Blog Posts | Four Pees

How accessible is the documentation these days?

Today's world of Information Technology has opened the doors in many ways in order to integrate people with disabilities into our society. But there are a number of prerequisites that need to be met. PDF/UA standard for reading and editing documents and forms serves the same purpose to barrier-free PDF as served by a flattened curb or a stepless access to a wheelchair user. In PDF/UA (= Universal Accessibility), the specifications for barrier-free PDF documents are defined as an ISO standard. Wi

Blogs

Jan 23, 2019 News

Dietrich von Seggern

How does PDF 2.0 affect the printing industry?

It's true that many developments in the printing industry have led to progressive automation of workflows, like increasing quality requirements, declining print runs and prices ... Perhaps the most important technology in this context is the PDF format acting as the carrier of the print data which plays a central role in the communication and application of color in the printing process. Nevertheless, against the background of these massive tectonic changes in the printing landscape, some cracks

Blogs

Jan 9, 2019 News

Olaf Druemmer

Entirely barrier-free: PDF/UA for eGovernments

What the flattened curbside or stepless access is for wheelchair users, the barrier-free PDF in accordance with the PDF/UA standard is for reading and editing documents and forms. Without limiting the diversity of PDF technology, it determines how unrestricted accessibility of content in PDF files is ensured. Making information easily accessible to citizens is undoubtedly a big part of eGovernment and is sought after by federal and state authorities as well as districts, cities and municipalitie

Blogs

Dec 19, 2018 News

Dietrich von Seggern

System-independent archiving of project files with PDF/A-3

The constantly growing demands on formats were no longer able to meet the constantly growing requirements for reliable long-term digital storage of important documents. In addition, there was a desire for a searchable, compact format that was robust and widely usable across platforms. In 2005, an ISO standard based on the PDF format started to write a new chapter in the history of digital archiving of documents: PDF/A. In this blog post, I am writing about how system-independent archiving of pro

Blogs

Dec 5, 2018 News

Dietrich von Seggern

Digital personnel records for eternity

Numerous directives and laws state that employee records must be maintained for many years after an employee leaves the company. How can companies ensure that the documents are still accessible? Do companies want to keep this data online for 5 years? One possibility is to store the documents in PDF/A format, the ISO standard for long-term archiving. How long the contents of personnel files must be stored varies, depending on various factors like company policy or country's laws. In some cases, i

Blogs

Nov 7, 2018 News

Stephan Jaeggi

How PDF changed prepress production dramatically in the last 25 years

In the early 1990s, Desktop Publishing (DTP) technology had superseded the proprietary typesetting and image processing systems of the eighties. Because of the relatively low investment and the ease-of-use of the new technology, a new division of work became possible. Ad agencies, graphic designers and even print customers started to create print layouts on their own. Eventually these pages needed to be transferred to the print shop. At the beginning, imaging service bureaus which imaged the pag

Blogs

Oct 24, 2018 News

David van Driessche

Watch this video!

How can you learn the most about our software? Well, the obvious answer would be the Online Documentation of course; we have an Online Documentation website where you find lots of background information about the products and their features. But there’s another source you should know about, as it will teach you things you won’t easily find in the Online Documentation. Every year, callas answers about 1500 support questions. These questions deal with everything: problems with licenses, activation

Blogs

Oct 10, 2018 News

Akash Choudhary

A tour of the PDF standards

Everybody whose occupation is related to a business process that relies on a subset standard will know it: somebody working in prepress will know PDF/X as an archivist knows PDF/A. But for PDF professionals, it also makes senses to know something about other subset standards. One reason could be that it is technically not complicated to create PDF files that comply with more than one standard (major portions of their text are exactly the same). Therefore, we wrote this article with a short descr

Blogs

Sep 5, 2018 News

Akash Choudhary

Archive e-mails system-independently with PDF/A

E-mails are increasingly replacing paper mail and are therefore an integral part of processes. So, it might be interesting to do e-mail archiving as their content must be retained for years. Furthermore, there are more good reasons for e-mail archiving. If e-mails and their attachments are structured in the same way as all other documents and stored in a uniform format, this facilitates the comprehensive information search. However, e-mails are often - if at all - stored in proprietary formats.

Blogs

Aug 16, 2018 News

Olaf Druemmer

Entirely barrier-free: PDF/UA in the Banking Industry

Increasingly, information is only offered and passed on in digital form, whereby the reliable and user-friendly Portable Document Format (PDF) has established itself worldwide as the preferred file format. To ensure unrestricted access in every respect, PDF files must meet certain requirements. These are defined in PDF/UA as the ISO standard for accessible PDF documents. It ensures that even people with greatly diminished vision, insufficient command of written language or physical limitations c

Blogs

Aug 1, 2018 News

Dietrich von Seggern

Does PDF 2.0 have any effect on PDF/A?

PDF 2.0 (ISO 32000-2) has been available as a new standard since August 2017. The result of almost ten years of work by about 30 experts from all over the world is the first PDF specification that has been completely developed within the ISO. Important sections, for example digital signatures, metadata and tagged PDF, have been completely revised. The enormous effort involved in creating PDF 2.0 and the numerous practical tips that have been taken into account are also proof of the importance th

Blogs

Jul 18, 2018 News

Akash Choudhary

Complex projects become compact files - Mapping document structures with PDF/A-3

PDF/A-3 is a powerful tool for mapping projects and document structures and also for converting work documents into archive documents. Compared to PDF/A-1 and PDF/A-2, which are nonetheless valid, this standard part is characterized by the fact that any file formats can be embedded. Even those that are not PDF/A-compliant, i.e. long-term archivable. On the one hand, this involves risks, since the archivability of embedded files can only be partially checked. On the other hand, companies can adap

Blogs

Jul 4, 2018 News