pdfToolbox

PDF processing

Quality control

pdfToolbox offers powerful, dynamic, and easy-to-integrate PDF processing. It’s a best-of-class PDF engine that handles anything from simple quality control (preflight) over rendering, to fully automated PDF corrections.

It can be integrated in many ways (using hot folders, command-line, a full SDK, ReST API…, etc.), runs on most—if not all—modern operating systems, and has modest system requirements. As the most modern PDF correction and optimization engine on the market, it is integrated in dozens of OEM systems, ranging from submission portals, to MIS systems, prepress workflows and more.

Read on to learn about some of the most essential pdfToolbox offers. If what you need isn’t listed, it’s probably still possible! Reach out to us and we’ll help you figure out how to accomplish it.

Features

Conversions from and to PDF

pdfToolbox has conversions built-in from various popular image formats such as PNG, TIFF, HEIC, PSD, and JPEG, and it can even convert many Office documents to production-ready PDF files. On the other end, pdfToolbox supports outputting PDF files as images (JPEG, PNG and TIFF), and it allows creating a rendered version of the PDF (still a PDF, but with each page rendered into an image).

For print-and-cut workflows, pdfToolbox can output a PDF file that contains only the print elements, and at the same time a CF2, DXF, SVG, or PDF file with the cut contour. Of course those conversions can also be customized exactly how you need them.

Customizable quality control

Quality control in pdfToolbox is done using preflight profiles. Those can be created completely from scratch, but often the best way is to build them off standards. pdfToolbox supports ISO standards, such as PDF/X, PDF/VT, PDF/A… and specifications from other standardization bodies such as those from the Ghent Workgroup.

Preflight profiles fully support variables. This allows you to use one profile but have it behave differently based on your needs for each individual processed PDF. Preflight checks and fixes can be enabled or disabled on the fly, and their parameters can vary. pdfToolbox integrates the Google v8 JavaScript engine, so preflight profiles can contain advanced internal logic.

Feedback from PDF analysis

Whenever pdfToolbox runs a preflight profile, you can generate a processing report. Either as a – fully-customizable – PDF preflight report, or as an XML or JSON file that can be interpreted automatically. Any number of reports can be generated from a single processing run; so you could easily generate a human-readable PDF report and a JSON report simultaneously. Of course, reports fully support a variety of languages.

Color management

Virtually the only limitation to pdfToolbox when it comes to color, is that it cannot create ICC or DeviceLink Profiles. But it can use those profiles just fine! Inserting an output intent, converting all or some page elements to a different color space, removing ICC profiles, applying DeviceLink profiles for ink save purposes… you name it and it’s supported.

pdfToolbox can also handle spot colors exactly as you need. Either renaming them to ensure proper brand color handling, or prepare technical colors for the rest of the workflow, converting them to CMYK, merging spot colors with similar names, remapping from one to the other…

Rendering and visualization

Whether you need to render the PDF file into a thumbnail, preview images, or a high-res version that can be used to send to the RIP, pdfToolbox has you covered. With support of different color spaces, making modifications to the PDF file before rendering if necessary, and of course support for overprint and transparency.

The pdfToolbox visualizer technology supports rendering individual separations, but it can also use color masks to highlight areas with too much (or too little) ink, objects that are too thin, or low-resolution images. You can also use it to compare PDF versions and highlight their differences.

Decorating PDF files

Very often, the PDF file may be good, but it’s missing elements that are crucial for production. Those could be just cut and bleed marks, they could be alignment marks, perhaps a barcode. Or more intricate elements such as a missing dieline or undercolor white layer. pdfToolbox has various built-in technologies that allow creating all of those elements and adding them to the print-ready PDF file.

On top of that, pdfToolbox’s PDF creation and decoration technology is flexible enough that it can be used to create all kinds of secondary files on-the-fly: a proof sheet that includes metadata about the order, color patches and a visual of the PDF, or a shipment page with barcodes and order data, or perhaps simply tiles of a big artwork together with a construction sheet. All of those are supported without any issues.

Conditional processing and more

Bringing it all together are process plans. The process plan editor allows visually connecting different pdfToolbox technologies such as preflight checks, corrections, JavaScript calculations, import and export actions…

It allows conditional processing where the exact steps for a PDF depend on the result of preflight checks or whole preflight profiles, looping, exporting multiple result files… And process plans can be run completely automatically, while being fully controlled by variables injected from the outside – just as is the case for preflight profiles.

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