PDF: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Transcription

1 PDF: What Could Go Wrong? PDF: What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Matt Kuznicki Datalogics Chief Product Officer Chairman of the PDF Association

2 25 Years of PDF

3 Hundreds of SDKs for PDF Developers

4 Many Thousands of Programs Creating PDFs

5 Hundreds of Millions of PDF Users

6 (at least) 10 Trillion PDFs

7 PDF: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

8 Agenda

9 Agenda 1 How does PDF allow for problems? 2 What problems can users encounter? 3 How can problem files be detected? 4 What can be done about problem PDF files?

10 About me

11 About the Speaker Matt Kuznicki Chief Product Officer at Datalogics Chairman, PDF Association

12 Why are there problem PDFs?

13 Documents are The 20 th century dream of digital paper became a grander reality Computer representations of familiar paper concepts but also: Packages of interactive experiences Changeable renditions based on viewing time, location and circumstances Access to different content through enablement changes Access and tampering detection

14 Documents are PDF files can be: COMPLEX - OR - Incredibly simple Incredibly complex

15 A Journey into PDF PDF is a set of features many are familiar with: A rich set of image, line art and graphics operations Comprehensive text and glyph (character image) support A wide variety of color representations, color and transparency blending and interaction possibilities Position-based visual element placement Rules and guidelines for displaying visual elements

16 A Journey into PDF PDF also contains many features that fewer are familiar with: Semantic (structured) content representation and correlations to visual elements Security and digital signatures to restrict access and allow change detection Interactive elements: audio, video, 3D data models; markup and annotation; forms for data collection Metadata: data about the document and about the individual elements within Application-specific data and embedded files PDF is a platform of functionality for representing information

17 A Journey into PDF At its core, the PDF file format is: A binary format that allows data in a variety of representations to co-exist in one file An object reference system for all the types of information and elements storable in a PDF Page and document contents: the actual things you see, content you can extract and interactivity you can have with the document A container for including and referencing resources - and allowing for reuse and optimizations when repeatedly referencing these And rules for how all of these interact with each other and how to process everything

18 In Other Words With great capability comes the possibility of great complexity

19 What problems are out there?

20 Problem Sources PDF problems have several different potential causes: Outdated PDF programs Incomplete or incorrect PDF implementations Complex processing of some PDF features Suboptimal authoring choices

21 Outdated PDF Programs A quarter-century of PDF programs means you ll encounter: PDF files created once upon a time with the state of the art technology at that time SYMPTOMS Slow processing Use of software that hasn t updated to best PDF practices Unreliable content extraction Use of discontinued software where updating is impossible Excessively large files

22 Incomplete PDF Implementations Even current PDF implementations have limitations: Limitations in supported PDF features Problems and errors in PDF feature support Intentional discarding of unsupported PDF syntax SYMPTOMS Unreliable viewing and printing missing content and mangled display Inconsistent behavior of files between different viewers Poor rendering of colors, gradients and shadings Content going missing after being opened with different tools

23 Complex PDF Features Even PDF processors that support PDF completely, can t always do so quickly: Certain PDF features are processor- or memory-intensive to handle Tools and workflows not designed to rapidly process certain PDF features Content reuse hints are not always supported SYMPTOMS Press and workflow slowdowns Excessive re-processing of images, fonts and content Stopped jobs due to timeouts or resource exhaustion Users staring at spinners and progress bars, waiting for viewers

24 Suboptimal Authoring Choices Even the best PDF tools can stagger under some authoring choices: Unnecessary transparency SYMPTOMS Poor print and view quality Invisible or hidden background content Needlessly rendered or rasterized page elements Color shifting and quality problems, content shifting and misalignment Degraded view and print performance Excessively large files

25 How to detect problems?

26 Detecting Problem PDFs Manually PDF file preflight is built into Adobe Acrobat But PDF files need to be run by hand

27 Detecting Problem PDFs Automatically Isn t there an easier way?

28 Introducing PDF CHECKER Automated PDF error and warning detection from Datalogics Coming at the end of February

29 About PDF CHECKER PDF CHECKER is a server-based tool designed for volume workflows Command-line executable designed for hotfolder, batch or on-demand invocation A variety of PDF error and problem conditions supported Customized problems to scan for with detection profiles Easy to stop checking early on fatal errors Best of all PDF CHECKER will be available for FREE

30 What can be done?

31 Not All Problems can be Automated Away Some PDF problems can t or shouldn t be automatically handled: Files that are too damaged to be opened Files requiring passwords that are missing Font references to unembedded, uncommon fonts Very low resolution images Design problems and incorrect content

32 Fixing with Adobe Acrobat Adobe Acrobat includes file optimization to resolve common PDF problems - BUT - But wouldn t it be great if PDF fixups could be automated?

33 Automated PDF Optimization Automate PDF file optimization with Datalogics PDF OPTIMIZER: Command-line executable designed for automation and volume workflows Built on the proven reliability and capability of the Adobe PDF Library the core technology behind Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader Profile-driven optimizations allow complete customization of desired conditions to resolve Choose the best combination of compatibility resolution and file size reduction for your specific situation

34 Datalogics PDF OPTIMIZER Common PDF pain points are easily solved with PDF OPTIMIZER: Transparency causing press workflow slowdowns? FIXED! Slow PDF downloads due to: Excessively high image resolutions? FIXED! Unnecessary application-specific data bloat? REMOVED! Needlessly editable (fully) embedded fonts? FIXED! Differences in PDF viewers causing data to go missing? FIXED! Visit our website for your free evaluation of Datalogics PDF OPTIMIZER:

35 Summary

36 Summary PDF is a feature platform but not everything implements all of PDF perfectly or quickly Many common problems can be resolved quickly and easily for better PDF processing Datalogics provides server tools to detect problems and to automatically resolve issues Automate finding problems with Datalogics PDF CHECKER Automate fixing problems with Datalogics PDF OPTIMIZER Automating PDF checking and optimizing means more press uptime, fewer slowdowns; faster downloads and more reliable viewing

37 Want More? Sign up to be notified first when PDF CHECKER is available! - Include PDF CHECKER in your subject line - For more information on PDF OPTIMIZER visit

38 Thank You! Matt Kuznicki Chief Product Officer datalogics.com