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3‑Heights™ Products Version 1.60 officially released - New Java Document Viewer available 30. November, 2007 - PDF Tools AG has officially released Version 1.60 of the 3-Heights PDF programming tools. This release reflects the cumulation of one year of improvements and new features being added to our PDF programming tools. Official release of the 3-Heights™ PDF to PDF/A Converter in Version 1.60 This award winning tool converts standard PDF documents to PDF/A compliant files, offering outstanding performance and unique features during the conversion process, for example the application of a digital signature. Read more Enhancements to the 3-Heights Programming Tools: 3-Heights™ Image to PDF Converter: Rendering of PDF/A-1a conforming files (alternate texts allocated to images) Upgraded image import function for even smaller JPEG image data streams Support of additional TIFF formats from legacy creators and wider support of embedded ICC profiles 3-Heights™ PDF Printer product range: Conversion of embedded fonts to outlines More sophisticated handling of TrueType fonts Faster process for loading printer driver DLL's 3-Heights™ Java Document Viewer introduced (pre-release version) The new 3-Heights™ Java Document Viewer is now available. This powerful and flexible component enables applications, such as DMS or ECM systems, to view, print, and rasterize various document formats. Read more More detailed information An overview of all new products and the most important features you can find in our NewsFlash and in the Press Release. A complete description of all improvements, enhancements and new products can be found in the 3-Heights™ Version 1.60 Release Notes.

DMS Expo 2007 Innovation Award goes to PDF Tools AG October 16, 2007 (Winkel, Switzerland) - Koelnmesse, host of the DMS Expo - Europe's largest document solutions fair - honours outstanding achievement in the field of Document and Enterprise Content Management Technology with their annual "Innovation Award". Winner of this years' public vote is PDF Tools AG with the "3-Heights PDF to PDF/A Converter". This unique software converts PDF files into PDF/A, the new ISO standard for long-term archiving. The tool also allows you to digitally sign the PDF/A documents, giving companies optimal security to preserve documents for decades. T-Systems' "Enterprise Search Solutions" and Softpro's "SignPad" were voted 2nd and 3rd.The tool brings the implementation of the new international PDF/A standard a significant step ahead. Dr. Hans Bärfuss, CEO of PDF Tools AG, and Franca Born, Head of IT and Digital Entertainment of Koelnmesse, at the award ceremony Picture Source/Copyright: Koelnmesse For more detailed information, please read our press release or visit the Koelnmesse (DMS Expo) website.

New 3-Heights™ PDF to PDF/A Converter Released July 19, 2007 (Winkel, Switzerland) - PDF Tools AG has released our newest product - the "3-Heights™ PDF to PDF/A Converter". Available as an API, shell tool and Windows service, the tool converts standard PDF documents to PDF/A compliant files according to the internationally approved standard for electronic archiving: ISO 19005-1. With this unique tool, high volumes of PDF archives can be converted reliably to PDF/A and a digital signature can be added in the same process. PDF Tools AG is proud to be one of the first companies worldwide offering this feature. The tool brings the implementation of the new international PDF/A standard a significant step ahead. For more detailed information, please read our press release or visit the product pages.

Classic PDF Tools Version 3.10 released March 6, 2007 (Winkel, Switzerland) - PDF Tools AG has released Version 3.10 of the Classic PDF Tools. The Classic PDF Tools are available as programming libraries (APIs) and command line shell versions. The tools allow for a wide variety of manipulation of PDF files including merging, splitting, form filling, extracting information, conversion, and optimization. New features that have been incorporated in Version 3.10 include: Additional support for annotations Improved form filling processing, e.g. support for the "Euro" sign In addition, several smaller features have been added to individual tools and any trouble reports received for the previous version have been resolved. For a detailed list of all changes, please read the Release Notes....

3‑Heights™ Products available for 64-bit Windows Platforms November 22, 2006 - PDF Tools AG announces the upgrade of the 3‑Heights™ product family to include 64-bit versions for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 64-bit platforms. "This enhancement enables our high quality, high volume and high performance PDF programming tools to take full advantage of the newest hardware architectures" reports Dr. Hans Bärfuss, President and CEO of PDF Tools AG. "It brings improved performance, increased file size capability, and further solidifies our position as a leader in the PDF programming sector". Read the Press Release...

Official Release of the Version 1.50 from 3‑Heights™ Product Family October 17, 2006 - PDF Tool AG has officially released Version 1.50 of the 3-Heights™ PDF Tools. This release reflects the cumulation of 10 months of improvements and new features being added to our world-leading suite of PDF programming tools. Three new products are being introduced with release 1.50: 3-Heights™ PDF Producer – a GDI printer driver that creates PDF documents incredibly fast. It offers unparalleled flexibility for integrators and OEM customers looking to add PDF generation directly into their solution. 3-Heights™ TIFF Producer – using the same architecture as the PDF Producer, it creates multi-page TIFF files directly from Windows applications. The 3-Heights™ TIFF Producer is delivered in the same kit as the 3-Heights™ PDF Producer. 3-Heights™ PDF Validator - it verifies if PDF documents conform to specific versions of the PDF Reference or to the international standard for long-term electronic archiving: PDF/A. Some of the more important features added with this release are: PDF/A compliance: A number of tools support the ISO standard for PDF/A - Part 1, conformance level B, such as the PDF Producer, Image to PDF Converter, the PDF Validator, the PDF Viewer and the PDF Printer. XMP metadata: The metadata can now be written in the XMP format which is required for PDF/A compliance. Revision 4 encryption: all 3-Heights™ products now support the strong AES encryption algorithm including crypt filters for streams and strings. Text extraction: The text extraction logic has been significantly extended to support special cases such as symbolic TrueType fonts, non-breaking spaces, typographic ligatures, rarely used character encodings and more. A complete description of all improvements, enhancements and new products can be found in the Release Notes.

PDF Tools AG releases 3‑Heights™ PDF Producer July 13, 2006 - PDF Tools AG is excited to announce the release of its newest tool, the 3‑Heights™ PDF Producer. This unique PDF creator is more than just a printer driver that generates PDF documents extremely quickly and synchronously from virtually any Windows application. It can create PDF in parallel and offers client and server-side PDF creation, an API for integrating into applications, and the option of creating 100% PDF/A compliant documents. The main advantage of the mutual communication between the elements is that your Windows application knows exactly when the PDF document is generated. Moreover, the use of a genuine GDI printer driver eliminates the tiresome processing of PostScript files, speeding up the PDF creation immensely. The 3‑Heights™ PDF Producer is available as a programming component (API) with a COM interface for VB., .NET, Delphi, C/C++ etc. applications. Runtime Kits in the form of installation kits ease the deployment to clients and multiple-user servers. You can read more about the 3‑Heights™ PDF Producer and download a free evaluation version simply by clicking here.

PDF/A compliance built into the 3‑Heights™ Image to PDF Converter April 24, 2006 - PDF Tools AG is proud to announce that the 3‑Heights™ Image to PDF Converter is now PDF/A compliant. All standard image file formats (TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc.) can be converted to PDF/A-compliant PDF files. This makes the 3‑Heights™ Image to PDF Converter a valuable tool for migrating traditional TIFF (or other image format) archives into PDF/A archives. What is PDF/A? In September 2005, the International Standards Organisation (ISO) approved a new format for long-term archiving of electronic documents. This format - PDF/A - is based on the Adobe PDF Reference 1.4 and is designed to guarantee that electronically stored documents are retrievable and reproducible for the long-term. PDF Tools AG has drawn on its vast knowledge of PDF technology to add this special functionality to the high quality, high volume and high performance 3‑Heights™ product suite. The server-based 3‑Heights™ Image to PDF Converter is available as a programming component (API) and as a command line tool. You can read more about the 3‑Heights™ Image to PDF Converter and download a free evaluation version simply by clicking here.

3‑Heights™ PDF Validator confirms PDF/A compliance April 24, 2006 - PDF Tools AG is proud to announce the release of the 3‑Heights™ PDF Validator. The PDF Validator verifies if PDF documents conform to a specific version of PDF or to the new international standard for long-term electronic archiving: PDF/A. Currently supported versions include: PDF/A-1a PDF/A-1b PDF 1.4 The 3‑Heights™ PDF Validator can determine if a PDF document or an entire PDF archive is PDF or PDF/A compliant. If you're converting a TIFF archive into PDF/A, the PDF Validator provides the optimal quality assurance check that can be built directly into your conversion process. The tool can also be customized to verify conformance with additional documentation rules according to your own corporate standards, for example: all images must be between 300-600 dpi validate against a list of approved fonts validate against a list of approved scanners validate against a list of non-approved PDF Creators validate against a list of approved digital signatures ensure that specific metadata has been included You can read more about the 3‑Heights™ PDF Validator and download a free evaluation version simply by clicking here.

PDF Tools AG and LuraTech establish PDF/A Center of Competence January 18, 2006 - (Berlin, Germany and Winkel, Switzerland) Last year, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) designated PDF/A as a standard for long-term archiving. This standard provides assurance to companies and public agencies that documents archived in PDF/A format will maintain their appearance and accessibility regardless of which applications and systems were used to create them. The newly established PDF/A Center of Competence of the compression specialists LuraTech and PDF Tools AG provides extensive support for questions about the new standard and its implementation. The two companies complement each other ideally in their specialties: PDF Tools AG emphasizes the analysis, creation and processing of digital PDF files, while LuraTech is renowned for its expertise for highly compressed, scanned PDF documents. PDF/A is the ISO 19005-1 standard for long-term archiving, based on PDF format. It defines a specific profile for using PDF in long-term archiving. The syntax specifies in detail what content is allowed and what is not. These and other specifications are intended to ensure long-term readability of documents regardless of the application software and operating system in which they were originally produced. Experts predict that the designation of PDF/A as an ISO standard will promote the popularity of that format, and advantages such as full text search capabilities will lead to it replacing TIFF in the near future. Dr. Hans Bärfuss, CEO of PDF Tools AG, had the following comment on the new standard: "PDF/A will become the standard format for long-term storage of electronic documents. Company-wide knowledge bases, existing today as documents, must be validated and migrated to the latest standard to maintain their value for the future. Together with our partner LuraTech we intend to use the PDF/A Center of Competence as a vehicle for leveraging our expertise and helping interested parties achieve this goal quickly and securely." Carsten Heiermann, managing director of LuraTech Europe GmbH, added: "Since the publication of the PDF/A standard in autumn 2005, we have observed considerable interest and a high demand for information from many users and providers of DMS systems. The comprehensive expertise of both companies will enable us to provide sound answers for all the tasks and challenges involving PDF/A. We are particularly pleased to establish this Center of Competence with our partner of many years, PDF Tools AG."

New Release - 3‑Heights™ PDF Tools Version 1.41 November 21, 2005 - PDF Tool AG is pleased to announce the official release of Version 1.41 of their 3‑Heights™ PDF Tools. Numerous new features and new products have been added with this release. The complete list of improvements can be found in the Release Notes. Some of the more important additions are New Features All 3‑Heights™ PDF Tools now support Windows 9x platforms Interfaces of individual products have been streamlined according to family-wide rules The 3‑Heights™ PDF Viewer and Viewer Pro now offer continuous page layout mode and multiple page viewing. Weblinks are also now supported The 3‑Heights™ PDF Printer now supports accurate mode An "Analysis Only" function has been added to the 3‑Heights™ PDF Analysis & Repair Tool The 3‑Heights™ PDF to Image Converter now support TIFF Class F (Fax) The 3‑Heights™ PDF Extract Shell now has the full functionality of the API (extract text, images, fonts, bookmarks, annotations etc.) New Products 3‑Heights™ Image to PDF Converter Service 3‑Heights™ PDF Analysis & Repair Service 3‑Heights™ PDF to Image Converter Service 3‑Heights™ PDF Optimization Service 3‑Heights™ PDF Security Service A complete description of all improvements, enhancements and new products can be found in the Release Notes.

New Releases - Classic PDF Tools Versions 2.38 & 3.0 November 21, 2005 - PDF Tools AG is pleased to announce the official freeze and release of Version 2.38 of the Classic PDF Tools. Due to a new licensing model and a new packaging of the tools, we have decided to also create a new Major Version 3.0 at the same time. Version 2.38 includes all improvements and enhancements that have been implemented since Version 2.37. For a detailed list of all changes, please read the Classic Tools Version 2.38 Release Notes. Version 3.0 marks the end of separate "Standard" and "Enhanced" configurations of the Classic PDF Tools, and of the CPU and Application Licenses. A number of tools have been merged and we are introducing the same licensing model as for the 3‑Heights™ PDF Tools (Client and Server Licenses). Version 3.0 has the same functionality as Version 2.38. For a detailed description about the new licensing model please read the Classic Tools Version 3.0 Release Notes, where you can also find a complete list of the products that have been combined."

New Licensing Model November 21, 2005 - With the official Release 1.41 of the 3‑Heights™ PDF Tools and Version 3.0 of the Classic PDF Tools we are introducing a new licensing model. API tools will now be available in 2 product variants: Developer Kit (SDK) for program development Runtime Kits (RTK) for the deployment Client and Server Licenses will be available for both variants. The current Developer Licenses have been eliminated. For program development suffices a Software Development Kit with the corresponding number of client or server licenses. Command line and batch tools only have runtime kits (and the respective client or server licenses). The new licensing model also applies to the Classic PDF Tools. CPU and Application Licenses are no longer being offered. Evaluation Licenses will continue to be available for all products. Server Licenses will have a restriction on the number of users who are permitted to use the software concurrently. Concurrent user limits are grouped into packages (5, 10, 20, 50, 100 etc.) How does this impact me? Whether you currently hold a Developer, CPU, Application, Client-Runtime or Server-Runtime License, your license remains valid and you can continue to use the licensed software in accordance with your license agreement. With your next maintenance renewal you will receive an offer to switch to the corresponding new kits and client or server licenses. In most cases there will be no additional costs associated with the license transfer

Three new Windows Services Available November 21, 2005 - PDF Tools AG is pleased to announce the availability of three new Windows Services for automatically processing PDF files in watched folders: 3‑Heights™ PDF Analysis & Repair Service 3‑Heights™ PDF Optimization Service 3‑Heights™ PDF Security Service With the 3‑Heights™ PDF Analysis & Repair Service you can, for example, quickly ensure that PDF documents are not corrupt before they are submitted into your business processes, use "Drag & Drop" to perform a quality control of PDF files before they are stored in an electronic archive, or recover as much information as possible from unreadable and corrupt PDF files. The 3‑Heights™ PDF Optimization Service allows you to configure watched folders for different optimization processes (e.g. fast web viewing, high quality printing, reduced file size). Optimization options include linearizing, removing and replacing fonts, compressing images, converting colors, and stripping obsolete information. With the 3‑Heights™ PDF Security Service you can configure watched folders with different passwords and document permissions (allow printing, allow copying etc). Possible uses include restricting access to sensitive and confidential PDF documents, removing encryption on PDF documents, e.g. for archiving in accordance with PDF/A or to amend the documents, and restricting the printing and re-use of PDF content that is published in the internet.

PDF Tools AG at the PDF Conference 2005 September 29, 2005 - PDF Tools AG was well represented as a silver sponser at the 10th annual PDF Conference held September 26-27 in Arlington Virginia. In addition to manning a booth both days, Roger Reeves held a presentation dealing with Quality Assurance and PDF. A good crowd was on hand to learn more about this important (and oft neglected) aspect of PDF. A short article that summarizes the main points of the presentation is included here for your information: Quality Assurance in PDF. Roger and Dr. Hans-Rudolf Aschmann were busy both days speaking with customers and attendees and demonstrating our many tools. The 3‑Heights™ PDF Desktop Repair Tool was given special attention, especially following our presentation on Monday. We would like to thank all of our customers and the other attendees who took the time to visit us during the conference. We look forward to seeing them again and also you at the conference next year!

3‑Heights™ PDF Repair Tool enhanced September 26, 2005 - The 3‑Heights™ PDF Repair Tool and the end-user version of the product, the 3‑Heights™ PDF Desktop Repair Tool have been enhanced. In addition to the current analysis and repair features offered, the tool can now also analyze and repair page content streams and embedded font programs, as well as correct compression errors (e.g. CCITT fax compression). The entire analysis and repair process has been optimized for improved performance. The 3‑Heights™ Repair Tool is available as a programming SDK with a COM interface for VB, .NET, Delphi, C/C++ etc. applications. In addition there is a native C and a Java interface. There is also a shell version that can be executed from the command line.

Windows Services July 13, 2005 - PDF Tool AG is pleased to announce the availability of their 3‑Heights™ PDF Tools in Windows Service versions. The Windows Services automatically process files in watched folders. Several watched folders can be configured, and different conversion options can be selected for each of the folders. The following tools are released and can be evaluated and ordered: 3‑Heights™ PDF Printer Service 3‑Heights™ PDF to Image Converter Service 3‑Heights™ Image to PDF Converter Service The services can be used, for example, to: Configure folders for different printers and page sizes. Moving a PDF file into a folder automatically prints it on the specified printer, using the predefined page size. Create folders for converting PDF files into image files. Folders are defined for each image format, and each folder can be configured with conversion options (e.g. resolution, compression, dimensions). Moving a PDF into a folder automatically converts the PDF file to that image type, applying the predefined options. Create folders for converting images files into PDF. Folders can be configured with different conversion options (e.g. resolution, dimensions, protection). Moving an image file into a folder automatically converts it to PDF, applying the predefined options.

Official Release of 3‑Heights™ Product Suite Version 1.30 May 26, 2005 - Version 1.30 of the 3‑Heights™ Product Suite was officially released today. Several new products and new functions have been introduced with Version 1.30, including: 3‑Heights™ PDF Optimization Tool 3‑Heights™ PDF Extract Shell Tool 3‑Heights™ Image to PDF Converter 3‑Heights™ PDF Security Tool JBIG2 and JPEG2000 Encode and Decode Filters Fast CMYK to RGB conversion using Neugebauer equations Subsetting of all font types implemented Vertical writing fonts Compatibility mode to support older printer drivers Codecs for TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, PBM, JBIG2, JPEG2000 Version 1.30 has now been frozen. All future improvements and bug fixes will be implemented in the new Pre-Release Version 1.40, which has also been released today. Detailed information about the new products and improvements in the 3‑Heights™ Version 1.30 can be read in the Release Notes.

3‑Heights™ PDF to Image Converter May 26, 2005 - With the release of Version 1.40 of the 3‑Heights™ Product Suite we are also introducing an improvement to our PDF converter tools. The 3‑Heights™ PDF to TIFF, PDF to GIF, PDF to JPEG, PDF to PNG, PDF to BMP und PDF to PDF Imager Converters have been combined into one single product. The 3‑Heights™ PDF to Image Converter contains all of the features of the single converter tools and supports all of the diffent image formats.

3-Heights™ PDF Security Tool May 4, 2005 - pdf-tools is pleased to announce the official release of the 3-Heights™ PDF Security Tool for decrypting and encrypting PDF files. The tool can be used to encrypt PDF documents with a user password to restrict viewing, and with an owner password to restrict assigning permissions. Several encryption levels from 40-bit up to 128-bit as well as 8 different permission flags are supported. It is also planned to enhance the PDF Security Tool to include digital signatures before the end of the year.

3-Heights™ PDF Repair Tool - Client Run-Time Licenses> May 4, 2005 You can now order Client Run-Time Licenses for our 3-Heights™ PDF Repair Tool. This tools is ideal for customers wanting to analyze PDF files before they are entered into their business process, and is the only complete analysis and repair tool for PDF files on the market today. The client run-time license, which allows for batch processing (analysis and repair or recovery of corrupt PDF files), is attractively priced at EUR 600.- (USD 720.-) per Client Run-Time license. Attractive options are available if you require the product on multiple clients or servers.

Classic PDF Tools Version 2.37 Release March 31, 2005 - pdf-tools.com is pleased to announce the freeze and official release of Version 2.37 of our Classic Tools such as the PDF Library, the PDF Prep Tool, the Command Line Tools, the Stamp Tool, the Form Filling & Flattening Tool, and the PDF Image Import Library. The numerous improvements that have been built into the new release are well documented in the Release Notes. Customers with valid maintenance contracts will automatically receive access to the Version 2.37 as well as the new Pre-Release Version 2.38. Customers without valid maintenance contracts will continue to have access to their current product versions.

PDF Tools AG launches 3-Heights™ PDF Desktop Repair Tool March 24, 2005 - pdf-tools.com is excited to announce the launch of our 3-Heights™ PDF Desktop Repair Tool. The repair tool can analyze PDF documents to determine if they are corrupt, and either repair damaged files or recover the valid content from irreparable files. The repair tool is used through a GUI interface and is designed for end-users and single document processing.

3-Heights™ PDF Extract Shell Tool March 22, 2005 - pdf-tools.com is pleased to announce the official release of the 3-Heights™ PDF Extract Shell Tool. This is a shell version of the 3-Heights™ Extract API which has been available since 2003. The shell tool currently supports a variety of text extraction functions, including: extracting text contained on a PDF page, line-wise, word-wise and character-wise, rotating pages to portrait, landscape and according to the page attribute, saving the extracted text to a text file, defining the advance width of characters in text mode, and retaining formatting like tabs, columns, indentations and paragraph spacing. The 3-Heights™ PDF Extract Shell Tool will be enhanced with image and information extraction later in 2005.

3-Heights™ PDF Optimization Tool March 11, 2005 pdf-tools.com is pleased to announce the official release of the 3-Heights™ PDF Optimization Tool. The PDF optimizer belongs to the newest generation of PDF tools and optimizes PDF files for fast web viewing and high quality printing. Special features include: analyzing and optimizing images (converting colours, compressing), removing and replacing embedded fonts, removing redundant and obsolete objects, linearization, and stripping unnecessary file information. The 3-Heights™ PDF Optimization Tool is a software development tool and is available for a variety of platforms including Windows, Mac OS X, Sun Solaris, SolarisX86, IBM AIX, HP-UX 11.0, Linux and FreeBSD. It can be used via COM API to support VB, .NET, Delphi, C, Java, etc. applications or as a shell tool from the command line.

New Logo, New Look March 4, 2005 - pdf-tools.com has a new logo and a new look! Beginning today, we are presenting our new company logo. Our website and templates have also all been updated in line with the new logo. The main goal with the new web site was to offer a more user-friendly interface. In particular, the product descriptions and shop pages have been improved and information is much easier to find. Navigating through the site is also much easier and the users will quickly find the products or information they are looking for.

3-Heights™Image to PDF Converter January 28, 2005 - pdf-tools.com is proud to announce the official release of the new 3-Heights™ Image to PDF Converter. This new product replaces the current "classic" Image to PDF Converter and offers several new features, including automatic compression based on image type, image centering and image and page scaling. The new converter supports a wider range of image formats and offers improved performance, especially when converting JPEG to PDF. The 3-Heights™ Image to PDF Converter is available as a library that can be used via COM API to support VB, .NET, Delphi, C, etc. applications, and as a command line tool. There are also interfaces for Java and C.

Full Acrobat 7.0 Compatibility January 21, 2005 - Our PDF tools products support the processing (reading) of PDF files according to Version 1.6 (Acrobat 7.0) with the following releases:    - 3-Heights™ Product Suite Version 1.10 and higher    - Classic PDF Tools Version 2.35 and higher. This support includes the processing of compressed cross-reference streams.

3-Heights™ Products Release 1.20 October 29, 2004 - pdf-tools.com is proud to announce the new Version 1.20 Release of their 3-Heights™ PDF Tools Product Suite. Several new products have been added with this latest release: the PDF Repair Tool, PDF to GIF and PDF to PNG Converters, PDF Image Optimizer, PDF Content to Image Converters and the PDF Printer Pro and Printer Server. Several existing 3-Heights™ products have been improved based on customer feedback: the PDF to BMP, PDF to JPEG and PDF to TIFF Converters, the PDF Extract API, the PDF Printer and the PDF Viewer and Viewer Pro. For full details of the newest products and upgraded features please refer to the Release Notes.

Classic Products Release 2.36 May 20, 2004 - pdf-tools.com is exited to announce the new production version 2.36 of our Classic Tools such as the PDF Library (LIB & LBE), the PDF Prep Tool (PT & PTE), the Command Line Tools (CLT & CLE), the Form Filling & Flattening Tool (FF), the PDF Image Import Library (DIB) and many more. Note that the new Classic Tools version 2.36 contain all latest product patches and enhancements known as of today. New patches and enhancements after today will flow into pre-release 2.37 for our Classic Tools. While the release notes list all change details, some of the highlights are: Form feed control for shell based text to PDF converter (txt2pdf), full screen open mode option for shell based pdcat function, support to create and use named destinations, support of crop boxes, and all current bug fix patches.

Partnership with Algo Vision LuraTech December 8, 2003 - pdf-tools.com announces partnership with Algo Vision LuraTech, a leading company in compression technology. An ever increasing demand for highly compressible PDF documents that contain rasterized images tells us that partnering with experts in the field of image compression has become paramount. With Algo Vision LuraTech, we have found a strong technology partner with excellent compression expertise. Not only are we including Algo Vision's JPEG2000 compression methods into our products, but we are now also offering Algo Vision's PdfCompressor Server and Desktop solution for purchase directly from our Web site.

3-Heights™ Products Release 1.10 December 5, 2003 - pdf-tools.com proudly announces the new 1.10 release of its 3-Heights™ Tool line such as the popular PDF Viewer, PDF Printer, PDF Extract API and the many PDF conversion tools. The 1.10 release introduces some excellent new features such as the improved font handling that now supports Unicode fonts, OpenType fonts, Type1/Type3 and TrueType fonts. The rendering engine used for the PDF Viewer, the PDF Printer and the PDF2TIFF converter is now capable of converting all calibrated and ICC profile based color spaces to the well defined sRGB color space to allow for device independent color values. Less common color spaces such as 'Separation' and 'DeviceN' have also been added to the rendering engine.

Classic Products Release 2.35 December 4, 2003 - pdf-tools.com is proud to announce the new 2.35 release of its Classic Tools, the PDF Library (LIB & LBE), the PDF Prep Tool (PT & PTE), the Command Line Tools (CLT & CLE), the Form Filling & Flattening Tool (FF), the PDF Image Import Library (DIB) and many more. The 2.35 release introduces quite a large number of new features and improvements - some highlights are listed below and more details can be found by reading the 2.35 release notes. pdf-tools.com strongly recommends this release upgrade to customers who are working with the Adobe Acrobat 6.0 version (PDF 1.5). Customers with large PDF files will also be very excited about the 2.35 release. Our Classic Tools now supports PDF file sizes up to 10 GBytes for PDF file versions 1.4 and it supports virtually unlimited file sizes with PDF version 1.5! We have also added new operating system platforms to our Classic Tools such as Win32CV7 (.NET), FreeBSD 4.7 and Redhat Linux 9. Our shell based tools have received functional extensions such as URL link replacements for example. Another exciting addition to our command line tools is that they will now allow to pass the input file names via control files in order to circumvent command line length limitations. The image compression and extraction tool has been extended by a JBIG2 decompression filter. The API's such as the PDF Library and the PDF Prep Tool now support large files as well and the reading of compressed cross reference streams (PDF 1.5). Some of the existing functions such as adding text fields or copying named destinations have been improved.

Full Acrobat 6.0 Compliance November 3, 2003 - All PDF Tools products will support the processing (reading) of PDF files according to version 1.5 (Acrobat 6.0) with release 2.35. The support includes the processing of compressed cross reference streams.

Currency Rate Adjustment October 26, 2003 - One of the key principles of pdf-tools.com is to provide high quality PDF programming products at affordable prices. pdf-tools.com also offers its products in multiple currencies, which is very much apreciated by many of our international customers. To offer multiple currency pricing, pdf-tools.com takes a base cost in Euro and then applies the most common currency rates to calculate the pricing in US Dollars and Swiss Francs. To provide consistent pricing - pdf-tools.com does not correct these currency rates very often as most of our customers have noticed over the years. The gap between today's currency rates and the ones pdf-tools.com had applied until now has grown to the point where it becomes necessary to apply a rate adjustment. Based on these findings, pdf-tools.com will adjust US Dollar and Swiss Franc prices on November 1, 2003. Orders received or quotes provided prior to November 1, 2003 will not be affected. If you have any questions about this - please contact pdfsupport@pdf-tools.com.

Acrobat 6.0 Compliance July 2, 2003 - Effective immediately, all of our products create PDF files which are compliant with the latest version 6.0 release of Adobe Acrobat. Customers with maintenance service in place are invited to download their latest 2.34 tool versions that include a number of improvements along with the new Adobe Acrobat 6 compliance changes. If your maintenance has expired we can assist you in renewing your tools today.

PDF Tools Releases Its Version 2.34 July 1, 2003 - The major enhancements of this update is the Acrobat 6.0 compliance of the created files. New features such as transparent content, form field rotation, Java Script actions, and re-encryption during linearization without specifying a password have been added. Furthermore, the 2.34 version contains all of the most current software problem patches.

Port to zOS / 390 May 4, 2003 - The PDF Library and the PDF Prep Tool including its Java Wrapper have successfully been ported to IBM's zOS / 390 operating system. Our PDF core technology is now suited to be used on similar operating systems - especially systems that need to support the EBCDIC character encoding - as well.

PDF Tools Releases Its Version 2.33 March 7, 2003 - PDF Tools is proud to announce the update of all of its PDF tools to the latest version 2.33. The major enhancements of this update are the extraction of Bookmarks for the PDF Prep Tool and the PDF Library as well as compression / decompression functions with our Image Import Library. Furthermore, the 2.33 version contains all of the most current software problem patches and it has improved again its robustness. As with all of our PDF Tools the 2.33 version is available for operating systems under Windows, Sun Solaris 2.6, Linux, IBM AIX 4.3, HP-UX 11.0 and Mac OS X. Find more details in our release notes.

Change In Maintenance Service Fees March 7, 2003 - As of March 1, 2003 - our annual maintenance service fee increases from 15 % to 20 %. Customers with valid maintenance service before that date will continue to benefit from our existing 15 % maintenance service fee until their current maintenance expires.The maintenance service entitles the owner to always receive the very latest product updates such as our new 2.33 release for example.

PDF Tools now supports Mac OS X November 15, 2002 - The PDF Command Line Tools, the PDF Prep Tool and the PDF Library are now available on the Mac OS X platform.

Sales and Marketing Manger November 1, 2002 - We are pleased to announce the appointment of Roland Wehlend as Manager of Sales and Marketing effective November 1, 2002. Roland brings an extensive 17-year background in software engineering, product management, sales support and software project management in both Europe and North America. In an effort to bring PDF-Tools closer to our North American customers, Roland will be working out of Canada. Join us in wishing Roland all the best.

New download and shop server October 9, 2002 - The new server has the URL http://www.pdf-store.com. Requests to the old server http://pdf.glance.ch will automatically be redirected to the new server. If this should fail you can simply replace the server names in your link.

Release V2.32 October 3, 2002 - This version got functional extensions and bug fixes. See the release notes for more information.

Release V2.31 June 7, 2002 - All fixes up to now have been incorporated in the retail versions of our products.

Release V2.30 May 2, 2002 - All fixes up to now have been incorporated in the retail versions of our products. The release numbers have been consistently set to 2.30 in order to simplify the numbering scheme.

PDF Export Library May 3, 2003 - The PDF Export Library (also known as PDF parser) retrieves all kind of information out of a page's content stream such as text, images and graphics objects and its properties in the graphics state such as font and color information.

PDF Viewer Component (OCX) March 31, 2002 - The PDF Viewer Component is able to render the content of a PDF document on a screen or printer device. The component is either available as an executable for Windows or as an OCX for Visual Basic applications. The interface allows for opening PDF documents, zooming, selecting pages, and related functions.

PDF to TIFF conversion utility March 31, 2002 - PDF documents can be rendered to a screen or a printer by means of the PDF Viewer Component. The same renderer is able to produce bitmaps and store them as multi-page TIFF files.

128 Bit Encryption is now available Mar 28, 2002 - The 'Standard Security' encryption feature of the PDF Library (and products which are based on it) has been enhanced to provide 128-bit encryption support. This feature enables applications to create and process encrypted PDF documents according to the Acrobat 5.0 standard.

Image to PDF Conversion Mar 15, 2002 - The Image to PDF Converter allows to convert raster images into PDF documents. This converter is available as a shell tool only. All common image types (single and multipage) are supported. This converter also allows defining the security of the resulting PDF document.

New version of Image Import Mar 15, 2002 - The PDF Image Import Library (DIB) supplements PDF Prep Tool (PT) to facilitate embedding raster images into PDF files. The library was available for Windows only and needed the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) library. Version 2.0 of the PDF Image Import Library overcomes these limitations and provides the following new features: The library is available for all supported platforms The MFC dependency has been eliminated It can be linked statically or used as a single shared library (DLL) as well

PDF Library supports Unicode February 1, 2002 - Text strings represent document information, text annotations, bookmark names etc. Usually they are encoded in the proprietary PDFDocEncoding standard which is a superset of the ISO Latin 1 standard. The PDF Library supports the Unicode character encoding. This enables applications to read, write and manipulate PDF documents containing character strings according to the UTF-16 encoding specified in the Unicode standard, Version 2.0.

PDF Form Filling & Flattening Tool Dec 12, 2001 - The professional edition of the standard 'pdform' command line tool (as contained in CLT and CLE) exhibits two additional powerful features: a data feed via control files, and form flattening.