PDF Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools

PDF Hacks is ideal for anyone who works with PDFs on a regular basis. Learn how to create PDF documents that are far more powerful than simple representations of paper pages. Hacks cover the full range of PDF functionality, including generating, manipulating, annotating, and consuming PDF information. Far more than another guide to Adobe Acrobat, the book covers a variety of readily available tools for generating, deploying, and editing PDF.

Product Description
PDF–to most of the world it stands for that rather tiresome format used for documents downloaded from the web. Slow to load and slower to print, hopelessly unsearchable, and all but impossible to cut and paste from, the Portable Document Format doesn’t inspire much affection in the average user. But PDF done right is another story. Those who know the ins and outs of this format know that it can be much more than electronic paper. Flexible, compact, interactive, and even searchable, PDF is the ideal way to present content across multiple platforms.PDF Hacks unveils the true promise of Portable Document Format, going way beyond the usual PDF as paged output mechanism. PDF expert Sid Steward draws from his years of analyzing, extending, authoring, and embellishing PDF documents to present 100 clever hacks–tools, tips, quick-and-dirty or not-so-obvious solutions to common problems.

PDF Hacks will show you how to create PDF documents that are far more powerful than simple representations of paper pages. The hacks in the book cover the full range of PDF functionality, from the simple to the more complex, including generating, manipulating, annotating, and consuming PDF information. You’ll learn how to manage content in PDF, navigate it, and reuse it as necessary. Far more than another guide to Adobe Acrobat, the book covers a variety of readily available tools for generating, deploying, and editing PDF.

The little-known tips and tricks in this book are ideal for anyone who works with PDF on a regular basis, including web developers, pre-press users, forms creators, and those who generate PDF for distribution. Whether you want to fine-tune and debug your existing PDF documents or explore the full potential the format offers, PDF Hacks will turn you into a PDF power user.

About the Author
For over five years, Sid Steward has analyzed, extended, secured, cracked, authored, converted, embellished and consumed PDF. He maintained and created custom software for Thomson Financial’s Investext and then EBSCO. He then worked with SoftLock (d/b/a Digital Goods) to create their proprietary PDF security model and integrate it with their larger digital rights system. This project required pushing the envelope of Acrobat API programming. At the same time, he had been privately working on a semi-automated PDF to HTML conversion workflow. This toolset became the core of his PDF conversion service bureau: Boundless Books, Inc., d/b/a AccessPDF. He also performs PDF “finishing” which includes optimizing PDF file size and adding navigation features.

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: O’Reilly Media, Inc. (August 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596006551
• ISBN-13: 978-0596006556
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.7 inches

Download Free PDF Samples of iText in Action

Manning offers two free PDF samples of iText in Action for download, enjoy it and have a preview.

• Sample Chapter 1
• Sample Chapter 3

What Chapter 1 said,

1 iText: when and why   3

1.1 The history of iText 5

1.2 iText: first contact 10

1.3 An almost-true story 14

1.4 Summary 29

What Chapter 3 said,

3 PDF: why and when   73

3.1 A document history 74

3.2 Types of PDF 79

3.3 PDF version history 85

3.4 Summary 95

PDF Books-iText in Action: Creating and Manipulating PDF

iText in Action: Creating and Manipulating PDF (Paperback)

Imagine a publisher who wants to “stamp” his ebooks on the fly with the name of the buyer (to discourage sharing). Such a publisher would (and we know one who does) use iText for the task. Developers looking to enhance web- and other applications with dynamic PDF document generation and/or manipulation will find this book unique in content and readability. Based on ongoing examples that encourage learning “in action,” they will finally understand PDF and learn how to build applications that produce professional, high-quality PDF documents. While the basic functionality of iText is easy to acquire, this book lowers the learning curve for more advanced functionality. It explains how to use iText to create/manipulate PDF documents on-the-fly in one or more of the following situations:

Due to time or size, the PDF documents can’t be produced manually

The content of the document must be calculated or based on user input.

The content needs to be customized or personalized.

The PDF content needs to be served in a web environment.

Documents are to be created in “batch process” mode.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications (December 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932394796
• ISBN-13: 978-1932394795
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches

All the examples are written in Java, but they can be easily adapted to .NET by developers using one of the .NET ports: iTextSharp (C#) or iText.NET (#J). While iText is a free Java library and the examples are written from the point of view of the Java developer, nine out of ten examples can be run by .NET developers with only minimal changes.

About the Author
Bruno Lowagie has been programming since he was twelve years old. He has a degree in civil architectural engineering and is the initial developer and one of the current maintainers of iText. He works at Ghent University, Belgium.