Hi Ursula,
This is consistent with what I observe on Windows 11, with one important
difference. On my system the radio buttons appear to work correctly on
screen: Acrobat displays the selected choice properly, and after saving and
reopening the PDF the selected value is still there.
However, the problem appears when printing: the printed output shows
empty squares instead of the selected radio button. Printing to
Microsoft Print to PDF gives the same result.
So the issue is not simply “the field never works”. Rather, the PDF
seems to contain enough information for some viewers to display and
preserve the interactive state on screen, but not enough robust
appearance information
for reliable printing.
Your inspection of the PDF structure is therefore very useful: the
missing or incomplete value information, together with the absence of
appearance streams, could explain why different PDF viewers behave
differently, and
why screen display and printed output diverge. The robust solution would
be for ConTeXt to generate appearance streams (/AP) for the radio button
widgets.
At the moment, the PDF may contain enough field information for some PDF
viewers to display the selected value on screen, but not enough explicit
appearance information for reliable printing.
For printable form fields, each widget should have an appearance
dictionary describing at least its normal appearances, typically
something like an “Off” state and one “On” state corresponding to the
button value. Without
that, a viewer may display the field interactively, but the printed
output can remain empty.
So the practical conclusion is:
1. the MWE is useful;
2. the issue should probably be reported as a ConTeXt/LMTX backend problem;
3. the expected fix is not merely changing the example syntax, but making
ConTeXt write proper /AP entries for radio buttons.
Best//JP
Le 27/05/2026 à 10:44, Ulrike Fischer a écrit :
Am Mon, 25 May 2026 22:30:42 +0200 schrieb Jean-Pierre Delange via
ntg-context:
Jim,
I made a few controlled tests with a minimal ConTeXt example containing
only radio fields.
Results:
* the PDF compiles correctly;
* the radio widgets are present;
* Acrobat displays them correctly;
I compiled that example with a current context in texlive 2026
(ConTeXt ver: 2026.04.27) on window 11 and the field doesn't work
for me. Adobe refuses to select a button, and in foxit all buttons
are selected together.
I looked into the PDF (after using \setupbackend[level=0])
and one can see that field is missing the values, only /Aaa is
mentioned, but no /Bbb and /Ccc:
3 0 obj
<< /FT /Btn /Ff 33603584 /Kids 2 0 R /T (choice) /V /Aaa >>
endobj
4 0 obj
<< /Type /Annot /BS << /S /I /W 1 >> /F 4 /H /N /Parent 3 0 R
/Subtype /Widget /Rect [ 97.44189 677.658381 108.408258 688.624749 ]
endobj
5 0 obj
<< /Type /Annot /BS << /S /I /W 1 >> /F 4 /H /N /Parent 3 0 R
/Subtype /Widget /Rect [ 149.454104 677.658381 160.420472 688.624749
] >>
endobj
6 0 obj
<< /Type /Annot /BS << /S /I /W 1 >> /F 4 /H /N /Parent 3 0 R
/Subtype /Widget /Rect [ 198.957112 677.658381 209.92348 688.624749
] >>
endobj
There are also no appearances streams but this is only required in
PDF 2.0.
Wenn I do something similar with LaTeX then the field contains an
/Opt array:
<< /T (choice) /FT /Btn /Opt 5 0 R /V /0 /DV /0 /Kids 7 0 R /Ff
33587200 >>
This array references the values:
5 0 obj
[ (\376\377\000A\000a\000a) (\376\377\000B\000b\000b)
(\376\377\000C\000c\000c) ]
endobj
And the widgets reference the array values by index (we are using
appearance streams, so the setup is more complicated).
The radio field correctly prints for me.
\RequirePackage{pdfmanagement}
\SetKeys[document/metadata]{uncompress}
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{l3pdffield}
\begin{document}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\pdffield_setup:n{preset-radiobutton={setannotflags=Print}} %make
field printable
\pdffield_radio:n
{
group = choice,
value = Aaa,
}\quad
\pdffield_radio:n
{
group = choice,
value = Bbb,
}\quad
\pdffield_radio:n
{
group = choice,
value = Ccc,
}
\ExplSyntaxOff
\end{document}
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