User Manual

1.9 Release – 1.0

Updated on

Release Date: 07/10/2022

This article contains information about

  • new features that are available,
  • improvements for users that have been implemented and
  • bugs that have been fixed in version 1.0.6 of the PDF Editor.

1. Overview

With version 1.0.6, users can take advantage of several improvements in terms of analyzing as well as editing PDF files. Additionally, improvements in the area of the user interface and simplified access to objects have been implemented.

1.1. Major Changes

The following new improvements have been executed:

  • Pipette-Tool: Tool for analyzing effective color values and object properties for the selected position.
  • Guide Lines: Create, edit and delete guide lines.
  • Access to the Manual: Link to the PDF Editor help guide in the Menu "Help".
  • Set TrimBox to selected Elements: Set the TrimBox to the exact object coordinates for selected objects.
  • Show Image Bounding Paths: Display the actual image frame for masked images
  • Show Clipping Paths: Possibility to display the clipping paths for images.
  • Move Image Source: Select the image of an image mask and change the position of the section.
  • Optimize PDF: First implementation of optimization features for complex PDF files.
  • Duplicate pages: Possibility to duplicate one or more selected pages.
  • Insert blank page: Possibility to insert a blank page before or after the selected pages.
  • Color Management: Possibility to set the working color space for RGB and CMYK as well as the preferred rendering intent.
  • Logo: New Logo for the PDF Editor has been implemented.

1.2. Improved User Interface

The following improvements for a simplified usage have been implemented:

  • Select objects: New keyboard shortcuts available.
  • Show objects: Option to quickly select between Process Colors, Spot Colors, Color Spaces and Page Objects via double click.
  • Selected objects remain selected: Selected objects which are layered under an object can still be moved after the object has been selected
  • Preferences: Redesign of the user interface for the preferences dialog.
  • Unification of the dialogs: Revision of the StyleSheets to unify the dialogs as well as the possibility to handle input fields.
  • Show elements outside of the selected page geometry box: The content outside the selected page geometry box will be displayed in a dimmed way.
  • Translations: All dialogs have been translated to German and English.

 

1.3. Bug Fixes

The following bugs have been fixed:

  • Delete objects of very large PDF files: Editor crashed after deleting objects in larger PDF files.
  • Missing preview in the tab "Workflow": In some cases no preview of some print items in the tab  "Workflow" was displayed.
  • User names with integrated spaces: User names with spaces integrated in it were not able to log in to the Durst Workflow.
  • Correct adaptions of the values in "Select Objects": For the selected object, the correct values were not adopted in some cases after opening the "Select Objects" dialog.
  • Integration to Durst Workflow: Access to orders and production jobs have been fully implemented with Durst Workflow version 1.13.0.

Find below a detailed description of all changes in the menu items New Features, Improvements as well as Bug Fixes.

2. New Features

Version 1.0.6 provides some new features compared to version 1.0.0.

2.1. Pipette-Tool

The Pipette-Tool is available to the user for analyzing a PDF file. When clicking on the desired position in the PDF, the effective color values and object properties for the selected position are defined and displayed in the Edit tab.

Proceed as follows in the event object properties as well as the correct color values are needed:

  1. Open the desired PDF in the PDF Editor.
  2. Select the Pipette-Tool [2], which can be found in the toolbar on the left side or by pressing ctrl + shift + I (Windows) or cmd + shift + I (macOS).
  3. Selecting the Pipette Tool automatically opend the Edit [3] tab.
  4. Position the tip of the pipette-tool [1] to the desired position and click once to receive the object properties and color spaces.
  5. The object properties and color spaces are then displayed in the Edit [4] tab.

Figure 1: User interface when pipette tool has been selected

Simulated versus effective color values

In some case the user may not be able to tell any differences between the color values that are displayed in the Display and Analyze tab in the Process Color or Spot Color separations settings area as well as in the Edit tab input fields. This is basically true for CMYK and Spot Colors.

When moving the cursor over an RGB or Lab color value, CMYK values are always displayed in the Process Colors settings area of the Display and Analyze tab. These CMYK values correspond to the simulated color values that would result from rendering the RGB or Lab color value into the selected CMYK working color space. By using the pipette tool, the corresponding Lab or RGB values would be displayed in the input fields of the Edit tab.

2.2. Guide Lines

Guide Lines help the user to analyze PDF files to determine dimensions in a faster way as well as aligning objects next to them. With version 1.0.6, users are able to set, edit and delete guide lines.Furthermore, as guide lines are also magnetic to any objects, it is easier for the user to align objects.

In order to create guide lines in the PDF Editor proceed as follows:

  1. Activate the Create Guides function in the Preferences dialog
  2. Simply click on the desired position in the ruler bar where the guide lines needs to be created or double-click on the desired position in the ruler bar and manually enter the exact position in the Guide Line dialog.
  3. The position for an existing guide line can be changed by simply moving it manually with the cursor or by double-clicking in the same dialog as before.
  4. Delete a guide line by double-clicking in the same guide line dialog. 

2.2.1. Activate Guide Lines

In order to work with guide lines in the PDF Editor at all, the guide line functionality needs to be activated. Proceed as follows:

  1. Open the Preferences dialog by either navigating to the menu Edit > Preferences (Windows) resp. OnPoint PDF Editor > Preferences (macOS). Quickly open the dialog by pressing ctrl + , (Windows) resp. cmd + , (macOS).
  2. Firstly, activate the option Show Rulers [5], as no guide line can be created without the ruler functionality.
  3. As a next step activate the option Enable Guide Lines (Click on Rulers to Create) [6].
  4. Close the preferences dialog by pressing OK.

Figure 2: The preferences dialog with the option to work with guide lines in the PDF Editor

2.2.2. Create, position and delete guide lines

In case all previous arrangements have been conducted in the preferences, the user can create guide lines, position them in an exact way as well as delete them again.

Create Guide Lines

 Compared to classical Adobe applications, where guide lines can be created by dragging them from the horizontal or vertical ruler area, in the PDF Editor guide lines are created by clicking on the position in the horizontal or vertical ruler. By clicking e.g. on position 30 [7]. In the horizontal ruler area, a vertical guide line is created as a dashed line starting from this position. Further guide lines are created by more clicks at the desired positions.

Figure 3: The PDF Editor user interface with a guide line created at position 30.

Position Guide Lines

Already created guide lines can be moved manually to another position by dragging the cursor or locate to an exact area by manually entering a value.

Move manually

The position of the guide line can be moved manually by clicking the handle [8] of the guide line - the gray area at the intersection of the guide line with the ruler - and move it to a new position.

Exact positioning

In case the user wants to move the guide line to an exact position, double-click the handle [8] of the guide line, which opens the Guide line dialog. Enter the desired valued into the input field Position [9] and click OK [10].

Figure 4: The Guide dialog with the option ot precisely position guide lines in the PDF Editor as well as deleting them.

Delete Guide Lines

There are two ways for deleting a guide line:

  • Double-click on the handle [8] of the guide line and click Delete [11] in the Guide dialog.
  • Move the guide line back to the origin of the ruler (intersection of both rulers at the top left)

More intuitive way to delete guides

A more intuitive way to delete all guides will be added in the next version.

2.2.3. Align objects to Guide Lines

To align an object to a guide line, proceed as follows:

  1. Create the guide line at the desired position
  2. Select the object that needs to be aligned with a guide line (left image in Figure 5)
  3. Move the object to the guide line. As soon as the objects is near the guide line, the PDF Editor magnetically pulls the object to the respective guide line (centre image in Figure 5).
  4. Unselect the object. The tip of the dieline has been exactly aligned with the guide line (right image in Figure 5).

Figure 5: Illustrations for aligning objects to guide lines

2.3. Color Management

 Colors often need to be converted to a different color space when it comes to print data. In order to ensure that the color values are converted correctly to the target color space, setting the color management with access to standard ICC profiles is necessary. On the one hand, version 1.0.6 provides to possibility to set the desired working color spaces for RGB and CMYK for the PDF Editor in the preferences section and on the other hand performing a conversion of the color values according to the definitions in the source and target profile.

2.3.1. Setting up Color Management in "PDF Editor"

As a first step, color management needs to be set up in the program. Proceed as follows:

  1. Start the PDF Editor and open the Preferences dialog by either navigating to menu Edit > Preferences (Windows) or On Point PDF Editor > Preferences (macOS). The dialog can be opened faster by pressing ctrl + , (Windows) or cms + , (macOS).
  2. Choose the respective RGB profile from the drop-down menu Standard RGB Profile [12], which should be used for the working colors space for RGB.
  3. Choose the respective CMYK profile from the drop-down menu Standard CMYK Profile [13], which should be used for the working colors space for CMYK.
  4. Choose the respective Rendering Intent from the drop-down menu Rendering Intent DOM [14], which should be used for mapping colors that are located outside the gamut.
  5. Choose the respective Rendering Intent from the drop-down menu Rendering Intent Render RGB Convert [15], which should be used to convert the preview in the PDF Editor.
  6. Confirm the selection by pressing OK.

Figure 6: The preferences dialog with selected working color spaces for RGB and CMYK as well as the Rendering Intents.

2.3.2. Convert colors from the source to destination color space

Proceed as follows to convert a color valued based on the selected color management settings in the PDF Editor:

  1. Choose a vector surface using the Selection Tool in the PDF Editor.
  2. Select the Edit tab. The color values for the selected object are displayed in the current color space.
  3. Select the desired target color space from the drop-down menu Color Space [16], which performs the conversion to the target color space.
  4. Confirm the conversion by pressing √ [17]. This step can be omitted in case the Apply Changes immediately option has been activated in the same tab.

Figure 7: The Edit tab displaying the color value of the current color space

Notes on the interim version 1.0.6

Missing translations, hiding of values that are not displayed as well as conversion of color values to correct target color values (which are not yet correct in all combinations) will be implemented in the next major release.

2.4. New Display Options

Two new display options, namely Show Clipping Paths as well as Show Image Bounding Paths, have been added for a faster analysis of a print file. Furthermore, the existing option Show Elements outside the Page Geometry Box has been optimized.

2.4.1. Show Image Bounding Paths

Images in a PDF hold a specific size. The masking path determines the content of the image. Therefore, only small sections of large images can be displayed in PDF files.

Whether and why images are not limited to the masking frame when creating PDF files depends on the implementation of the PDF creation application.

In case the images are cropped to the size of the masking frame when the PDF file is created, a lot of storage data can be saved. The disadvantage for this behavior would be that the cropping of the image content would not be changed without resizing.

In the event that the images are not cropped when the PDF file is created, the user still has the option to specify a modified image section in the PDF.

To inspect whether the images are cropped or not when the PDF file was created, proceed as follows:

  1. Open the PDF file in the PDF Editor.
  2. Select the menu View and Analyze.
  3. Activate the option Display Image Bounding Paths [19] in the settings area Options [18].
  4. The actual image dimensions for all images in the PDF file are then displayed in dashed lines in the color cyan [20]. For example, in the following Figure 8 the letter "T" at the end of the displayed word Detroit contains a particularly large image, while the letter "T" in the middle of the word Detroit contains an image of a smaller size.

To summarize, the user can immediately recognize that the PDF could be optimized for storage space by cropping the image contents to fit the masking frame.

Figure 8: User interface of the PDF Editor with the Show Image Bounding Paths option enabled

2.4.2. Show Clipping Path

Images or other content - text or vectors - can be "masked" in PDF files using a masking frame. The content inside the masking frame is displayed in the PDF, elements or image components outside the masking frame are hidden. However, hidden elements are still available in the PDF and can also be selected and edited.

Proceed as follows to view which elements are displayed as masked in the PDF:

  1. Open the PDF file in the PDF Editor.
  2. Select the View and Analyze tab.
  3. Activate the option Show Clipping Path [22] in the settings area Options [21].
  4. All existing masking frames are then displayed in dashed lines in the color magenta [23]. Therefore, the user can recognize quickly which objects are not visible that may cause processing problems. For example, the text in a non-embedded font can be unproblematic in case the text appears masked in the PDF.

Figure 9: User interface of the PDF Editor with the Show Clipping Paths option enabled.

2.4.3. Show Elements outside of the Visible Page Content

The option Visible Page Content can be selected in the preferences dialog of the PDF Editor, in which a page geometry box can be selected that defines which part of the PDF should be displayed. In case the BleedBox has been selected, by default any content inside the BleedBox will be displayed, as a result the content outside of the BleedBox will be hidden.

In case the Show Elements outside BleedBox [25] option is disabled in the Options [24] settings area, as well as the option TrimBox [26] in the settings area Visible Page Content activated, the user can immediately recognize whether there is enough bleed integrated for the print file. The content outside the BleedBox are then completely hidden.

Figure 10: The default user interface of PDF Editor

As soon as the option Show elements outside of TrimBox [28] is activated in the Options [27] area, the user can immediately recognize which other page content outside the TrimBox is shown.

Figure 11: The user interface of the PDF Editor with activated option Show Elements outside TrimBox

2.5. Set TrimBox to selected Elements

There are occasion in which the TrimBox should quickly be set to an existing Dieline in order to prepare the print item for imposition. With version 1.0.6 this functionality Set TrimBox to Selected Elements is newly available. Proceed as follows:

  1. Open the desired PDF in the PDF Editor. In the following example, all page geometry frames are positioned on the BleedBox. In the preferences dialog the option Visible Page Content has been set to the BleedBox.
  2. Select the Dieline [30] of the print item with the selection tool [29].

Figure 12: The existing Dieline has been selected in this print item

  1. Choose the command Set TrimBox to Selected Elements from the menu Edit.
  2. The result is shown in Figure 13.
  3. The changes still need to be saved when in order to return to the print file prepared for imposition.

Figure 13: The print item after executing the command Set TrimBox to Selected Elements

3. Improvements

In addition to the major new features, other improvements have also been implemented in version 1.0.6.

3.1. Move the image content within the masking frame

As previously described in New Features, an image in a PDF consists of the actual image and the masking frame, which determines which image content is being displayed. In case the PDF creating application has not cropped the image to the masking frame, there is a possibility to reposition the image to the masking frame. Proceed as follows to achieve this behavior:

  1. Open the desired PDF in the PDF Editor and zoom into the masked image that needs to be edited.
  2. Select the to be edited object in the print item with the Selection Tool [31].
  3. After that, the selection frame [32] is displayed in the size of the existing masking frame.

Figure 14: A masked image was selected with the Selection Tool

  1. Afterwards select the command Move Image Source from the menu View.
  2. Through this action, the image frame [33] in the dimension of the image is selected and displays a white arrow - called the Direct Selection Tool [34].

Figure 15: The image frame selected with the Direct Selection Tool

  1. Start moving the image content by simply dragging and dropping the frame or image.
  2. Once the right position has been found for the first image, the image content [35] of the other masking frame can be selected by clicking on the next image. The selection of the Direct Selection Tool remains unchanged unless another tool in the toolbar has been selected.

Figure 16: The changed image section for the first image and selected as well as the shifted image content of the second image

Scale or stretch an image proportionally

In case an image within a masking frame has been selected, the image can be scaled or stretched by selecting one of the selection spots and changing its position.

Stretch – simply moving a selection spot

Scale proportionally - simply moving the selection spot with subsequent clicking the Shift key

Notes on the interim version 1.0.6

The user interface for selecting the image content will be available in a more intuitive way in a future major release.

3.2. Tab »Thumbnails«

In the Thumbnails tab, in which preview images of the separate pages are displayed, changes can be made to the page order as well as deleting and rotating pages. With version 1.0.6 more manipulation options have been implemented:

3.2.1. Duplicate Pages

In some cases the need for duplicating one or more pages can occur. To perform this operation, proceed as follows:

  1. Open the document that needs to be edited in the PDF Editor.
  2. Open the tab Thumbnails [36] and select the pages that should be duplicated.
  3. Right-click on the selected page and choose the command Duplicate Selected Pages [37]. This command can also be found in the Menu Pages.
  4. After the command is executed, each selected page is duplicated and will be inserted as a subsequent page in the document structure.

Figure 17: The tab Thumbnails with the menu commands after right-clicking on a selected page

3.2.2. Insert blank page before or after selected page

In some cases the functionality to insert blank pages as to fill up the number of pages.To perform this operation, proceed as follows:

  1. Open the document that needs to be edited in the PDF Editor.
  2. Open the tab Thumbnails [36] and select the respective pages before or after which the blank page should be inserted.
  3. Right-click on the selected page and click the command Insert Blank Page Before [38] or Insert Blank Page After [39].
  4. After executing the command, a blank page will be inserted before or after the selected page in the respective document structure.

3.3. Access to the User Manual

With version 1.0.6, the menu item Show Manual in the menu Help has been added. This allows the user to open the user manual for operating PDF Editor. The user manual can also be opened directly via the following link:

https://en.help.durst-group.com/a/1594720-release-onpoint-pdf-editor-1-0-6

3.4. Program Icon including Renaming of the Program

With version 1.0.6, the naming of the program as well as the visual appearance such as icons have been completed.

Figure 18: The new icon of PDF Editor

Collaboration with Durst Workflow

Please note that for accessing the Durst Workflow in the tab Workflow the version 1.13.0 is required. With this version it is possible to access articles, print items of orders as well as production jobs.  

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