PDF Layers Explained: Optional Content Groups in PDF
PDF layers (Optional Content Groups) let you show/hide content programmatically. Learn how they work, how to create them, and where they're used in practice.
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Tags: pdf, developer-tools, internals
PDF Layers (Optional Content Groups): How They Work PDF layers — officially called Optional Content Groups (OCGs) — allow different content to be shown or hidden independently. You've seen them in technical drawings (show dimensions, hide dimensions), CAD exports (different detail levels), and interactive PDFs (toggle language versions). This guide explains how OCGs work, when they're useful, and how to create and manipulate them programmatically. What Optional Content Groups Actually Are An OCG is a named grouping of PDF content that can be toggled visible or hidden. The content is always present in the PDF file — OCGs just control whether it's rendered. This makes them different from simply including or excluding content. A PDF can have multiple OCGs, each with: A name (shown in the…
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