callas software of Berlin, Germany, released an update for its pdfChip product, which converts HTML into what the company describes as good, standards-compliant PDF documents. The pdfChip 1.2 update focuses on ease-of-use and implements improvements for barcode and SVG workflows.
One of the challenges in developing pdfChip templates, explains callas, is figuring out the right HTML to get the effect in PDF that you want. The company continues to explain this is especially difficult, because an HTML template using JavaScript will not open correctly in a standard browser such as Chrome. With pdfChip 1.2 comes a Chrome plug-in that emulates the pdfChip specific JavaScript objects and functions. This makes it possible to use the Chrome JavaScript debugger for templates.
pdfChip contains a built-in barcode library that supports 119 barcode types, which have special features and parameters that previously could not be used in pdfChip. From pdfChip 1.2 on, these specific parameters can also be used in templates. It is also now possible to use many more colouring schemes for barcodes, opening up a greater range of creative barcode uses.
pdfChip templates can be created with a range of text editors or with a tool specifically targeted towards Web design. For those people who feel more comfortable with design tools, such as Adobe InDesign, callas released the pdfChip template generation export filter for Adobe InDesign with the pdfChip 1.2 release. This export filter converts an InDesign document into a correct pdfChip template, correctly taking over the positions of all elements on the page, the colour and styles of page elements and more. This allows users to reduce the time required to build a correct pdfChip template.
Creating a template that correctly loads fonts and images can be difficult, explains Callas, because of the asynchronous way pdfChip (and the WebKit engine within) handle those page resources. In pdfChip 1.2, there is a new way to handle this problem.
pdfChip is capable of outputting more than one PDF document. When generating business cards, for example, each business card could be saved in a single PDF file. It is now also possible to cross-link between those files, which means each generated PDF file can contain links to one or more of the other generated PDF files.
Most of the time, continues callas, pdfChip templates will be a mix of HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and where necessary enhanced with things, such as MathML or SVG. Sometimes, more simple needs could be handled by a single SVG file however. pdfChip 1.2 allows specifying a single SVG file which will be converted into a PDF seamlessly.
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