4x PDF Blog & PDF News

Plustek launches new website on searchable PDFs

Karl De Abrew — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:29:34 +0000

Plustek Technology Inc., a manufacturer of imaging devices, launched a new website which explains the benefits of searchable PDF technology. Although the conversion of paper documents to digital formats such as PDF, is very common at our workplaces, many users are still unaware of the benefits of having digital formats which can be searched, indexed and bookmarked. Plustek has launched this website to explain the technology and benefits behind searchable PDF.

A searchable PDF is a scanned image of the paper documents with the text portions converted and stored in a ‘text layer’. The text layer is generated through an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) process. This allows the users to query the text layer for matching text patterns. If a pattern is found, the image corresponding to the found pattern is displayed and the document can be read in that context.

The new website launched by Plustek can be found at http://www.searchable-pdf.com

Plustek Technology Inc. is a manufacturer of consumer, prosumer, professional and office imaging devices including portable scanners, sheetfed/flatbed scanners, wide-format scanners and IP surveillance equipment.

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Plustek launches new website on searchable PDFs

Four Free PDF Readers Reviewed

Duff Johnson — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:41:40 +0000

[Editors Note: This piece originally appeared in Duff Johnson's Talking PDF blog which I recommend you visit regularly. Duff is the CEO of Appligent Document Solutions, he is also a well-known PDF industry innovator, public speaker, and contributor to industry blogs and events such as Seybold Seminars and PDF Conference. Visit his LinkedIn page for more information.]

FULL DISCLOSURE: While I am an occasional consultant to Adobe Systems (among others), this review is objective.

Cutting through the Bloatware Bloviation

Almost every review of PDF software (some examples here, here and here) starts or ends with the complaint that Adobe’s Reader is bloated “for some unknown reason.” As such, it is claimed, a need for alternative “lightweight” free PDF viewing software was born.

“For those who still insist that applications can be measured by the time required for download or size of the installation, tell me how long does it take to deal with a PDF that breaks your preferred “lightweight” viewer?

Somehow, that metric never makes it into the lazy claims of ‘bloatware’.”

Bloat implies “unnecessary weight”. Adobe’s Reader weighs in at 182 MB installed because (a) it’s built to handle as many of the poorly constructed PDF files in the world as possible, and (b) it’s got lots of hidden functionality.

Why poorly-constructed PDFs exist at all is another question (we’ll talk about it some other time), but the fact remains: there are lots of malformed PDFs out there.

If you are counting installer or installed megabytes (who still does this?) there are definitely smaller competitors, but they can’t open all the bad PDFs that Adobe Reader can handle.

In the last five years, download size and disc space required has lost almost all significance when it comes to choosing software. If you can’t stand the wait for a 26 MB download vs 6 or 16 MB, I’m confident that you represent a vanishingly small proportion of real world users. We’re not talking about hundreds of megabytes here. Most users can manage a DSL connection or better as often as they need to install software.

Let’s agree to call something “bloated” if we know there’s no reason for the size and/or if the size creates a problem. Otherwise, let’s get back to performance, which is far, far more interesting than megabytes.

Is my software properly caffeinated?

The second common complaint is that Adobe Reader is “slow”. A while ago, we performed a casual comparison of Adobe Reader with Preview [link to Talking PDF at Appligent.com] in Mac OS X, and determined that in at least that one specific instance, Reader was a little faster.

Now we’re back to look at PDF Readers for Windows, and this time, we’re looking for more information.

The PDF Reader Review

I chose 3 free PDF desktop viewers for Windows in addition to Adobe’s Reader for this review. All tests were performed under Windows XP (itself running under VMware, if you must know).

Rather than focus on marquee features or each company’s claims, I chose to evaluate real-world performance in key government and business functions to see whether or not these applications were ready for prime-time.

What “prime time” means when it comes to choosing a PDF viewer

If you claim to be an “Adobe Reader replacement”, you better be ready to play in Adobe Reader’s league, which means far more than the ability to display and print PDF files. Everyone recognizes this, which is why all these free Readers are larded up with additional, non-Reader features.

Specifics about the tests conducted are provided below the table.

(this cell intentionally left blank)	Adobe Systems Reader	Foxit Reader	Tracker Software Xchange Viewer	Nuance PDF Reader
Available OS	Win / Mac / Linux	Windows only	Windows only	Windows only
Version tested	v9.3.1	v3.1.4.1125	v2.0	v6.0
Linearized PDF support (Fast Web View)	Yes	No	No	No
Certified Documents	All functions	Ignored	Status only	Error
Open Options	Correct	Ignored	Correct	Correct
Annotations (Notes)	Yes	Buggy*	Yes	Buggy*
Cold start speed	2.3 secs	3.1 secs	9.1 secs	10.1 secs
Warm start speed	1.0 secs	1.1 secs	1.0 secs	3.3 secs
Open file speed	0.53 secs	0.68 secs	0.73 secs	0.38 secs
Open giant file speed	0.9 secs	1.6 secs	2.2 secs	1.1 secs
“Simple” Form	Ok	Fail**	Ok	Ok
“Complex” Form	Ok	Fail**	Fail	Fail
Acrobat JS support	Complete	Incomplete	Incomplete	Incomplete
XFA forms support	Yes	No	No	A little
PDF/A support	Conforming	Unaware	Unaware	Unaware
Size / download	26.7 MB	5.2 MB	18.6 MB	18.6 MB
Size / installed	182 MB	9.2 MB	27.4 MB	44 MB

Review Notes

Linearized PDF (Fast Web View)

Many (if not most) PDF files posted to websites are linearized – what Adobe calls “Fast Web View”. You can (and should) linearize your own PDFs before posting (in Acrobat, it’s a “Save As”). To check a PDF to see if it’s linearized, look in the “Description” tab in the file’s Properties (File -> Properties menu, or Control-D).

When a linearized PDF file is downloaded from a server that supports the technology (the vast majority), the result is a file that displays onscreen as soon as the first page has arrived while the rest of the file continues to download in the background.

Applications that support linearized PDF can therefore display large (even massive) PDF files far faster than applications which force the user to download the entire file prior to displaying it. Here’s a linearized PDF you can try in your browser.

Certified Documents

We attempted to open this PDF file (the US Budget for 2011, 7.7 MB), then noted the differences in behavior between each viewer.

“All Functions” means that the viewer displayed the Certificate noting its status and provided a means to validate the certificate.

“Ignored” means that the viewer appeared unaware that the PDF has been certified

“Status Only” means that the viewer, although aware that the PDF was certified, offered no means of validating the certificate.

“Error” means that the viewer behaved in an invalid manner. In this case, the viewer incorrectly stated that a valid certificate was invalid.

Open Options

Not all viewers respect the Open Options settings in PDF files with respect to the display of bookmarks, thumbnails and other open-file options.

A PDF viewer must be able to display bookmarks or thumbnails as the document’s author intended. These are vital usability features for longer documents, and other file option options (zoom level, for example) are important as well.

Only Bookmarks and Thumbnails open options were tested for this review.

Annotations

The test file [from Talking PDF at Appligent.com] is a simple PDF that includes one example of each type of standard PDF annotation.

While there are many powerful annotation features in Acrobat and Adobe Reader, a PDF viewer, minimally, must be able to properly display standard annotations added by other software.

* – The Nuance Reader failed to correctly and consistently display the annotations and their corresponding notes. The Foxit viewer had a different variety of problems.

Speed Tests

The same 1018 page file (a version of the US House’s Health Care Reform legislation) was used for the speed tests.

The cold start speed was a single trial following a system restart. Warm start speed was an average of 3 trials, while the open file speed (ie, the application was already running) was an average of 4 trials. The timekeeping was manual; your mileage may vary.

The “giant file” used for the “open giant file” test was a 306.7 MB, 1,010 page PDF. For obvious reasons, I’m NOT posting it – you’ll just have to trust me. Each application was started before the file was loaded.

Form Tests

We attempted to open a few of our customer’s forms with each viewer and noted the results.

“Simple” forms included basic calculations and validation only.

“Complex” forms included field-properties formatting and other advanced Acrobat JavaScript methods and techniques.

In addition, a fairly simple XFA form was tested. No function was expected on this form using the non-Adobe viewers, however, the Nuance Reader proved somewhat more capable than the other 3^rd party viewers of at least attempting to manipulate the form fields (even if the result wasn’t actually usable).

** – Foxit failed the “simple” and “complex” tests because the application displayed check-boxes and other form-fields incorrectly (it filled checkboxes with solid color instead of a check-mark, for example).

Support for PDF/A

The archive subset of PDF is ISO 19005, better known as PDF/A, is the standard for long-term preservation of electronic documents.

Published in 2005, PDF/A is now being adopted by governments, courts and businesses around the world.

PDF/A includes “conforming viewer” requirements. In this review, however, only one viewer appeared to notice when a PDF/A file was opened. Here’s a good explanation of what it means to be a conforming PDF/A viewer.

Installer and Installed Size

You read the review, you be the judge. Does size really matter?

Stopwatch image courtesy of:http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/ / CC BY 2.0

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Four Free PDF Readers Reviewed

ABBYY launches new OCR Utility for Linux

Rowan Hanna — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:09:28 +0000

ABBYY Europe, a provider of document recognition technologies, launched its ABBYY FineReader Engine 8.0 CLI for Linux, a command line interface utility for integration of ABBYY’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and PDF conversion technologies within Linux environments.

The new utility will enable fast access to the automated text recognition and conversion process on Linux environments while offering high quality conversion of scans, PDFs and images into editable and searchable formats. The utility delivers the output in various formats including RTF, HTML or PDF. The solution accurately reproduces text and also maintains the layout and formatting of the documents.

The command line interface for ABBYY FineReader Engine 8.0 CLI for Linux will allow the developers to use and integrate the OCR functionalities into a variety of desktop-based and server-based solutions.

The news release can be read at http://newsblaze.com/story/2010031505213100001.we/topstory.html

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ABBYY launches new OCR Utility for Linux

PDF OCR 3.0 for converting PDF to editable text

Karl De Abrew — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:34:46 +0000

PDFOCR.net announced PDF OCR 3.0, an application to convert Adobe PDF documents to editable text through the use of advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. PDF OCR 3.0 recognizes multiple languages and has an OCR engine which is about 90% faster than any similar algorithm in the market. It processes around 10 pages in 45 seconds.

PDF OCR 3.0 provides an easy-to-follow user interface which is divided into two separate windows for displaying the PDF document and the text editor. The user interface also provides the options to select individual page, a range of pages or the entire document.

PDF OCR 3.0 recognizes the 10 most popular languages, including English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. The software is freeware and runs on most of the Windows based environments including Windows ME/2000/XP/2003/Vista & Windows 7.

PDF OCR 3.0 can be downloaded (nearly 11MB) from http://pdfocr.net/down/pdfocr.exe

The full news release can be read at http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/25758-1268646522-pdf-ocr-converts-pdf-documents-to-editable-text.html

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PDF OCR 3.0 for converting PDF to editable text

Enfocus launches PitStop Connect for PDF printing

Rowan Hanna — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:47:26 +0000

Enfocus NV, a vendor for graphic design and printing solutions, launched PitStop Connect, a new tool for creating desktop-based Connectors for routing PDF files from the desktop of creative professionals to publishing and printing houses. The aim of PitStop Connect is to streamline the workflow between the community of creative professionals and the publishing/printing houses.

The desktop-based Connectors can be created by the publishers and printers, and distributed to creative professionals making it easier for the professionals to deliver the perfect PDF, meeting the preflight specifications, to their publishers or printers. The creative professionals can place these Connectors on their desktop without any need for installing software.

Creative professionals can drop their PDF files on the Connector which preflight the PDF based on Enfocus preflight engine and the settings defined by the publisher or printer. The Connectors also include a facility to send the preflighted PDF files via FTP or Enfocus Switch software to the site of publisher or printer.

The PitStop Connector can also add metadata that can be used to automate the processes with Enfocus Switch. PitStop Connect ensures that files are delivered only to the printer or publisher who has provided the Connector and can reduce the errors.

PitStop Connect is priced at USD 4,999. Enfocus charges only one-time fee to publishing and printing houses for creating PDF Connectors which could be then distributed as many times as required.

The press release can be read at http://www.quickprinting.com/web/online/Products/Enfocus-Expands-Ability-to-Guarantee-Perfect-PDFs-with-Introduction-of-PitStop-Connect/5$12435

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Enfocus launches PitStop Connect for PDF printing

PDFTiger.com for rapid conversion of MS Office documents and images to PDF

Karl De Abrew — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:17:40 +0000

PDFTiger.com announced its new software called PDFTiger 1.0 for rapid conversion of MS Office documents and images to PDF and vice-versa. It is available to Windows-based users and priced at USD 29.95.

PDFTiger allows Windows users to create PDF documents from commonly used file formats such as MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, TXT and other printable documents. PDF documents can also be created from images in BMP, JPG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIF and TIFF formats. The software also has the capability to combine multiple pictures into a single manageable PDF document. PDFTiger enables users to save PDF files as MS Word documents while retaining the layout, fonts, formatting and tables. PDF documents can also be exported to TXT, HTML, Flash and images.

The software brings all the conversion options into a single interface with provision of buttons to launch quick and easy-to-use wizards. The software also supports batch conversion through use of folders where users can add all the files in a single attempt for conversion.

A free 30-day trial version of PDFTiger 1.0 is available for download from http://www.pdftiger.com

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PDFTiger.com for rapid conversion of MS Office documents and images to PDF

Boston Red Sox selects Nuance’s eCopy PaperWorks

Rowan Hanna — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:08:48 +0000

Nuance Communications, a vendor for imaging solutions, announced that the accounting department of Boston Red Sox, a member of American Major League Baseball, has selected Nuance’s eCopy PaperWorks software for scanning paper documents into PDF. Boston Red Sox intends to drive out the paper from its accounting department to create efficient invoice processing.

eCopy PaperWorks is used by accounting personnel on a day-to-day basis to scan paper documents into text-searchable and secure PDF files, and subsequently, to move these documents seamlessly into electronic invoice processing workflows. The software has helped Boston Red Sox in reducing the processing time and eliminating the costs associated with paper filing and searching for lost paper invoices.

eCopy PaperWorks has built-in integration with Microsoft SharePoint which helps accounting personnel with a central location to find information and to drive workflows. eCopy PaperWorks and SharePoint are also integrated with Red Sox’s Solomon Software, an accounting application to generate a daily update on invoice processing into the general ledger system.

Learn more on eCopy PaperWorks at http://www.ecopy.com

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Boston Red Sox selects Nuance’s eCopy PaperWorks

Foxit releases PDF Reader 3.2

Rowan Hanna — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:59:46 +0000

Foxit Corporation, a vendor for PDF solutions and eReader devices, released a new version of PDF Reader 3.2 with number of improvements to the PDF viewing process and other various features.

The updated software displays a page number in the status bar making it faster and easier to navigate through multi-page PDF documents. New keyboard shortcuts have been added which include a shortcut to switch from object tools to hand tools and a shortcut to close the current document. New buttons for ‘undo’ and ‘redo’ functions have also been included in new version.

Learn more about Foxit PDF Reader 3.2 at http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/

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Foxit releases PDF Reader 3.2

UniPrint 7.0 with PDF-based Universal Printer Driver

Karl De Abrew — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:57:22 +0000

UniPrint, a provider for enhanced printing solutions built on PDF-based universal printer driver technology, has released UniPrint 7.0 for network printing in server-centric Mac environments. UniPrint 7.0 supports 32-bit and 64-bit computing environments.

The PDF-based universal printer driver technology provides the capability to manage all the printing on different computing environments through a single universal printing driver. The PDF-based universal printer driver technology is designed for Citrix, Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and other non-Windows servers. UniPrint 7.0 also provides the capability to compress the PDF documents, includes a new central admin console and provides PIN protected security.

UniPrint claims that its software can save up to 90% of network bandwidth which would have been otherwise consumed by direct printing methods.

Find out more about UniPrint 7.0’s Suite here.

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UniPrint 7.0 with PDF-based Universal Printer Driver

JPG to PDF Converter for fast conversion of images

Rowan Hanna — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:09:21 +0000

JPG To PDF Converter is a new Windows-based utility for fast and qualitative conversion of images to PDF documents. Although the name of the software suggests JPG to PDF conversion it can create PDF documents from GIF, BMP, PNG, TIFF and PSD files.

As noted by the vendor, the key features of JPG To PDF Converter are:

Conversions at a speed at least 92% faster than other similar tools in the market
Compresses the file size to about 85% while converting without compromising the quality
Supports simultaneous conversion of multiple images
Supports majority of the Windows OS’ which includes ME/2000/XP/Vista/2003/7

JPG To PDF Converter is a lightweight package, easy to install and use. JPG To PDF Converter is priced at USD 29.95 and can be purchased from http://www.JPGToPDFConverter.com/

The press release originally appeared at http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/25023-1268196845-jpg-to-pdf-converter-quickest-way-to-perform-the-conversions.html

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JPG to PDF Converter for fast conversion of images

Quick PDF Library 7.18 unveiled

Rowan Hanna — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:22:13 +0000

Quick PDF Library 7.18 has been officially released and is now ready for download. The new version contains a number of significant additions and improvements to the library, including Delphi 2010 support, JPEG2000 / JPXDecode image support, enhanced unicode support and a whole lot more.

Attention has been paid to:

Page and document manipulation
Fonts
Form Fields and Annotations
Text extraction and rendering
Images
Unicode support

Free Upgrade

Version 7.18 is a minor update and therefore all existing version 7.x license owners are entitled to a free upgrade. Owners of older versions of Quick PDF Library can upgrade online here for $149.40.

You can discuss Quick PDF Library over at QuickPDF.org.

Disclosure: the author of this post is an employee of Debenu.

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Quick PDF Library 7.18 unveiled

ICS releases new version of FormSprint

Karl De Abrew — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:19:22 +0000

Integrated Customer Software (ICS), a provider for forms design and management software, released a newer version of its FormSprint software which is an i/OS electronic forms and design management tool. The new version, FormSprint 201001, introduces new features associated with PDF creation, barcode generation and printer/fax control.

FormSprint provides a range of capabilities for all document-related needs for iSeries, System i and i5/OS installations, including merging form overlays with spool file data, generating MICR, generating barcodes and distribution of documents.

The new PDF features in FormSprint 201001 include the capability to notify the QSYSOPR (or other user profile) when large FormSprint PDF batch jobs end in error. ICS also provides an optional add-on, called Power PDF, to convert the output from FormSprint into PDF document.

For more information see Alex Woodie’s article at IT Jungle.

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ICS releases new version of FormSprint

Quick PDF Library Lite, a completely free version of Quick PDF Library released

Karl De Abrew — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:07:33 +0000

Quick PDF Library Lite, a completely free subset of Quick PDF Library has been released, from a powerful royalty-free PDF developer SDK used by thousands of developers for working with PDFs on all levels — for free!

As compared with with Quick PDF Library which is royalty-free, Quick PDF Library Lite is completely-free.

That’s right. Add functionality to your applications — such as the ability to convert images to PDF, add links to the web, get and set document properties, rotate pages, analyze document security and add images and text to documents — to your applications for free.

Quick PDF Library Lite is available as an ActiveX component and works with C, C++, C#, Delphi, PHP, Visual Basic, VB.NET, ASP, PowerBASIC, Pascal or any other language that supports ActiveX.

To find out more about Quick PDF Library Lite visit this link: Free PDF library.

Disclosure: the author of this post is an employee of Debenu.

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Quick PDF Library Lite, a completely free version of Quick PDF Library released

Bluebeam PDF Revu 8 will be unveiled to Swedish construction industry

Karl De Abrew — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:23:40 +0000

Bluebeam Software will be demonstrating its award-winning PDF editor, Bluebeam PDF Revu 8, to the Swedish construction industry at the Nordbygg trade fair. Bluebeam has recently localized Bluebeam PDF Revu 8 for the Swedish language and will now unveil the product’s capabilities to construction professionals.

Bluebeam PDF Revu 8 was recently launched in February 2010 and it provides extensive digitizing capabilities including integration with other products such MS SharePoint and Bentley ProjectWise. The Swedish version of PDF Revu 8 is available exclusively through FutureCAD, a Stockholm-based software distributor.

Nordbygg is the most important trade fair for the Nordic construction industry and this year, it will be held at Stockholmsmässan from March 23rd to 26th March.

The press release from Bluebeam Software can be read at http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/new-at-nordbygg-bluebeam-pdf,1196203.shtml

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Bluebeam PDF Revu 8 will be unveiled to Swedish construction industry

Atlantic Zeiser acquires Adobe’s co-development partner SOFHA GmbH

Karl De Abrew — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 02:39:37 +0000

Atlantic Zeiser, a solutions provider for digital printing, announced its acquisition of a majority stake in SOFHA GmbH, a Berlin-based software solutions provider to OEMs of high-speed digital printing machines. SOFHA GmbH is one of the Adobe’s co-development partner with access to source codes for various Adobe’s products.

The acquisition will enable new digital printing solutions based on Adobe’s PDF portfolio of standards and enhance PDF/VT as a new standard for variable data processing. The enhanced variable data capabilities for PDF/VT are expected to benefit in minimizing data streams, eliminating bottlenecks for the Raster Image Processor (RIP) and shortening the printing cycle.

Atlantic Zeiser also announced its plans to roll-out a comprehensive suite of solutions for industrial digital printing which deliver offset-like quality and productivity

Read the entire press release at Graphic Arts Online.

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Atlantic Zeiser acquires Adobe’s co-development partner SOFHA GmbH