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Contents of filled fields not being shown #434
Description
Xreader 2.6.4
Linux Mint 20.1 Mate -but also on other distros, like Manjaro xfce, it's last 5 upgrades-.
And also with other document viewers and/or editors (okular - qpdfview).
Formulario G v3.pdf
Formulario G v3.pdf
Issue
The fields of a .pdf document filled with Xreader (or Okular, by the way) in my Linux machine, will appear to remain empty when you leave the field's "edition mode" (sorry, I don't have the vocabulary to describe this better).
Only when you return to "edition" mode , by double clicking on the field, will it's contents re-appear (show themselves).
Note: when you fill the fields with Adobe Acrobat Reader, the contents of the fields are shown even without going to the field's edition mode.
Steps to reproduce
I am attaching a file to show the differences:
1.- the "Juzg." field, was filled using Okular (that shares the problem with Xreader).
2.- the "Secret." field, was filled with Xreader
3.- the "M.P." field, was filled with Adobe Acrobat REader -on a Windows machine-
If you open the document with Xreader, you will see that "Juzg." and "Secret." appear to be empty, but the content of the "M.P." field is shown perfectly well (the last is the expected behavior, as I understand it).
Expected behaviour
The fields contents -after being filled- should be shown without the need to go into "field-edition-mode" (I don't have the propper bocabulary to write this..., sorry).
Other information
Similar .pdf files can be found in these web page: https://sir-aut.cba.gov.ar/formulariosWeb.aspx
Activity
poldon commentedon Jan 31, 2022
I'm seeing the same issue with some forms also in Xreader 3.2.2. Most work, but here's one that doesn't.
DeveloperApplication.pdf
If you save this with data filled in from Xreader, it even looks blank in Chrome until you click each field to edit the contents.
PatrickTague commentedon May 2, 2025
still an issue as of Xreader 4.2.6
rob-hills commentedon Jul 7, 2026
Still an issue in Xreader version 4.6.5 (on Linux Mint 22.3 - Cinnamon 64-bit in case that makes a difference)
This seems to be a pretty significant bug to me, strange it's been around so long.
I've attached an example file that I was working with today. It may help to know that the field data was also not visible when I tried viewing this file with several other apps I had on my system:
This makes me wonder if either the fields in this pdf document are implemented in a non-standard way, or else if the rendering is done by a lower level library that's used by all of the above apps?
For the record, when the attached PDF was viewed (via my Zen/Firefox browser) on the website it originated from, all completed fields displayed their data as expected
gapcover-batch-header-test.pdf
I note that the above file displays the completed fields as expected when opened with the Chromium browser on my system