News in callas pdfChip v2.0

• Extended PDF feature support

• Support for Cartridge pools for CLI
  (–lspool; requires License Server v1.2)


• Support for developer licenses for CLI
  (–lsdev; requires License Server v1.2)


• Support for the ISO Standard PDF 2.0;
  including the possibility to add correct version information and
  specific support for the new black point compensation entry.


• Better support for setting PDF blend modes.


• Support for Photoshop (PSD) or TIFF images in a generated
  PDF document, next to the already supported image formats
  (such as GIF, JPG, PNG and more).


• Support for referenced PDF documents which are included
  without quality loss in the generated output PDF.



• Easier & safer integration

• Web server environments:
  Support for an additional command-line parameter to
  allow or disallow access to remote content.


• To increase processing speed on Windows:
  a 64-bit version is now available.


• On all platforms, referenced image and PDF data
  is now handled in an optimized way to avoid
  high-memory consumption during PDF creation.


• The latest version of the TEC-IT barcode library has been
  integrated for more complete barcode support.



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News in callas pdfChip v1.4

• Page scaling factor (UserUnits)

Used if result PDF exceeds the maximum dimensions of PDF (200x200 inch).
UserUnits can be defined in HTML/CSS.

• Optional content + Processing steps

Support for defining Layers (optional content) for content objects
incl. Layer groups and information for Processing steps in CSS.

• New option: --zoom-factor

The precision of placements can now be increased using
the --zoom-factor parameter for applications that need
very high calculation accuracy when positioning objects.

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News in callas pdfChip v1.2

callas pdfChip v1.2 update focuses on ease-of-use:

• Debug Plug-In for Chrome

One of the challenges in developing pdfChip templates,
is figuring out the right HTML to get the effect in PDF that you want.
This is especially difficult, because an HTML template using JavaScript
will not open correctly in a standard browser such as Chrome.

With pdfChip 1.2 comes a Chrome plug-in that emulates
the pdfChip specific JavaScript objects and functions.
This makes it possible to use the Chrome JavaScript debugger
for your templates.

• Extended support for barcodes

pdfChip contains a built-in barcode library that supports
over 100 (119 to be precise) barcode types.
Many of these barcodes have special features and
parameters that could not be used in pdfChip.

From pdfChip 1.2 on, these specific parameters can also be used in
your templates, making the barcode functionality even more powerful.
At the same time, it is now possible to use much more coloring schemes
for barcodes, opening up a wide array of more creative barcode uses.

• InDesign template generator

pdfChip templates can be created with any good text editor
or with a tool specifically targeted towards web design.
For those people who feel more comfortable with design tools,
such as Adobe InDesign, callas released the pdfChip template
generation export filter for Adobe InDesign with the pdfChip 1.2 release.

This export filter converts an InDesign document into a correct
pdfChip template, correctly taking over the positions of all elements
on the page, the color and styles of page elements and more.
This allows to dramatically reduce the time required to build a
correct pdfChip template.

• Additional features

Creating a template that correctly loads fonts and images
can be difficult, because of the asynchronous way pdfChip
(and the WebKit engine within) handle those page resources.

In pdfChip 1.2, there is a new, elegant way, to handle this problem.
pdfChip is capable of outputting more than one PDF document.
When generating business cards for example,
each business card could be saved in a single PDF file.

It is now also possible to cross link between those files.
This means that each generated PDF file can contain links
to one or more of the other generated PDF files.

Most of the time, pdfChip templates will be a mix of
HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and where necessary enhanced
with things, such as MathML or SVG.
Sometimes, more simple needs could be handled by a
single SVG file however. pdfChip 1.2 allows specifying a single
SVG file which will be converted into a PDF seamlessly.

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News in callas pdfChip v1.1

callas pdfChip v1.1 update adds a number of features
especially useful when creating long, dynamic documents:

• Making integration easier

Using pdfChip to convert an HTML template to a good
PDF file is straightforward and easy.
pdfChip v1.1 focuses on making integration of the tool in a
larger project just as easy by adding a number of features:

• Control the maximum number of pages in the generated PDF file.

Makes it e.g. possible to create single page PDF files in just
one go instead of one PDF file with many pages.
Since the destination PDF can now be defined in the JavaScript
code it is possible to start a new PDF whenever needed.



• Enhanced error reporting,
  specifically for JavaScript and when placing bar codes.

During development it can be critical to understand what
errors occur and how to adjust the HTML template.
Error reporting is now improved in order to make it easier
to develop complex PDF publishing applications.



• Passing command-line variables straight to the HTML template.

Allows for passing command-line variables straight to
the HTML template, where JavaScript can pick it up and use it
to shape the resulting PDF file.

The ability to pass this kind of small information to an HTML template
adds even more flexibility to PDF publishing; compared to what was
already possible with the highly dynamic HTML/JavaScript architecture.




• Long, dynamic PDF documents

Long documents, that need to include lists of references such as
a list of figures, list of tables or simply a table of contents,
were a challenge in pdfChip v1.0.

In pdfChip v1.1 the new concept of a “list collector” is implemented:

• List collector.

This new feature allows content to be marked using
simple CSS and stores information about this content in a
JSON (JavaScript data) file.
This information can then be used to automatically
create a table of content with page numbers for
the generated PDF document for example.




• Advanced templates

• Device-N color space.

Device-N color space is an advanced PDF color space
that is essential for content where a number of different
spot colors or a combination of CMYK and spot colors is
used for page objects like images or vector graphics.



• Improved placing of PDF files.

Placing of PDF files has been improved.
pdfChip provides information about PDF files that are placed
in the HTML template, e.g. about their trimbox or bleedbox.
This information can then be used in JavaScript
to modify the placement.

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