PDFs on the rebound
December 15, 2010 —
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In addition to knowing which document formats your solution will need to support or convert, users should review the PDF features they’ll be needing, such as compression, encryption, graphs or tables, said Lundie.
Not surprisingly, considering its imaging technology credentials and handwriting, bar code and character-recognition products, Accusoft Pegasus emphasizes the visual nature of its PDF solutions, especially around creating searchable image-over-text documents from scanned images such as faxes, medical records and tax returns.
“If you’re building a database app that’s storing scanned images, you want to make that file as small as possible. You want to not only compress those images without too much loss, you also want to be able to segment out that PDF and make sure everything is compressed ideally,” said Accusoft’s Wilson.
As do many PDF tool vendors, “We offer free evaluations of our software, so sometimes we get people who just need to create PDFs, but then see they can do other things with Accusoft like adding watermarks to documents,” he added. “The advantage is, as they get more advanced with their use of PDF, it’s all the same toolkit and same API from us.”
Seeking document preservation
Though experts at Accusoft Pegasus, Aspose, CeTe and Foxit said they’ve yet to detect strong customer demand for portfolios, there is plenty of interest in PDF/A, the archival subset of the standard. Chalk this up to European Union requirements for standard formatting of digital archives, which has produced more market pressure than in the U.S.
Apago, Callas Software, Compart Systemhaus, LuraTech, Nuance, PDF Tools AG all offer products for creating and validating PDF/A files. Further, Apache’s Formatting Object Processor, based on the W3C's XSL-FO standard, supports the minimal PDF/A profile, PDF/A-1b.
To maximize readability decades into the future, PDF/A files cannot contain audio or video, JavaScript, executables, or encryption, among other requirements. Achieving the archival standard, however, is difficult unless it’s planned from the PDF’s inception. Again, it’s wise for developers to check tool documentation carefully: Some U.S. vendors are only just beginning to investigate PDF/A or offer nascent support.
Related Search Term(s): PDF
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