PDFlib 8 supports all Scripts of the World
PDFlib GmbH announces the availability of the new product version PDFlib 8, the leading developer toolbox for generating and manipulating PDF files.
PDFlib GmbH announces the availability of the new product version PDFlib 8, the leading developer toolbox for generating and manipulating files in the Portable Document Format (PDF). The new version offers a variety of new features, including new typographic options, PDF features according to Acrobat 9, refined personalization options with the PDFlib Personalization Server and various other new features.
Font Handling and Text Output
Advanced typographic features have always been an important benefit of the PDFlib family; now the font engine has been redesigned and enhanced. PDFlib 8 is equipped to handle complex script shaping and bidirectional formatting, which means the library can now output text in Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Hindi and many other writing systems. The new concept of fallback fonts allows to pull missing glyphs from an auxiliary font. PDFlib 8 also supports OpenType layout features for Western and CJK text output, e.g. ligatures and swash characters, simplified/traditional forms, vertical alternates. Textflow also allows to wrap text around image clipping paths and to create text on a path.
New PDF Features for Acrobat 9
PDFlib 8 can now import Acrobat 9 documents (PDF 1.7 Adobe extension level 3) and supports various PDF features like layer variants, external graphical content, AES-256 encryption, and PDF Portfolios. An interesting new option is georeferenced PDF which enriches the created PDF with geospatial information. PDF maps, aerial photos, satellite imagery etc. which have been enhanced with geospatial information can be used with the geospatial tools in Acrobat 9.
PDF Personalization
The PDFlib Personalization Server and the accompanying Block Plugin have been enhanced to make designing the Blocks for variable content in Acrobat even easier. The Block Plugin now offers a preview the of the personalization results in Acrobat before creating mass mailings. The completely redesigned user interface contains an additional snap-to-grid feature for quickly laying out Blocks. New PDFlib 8 features like the typographic enhancements and complex script support are also accessible with Blocks.
Other important features
PDFlib 8 offers numerous other new features and a variety of improvements in existing functions. Compressed object streams can reduce PDF file size significantly in many situations. Retaining fonts across documents increases the performance of the PDF output. Path objects can now be reused, and Alpha channels in TIFF and PNG images are converted to transparent PDF images. PDFlib 8 also supports recent ISO standards like PDF/X-4 and PDF/X-5 and includes the new PANTONE® Goe™ color libraries.
Availability and pricing
The PDFlib 8 family is now available for many platforms and with numerous language bindings. At our download pages a fully functional evaluation version is available for download. Prices for PDFlib 8 start at US-$ 415 (295 Euro) for a desktop license and US-$ 1095 (Euro 795) for a server license. For more details on pricing please see here.