evince output displays wrong in Adobe Reader

[Randall Whitman]

wget https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040s2.pdf
launch evince
open f1040s2.pdf
Fill in example numbers in lines 4 and 10.
Save As... test-1040s2.pdf

On the same Ubuntu-18.04 machine, in both xpdf and evince, all of test-1040s2.pdf displays as expected, specifically including the form entries.

Copied f1040s2.pdf to a (virtual) machine running MS-Windows-10, and opened in Adobe Reader DC 2021.001.20142 .
Expected: display correctly, specifically the form entries in lines 4 and 10.
Actual: no form entries show up in line 4 or 10, as seen in tax-pdf-adobe-reader-w10.png file from screenshot (lines 4 & 10 circled in red with the gimp).

Ubuntu-18.04.5-LTS, evince-3.28.4-0ubuntu1.2

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: pdfshuffler 0.6.0-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-44.47-generic 4.15.18
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-44-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.23
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity:Unity7:ubuntu
Date: Fri Apr 16 21:16:52 2021
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2018-11-21 (878 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20180725)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: pdfshuffler
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Randall Whitman (ubuntu-whizman)]

(had tried to choose package evince rather than pdfshuffler after having re-evaluated which package.)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, could you perhaps also report it upstream on https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evince/-/issues ?

[Randall Whitman (ubuntu-whizman)]

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evince/-/issues/1594

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

thanks!

[Randall Whitman (ubuntu-whizman)]

Today I was able to look at the software on the computer at the copy-and-print shop where I had printed my tax returns in April.
Foxit works correctly.
Adobe Reader incorrectly shows some form fields blank, as I was able to reproduce with non-confidential data.
Microsoft Edge, which unfortunately is the default for PDF on that computer, has the much more serious flaw of displaying non-zero numbers in some form fields that should be blank -- specifically in a PDF concatenated by pdfshuffler from the handful of tax forms filled in by evince, the value from Schedule A line 7 displayed on Schedule C line 6 -- so now I have determined that it is Microsoft Edge with the flaw that led to the nastygram I recently received from the IRS.

[Randall Whitman (ubuntu-whizman)]

Chromium-browser now incorrectly displays amounts in form fields that should be blank, in a file concatenated by PDFShuffler, from filled-in PDF forms saved from evince. Unsure whether the incompatibility arises from Evince, PDFShuffler, or Chromium. Note that on the file with the one form only (saved directly by Evince, not concatenated with others), Chromium correctly displays that form field blank.

File test-tax-cat0.pdf page 4, f1040 s2, Part I Tax, Line 1 AMT:

chromium-browser-106.0.5249.91: incorrectly displays, in lighter font, the number from page 3, f1040 s1, lines 1 and/or 14.
evince-3.36.10-0ubuntu1: correctly blank.
firefox-104: correctly blank.
xpdf-3.04-7: correctly blank.

Above describes the repro case I have on test-only data. The issue occurs with multiple form fields in another file that is confidential.

Currently running/testing chromium/evince/firefox/xpdf on Ubuntu-20.04.5/Linux-5.4.0/amd64.

The PDF files were generated in the original attempt to reproduce the issue, in 2021/04, on Ubuntu-18.04, same hardware:

PDFShuffler started from launcher
+ test-f1040.pdf
+ test-1040s1.pdf
+ test-1040s2.pdf
Export (down-arrow icon) test-tax-cat0.pdf

[Randall Whitman (ubuntu-whizman)]

Similar/worse results with Evince 3.36.10-0ubuntu1 and PDF Arranger 1.4.2-1 as installed on Ubuntu-20.04.5:

With Evince-3.36.10-0ubuntu1, fill in US-IRS PDF Y2020 tax forms (f1040, f1040s1, f1040s2) and save.

With PDF-Arranger 1.4.2-1:
[+] t2210-f1040.pdf
[+] t2210-1040s1.pdf
[+] t2210-1040s2.pdf
Export (down-arrow icon) t2210-tax-cat2.pdf - popped up warnings in dialog box:

The metadata field /Accessibility with value 'structured; tagged' has no XMP equivalent, so it was discarded
The metadata field /Form with value 'fillable' has no XMP equivalent, so it was discarded

Display of t2210-tax-cat2.pdf page 3 (f1040 s1):

chromium-browser-106.0.5249.91: incorrectly displays form entry in lines 2b, 5, 7, 8-lhs, 11, 13, 16, 21.
evince-3.36.10-0ubuntu1: correct (lines 1, 3, 9, 14 only)
firefox-104: correct (lines 1, 3, 9, 14 only)
xpdf-3.04-7: correct (lines 1, 3, 9, 14 only)

Display of t2210-tax-cat2.pdf page 4 (f1040 s2):

chromium-browser-106.0.5249.91: incorrectly displays form entry in lines 1, 3, 6, 7b, 8, 8c.
evince-3.36.10-0ubuntu1: correctly blank except lines 4 & 10.
firefox-104: correctly blank except lines 4 & 10.
xpdf-3.04-7: correctly blank except lines 4 & 10.