You need to check that the intended format was created successfully: A4-landscape, Letter-portrait or a special format for a poster? You think testing such simple thing is a waste of time? But have you ever printed a “LETTER”-formatted document on an “A4”-printer? It is possible ... ;-(

That is the reason why PDFUnit provides the tag <hasFormat /> to verify the format:

<!-- Tag to check the format: -->

<hasFormat format=".."            (either 'format' or 
           width=".."             'width' and 'height' has to be used)
           height=".."
           unit=".."              (optional)
           
           on=".."                (one of the page selection attributes
           onPage".."             ...
           onEveryPageAfter".."   ...
           onEveryPageBefore".."  ...
           onAnyPageAfter".."     ...
           onAnyPageBefore".."    ... can be used)
/>

A page format can be checked with predefined constants:

<testcase name="hasFormat_A4Landscape">
  <assertThat testDocument="format/format_A4-Landscape.pdf">
    <hasFormat format="A4_LANDSCAPE" />     
  </assertThat>
</testcase>

<testcase name="hasFormat_LetterPortrait">
  <assertThat testDocument="format/format_Letter-Portrait.pdf">
    <hasFormat format="LETTER_PORTRAIT" />  
  </assertThat>
</testcase>

You can also verify individual formats:

<testcase name="hasFormat_FreeFormat_1117x836_mm">
  <assertThat testDocument="format/physical-map-of-the-world-1999_1117x863mm.pdf">
    <hasFormat width="863.8" height="1117.6" unit="MILLIMETER" /> 
  </assertThat>
</testcase>

<testcase name="hasFormat_FreeFormat_10x15_cm">
  <assertThat testDocument="format/format_Individual-10x15-cm.pdf">
    <hasFormat width="10.0" height="15.0" unit="CENTIMETER" />     
  </assertThat>
</testcase>

The topic of different paper sizes and their dimensions in points, millimeters and inches is well documented at www.prepressure.com.

Tolerances of width and height are accepted when comparing expected values with actual values. The standard ISO 216 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size) specifies tolerances and also the popular standard DIN 476. PDFUnit uses the stricter tolerances of DIN 476 for all formats.

A document with pages of different sizes can also be checked for its formats:

<testcase name="hasFormat_DifferentFormatsOnDifferentPages">
  <assertThat testDocument="format/format_multiple-formats-on-individual-pages.pdf">
    <hasFormat format="A4_LANDSCAPE" on="FIRST_PAGE" />
    <hasFormat format="A5_PORTRAIT" onPage="3" />
  </assertThat>
</testcase>

The format tests can be restricted to individual pages or page ranges as described in chapter 13.2: “Page Selection”:

<testcase name="hasFormat_OnAnyPageBefore">
  <assertThat testDocument="format/format_multiple-formats-on-individual-pages.pdf">
    <hasFormat format="A4_LANDSCAPE" onAnyPageBefore="3" />
  </assertThat>
</testcase>

<testcase name="hasFormat_OnAllPagesAfter">
  <assertThat testDocument="format/format_multiple-formats-on-individual-pages.pdf">
    <hasFormat format="A5_PORTRAIT" onEveryPageAfter="2" />
  </assertThat>
</testcase>