The callas pdfChip technology focuses on creating print-ready PDF documents from existing data. The conversion uses a built-in version of the WebKit technology. It can convert static HTML or SVG files into PDF, but it best shows its strength when dynamic HTML templates – including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript – are used.
pdfChip is fully integrated into the pdfToolbox products. It is responsible for generating customizable PDF preflight reports and for the “Place Content” PDF decoration functionality, which can add dynamic elements to existing PDF documents.
But it is also available separately as an easy-to-use command-line tool; this page describes the most important areas of the pdfChip engine.
Regular HTML files do not support a wide range of print-PDF features; things such as overprint, print color spaces (CMYK, Lab, spot colors…), page boxes (trim box, bleed box…) are entirely unsupported in HTML. With additions to the HTML and CSS syntax, pdfChip supports all professional print functionality. It is even possible to create PDF/X-compliant PDF files directly from pdfChip.
In some workflows, output PDF files can’t be generated in a single pass, because the data is only available after PDF generation. For example, in some workflows it’s only known after generation of the output PDF how many pages are generated exactly. In such workflows, pdfChip supports multi-pass processing to flexibly add additional content after the main output PDF file was created.
HTML templates can use JavaScript to generate single-page PDF files or output PDF files with thousands of pages, with variations on each page. Because of this, pdfChip is an ideal variable data workflow engine. With proper HTML templates, performance is close to linear between generating 10-page and 100,000-page PDF files. The template can control whether a large multi-page PDF file is going to be output, or many smaller PDF files. Because the output files can be production-ready, it is even possible to output fully imposed print sheets and skip a separate imposition step.
Because pdfChip uses a modified WebKit engine, it can use advanced content to create the final output PDF. Instead of using PNG or JPEG images for example, pdfChip is capable of using PDF as an image format. High-quality logos or other high-quality content can thus be integrated into the output PDF file without loss of quality.
Another example is support for barcodes. pdfChip has an integrated barcode library, which supports more than 100 different barcode types. These can be inserted into the HTML template as special HTML objects and are converted into high-quality barcodes in the output PDF file. Advanced barcode parameters such as bar width reduction, crucial for printing readable barcodes, are fully supported.
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