User Manual

1.2 Preferences

Updated on

In this article learn about

  • where to find the PDF Editor Preferences,
  • how to configure the Preferences
  • which Settings are available

1. Introduction

Basic settings for the PDF Editor are performed in Preferences. Depending on the settings, the user interface may change or certain functions and panels may be hidden.  Read this section to learn how to set the Preferences to fit your needs.

2. Preferences

After starting the program you can open the Preferences by navigating to PDF Editor > Preferences (macOS) or  Edit > Preferences (Windows) or by pressing the keyboard shortcut cmd + , (macOS) or  Ctrl +. No document needs to be open to set your Preferences. Selected Preferences are saved and used again for every restart of the program. To customize the Preferences, proceed as follows:

  1. Open the Preferences dialog,
  2. Set the desired options and
  3. Close the dialog by pressing OK.

The Preferences dialog is divided into several settings areas:

  • General [1] - Here you will find the setting options for language, length dimensions, Stroke Unit, display area, and handling XObjects.
  • Color Management [2] - Select the RGB and CMYK Working Color Space, set the conversion priority for the entire document and the offsetting on the screen, and define whether the simulated values of the CMYK Working Color Space should be displayed or not. Also, default Spot Colors can be defined and made available for each document.
  • User Interface [3] - Select various setting options that simplify the operation of the  | PDF-Editor in many situations.

2.1. Opening the Preferences

Open the Preferences by selecting the Edit > Preferences (Windows) or  PDF Editor > Preferences (macOS) menu. Alternatively, press the keyboard shortcut ctrl + , (Windows) or cmd + , (macOS) to open the preferences dialog.

Figure 1: The Preferences dialog of the PDF Editor

2.2. Options

All options are available in a window in the Preferences dialog. The following section describes which issues address which setting option.

2.2.1. General

In the General settings area, general settings such as language or units of measurement are available.

Figure 2: The settings area General in detail

Language [4] – the program is multilingual and can be used in several languages. When you open the PDF Editor for the first time, the language of the local operating system is used by default. If you want to change the language of the user interface, this can be done at any time. You can choose from the following languages:

  • <Auto> - will use the language of the operating system
  • Chinese
  • Czech
  • English
  • German
  • French
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Polish
  • Romanian
  • Slovak

Missing Translations

If no translations are available for captions, menus as well as explanatory texts in a dialog, they will be displayed with the default language English in any case.

  • Length Unit [5] – This allows you to determine the unit of measurement in which length units are to be displayed in the user interface. It is self-evident that the values also adapt accordingly in the ruler. The currently used unit of measurement is displayed in the cross area of the horizontal as well as vertical ruler in the program. The following length units are available in the selection menu:
    • Centimeter (cm)
    • Feet (ft)
    • Inch (in)
    • Meter (m)
    • Millimeter (mm) – default value in PDF Editor
    • Point (pt)
    • Yard (yd)
  • Stroke Unit [6] – This allows the user to determine in which unit the stroke units are displayed. The following units are available in the selection menu:
    • Inch (in)
    • Millimeter (mm)
    • Point (pt) – Default value PDF Editor
  • Visible Page Content [7] – This allows the user to determine which area - content of the Page Box - of the PDF file should be displayed in the PDF Editor by default. The CropBox is selected by default, this corresponds to the basic behavior of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. The following Page Boxes can be selected in the drop-down menu:
    • TrimBox
    • BleedBox
    • ArtBox - default value in the PDF-Editor
    • CropBox
    • MediaBox
  • Process Form XObjects [8] - This allows you to determine how you want to deal with Form XObjects. The following three choices are available:
    • Ask for each document
    • Resolve always
    • Resolve never

What are Form XObjects?

Form XObjects are object containers that can contain images, text and vectors. Form XObjects are saved as a reference and can then be used as often as desired in the PDF file. However, they cannot be edited individually. If you still want to modify XObjects, the references must be resolved. Depending on the complexity of the XObjects, this process can be very time-consuming and memory-intensive. Learn more about Form XObjects in the glossary.

2.2.2. Color Management

In the Color Management settings area, you can store the ICC profiles (Color Profiles) and the priorities (Rendering Intents) for Color Management and set default Spot Colors for the program.

Figure 3: The settings area Color Management in detail

  • RGB Working Color Space [9] - Determine which RGB Color Profile is to be used as source profile for the conversion of DeviceRGB colors.
  • CMYK Working Color Space [10] - Choose the respective CMYK profile from the drop-down menu, which should be used for the Working Colors Space for CMYK.
  • Rendering Intent [11] - Determine the priority with which colors outside the gamut are to be moved into the gamut. The following options are available:
    • Absolutely colorimetric - shifts non-printable colors into the Target Color Space in the direction of paper white.
    • Perceptual - proportionally shifts non-printable colors into the Target Color Space in the direction of light white.
    • Relative colorimetric - shifts non-printable colors into the tTarget Color Space in the direction of light white.
    • Saturation - shifts non-printable colors towards the next saturated hue.
    • Use document standard - default value
  • Rendering Intent for RGB [12] - Allows to determine the priority with which the display colors are calculated on the monitor. The same priorities are available as described above.
  • Show simulated values of the CMYK Working Color Space [13] – Displays the simulation color values for the selected Working Color Space in the Process Colors settings area of the View and Analyze tab. If this option is not selected, the exact color values from the PDF file are displayed there.
  • Define system-wide Spot Colors [14] – Allows to create Spot Colors that should always be available in the respective selection menus. The procedure for doing this is described in the section Dealing with Default Spot Colors.

Show simulated values of the CMYK Working Color Space

Deactivate this option by default if you want to have the color values from the PDF displayed in the View and Analyze tab, because you certainly do not want to use the color values that would result from rendering to CMYK of the set Working Color Space for evaluation.

2.2.3. User Interface

In the User Interface settings area you can customize your program interface .

Figure 4: The settings area User Interface in detail

  • Show tooltip for PDF object [15] - Displays the properties of the object in an information window to the user after the mouse pointer is placed over an object in the file. How long it takes for the information window to be displayed can be specified in Tooltips Delay (milliseconds) [16].
  • Mode for selecting objects [16]– Allows you to choose between the following two selection modes:
    • All fully or partially captured objects of the selection frame - any object that is touched while dragging a selection frame will be selected automatically.
    • Only fully captured objects of the selection frame - only those objects that are completely inside the selection frame will be selected.
  • Use [Ctrl] and [Cmd] to select objects [19] – When objects are located on top of each other, the user can click through the object stack by pressing the Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (macOS) key. By pressing the Shift key, the user can select several objects one after the other.
  • Show Rulers [20] – Show or hide the horizontal and vertical ruler around the drawing area in the PDF Editor. Display and hide the ruler at any time using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + R (Windows) or Cmd + R (macOS).
  • Enable Guidelines [21] – Allows the user to decide whether to use rulers or not. For this option to be selected, the option Show Rulers must be selected.

3. Dealing with Default Spot Colors

Standard Spot Colors are needed when Spot Colors are required repeatedly in a large number of documents. Examples of frequently used Spot Colors are White, Dielines and Primers. Default Spot Colors which are determined in the Preferences can then be used in the respective selection menus.

3.1. Creating Default Spot Colors

In order to create a default Spot Color for the PDF Editor proceed as follows.

  1. Start | PDF-Editor and select the Preferences dialog.
  2. Press Define Default Spot Colors [14] (Figure 3), which opens the Edit Spot Colors dialog.
  3. The Edit Spot Colorsdialog displays all the Spot Colors that have already been defined. An entry of a Spot Color definition is structured as follows:
    • Color field [22] - simulated color value for the Spot Color.
    • Spot Color Name [23] - color name of the Spot Color (note the spelling and do not insert any spaces after the color name!)
    • Color Space of the alternate Color Space [24] - CMYK, RGB, and Lab are those color values that can be selected for the alternate color space of a Spot Color.
    • Color Value of the alternate Color Space [25] - Define the color values for your Spot Color in the previously selected alternate Color Space

Figure 5: The Edit Spot Colors dialog

  1. In order to create a new Spot Color definition, press New... [26], which opens the Edit Spot Color Definition dialog.
  2. In the Edit Spot Color Definition, the user needs to define the following information:
    • Spot Color Name [30]– Enter the desired Spot Color name. Note that
      • Spot Color names must be unique with their definitions in a document
      • Spot Color names should not contain special characters (Chinese and Japanese characters are allowed though).
    • Color Space [31] – Determine which alternate Color Space should be used for the Spot Color definition. These color values will be used if the Spot Color is converted to another Color Space.
    • Color Values [32] – Determine the color values that are to be used to display the color in the | PDF-Editor. The number of input fields as well as the color values allowed there depend on the selected Color Space. The permissible color values are:
      • CMYK  from 0-100%
      • RGB from 0-255
      • LAB the value for L from 0-100% and the values for the a- and b-axis from -128 to +127

Figure 6: The Edit Spot Color Definition dialog

  1. Finish the Edit Spot Color Definition by pressing OK.
  2. Back in the Edit Spot Color Definition dialog (Figure 5), the user can also finish the process of creating standard Spot Colors by pressing OK.

3.2. Editing Spot Color Definition

In order to edit an existing Spot Color Definition, select a Spot Color and click Edit... [27]. This opens the same dialog as described above in Figure 6.

When converting the Alternative Color Space, the corresponding values are converted via the color calculator in the PDF Editor.

3.3. Renaming Spot Color Definition

In order to edit an existing Spot Color Definition, select a Spot Color and click Rename [13] (Figure 5). This opens the same dialog, in which the user can simply overwrite the existing color name and rename it by pressing OK.

Figure 7: The Rename Spot Color dialog

3.4. Delete Spot Color Definition

In order to delete an existing Spot Color Definition, select a Spot Color and click Delete... [29] (Figure 5). This will delete the selected Spot Color without any additional message.

Actions in the Edit Spot Color Definition dialog cannot be reverted

Note that all actions such as New, Edit, Rename and Delete cannot be reverted. Therefore, be careful when modifying Spot Color Definitions in this dialog.

Article Update: PDF Editor 1.10 – 10/2024

Previous Article 1.1 User Interface
Next Article 1.3 Keyboard Shortcuts

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1. User Interface, Preset and Keyboard Shortcuts 3
2. Connecting with other programs 1

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