PDF knowledge
Find articles that provide you with practical insight into the world of PDFs. Learn all the ins and outs of PDFs, from the fundamentals to the best practices.
The art of repairing damaged PDF files
I sometimes got a little shock when I wanted to open a PDF file and the viewer only showed an error message. In some cases, however, the viewer can save the file and repair it, but often not. This experience made me thin ...
What can I do about sliced images?
If I try to extract images from a PDF file it sometimes happens that I get a bunch of slices of the original image, mostly consisting of a few image rows per slice or, in extreme cases, just one row. Why is that and how ...
PDF validation with customer specific extensions
While talking about PDF validation workflows I often come across questions like "Can I let the validation fail if the paper format does not match our corporate rules?". This and other customer specific requirements are i ...
Is JBIG2 soon banned?
JBIG2 is a compression algorithm for bitonal images and has been developed to replace the widely used CCITT G4 algorithm because it can reach better compression ratios. However, the algorithm has received a bad reputatio ...
The problem with embedded fonts in PDF mass printing applications
PDF is more and more finding its way into mass printing applications. However, PDF spool files often ask too much from a print engine resulting in aborts or, even worse, incomplete prints which may not be noticed. What i ...
Replacing rich black by true black in PDF documents
When it comes to printing then all colors in a PDF document are transformed to the native color space of the printing device. If, e.g. a text uses a black RGB color then it is transformed to an equivalent CMYK value whic ...
Inline images and Type 3 fonts
I often hear that the inline image construct is a major flaw in the design of the PDF page description language. Inline images are an often used feature in Type 3 fonts. However, the stomach pain of some experts even cau ...
How to render the text of a PDF document if the font is not embedded?
Every developer of a PDF viewer, a PDF printer and a PDF to Image Converter tool comes across the requirement to render non embedded fonts and is facing quite a challenging task. Not only developers but also users of the ...
Using blockchains as an alternative to PKIs for digital signatures
The traditional technical environment for a digital signature is the public key infrastructure (PKI). Digital signatures are also used to implement electronic money such as Bitcoin. However, Bitcoin uses a new technology ...
License Management
Read more about how to manage, activate and troubleshoot your Pdftools license.
The Quality Gate in the digital age – safeguards the quality of your documents
Safeguarding document quality is vital in any business, especially when it comes to sharing documents or digitally archiving them, and specifically if the documents might one day be needed for an audit or a legal issue. ...
Compression and Optimization – reduce your files to the max
There is no question – storage space is now cheaper and more available to everyone. Neither hardware nor storage costs seem offputting at first. But the volume of data being handled is already massive – and increasing ev ...