14 Apr 2022
callas software, the market leader for automated PDF quality control and archival solutions, today releases a first update for pdfToolbox 13. The update responds to the release of the 2022 specifications by the Ghent Workgroup (GWG) and introduces various small but interesting new features.
callas software releases major updates to its pdfToolbox product line every year; in between, minor updates react to market changes or fix problems discovered during testing. pdfToolbox 13.1 was just released to do both; it introduces several corrections and new functionalities, and it implements the new GWG 2022 specifications.
“Compliance to standards has always been a cornerstone of our strategy. It’s important for us and for our many OEM partners,” says Dietrich von Seggern, Managing Director at callas software. “We endeavor to implement all relevant graphic arts related standards, whether they come from ISO (the International Standards Organization) or the Ghent Workgroup. With pdfToolbox 13.1, we’re pleased to be able to react so quickly on the release of the 2022 specifications from the Ghent Workgroup.”
pdfToolbox 13.1 implements all variants of the GWG specifications. A few tweaks and additional features for the preflight engine of pdfToolbox were necessary to support the new GWG specifications. Preflight profiles that completely implement all variants can be found in the pdfToolbox preflight library.
The GWG 2022 specifications require preflight applications to check the whether the document contains areas with too much ink. New here is that it is sometimes required to check only process colors and sometimes to check also spot colors. This is now possible in pdfToolbox 13.1.
A major feature of the GWG 2022 specifications is that they allow preflight applications to be intelligent in how they check PDF files. They can now ignore objects that could never cause production problems (the easiest example is that objects that are completely invisible, can be ignored). This reduces the number of false positives (PDF files that throw errors, but really shouldn’t) and is great for production. pdfToolbox has had its Sifter technology to do this for years and in pdfToolbox 13.1 it has been further optimized to provide better performance, especially for larger and more complex documents.
pdfToolbox 13.1 support the optimization of complex vector objects. Vector paths are simplified by replacing those parts of them that extend beyond their clipping paths by a straight line (in effect removing all complexity that is invisible because it’s clipped anyway). As this happens a lot in some complex files, this can have very significant results on reducing file complexity.
callas License Server is used increasingly in some environments to license pdfToolbox. However, this does have effects on simplicity of use of pdfToolbox as the information about the License Server(s) must be passed on the command-line with each call, or in each Enfocus Switch configurator where you want to use this. pdfToolbox 13.1 instead supports a new configuration file that lives next to the pdfToolbox executable to provide the License Server information, dramatically reducing this complexity.
Also in version 13.1, pdfToolbox now supports transparency (specifying opacity, blend modes…) when using Place Content technology to add content to a PDF document.
callas pdfToolbox 13.1 is available today from the callas software website. It is a free update for pdfToolbox 13.
For further inquiries regarding availability, price, options or return on investment, please contact the callas software distribution partner, Four Pees at sales@fourpees.com. Download a fully functional time-limited trial version from www.callassoftware.com.
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