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PDF standards explained: with a focus on the newest
The PDF format is one of the most widely used formats in the world. The numerous functions it has to offer indeed makes the format complex. Many companies use it to exchange information between business partners or in-house. It therefore makes sense to use quality specifications to ensure interoperability within and outside a company. Standard formats defined for PDF can be used to define such quality requirements and simplify their compliance. They also relieve the burden of technical details and help clarify responsibilities within the process chain. ISO defined these standards to guarantee reliable PDF processing in view of the many PDF creation programs and the central importance of PDF. Let’s have a look.
Prepress automation in label printing
The level of automation in print shops has risen massively in recent years and it is not a big surprise that researchers found out that the degree of automation is a good indicator of a company's economic success. Modern, automated processes go far beyond classic preflighting and correcting: Tasks such as adding bleed, mapping die-cutting contours or white forms, and placing barcodes and QR codes now run in the background without manual intervention - and can also be implemented sensibly in label printing.
Emails for eternity
According to a recent survey conducted on behalf of the digital association Bitkom, an average of 26 e-mails are received per professional mailbox in Germany every day. Processing them takes up a large part of working time. In addition, e-mails are an integral part of processes. Some of them must be retained under tax law, including purchase orders or invoices, but also any documents that may be relevant in connection with a business transaction. In addition, electronic messages often contain valuable knowledge that must be retained. But how can e-mails be elegantly archived? To date, there is no supreme solution. However, for a number of reasons, the PDF route currently seems to be the most practical.
PrePress Digital in collaboration with callas
"In the past, we have repeatedly found that print shops cover the steps of the prepress and production process with softwares from different manufacturers. With such a constellation, frictional losses occur between the individual steps. In comes Durst workflow” says Hans Peter Schneeberger, Managing Director of PrePress digital - Softwareentwicklung GmbH. But what is the role of pdfToolbox in this? Read to find out what Hans Peter has to say.
Socially distancing penguins
Sometimes funny concepts are the best way to explain what otherwise could be very dry (but important!) topics. And as everybody understands the concept of social distancing after the last year, it is ideal to talk about proximity testing. Wait! What? Proximity testing… Sometimes you want to make sure that certain objects are not too close together. Perhaps because they have to be cut apart after printing and there needs to be enough spacing to do that without damaging the printed content. Or, to stick to our funny concept, to make sure all penguins are at least 1.5 meter or 6 feet apart at all times.
pdfToolbox 12.2 MINUS pdfToolbox 12 = WOW improvements!
It is not just the major versions of pdfToolbox that see major improvements, we release value to further increase productivity and efficiency all along our minor versions too. This blog collects an overview of such major features and improvements from pdfToolbox 12 onwards and up until now.
Beuth Verlag chooses callas software for PDF/A and PDF/X quality assurance
Most of you, especially here in Europe would know about Beuth Verlag as one of Germany’s largest suppliers of specialist information and knowledge and a pioneer in the use of top-quality, long-lasting products and services. In 2019, the publisher adopted callas software’s solutions pdfaPilot and pdfToolbox to automatically process, convert and validate PDF/A and PDF/X files. So how did callas really help Beuth significantly reduce its manual workload?
“Variable data print” marries “prepress automation” - giving birth to callas pdfDPartner
I believe DPart is one of the most important new features in PDF 2.0. DPart is page based metadata in a PDF file, stored in a hierarchy to group pages into “document parts”. From a prepress point of view, it can be the most important feature – together with page based output intents. In combination, they are powerful tools for automation, for page based automation. Page based automation allows for bringing even more intelligence into workflows, for performance improvements and possible integration of print and post print steps into automated workflows.