PDF Output

PDF output is a standard function of AH Formatter V5.0. The PDF versions that can be output are as follows:

• PDF1.3
  PDF1.3 can be browsed by Adobe Acrobat(Reader) 4.0 or later.
• PDF1.4
  PDF1.4 can be browsed by Adobe Acrobat(Reader) 5.0 or later.
• PDF1.5
  PDF1.5 can be browsed by Adobe Acrobat(Reader) 6.0 or later.
• PDF1.6
  PDF1.6 can be browsed by Adobe Acrobat(Reader) 7.0 or later.
• PDF1.7
  PDF1.7 can be browsed by Adobe Acrobat(Reader) 8.0 or later.
• PDF/X no-LT
  Possible to output PDF/X with AH Formatter V5.0.
• PDF/A no-LT
  Possible to output PDF/A with AH Formatter V5.0.

PDF that can be outputted by AH Formatter V5.0 has the following features.

• By setting extended properties inside the original document, bookmarks and links can be created. ☞ Bookmark and Link in PDF Output
• Possible to output PDF in multi separate volume from one FO. no-LT ☞ Output PDF in multi separate volume
• By setting extended properties inside the original document, 'Title','Subject','Author',and 'Keyword' information can be emdeded. ☞ Document Information for PDF Output
• When setting the security, 40-bit RC4 is applied to the encryption. A higher level encryption, 128-bit RC4 is available with PDF 1.4 or later. ☞ PDF Output Setting, PDF Option Setting Dialog
• Possible to output Tagged PDF. no-LT
• Possible to apply a digtal signature in PDF. no-LT

See also PDF Output Settings for more details.

PDF/X is defined in ISO 15930 and is a subset of PDF that aims to exchange the data for printing. Basically all the information for printing is included in the PDF file. It's possible to output PDF/X with the following versions with AH Formatter V5.0. Imposible to output PDF/X with AH Formatter V5.0 Lite.

• PDF/X-1a:2001 (ISO 15930-1:2001)
  It's a specification based on PDF 1.3.
• PDF/X-3:2002 (ISO 15930-3:2002)
  It's a specification based on PDF 1.3.
• PDF/X-1a:2003 (ISO 15930-4:2003)
  It's a specification based on PDF 1.4 and a subset of PDF/X-3:2003.
• PDF/X-2:2003 (ISO 15930-5:2003)
  It's a specification based on PDF 1.4 and a superset of PDF/X-3:2003.
• PDF/X-3:2003 (ISO 15930-6:2003)
  It's a specification based on PDF 1.4.

The following shows the main features for PDF/X.

In PDF/X, all fonts must be embedded. When the font that is not allowed to embed is used, PDF/X cannot be generated.

PDF/X adopts the appropreate information by ignoring the most of the information set by users, such as font embedding, etc. For example the version of the output PDF is specified to PDF/X, Font Embedding in the PDF Option Setting Dialog will be displayed in gray color.

In order to specify the output indent by ICC color profile, use the URL of the ICC color profile to the src property for fo:color-profile. In this case please omit the color-profile-name prooperty or specify "#CMYK" or "#RGB". If this property is omitted, it is considered as "#CMYK". For example:

<fo:declarations>
 <fo:color-profile
  src="url(file:///C:/WINDOWS/system32/spool/drivers/color/JapanColor2001Coated.icc)"
  color-profile-name="#CMYK"
 />
</fo:declarations>

The output condition identifier can also be specified with the src property for fo:color-profile. The setting is done in the form of the fragmentation of URI. For example:

<fo:declarations>
 <fo:color-profile
  src="#OutputConditionIdentifier=CGATS TR 001&amp;RegistryName=http://www.color.org"
 />
</fo:declarations>

The first character must be #. Afrer that, the parameters are lined and separated by &. Each parameter is in the form of name=value. The name of the parameters are as follows (by mapping to the items of the Outputlntent dictionary for PDF/X.)

• OutputConditionIdentifier
  Specifies the output condition identifier. When the URI of the ICC color profile is specified, the default value is Custom.
• OutputCondition
  Specifies the output condition (Possible to omit.)
• RegistryName
  Specifies the URI of the registration agency of the output condition identifier. When OutputConditionIdentifier is specified and this is omitted, the default URI is http://www.color.org.
• Info
  Specifies the added information (Possible to omit.)

It’s also possible to give the information of the profile by describing the format of the flagment parameter following to the URI of the ICC color profile.

<fo:declarations axf:base-uri="url(file:///C:/WINDOWS/system32/spool/drivers/color/)">
 <fo:color-profile src="url('Photoshop5DefaultCMYK.icc#Info=Photoshop5')"/>
</fo:declarations>

When the output intent is not specified in FO, default-output-intent in the PDF Output Settings will be adopted.

The standard ICC color profile can be downloaded from Adobe.

The profile that can be downloaded may be already bundled with Adobe Acrobat and has already been installed on your system. If your OS is Winodows, please search the %windir%\system32\spool\drivers\color directory.

PDF/A-1 is defined by ISO 19005-1:2005 and it is the specification intended to be suitable for long-term preservation of electronic documents based on PDF1.4 specification. It's possible to output PDF/A with the following versions with AH Formatter V5.0. Impossible to output PDF/A with AH Formatter V5.0 Lite.

• PDF/A-1a:2005
  It is the specification which fully conforms to ISO 19005-1:2005. It is guaranteed that PDF can be displayed and furthermore the text can be extracted in a logical order.
• PDF/A-1b:2005
  It is the specification which partially conforms to ISO 19005-1:2005. It is guaranteed that PDF can be displayed.

The following shows the main features for PDF/A.

In PDF/A, all fonts must be embedded as well as PDF/X. PDF/A cannot be generated when the font which is not permitted to embed is being used.

Most information, including embedding of fonts etc., is adopted precisely disregarding the user setting. In PDF/A-1a, the tagging is done compulsorily. See also Tagged PDF.

XMP metadata is automatically generated from the document information of PDF. In AH Formatter V5.0, it's not available to embed information other than these.

Usual PDF does not have document structure in the contents. For example, the sentences are cut off per each line. In the column, the 1st line of the right column follows the 1st line of the left column. Therefore, even if a person with sight problems, etc. is going to read PDF using some kind of reader, it is very difficult to read a text in the right order. The same thing is applied to the text extraction from PDF.

Tagged PDF structurizes PDF documents with the tag embedded into PDF. By structurizing documents, PDF serves as reusable information. For this reason, Tagged PDF is indispensable to create accessible PDF documents. See also the site below for the accessibility.

AH Formatter V5.0 embeds the following tags (StructElem) for each FO element.

There are some tags which are not structural elements.

In order to create a tagged PDF, you can check Tagged PDF in the PDF Option Setting Dialog, or you can specify -taggedpdf with the Commandline interface.

AH Formatter V5.0 processes as follows for each check item (in the case of Acrobat 7.0) of the Adobe Acrobat's Accessibility Full Check

• Alternative descriptions are provided

  Alternate text can be specified with the extension property, axf:alttext.

  <fo:external-graphic src="..." axf:alttext="AltText"/>
  

  AH Formatter V5.0 makes an alternate text the space (U+0020) of one character when there is no alternate text provided. This is for preventing an error coming out with the accessibility check saying that an alternate text is not provided, even if an alternate text is an unnecessary image. It's a user's responsibility to give the alternative text which is effective.

  In order to check whether an alternative text is given to the image, you can choose View in the Navigation Tabs, then click Tags to open the Tags tab with Acrobat, then see the alternate text item by opening the property of the <Figure> element.

• Text language is specified

  If the property of the language specification (language, country, xml:lang) is given to FO, it will become the language of the structure element of Tagged PDF. For example if you display the tags of the following Tagged PDF with Acrobat,

  <fo:block language="ja">日本語です</fo:block>

  and see the property of the <P> element in this paragraph, you will find the language as Japanense.

• Reliable character encoding is provided

  The text is outputted in Unicode, there is no problem.

• All content is contained in the document structure

  Reffer to the tags in the above table.

• All form fields have descriptions

  If the axf:field-description extension property is specified, the text will be assigned, if not, the form name is assigned.

• List and table structure is correct

  fo:list-block is for the list structure of Tagged PDF and fo:table is for the table structure.

• The tag order matchs to the order of the logical structure

  AH Formatter V5.0 outputs tags in the right order.

Impossible to output Tagged PDF with AH Formatter V5.0 Lite.

With the AH Formatter V5.0 Windows version, a digital signature can be applied to PDF in the environment where you have the PDF Digital Signature Module installed when outputting to PDF.

Customers must purchase the PDF Digital Signature Module to put the digital signature. See also Antenna House website for more details.

In order to put a digital signature with AH Formatter V5.0, it is necessary to make a signature area in FO. A signature area can be created by using the <axf:form-field> extension property.

<axf:form-field
     field-type="signature"
     field-apply-signature="true"
     width="40pt"
     height="50pt"

The field type is specified by field-type="signature". The appearance of the signature cannot be specified here. The size of the field etc. can only be specified. An actual signature is performed when generating PDF. At this time, the digital area is generated in PDF as the signed signature field. Although any number of signature areas can be made and set, AH Formatter V5.0 can put only one of them in the generated PDF. You have to specify field-apply-signature="true" to the area you actually sign. When field-apply-signature="true" is specified multiply, the signature is applied to the first specified area. The non-signed signature field is generated to the signature area without the signature. A signature can be applied to such a signature field afterwards by using PDF Digital Signature Module.

Moreover, in order to actually sign, you have to specify both the signature information which defines the appearance of the signature, etc. and the certificate to be used. These information is defined and saved by PDF Digital Signature Module . In GUI, the digital signature can be specified on the Security section of PDF Option Setting Dialog. With the command- line, the digital signature can be specified by the -pdss option. See also the setting method with the other interfaces respectively.

When outputting PDF by GUI, the signature field is not generated in PDF if the PDF is created without checking "Apply Digital Signature". Similarly, in the environment where PDF Digital Signature Module is not installed, even if the field type is specified by field-type="signature", the signature field is not generated when outputting PDF. PDF Digital Signature Module applies a signature to the signature field in PDF. Please note that you must specify the executing of digital signature when formatting, even if you want to apply the signature later without applying a signature with AH Formatter V5.0. The same setting is applied for the other interfaces.

Followings are restrictions.

• Digital signatures cannot be applied to PDF/X or PDF/A.
• Digital signatures cannot be applied when you specify PDF Output in Multi Separate Volume.

See also the manula of PDF Digital Signature Module for more details about digital signatures.

Possible to embed PDF document in the other PDF.

It is performed by using <fo:external-graphic> like handling an image. Please refer to Graphics.

<fo:external-graphic src="embedded.pdf#page=3"/>

As described above, specify the page number which you want to embed to the URI. When there is no page number specified, the first page will be embedded. When there is no size specified, it's embedded in the page size of the PDF where it's embedded. However if you want to scale the size, content-width or content-height can be specified as follows:

<fo:external-graphic src="embedded.pdf#page=3" content-width="50%"/>

When specifying PDF by utilizing the data scheme (RFC2397), the page number can be specified as the parameter of the media type as follows.

<fo:external-graphic src="data:application/pdf;page=3;base64,JVBERi0xLjQKJeLjz9M..."/>

Moreover, it's also possible to embed PDF as a background. This can be used when making a list form as a background and formatting only the content data on it. When specifying PDF as a background, please specify axf:background-repeat="no-repeat" to fo:simple-page-master or fo:page-sequence as follows. axf:background-repeat="repeat" cannot be specified.

<fo:simple-page-master axf:background-image="background.pdf"
                       axf:background-repeat="no-repeat" ...>

When embedding PDF against the background, it's possible to embed not only 1 page but also two or more pages continuously. Specify as follows; axf:background-repeat="paginate"

<fo:simple-page-master axf:background-image="background.pdf#page=3-5"
                       axf:background-repeat="paginate" ...>

In this example, pages from the 3rd to the 5th are embedded as the background. When the number of pages generated from the contents of fo:flow is less than the number of embedded PDF pages, pages are added so that all pages of embedded PDF may be outputted. Therefore, if the contents of fo:flow is empty, there would be no problem. When there is more number of pages generated from the contents of fo:flow, the background image of the page beyond the number of embedded PDF pages will drop off. Specify the page in the form of #page=<FirstPage>-<LastPage>. When axf:background-repeat="paginate" is not specified, the -<LastPage> portion is disregarded.

background.pdf#page=3-5

from 3rd page to 5th page

background.pdf#page=3-

from 3rd page to the last page

background.pdf#page=3

3rd page only

background.pdf

All pages

When axf:background-image or axf:background-repeat are specified to both fo:page-sequence and fo:simple-page-master, fo:simple-page-master takes priority. It's possible to embed PDF to fo:region-body/before/after/start/end by specifying to fo:simple-page-master.

axf:background-repeat="paginate" is not available to specify with AH Formatter V5.0 Lite.

The version of embedded PDF must be less than or equal to the version of PDF to output. The following table shows the acceptable combination with PDF/X, etc.

When outputted PDF is TaggedPDF, it is impossible to embed PDF. When there is no compatibility in OutputIntent, an error will occur when embedding PDF/A into PDF/A-1b: 2005.

Adobe Type1 fonts (including Adobe Standard 14 fonts), and TrueType fonts (including OpenType fonts with TrueType Outlines), OpenType fonts (PostScript Outline) and Macintosh TrueType font data fork suitcase are supported for PDF output. Other font formats are not supported. For more details, refer to the "Fonts".

AH Formatter V5.0 requires that the fonts, which are specified in documents, are installed on your system in order to use them correctly. Please refer to Windows help or follow the installation instructions attached to the fonts for the method of installing the font in the Windows version. The font placed aside from the font folder can be outputted to PDF in the Windows versoin. At this time, you need to specify some setting in the font construction file. However, the font cannot be displayed in GUI.

These 14 Adobe Type1 fonts are called Standard 14 Fonts in PDF.

• Courier
• Courier-Bold
• Courier-Oblique
• Courier-BoldOblique
• Helvetica
• Helvetica-Bold
• Helvetica-Oblique
• Helvetica-BoldOblique
• Times-Roman
• Times-Bold
• Times-Italic
• Times-BoldItalic
• Symbol
• ZapfDingbats

Even when using an Adobe Type1 font except for these Standard 14 Fonts, it is not necessary to prepare an AFM (Adobe Font Metrics) file. The glyph names of Adobe Type1 fonts maps to character codes (Unicode) of formatting data according to the AGL (Adobe Glyph List) specification. The glyph with a name that is not defined in AGL is not output. See also Unicode and glyph mapping using the .AFM file for more details about .AFM file.

Character Sets, Encoding

Font Embedding

For more information about supported graphic images, refer to the "Graphics".

Vector Images

Raster Images