After the overwhelming success of our last pdfCamp in May 2023, which generated so much interest that we had to limit the number of participants, we were delighted to host another pdfCamp this year. On October 12th and 13th, integrators, users and developers gathered in Berlin for the 8th edition of the pdfCamp to spend two days in close interaction with the callas software team to expand their knowledge of callas products and PDF-related topics. It was a good mix of familiar faces and newcomers, all packed with questions, feature requests and day-to-day problems.
As is our tradition, pdfCamp started with a brainstorming session to set the agenda for the next two days. The challenges and questions raised by the attendees were reviewed and categorized into different sessions, and then we jumped right into the first one. It focused on managing custom Preflight Profiles and Process Plans, dealing with duplicates and unused Checks and Fixups, and what can be improved in the future.
In the next session, our CEO Dietrich von Seggern, introduced Processing Steps (ISO 19593-1) and DPart metadata and showed how they can be used in pdfToolbox to improve the automation of PDF workflows. Moving on, the following session demonstrated various techniques for creating dielines using the "Create and Apply Shapes" Fixup. The final session of the first day covered JavaScript in pdfToolbox, highlighting its capabilities and debugging techniques.
We ended the evening with a delicious dinner and great conversations with everyone.
After the first coffee or tea, the second day began with renewed energy and a focus on the remaining topics. Here's a little insight:
- Exploring "Sifter Checks" to detect important elements close to the TrimBox
- Diving into different bleed generation methods
- Customizing HTML-based preflight reports and ask-at-runtime dialogs
- Improving barcode recognition with advanced preflight Checks to identify potential problems
Johanna Jackson from ppi Media summarizes her experience as follows:
“pdfCamp is a great opportunity to tap directly into the cumulative knowledge of callas employees and get help with concrete problems. It is very instructive to observe how the research is approached and it is always impressive how many problems can be solved right on the spot.
On behalf of callas, I would like to thank all participants for attending pdfCamp. It's always an incredible experience to receive real-world tasks and challenges from our customers. We've gained valuable insights and input that will help us to further develop and improve our products.
If you would like to join us at one of our pdfCamps, the next one will take place in Berlin in April 2024. Stay tuned for more information.
