callas pdfToolbox Desktop - PDF Production Toolkit

callas pdfToolbox Desktop is the easiest yet most powerful
PDF preflight and correction application on the market.

callas pdfToolbox Desktop installs standalone
or as a plugin inside Adobe® Acrobat®:

• When installed as a standalone application,
  pdfToolbox Desktop completely replaces
  the inbuilt preflight capability of Adobe Acrobat;
  in such cases there is no need to also
  buy/install Adobe Acrobat.


• When installed as a plugin into Adobe Acrobat,
  pdfToolbox Desktop vastly extends and enhances
  the basic, inbuilt preflight capability of Adobe Acrobat.

Easy to use

• Switchboard (user dashboard) for ready-made actions


• Visualizer for visually inspecting PDF documents

Yet powerful

• Profiles for more customization


• Variabels to make profiles dynamic


• Process plans to introduce processing logic

No task is too difficult for callas pdfToolbox Desktop.
Problem files can be fixed during preflight or with a
click of a button in the Switchboard (user dashboard).

Examples:

• flatten transparency,


• convert fonts to outlines,


• insert trim and bleed boxes
  to match printer marks,


• convert office documents or even
  PostScript files directly into PDF,


• compare versions of PDF files,


• visualize ink coverage,…

callas pdfToolbox product family, all support the same functionality,
and is is the easiest yet most powerful PDF preflight and correction
application on the market:

• callas pdfToolbox Desktop

For individual and interactive use on
desktops (macOS / Windows).

Aimed at providing preflight, correct and repurpose
of PDF files for prepress, print production,
digital publishing and accessible PDF.

Gives all aspects of working with PDFs
a massive boost with a greatly extended
feature set for a diversity of user's needs.

Runs as independent application or
as plug-in for Adobe® Acrobat®.

Fix one file at a time or, in batch mode,
or a whole bunch of PDF documents.

The Switchboard allows you to run any action
on a whole folder of PDF files;
the files are automatically moved to success or
error folders based on the result of processing.
Of course this is not a substitute for
watched folders in pdfToolbox Server and CLI,
but it can save you loads of time
if you need to process multiple documents.




• callas pdfToolbox Server & CLI

Fully customizable server solutions that
allow for automation of workflows through
watched folders or ready for integration into
existing systems through a command line interface.

• callas pdfToolbox Server

Used to automate callas pdfToolbox or
when integrating callas pdfToolbox into an existing workflow.

Hotfolder-based automation for efficient preflight/checking,
correction and perfect color conversion and optimization of PDF files.
Includes one license of callas pdfToolbox Desktop
for configuration and testing purposes.

Integrates into any web-portal or automation workflow.
Direct integration with Enfocus FullSwitch and PowerSwitch
by means of the provided application configurations.


• callas pdfToolbox CLI-based
  (CLI - command line interface).

For automation of PDF processes;

The fastest way for developers to leverage
callas PDF technologies into custom solutions.
Fast, robust integration of PDF preflighting and
processing in any environment.
Fully-featured PDF preflighting, correction,
color-management and imposition functionality
into custom workflows and solutions.






• callas pdfToolbox SDK

Software Development Kit (SDK)
is a programming library/software development kit
for developers with a need for PDF optimization,
validation and correction.

Facilitates the development of any kind of application
that must edit PDF files.

Enables development of state-of-the-art products
to check and correct PDF files.

Includes one license for the callas pdfToolbox Desktop
for configuration and testing purposes.

"Can Do Things"

• Preflight


• Embedding fonts


• Outlining text


• Comparing PDF files


• Adding a stamp


• Placing (dynamic) barcodes


• Imposition


• Converting RGB


• Flattening transparency


• Converting to image


• Go from/to PostScript


• Changing page size


• Rotating pages


• Removing spot colors


• Fixing spot color names


• Fixing overprinting white (or black)


• Creating rich black


• Comparing PDF versions


• Rearranging pages


• Adding printer marks


• Cropping white space and hidden content


• Use DeviceLink profiles


• Convert to multi-channel PDF


• Convert office files to PDF


• Downsampling images


• Removing layers


• Splitting PDFs


• Viewing excess ink usage


• Adding bleed


• Outlining page boxes


• Adding white margins


• Writing checks with Javascript


• Conditional processing using Javascript


• Adding undercolor white


• Setting page boxes based on page content


• Adding varnish layer


• Adding grommets (eyelets)


• Tiling into smaller pieces


• .


• .

Process Plans

• callas pdfToolbox comes with full support for process plans.


• Process Plans take automation flexibility to the next level:


• They allow defining a number of steps
  a PDF file should be processed through.


• Each step can be a preflight profile,
  a single preflight check or fix, or an action
  (such as creating images, creating a booklet,
  exporting as PostScript file…).


• Process plans allow generating preflight reports
  based on the result of each step, or can jump
  between different steps based on
  the processing result of a previous step.

• Sample use case:

• Optimizing QR Codes for ePapers

Digitization has revolutionized the way we consume information.
What used to be printed on paper is most of the time
now also available in digital form.
Publishers have fully adapted to the digital age and
extended their reach beyond the traditional print format.

Most newspapers and magazines today offer
digital versions of their publications.
These digital replicas, known as ePapers,
are static representations of the print editions and
usually shared as downloadable PDF files.
This allows readers to easily access the content
on a device of their choice.




QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) are an
important tool that bridges the gap between
printed paper and the digital world:

QR Codes have the capacity to store a wide
range of data and, provide instant access
to the encoded information usually
accessed via a smartphone camera.

Today, QR Codes are omnipresent and newspapers and
magazines are using them to provide readers with
quick and easy access to additional, digital content.

This works very well in a printed publication,
where the QR Codes can simply be scanned
with a mobile device.
However, in a digital ePaper they rather are
a stumbling block in the user experience,
as accessing QR Code content in digital formats
like ePapers is not straight forward.




Maybe you've experienced this before:
You're reading an article on your smartphone and
come across a QR Code that offers extra information
about the topic.

The tricky part is that you can't scan the QR Code
directly with your smartphone camera.
Sure, there are ways to get to the QR Code's content,
but these methods are often not very user-friendly.
In the worst case, you might just give up and
miss out on valuable content.

Ideally, you'd like to have clickable links within the ePaper,
that give you instant access to the QR Code's content
with a simple tap.

But to achieve this, publishers may face a problem:
ePapers are normally derived from the print PDF,
where the destination URLs are already encoded
within the QR Codes.
You would need to extract these URLs for each
individual QR Code to generate link annotations.

Thus, to improve the user experience,
it is important to optimize QR Codes for ePapers.




callas pdfToolbox helps you simplify and automate
PDF creation and allows you to overcome this
QR Code challenge.

This is how you determine QR Code values and
place icons + link for URL:
The solution is a callas pdfToolbox Process Plan
that identifies all QR Codes in a document,
decodes their URLs, and integrates a clickable icon
on top of each QR Code< with the URL that was
encoded in the QR Code behind, providing a
seamless way to access digital content
with just one tap.

The image below illustrates the result:
Each QR Code in a document is overlaid
with a "click-here" icon of your choice and
a link annotation with the destination URL of the QR code.
When you click on the icon, the linked website will be opened.

You can download this process plan for free (no cost)
(including a test file and icon) here:

• callas pdfToolbox Process Plan:
  Optimizing QR Codes for digital use

During runtime you can specify which icon
you want to use for the link.




For a detailed article explaining
the different steps of the process plan, please see:
callas pdfToolbox Online Documentation on:

• callas pdfToolbox Process Plan:
  Use QR Codes to place icons and link annotations

Easy, Automated Impositioning

Impositioning is the action of placement of
the pages on a press sheet so that the sheet
after printing and folding carries the pages in
the correct sequence in the finished printed product.

• callas pdfToolbox scales, fits, moves, extends,
  rotates and flips pages and page content easily.


• It also imposes anything from simple booklets
  to fully-fledged brochures and books,
  as well as doing N-up and step and
  repeat impositions for digital printing.

Adobe Compliant Transparency Flattening

• Handling PDF documents with live transparency
  when your workflow or output devices don’t
  directly support them can be really hard.


• callas pdfToolbox effortlessly flattens
  those transparencies while eserving
  text, images and line-art as much as
  possible and without changing
  the intent of the document.


• And you can rely on that result as it uses
  well-proven Adobe flattening technology.

Remote Configuration and Monitoring

• Every callas pdfToolbox Server comes with
  a copy callas pdfToolbox Desktop.


• callas pdfToolbox Desktop allows connecting
  to your pdfToolbox servers;
  all configuration and monitoring of
  callas pdfToolbox Servers on your network
  can be done over the network from the comfort
  of your own desktop computer.

Straightforward integration into any
Web2Print or MIS environment

• Of course callas pdfToolbox Server supports hot folders.


• It also allows integration using the command-line (CLI)
  or an extensive SDK ideal for embedding the latest
  PDF technology straight in your Web2Print or
  order administration system.

callas pdfToolbox Multi-Server Productivity via Dispatcher

• callas pdfToolbox doesn't even limit itself to one system.
  pdfToolbox can be run on several server systems in cooperation.


• By using automatic load balancing,
  callas pdfToolbox allows for configuring a dispatcher
  that then distributes work across the network to
  satellites running on different systems.


• High performance coupled with easy setup and maintenance.

• Allows for load balancing as well as
  for fail over configuration.


• Processing of files according to
  "dispatcher-satellite" concept.


• Dispatcher
  - a server that doesn’t process files itself,
  but instead receives files in its job folders and
  sends them to satellites to have them processed.


• Satellite
  - a satellite is basically a regular server
  that will process files.


• As many "satellites" as required can connect to
  callas pdfToolbox Dispatcher so that processing
  does not stop even if one of the satellites
  is switched off.


• Fail over - processing does not stop even if
  one of the satellites is switched off.


• For dynamic allocation of cloud-based
  processing capacity services,
  see callas License Server.

Automation of workflows

• callas pdfToolbox integrates seamlessly with
  FileTrain for automation of work flows.

PDF Processing Steps Metadata

callas pdfToolbox support interactive as well as
profile driven evaluation, modification and preflight of
PDF Processing Steps Metadata.

The Processing Steps Concept.

Processing Steps is a specification originally
developed by The Ghent Workgroup to associate
metadata information with non-printing and
finishing processes (such as cutting, embossing,
varnish, conversion, Braille, …) with a PDF document.

PDF files in packaging workflows commonly contain
the design to be printed and elements that are not printed,
yet are crucial to how the printed piece is going to be
further processed.

A prime example is cutting and folding information which
is needed after printing, to cut a box to final format and
fold it into its 3D shape.

The Ghent Workgroup identified years ago
that a lack of standardization in the way these
“processing steps” elements were contained in
PDF documents, were a hindrance to the acceptance of
PDF as the standard format in such packaging workflows.

• Video (total: 45:10) - Introduction to Processing Steps.
  Demo: "A possible workflow with Processing Steps
  in axaio MadeForLayers and callas pdfToolbox"

PDF Processing Steps Use Cases.

Layers can now have both regular metadata and
processing steps metadata attached to them.

The PDF Processing Steps metadata standard is of
is of key importance for packaging-, label- and
large format-specific groups of processing-steps data.

PDF Processing Steps allows packaging and product
developers and designers to specify post-print workflow
components with a PDF file in a language-independent,
vendor-neutral way.

PDF Processing Steps specifies how standardized
post-print workflow elements (e.g. cutting, folding)
can be stored in a PDF file in a standardized way,
a substantial improvement over today’s
vendor-specific arrangements.

The standardisation is based on the ISO Standard 19593-1,
Part 1: Processing steps for packaging and labels,
which defines the use of PDF to associate
processing steps and content data.

With the help of the PDF Processing Steps standard,
standardization of automation of processing steps
in packaging production can be improved substantially.

It standardizes metadata for layers to allow for
interoperability between devices in exchanging
data for non-print processing steps.
In addition, it defines rules for objects in
different layers and dependencies between layers.

It creates the possibility to add standardised terms to
each layer to help identify the layer in subsequent
processing steps in the workflow.

This type of information has usually earlier been
defined as technical spot colors in a PDF.
For lack of standardization, everybody has been using
different names, which made workflow automation
very difficult.

Processing steps metadata is primarily interesting for
packaging since, in addition to the printing objects,
a good deal of additional information are defined in
a PDF for packaging. This allows a language independent
identification of these objects.

This is done by grouping page objects in layers
(technically: optional content groups, OCG),
and adding metadata to those layers to
identify them as processing steps.

With ISO 19593-1, packaging production workflows
can be significantly enhanced to include specifications for
cutting lines, varnishing, embossing, add braille and more
using standardized, language-independent metadata
together with PDF’s Optional Content Groups (OCGs) feature.

When associated with OCGs, processing steps information
allows diverse authors, users or workflow operators to
choose specific elements, for example, to verify cut-marks,
check colors, or other considerations.

Metadata can now be used for selective display of
the elements for validation.
A marketing person is interested in other
elements than a prepress specialist.

For proof output cutting lines, braille, etc. are also printed
while for CTP (Computer To Plate) output they are
automatically omitted.

In addition, subsequent systems
(e.g. impostion, embossing, braille)
which support this standard can retrieve
the information relevant for their
processing step directly in the PDF data.

Use cases include:

• metadata identifying processing steps


• limitations on the interaction between
  PDF graphics objects that are part of a
  processing step and other PDF graphics objects


• limitations on PDF graphics objects in processing steps


• Easily identifying data corresponding to
  "Structural" finishing steps, such as:


• Bleed, cutting, creasing, drilling, embossing,
  folding, foil stamping, folding, glueing,
  perforating, punching, stapling, varnishing


• Braille in a document


• information panels


• indications of physical dimensions


• indications of intended
  positions of graphical elements


• printed white, for example on
  transparent or metallic surfaces


• printed varnish

PDF Processing Steps Support in callas pdfToolbox.

PDF Processing Steps Metadata supported in callas pdfToolbox:

• Setting


• Checking


• Adjusting


• Reporting

Setting - In pdfToolbox,
the processing steps metadata is filled out for each layer
using the pdfToolbox Layer Explorer panel.

Checking - Properties that can be used in Checks:

• "Processing Steps metadata present"


• "Processing Steps metadata uses custom values"


• "Processing Steps metadata used for more than one layer"


• "Processing Steps"


• Presence of specified Processing Steps,
  e.g. “Structural:Cutting”


• Can be combined with any other checks
  (e.g. color on Barcode, text or image on Cutting …)

Adjusting - Adjusting Processing Steps:

Configurable Fixups:

• "Add Processing Steps layer metadata” to layer


• “Modify layer name for Processing Steps metadata”


• “Put objects on Processing Steps layer”


• Plus: Relevant layer related Fixups
  can use Processing Step metadata
  instead of layer names, e.g. “Remove layer":

Reporting - Processing Steps metadata is listed
whenever layer details are reported

DeviceLink Conversion

• The callas DeviceLink set of profiles
  (integrated in pdfToolbox since version 10.1)
  is a comprehensive set of specially prepared
  DeviceLink profiles to perform color transformations
  of complete PDF files.

This way the colors of a PDF file prepared for a
different printing condition can be transformed
to meet the needs of the actual printing condition.
callas DeviceLink Add-on profiles take care that
pure colors do not get “polluted” and
elements in gray stay gray.



• The callas DeviceLink Add-on is delivered with a
  package of the most common DeviceLink profiles.
  Own user-specific profiles can be added for
  DeviceLink conversion with callas pdfToolbox.




• More details on the concept of DeviceLink profiles
  with a list of callas DeviceLink Add-on profiles.





• Typical use cases on the use of
  pdfToolbox with DeviceLink profiles.




• See also this callas software blog:

  • Why DeviceLink profiles should interest you.