write_own_notes.json

The JSON file of the “The notes a program leaves itself” example. A press proof carrying the run on the file, the plate on the page and the ink on the colour bar placed twice. None of it is drawn and no reading software shows it: it is there for the program that wrote it.

JSON 184 lines

This file is a request: an application sends it over the network to the server, which creates the PDF and sends it back. It makes the same page as the Rust and Python versions of this example. A request names every file it uses, never its content; the call carries the request and the files together. A font the server already holds, such as DejaVuSans, is named with nothing attached. Send the request to the address the API page gives.

What this example is for

A press room sends a proof out and gets it back three days later with a pencil note in the margin. To pick the job up again it has to know which run the sheet belongs to, which plate the page was set for, and which ink the colour bar was drawn against — and none of that is anything the person holding the sheet should be shown. So it travels under the document instead of on it: the file carries the run, the page carries its plate, and the colour bar, placed twice on that page, carries the ink it was set against.

What this example shows

Download the file The same example in Rust The same example in Python See what it creates 
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{
  "items": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "rect": {
        "llx": 56.0,
        "lly": 780.0,
        "urx": 539.0,
        "ury": 799.2
      },
      "content": [
        "Press proof"
      ],
      "font": "DejaVuSans",
      "font_size": 16.0
    },
    {
      "type": "text",
      "rect": {
        "llx": 56.0,
        "lly": 658.0,
        "urx": 539.0,
        "ury": 770.0
      },
      "content": [
        "This sheet is a proof, and everything a reading software shows of it is on it: a title, this paragraph, and a colour bar placed twice. Under it the file states the run it belongs to, the page states the plate it was set for, and the bar states the ink it was drawn against."
      ],
      "font": "DejaVuSans",
      "font_size": 10.0,
      "leading": 14.0
    },
    {
      "type": "drawing",
      "drawing": "bar",
      "x": 56.0,
      "y": 672.0,
      "scale": 1.0
    },
    {
      "type": "drawing",
      "drawing": "bar",
      "x": 56.0,
      "y": 616.0,
      "scale": 0.5
    },
    {
      "type": "text",
      "rect": {
        "llx": 56.0,
        "lly": 464.8,
        "urx": 539.0,
        "ury": 560.0
      },
      "content": [
        "None of those three is drawn, and no reading software shows them. Each is filed under the name of the program that left it, stamped with the moment that program last touched it, and travels with the file until it opens the file again."
      ],
      "font": "DejaVuSans",
      "font_size": 8.5,
      "leading": 11.899999999999999,
      "color": [
        0.35,
        0.35,
        0.35
      ]
    }
  ],
  "private_data": {
    "program": "PressDesk",
    "modified": "2026-09-07T08:15:00+02:00",
    "private": "{\"run\":47,\"press\":\"K4\",\"proof\":3}"
  },
  "page_private_data": [
    {
      "page": 1,
      "private_data": {
        "program": "PressDesk",
        "modified": "2026-09-07T08:15:00+02:00",
        "private": "{\"plate\":\"C\",\"screen\":175}"
      }
    }
  ],
  "drawings": [
    {
      "name": "bar",
      "box": {
        "llx": 0.0,
        "lly": 0.0,
        "urx": 168.0,
        "ury": 18.0
      },
      "items": [
        {
          "type": "rect",
          "rect": {
            "llx": 0.0,
            "lly": 0.0,
            "urx": 28.0,
            "ury": 18.0
          },
          "fill": [
            0.85,
            0.9775,
            1.0
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "rect",
          "rect": {
            "llx": 28.0,
            "lly": 0.0,
            "urx": 56.0,
            "ury": 18.0
          },
          "fill": [
            0.7,
            0.955,
            1.0
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "rect",
          "rect": {
            "llx": 56.0,
            "lly": 0.0,
            "urx": 84.0,
            "ury": 18.0
          },
          "fill": [
            0.55,
            0.9325,
            1.0
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "rect",
          "rect": {
            "llx": 84.0,
            "lly": 0.0,
            "urx": 112.0,
            "ury": 18.0
          },
          "fill": [
            0.4,
            0.91,
            1.0
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "rect",
          "rect": {
            "llx": 112.0,
            "lly": 0.0,
            "urx": 140.0,
            "ury": 18.0
          },
          "fill": [
            0.19999999999999996,
            0.88,
            1.0
          ]
        },
        {
          "type": "rect",
          "rect": {
            "llx": 140.0,
            "lly": 0.0,
            "urx": 168.0,
            "ury": 18.0
          },
          "fill": [
            0.0,
            0.85,
            1.0
          ]
        }
      ],
      "private_data": {
        "program": "PressDesk",
        "modified": "2026-09-07T08:15:00+02:00",
        "private": "{\"ink\":\"process cyan\",\"bar\":\"solid\"}"
      }
    }
  ]
}