Around PDF: PDF components for developers and end-users software

What is PDF | For developers | End-user PDF software | Resources | Contacts

 

What is PDF?

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Portable Document Format (PDF) is a worldwide standard for electronic documents. It was originally developed by Adobe for the U.S. Federal Government to store its legacy files. Now PDF files are used by government, regulated industries, different financial services, lawyers, publishing industry, education institutions. PDF files are used to distribute faxes, documentation, handbooks, court filing, letters, reports, tax forms.

PDF file preserves all the fonts, colors and structure regardless of the software and hardware so the electronic copy of PDF document will be always identical to the original and it will be viewed and printed identically to the original document.

PDF documents can be viewed on more than 20 hardware platforms (including Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac, Palm and Pocket PC) using freely distributed viewers like Adobe Reader.

Moreover, PDF format meets the legal documents requirements. It means that PDF file can not be altered without leaving electronic footprint. In addition to this, PDF files provide document-level security (using 40-bit or 128-bit key) and they can be protected by the password. Content of the document can be protected from editing, copying and printing as well.

Images, watermarks, hyperlinks and annotations can be embedded into the PDF document. Ability to use tree-like structured bookmarks (outlines) makes the navigation much easier.

PDF documents can contain interactive elements like input fields, listbox, checkboxes, radioboxes. That is why PDF is widely used as the PDF forms that can be filled in, printed or electronically submitted from web-browser. PDF files are compressed so they can be downloaded much faster and their storage takes much fewer resources.

 

PDF library and Virtual Printer Drivers for developers

PDF Creator Pilot library

PDF Creator Pilot can be used with various programming languages to generate PDF files. See "Hello, PDF" example for:

  Visual Basic Script (VBScript)
  Visual Basic (VB)
  Visual Basic.NET (VB.NET)
  C Sharp (C#)
  Active Server Pages (ASP)
  Active Server Pages for .NET (ASP.NET)
  Delphi
  Visual C++

For more details please see the PDF Creator Pilot main page.

PDF Virtual Printer Drivers

With Virtual Printer you will be able to generate an output in the form of standard raster or vector formats from your program, modify a virtual-printed document before sending it for actual printing, and import documents from other applications.

For more information see the main page of Virtual Printer Drivers Custom Development Service.

 

End-user PDF software

The PDF-related products, based on PDF Creator Pilot, for home and office use.

	Form Pilot line - software for filling out forms of any type. The Form Pilot line includes Form Pilot Home, Form Pilot Pro, Form Pilot Office, and Dot Matrix Pilot. The Pro and Office versions allow you to save PDF forms. Compare products of the form-filler line.
	PDF Maker Pilot - with this software, you can create PDF files that can be filled with Adobe Reader. You can save PDF forms, including password protected PDF forms, print them out, or send them by fax (email) without printing on paper. PDF Maker Pilot comes with database support and has a spell-checking feature included.
	PDF Filler Pilot - fill out PDF forms and other electronic forms (DOC, XLS, TXT, etc) with PDF Filler Pilot. The program converts any electronic form into a rastered image, so that you can fill the form or enter any text or graphics in it. Then you can print the document, or save it as PDF document. PDF Filler Pilot comes with database support and has a spell-checking feature included.
	PDF Converters - change the JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG, EMF, PPT, POT, PPS, XLT, XLS, XLW, DOC, DOT, WPS, WRI, RTF, and HTML files into PDF documents. More....
	Universal converters - PDF Printer Pilot (Pro) and PDF2Mail Pilot (Pro) convert various files into PDFs using a virtual printer. PDF2Mail Pilot (Pro) helps you send the PDF document by email as well.

Business Software Accounting offers a complete set of accounting modules. All reports have the capability to produce a PDF file using PDF Creator Pilot. The applications include: Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger, Payroll, Fixed Assets, Inventory, Order Entry, Purchase Order, Order Quotes, Light Manufacturing, Job Cost, Trucking, and Work Orders. Our software is both Windows and Internet ready.

Scrapbook MAX! is the fun and easy way to create great looking digital scrapbooks on your computer. You can combine photos, embellishments, journal text and more into amazing layouts. Publish to PDF, CD/DVD, video, email, web, print and more. www.scrapbookmax.com

 

Resources

The Portable Document Format article at Wikipedia: history, technology, implementations...

If you have an interesting Website containing PDF-related information, you can enter a short description with a link to the site here!

 

Contacts

If you have any question or business proposals, feel free to contact us using the online form.

Please visit our Forum:
- For software developers;
- Form filler/maker software;
- Converters to PDF.
Questions will be answered and comments are welcome.

 

What is PDF | For developers | End-user PDF software | Resources | Contacts