Introduction

The 3-Heights™ Document Converter Service is a company-wide solution for converting all popular file formats to PDF, PDF/A and TIFF. It is used to convert a wide variety of digital documents into a standardized format and to prepare data for long-term archiving or electronic

Brief Description

Performance Characteristics

• Robustness
• High throughput
• True to the original
• Decentralized client/server architecture
• Scalability
• Integrability
• Ease of installation (MSI)
• Simple management
• Roll-out (clients)
• Extensibility (add-ins)
• Security (access protection)
• Universal use

Areas of Use

• Email/web archiving
• Office filing
• Archive migration
• Document dispatch
• Online conversion service
• Standardized company-wide conversion portal

Sectors

• Public sector
• Automotive industry
• Telecommunications
• Banking and insurance
• Archives and libraries
• Health sector
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Print shops & scanning services

Functions

The 3-Heights™ Document Converter is a service installed on one or more servers that accepts documents in proprietary formats from clients or applications and automatically converts them into a standard format (e.g. PDF/A). During the process it can also recognize text (OCR), embed metadata, join documents, split pages and apply a digital signature.

Functions

• Format conversion
• OCR (Optical Character Recognition)
• Digital signature
• File compression
• Encryption
• Compliance check
• Watched directories
• Unpacking email attachments
• Batch processing
• Join/separate files

Formats

Input Formats

• Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007 documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Outlook)
• Documents from previously installed, older versions of Microsoft Office
• Simple text (ASCII, Unicode)
• WordPerfect
• HTML
• Outlook (MSG)
• PDF
• EML (Internet Mail Message Format, as HTML and text)
• Image files (TIFF, JPEG, JPEG2000, JPEG-LS, PNG, JBIG2, JP2, JPX, GIF, BMP, PBM)
• ZIP and TAR archives (any nesting depth)
• Add-ins for customer-specific formats

Output Formats

• PDF 1.x
• PDF/A (RGB)
• PDF/A (CMYK)
• TIFF (bitonal)
• TIFF (gray)
• TIFF (RGB)
• TIFF (CMYK)

Compliance

• Standards: ISO 19005-1 (PDF/A-1), ISO 32000 (PDF 1.7), TIFF V6
• Quality assurance: Isartor test suite

Benefits

Properties and Benefits

The 3-Heights™ Document Converter Service is scalable, can be integrated in existing application landscapes and is easily adapted to suit specific requirements. It is a robust and powerful tool. As a company-wide solution it is an indispensible component of a contemporary archiving and data exchange strategy.

Performance Characteristics

• Robustness
• High throughput
• True to the original
• Decentralized client/server architecture
• Scalability
• Integrability
• Ease of installation (MSI)
• Simple management
• Roll-out (clients)
• Extensibility (add-ins)
• Security (access protection)
• Universal use
• Automatic process reboot

Areas of Use

Incoming Mail

Incoming file scans and emails are received by the 3-Heights™ Document Converter Service in-box. Email messages and all the attachments are merged to form one single document. Optionally, it can recognize text (OCR), supplement metadata and compress files, thus conditioning them for further processing within the company or for archiving.

Archiving

The archive module of the 3-Heights™ Document Converter Service processes digital documents from all areas of the company. It converts them to a standard format, completes metadata and checks the result for compliance with the standard. As a gatekeeper it ensures that only compliant documents are transferred to the long-term archive.

Areas of Use

• Email/web archiving
• Office filing
• Archive migration
• Document dispatch
• Online conversion service
• Standardized company-wide conversion portal

Sectors

• Public sector
• Automotive industry
• Telecommunications
• Banking and insurance
• Archives and libraries
• Health sector
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Print shops & scanning services

Technical Details

Architecture and Application Options

The 3-Heights™ Document Converter Service is based on decentralized client/server architecture and can be used as: a Windows service with watched folders, a command line for batch processing, a shell extension for Windows Explorer, a web service or a programming interface.

Variants and Options

Product Variants

One variant of the product is available

Options

Optional OCR text recognition

Formats

Input Formats

• Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007 documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Outlook)
• Documents from previously installed, older versions of Microsoft Office
• Simple text (ASCII, Unicode)
• WordPerfect
• HTML
• Outlook (MSG)
• PDF
• EML (Internet Mail Message Format, as HTML and text)
• Image files (TIFF, JPEG, JPEG2000, JPEG-LS, PNG, JBIG2, JP2, JPX, GIF, BMP, PBM)
• ZIP and TAR archives (any nesting depth)
• Add-ins for customer-specific formats

Output Formats

• PDF 1.x
• PDF/A (RGB)
• PDF/A (CMYK)
• TIFF (bitonal)
• TIFF (gray)
• TIFF (RGB)
• TIFF (CMYK)

Compliance

• Standards: ISO 19005-1 (PDF/A-1), ISO 32000 (PDF 1.7), TIFF V6
• Quality assurance: Isartor test suite

Platforms

Installation Requirements (Server)

• Windows 2003 server or 2008 server
• Microsoft .NET 2.0
• Microsoft Office 2007 (recommended) or 2003

Operating Systems (Client)

• Windows Windows XP, 2003, 2000 – 32 and 64 bit
• Windows Vista and Windows 7 on Intel – 32 and 64 bit

Interfaces and Languages

Interfaces

• Watched directories
• Command line for batch processing
• API (C, Java, .NET, COM)
• Shell extension for Windows Explorer
• API add-in for file formats
• API add-in for OCR machines
• API add-in for digital signatures
• TWAIN

Programming Languages

All components and program libraries are written in efficient and thread-safe C++. A selection of the following connections to programming languages is available:

• C#, VB .NET, J# via .NET
• Java via JNI
• MS Visual Basic, Borland Delphi, MS Office products such as Access and C++ via COM
• C and C++ via native C

Product Code

DCVE

Further Product Details

The 3-Heights™ Document Converter Service converts emails, scans, images, Office documents and others into PDF, PDF/A (with digital signature) and TIFF files in a fully-automated process.

The 3-Heights™ Document Converter Service is a multifunctional tool for automatically converting many formats to PDF and PDF/A (including digital signature). It is especially suitable for processing incoming mail and for archiving emails (including attachments) and Office documents in the long term. Universal applicability (formats and interfaces), ease of positioning and addressing within the network as well as its high speed, availability and scalability are among its most impressive features. As a ready-to-use solution it is able to ensure important functions are available to the entire document workflow within the company.

The 3-Heights™ Document Converter Service operating in the mail reception area can convert emails and their attachments to a single PDF or PDF/A documents or to individual PDF or PDF/A documents, just as required. It can also convert all popular image formats and offers a direct Twain interface for scanners (including OCR)*. Converting MS Office and Open Office documents is also possible, for instance for sending to external recipients or for long-term archiving.

This variety of formats (which is extendable thanks to plug-in architecture) enables secure incoming and downstream processing as well as long-term archiving in PDF or PDF/A format (ISO 19005-1). The optional digital signature provides the greatest possible security.

*with optional OCR add-in