The opening session 'Welcome to the VIP Event' starring Dietrich von Seggern, David van Driessche and Karina Zander briefed the audience about what was on the agenda during the event and what has changed since the last edition. pdfToolbox 11 was introduced with a bang and showed how the base technologies, such as Shapes or Sifter, are becoming the foundation for advanced automation features. More importantly, a 'public beta' was provided to the attendees for testing and Profile creation with full fledged documentation. Our CEO Dietrich von Seggern, who is also an ISO Liaison Officer at the PDF Association, introduced the recently released and upcoming PDF standards, like PDF/X-6 and PDF/A-4.

While the attendees had the opportunity to gain insights regarding where the industry and callas software is headed in the future, they also had the chance to hear directly from callas' product managers regarding recent product updates and some sneak peeks on what’s around the corner. Networking and discussion opportunities with callas team members and fellow attendees, in addition to soaking in some great views of Riga, local food, and a Black Balsam tasting rounded out the first day of the VIP Event.

A teaser of what's new in pdfToolbox 11

Spotify

Olaf Drümmer shed light on this brand-new feature of pdfToolbox 11 which derives the spot colors that offer the best appearance match and assigns these to the respective areas of the original PDF in order to provide a clean and pleasing result.

pdfDPartner

DPart metadata, associated with pages or page ranges, was specified in PDF/VT first and is defined in PDF 2.0 as well. It is intended to be used in automation to allow for processing pages in the same PDF in different ways. Dietrich showcased how this can be done in pdfToolbox using QuickCheck.

The Great PDF show

Like last year, the VIP Event in Riga witnessed 'The Great PDF show', our live quiz where Stephan Jaeggi secured the first prize (right under everyone's nose). This year, we battled in teams. Out of 10 teams in total, Team 'Macaroni penguins' took the top spot and won Amazon gift cards. Team 'Rockhopper penguins' and team 'Yellow eyed penguins' took the second and third spots on the podium. Since everything revolved around penguins, here is a picture of third spot holders.

Thanks to everyone who attended this special event. We hope you were able to learn as much as we did. Stay tuned for news regarding future events and product releases!