Use cases
What can our PDF technology do for you? What problems can it solve, and where does it offer the most value? The range of applications is broad – here are the key ones.
PDF quality control
Quality control (or preflight) ensures that PDF files are “fit for purpose.” You can use callas technology to include PDF quality control in your products, ranging from ISO standards to custom requirements. Many of the problems that can be detected can be corrected using configurable corrections. Some of the highlights that callas offers in this area are:
- Support for PDF/X, PDF/A, PDF/UA, PDF/VT, and other ISO quality standards.
- Support for the ISO Processing Steps standard.
- Support for working with XMP and DPart information in PDF files.
- Support for PDF 1.3 through 2.0 versions.
- Support for all Ghent Workgroup (GWG) standards.
- ‘Sifter’ technology to dramatically decrease the amount of false positives during preflight.
- Customizable preflight profiles can be based on international standards or custom-made for your workflow.
- Using variables to adjust the behavior of quality checks or corrections dynamically. Either with information from outside or using JavaScript in pdfToolbox (Google v8 engine built-in).
Fixing PDF files
PDF files very often need to be tweaked or augmented. callas technology can correct PDF problems detected during quality control or make PDF files production-ready by adding missing elements. Common examples of problem corrections are adjusting overprint, embedding fonts, converting colors, renaming spot colors, and more. Making production-ready can mean anything from adding a varnish layer, doing imposition (such as step-and-repeat), inserting a cut line, or adding production barcodes.
The callas technology has been created around powerful core technologies that can be used to correct PDF files flexibly. These include:
- A simple yet fast and flexible imposition engine.
- A ‘shapes’ engine to insert cut contours, varnish, undercolor-white… based on page boxes or using tracing of objects on the page.
- A ‘place content’ technology to decorate PDF files with additional content such as registration marks, cut and fold lines, color bars, and more.
- A full-featured barcode creation engine supporting well-over 100 different types of 1D and 2D barcodes.
Quickly extracting essential PDF information
In some workflows, there is a need to extract essential PDF information as quickly as possible, usually because the user is waiting for feedback. The callas Quick Check engine is designed specifically to retrieve such information. It does not have the power of the complete preflight engine but is optimized for speed. Some of the information it can extract from a PDF:
- The number of pages and the size of all pages.
- The metadata that is present in the document.
- The list of fonts used and their status (embedded, subsetted…).
- The list of images and their
resolution.
The Quick Check engine can extract information ‘as is’ or refine or summarize it. A flexible configuration file format allows the engine to extract only the required information, making it as fast as possible, even on documents with many pages.
Creating PDF files from scratch
Sometimes your input isn’t a PDF file, but just data; a good example would be a list of IDs that must be turned into movie tickets with a unique QR code. In that case, a PDF file may need to be created from that input data.
The callas technology includes pdfChip, which specializes in converting HTML templates into production-ready PDF files. Using an optimized and extended version of the WebKit HTML engine, pdfChip creates a PDF file with the design specified by the template. It can create PDF/X-compliant PDF files, handling overprint, CMYK, spot colors, and many other things that generally are not supported in HTML.
The output can be a single-page PDF file, a PDF file with many thousands of pages, or, depending on how the template functions, thousands of individual PDF files.
Given the right template, the pdfChip engine is even powerful and accurate enough to output fully imposed sheets.
Rendering PDF files into images
Rendering modern PDF files using complex transparencies and overprinting correctly isn’t easy. The callas technology allows doing this in different ways depending on your needs.
Using the SDK versions of the technology, rendering can be done in memory so that the rendered pixels can be shown in the host solution or further analyzed or optimized. The technology is flexible enough to include or exclude specific plates or ‘layers’ (optional content groups).
All versions of the callas technology allow saving all or specific pages of a PDF file into different image formats.
The engine supports PNG, JPEG, and TIFF images, with multiple color spaces supported for each image format (including multi-channel TIFF).
The rendering resolution, overprint preview settings, smoothing, ICC color profiles used, and more are entirely configurable.
Imposition
callas provides several imposition technologies that can be integrated into your host technology. First, the pdfToolbox and pdfaPilot products embed an imposition engine with JavaScript-based imposition configurations to impose incoming PDF files.
The configuration is created using JavaScript and can use variables that pull in data from outside, so the technology is very flexible. It is also highly optimized and, as such, very fast, even for input PDF files with many pages or very complex content.
Second, the pdfToolbox Portal framework embeds even more powerful step-and-repeat and true shape nesting technology. Together with powerful mark templates, it allows you to integrate sheet optimization and more into your solutions.
Working with PostScript and EPS
The callas technology embeds Adobe PostScript to PDF and PDF to PostScript libraries. Using the same ‘Adobe PDF Settings’ configuration files used by Adobe Distiller, you can use this technology to create PostScript or EPS output files or convert incoming PostScript or EPS files into PDF.
When creating such PostScript files, transparency flattening (and the translation of other advanced PDF features not supported in PostScript) is taken care of automatically.
Color-managing PDF files
Problems with color are widespread when dealing with PDF files. The callas technology enables you to embed powerful color-management capabilities in your solutions. Some of the functionality supported is:
- Converting spot colors to CMYK, changing their name, or changing their alternate color definitions.
- Applying ink gradation curves to specific separations.
- Visualizing and calculating ink amounts based on a rendered PDF file or a RIPped file (based on which technology is integrated).
- Color conversions (RGB to CMYK, CMYK to RGB…) using ICC profiles.
- Color conversions, TAC reduction, and ink-saving with DeviceLink profiles.
- Embedding ICC profiles (tagging) or removing them for individual images or as output intent.
Let’s talk integration
Nothing works better than a personal conversation. callas treats every OEM as a strategic partner. We’re focused on making your technology better, so reach out and introduce yourself.