Annotations Not Embedded using File > Save As...

[Tom Colley]

Under previous versions of Okular, I have been able to embed annotations within a PDF file by using File > Save As... Recently I found that this operation was no longer embedding the annotations. In other words, the annotations were no longer present when annotated PDFs (saved using Save As...) were opened with another software or on another computer.

I am using:
OS: Ubuntu 16.04LTS
Okular 0.24.2 (the version currently available in the standard Ubuntu repositories)

This problem has been observed by others since October 2017 - see http://thomas-cokelaer.info/blog/2017/10/okular-export-annotations-in-the-pdf-file/ That blog entry provides an effective workaround: simply use File > Print... > Print to File (PDF).

The blog makes no mention of Ubuntu. I can see that KDE is now using Okular 1.3, which handles annotations very differently, routinely embedding annotations within the PDF file.

Recommendation: make changes to Okular for Ubuntu so that annotation storage options (centralised with the package, or embedded in individual files) are transparent and easily changeable by the user. If this is too hard, then I recommend restoring the embedding of annotations through File > Save As...

[Tom Colley (tcolley)]

I further investigated this problem. My initial report was based on annotations to a document sent by a bank. Some forums report that document DRM properties affect the ability to create/edit annotation. See:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/278874/newer-version-of-okular-can-no-longer-annotate-certain-pdf-files
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341999

I was always able to annotate the bank PDF. I just couldn't embed the annotations by using File > Save As...

When I tested again with a PDF I generated from LibreOffice, I found that annotations were successfully embedded using File > Save As...

I used another computer with the same OS and Okular version to replicate these tests for both the LibreOffice and bank PDFs, and the results were the same.

I also replicated these tests on the first computer after changing the DRM setting in Okular (I went to Settings > Configure Okular > General Tab, unchecked "Obey DRM Limitations", and restarted the computer). The results were the same.

I conclude that failure to embed annotations using "File > Save As..." is LIKELY related to DRM but isn't affected by the setting for "Obey DRM Limitations".

My revised recommendation: investigate the annotation-saving behaviour to determine whether its DRM-related, and modify Okular to communicate such problems to the user and provide an effective and documented ways of embedding annotations for all PDFs.