callas software has released a minor update for its pdfToolbox product line. The update includes fixes for problems discovered in the field and a number of small improvements to the product in response to customer requests. In addition, callas software included a way to fix problems discovered with OpenType SVG fonts.

Recently designers have begun using colourful OpenType SVG fonts more frequently, but according by one of callas’ partners agileStreams, these can cause real production problems.

The underlying cause of those problems goes back to the way the PDF specification is written, which results in multiple possible interpretations. Because of the severity of the problem, callas software wanted to quickly implement a fix. In pdfToolbox 10.2, a new Fixup merges the characters from an OpenType SVG font into the page content in an intelligent way. This fixes the problem without complicating the PDF file.

The update also makes the conversion of TIFF to PDF and PSD to PDF more robust: better support for 16-bit TIFF files, alpha channels, metadata, spot colour channels. It makes the use of TIFF and PSD with pdfToolbox more reliable.

The compare mode between two PDF files has also been improved to add the ability to compare only within certain page boxes and to set the comparison anchor point. This enables the use of PDF file comparison even if two PDF files have different sizes.

Other improvements include new QuickCheck items for content stream length (to judge page complexity very quickly), DPart items and support for variables during batch processes in pdfToolbox Desktop.

The update to pdfToolbox 10.2 is free of charge for pdfToolbox 10 users.

pdfToolbox Desktop for manual processing as a plug-in within Adobe Acrobat or standalone, starts at €499. An upgrade from pdfToolbox 9 costs €199 and an upgrade from pdfToolbox 8 costs €299.

pdfToolbox Server, CLI and SDK for fully automated, hands-off processing and integration in other solutions start at €3,999. Upgrades to pdfToolbox Server 10 are included in the maintenance agreement. Customers without an active maintenance agreement should contact callas software.

https://www.callassoftware.com/en/