment was last modified.	getModificationDate(), setModificationDate()
Relationship	Specifies the role of the file in the document (for example, SOURCE).	getRelationship(), setRelationship()

Iterate Through Attachments

The following code snippet accesses and processes all attachments in a document:

for (Attachment attachment : pdfDocument.getAttachments()) {
    System.out.println(attachment.getFileName());
    System.out.println(attachment.getMimeType());
}

Remove an Attachment

The following code snippet removes an attachment from a PDF document by index or by reference:

// Remove the attached file by index.
pdfDocument.getAttachments().remove(0);

// Remove the attached file by reference.
pdfDocument.getAttachments().remove(attachment);