RealObjects PDFreactor 10 Released

The leading HTML to PDF conversion engine just got better: PDFreactor 10 is now available.

PDFreactor 10 is a major upgrade with great new features, fixes and improvements such as:

  • Segmentation functionality enables you to create documents with many thousands of pages with little memory impact
  • Highly optimized table mode drastically reduces the amount of time and memory required to convert large uniform tables, even with millions of rows
  • Color space conversion for CSS colors and images, configurable via the API
  • Support for typographic font families, including the CSS property “font-stretch” and numerical “font-weight” values
  • CSS page groups, including the ability to select the first pages of chapters
  • Optional validation of created PDF/A documents
  • Completely revised flex-box layout, resulting in significantly improved standard compliance and browser-like behavior as well as better handling of many edge-cases and pagination
  • Greatly enhanced JavaScript support and compatibility
  • Improved debug mode

For more information about PDFreactor 10, please visit www.pdfreactor.com. Make sure to check out the samples, highlighting the new features.

For a full list of changes and corrections see the changelog.

Important release notes und upgrading information can be found in the readme.

Important!

PDFreactor Web Service users: Please refer to the migration guide before updating to PDFreactor 10, as the installation process may overwrite settings.

Upgrading to PDFreactor 10

The new version is a free upgrade for all PDFreactor customers with a valid support and maintenance subscription. A version 10 license key is required and should be requested at support@realobjects.com or here. PDFreactor 10 will not work with PDFreactor 9 or older license keys.

If you do not have a valid support and maintenance subscription, please contact support@realobjects.com to purchase an upgrade.

When upgrading to PDFreactor 10, you might have to update your integration code or documents since there have been some changes in the PDFreactor APIs. Please make sure to consult our migration guide.

For more information about PDFreactor 10, please visit www.pdfreactor.com. If you have any questions about PDFreactor 10, please don’t hesitate to contact support@realobjects.com.

RealObjects PDFreactor + Pimcore simplifies typeset-quality gardening product catalog production

Windhager stands for competence, creative, market-oriented product innovations in the field of insect stops, pest control, gardening accessories as well as sun and privacy screens. Their products encourage the beauty and natural diversity of gardens and increase economic yields. Windhager products also contribute to a more comfortable life around the house and on the patio. Established in 1983 and headquartered in Thalgau, Austria, Windhager Groups’ 250+ employees assure 80+ million turnover p.a. within 25 European countries.

Realization

The leading system for article data is an ERP system (self-developed), which is connected via web services to the PIM system (Pimcore). Digital assets are stored in an external DAM database (CELUM). All marketing titles and texts are entered, translated and stored in Pimcore, pictures and videos in CELUM, but they are synchronized between CELUM and Pimcore so that every digital asset is available in Pimcore.

Every catalogue is realized with the Pimcore module “Web-to-Print”, which is integrated in the Pimcore suite and allows the marketing team to create a catalogue, every chapter and subchapter and add all relevant products to the catalogue. Windhager decided to add every product manually via a search menu and exclude every variant which is deprecated automatically. When creating new catalogues marketing can copy an old catalogue and needs to add only new items manually.

Read more

About RealObjects

RealObjects (www.realobjects.com), founded in 2000, provides W3C standard-compliant, cross platform software tools for electronic publishing, content authoring and web-to-print.

Its W3C standards-based publishing solution PDFreactor is an industry-recognized flagship product, which is used for server-side conversion of HTML to PDF whenever electronic and typeset-quality print output of business content is required. It is the perfect printing component for web applications, incl. database publishing, web-to-print, PIM, DMS, MDM, DAM, WCMS, VDP etc.

RealObjects products are used by about 3000 corporate customers in over 40 countries, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, educational institutions as well as government and nonprofit organizations. Several OEM and VAR partners as well as major accounts have deeply integrated RealObjects technology into their toolsets and solutions.

RealObjects PDFreactor + Pimcore enable print-ready price lists via B2B/B2C sales tool for global distribution network

mafi is an international natural wood flooring brand, standing for a family-owned business that was founded more than 100 years ago, producing innovative products for kitchens, baths, living rooms as well as commercial projects exclusively in Austria. mafi Naturholzboden GmbH also offers several additional solutions such as stairs, skirting, as well as care and installation materials. Their tailor-made products are sold in more than 50 countries, achieving a turnover of about 22 million EUR in 2017.

Achievements

All product, sales and marketing information is structured and consolidated from 3rd party systems. A central master data management process feeds all relevant IT systems, such as PIM, CMS, DAM and e-commerce and keeps track of all changes. The mafi B2B/B2C e-commerce portal and related price list production retrieves data for thousands of different product variants from those systems.

Using PDFreactor as plug-in within Pimcore enables mafi to easily and quickly update price lists, maintaining consistent layout standards without having design and typesetting costs. Cost reduction in the five-digit range, considerable time-savings as well as constant performance have been achieved.

Web-to-print

The fully automatic database publishing is done based on the consolidated master data. The generated print-ready price lists generated with PDFreactor serve as a basis for all mafi stores and distribution partners in more than 50 countries, covering: 17 different price lists, 9.000 product variants, 5 languages, 6 currencies, 10 different units.

Print-ready PDFs are created directly within the Pimcore system using PDFreactor as plug-in. When rendering, the print is first rendered to HTML and then rendered to PDF. PDF rendering itself is done by PDFreactor, which comes with an out-of-the box feature to add (technically done by an additional CSS-file) printer marks to the PDF.

Read more

About RealObjects

RealObjects (www.realobjects.com), founded in 2000, provides W3C standard-compliant, cross platform software tools for electronic publishing, content authoring and web-to-print.

Its W3C standards-based publishing solution PDFreactor is an industry-recognized flagship product, which is used for server-side conversion of HTML to PDF whenever electronic and typeset-quality print output of business content is required. It is the perfect printing component for web applications, incl. database publishing, web-to-print, PIM, DMS, MDM, DAM, WCMS, VDP etc.

RealObjects products are used by about 3000 corporate customers in over 40 countries, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, educational institutions as well as government and nonprofit organizations. Several OEM and VAR partners as well as major accounts have deeply integrated RealObjects technology into their toolsets and solutions.

RealObjects and 4D Concept Announce OEM Partnership

RealObjects continues to establish its HTML to PDF converter PDFreactor as the leading printing component for web applications

SAARBRÜCKEN, Germany & MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France

RealObjects and 4D Concept announced an OEM partnership, which enables 4D Concept to bundle RealObjects’ HTML to PDF printing tool PDFreactor with its ADAM Software Suite in order to enhance publishing and distributing of technical documentation. The ADAM software suite consists of various modules for authoring, managing, viewing and publishing all types of source content. PDFreactor will simplify and streamline the process of multichannel publishing and leverages 4D Concept’s solution.

Yves Mangili, CEO of 4D Concept, said, “We are very pleased to announce our partnership with RealObjects. For us, this is not only a step towards making our solutions more user-friendly than ever, but also the beginning of a closer partnership between our two companies. We want to regularly improve our software in order to create even more synergy between our products. We hope our customers will be as excited by this announcement as we are!”

The 4D Concept partnership is another example of RealObjects efforts to tie-up with leading software companies through its international partner program. Under this initiative, RealObjects has signed OEM agreements with recognized software leaders. These alliances target industries such as financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and solution segments including database publishing, web-to-print, product information and content management. The goal is to provide software companies with an easy-to-integrate, web standard compliant and powerful tool for print and electronic publishing.

About RealObjects

RealObjects (www.realobjects.com), founded in 2000, provides W3C standard-compliant, cross platform software tools for electronic publishing, content authoring and web-to-print.

Its W3C standards-based publishing solution PDFreactor is an industry-recognized flagship product, which is used for server-side conversion of HTML to PDF whenever electronic and typeset-quality print output of business content is required. It is the perfect printing component for web applications, incl. database publishing, web-to-print, PIM, DMS, MDM, DAM, WCMS, VDP etc.

RealObjects products are used by about 3000 corporate customers in over 40 countries, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, educational institutions as well as government and nonprofit organizations. Several OEM and VAR partners as well as major accounts have deeply integrated RealObjects technology into their toolsets and solutions.

About 4D Concept

4D Concept (www.4dconcept.fr), established in 1989, is a player in documentation engineering in France. They develop content management solutions that allow clients to produce, capitalize, organize and publish cross-media information through XML technologies.

Their flagship is the innovative and powerful ADAM Software Suite, which enhances publishing and distributing of technical documentation. 4D Concept has more than 100 references around the world, 3 software packages, more than 15 solutions and services, 10 training courses, more than 20 partners and more than 100 projects all over France and around the world.

Contact:
Michael Jung
RealObjects, Managing Director
michael.jung@realobjects.com
Tel. +49 681 985 790

RealObjects PDFreactor 9.1 Released

The leading HTML to PDF conversion engine just got even better: PDFreactor 9.1 is now available.

PDFreactor 9.1 is a minor update with great new features and improvements:

  • It is now possible to change the resolution and compression of images embedded into PDFs using proprietary CSS properties.
  • Improved CSS support (CSS Custom Properties for Cascading Variables, @supports, validation,…)
  • Improved JavaScript support (Maps, Sets, WeakMaps and WeakSets, more browser-like behavior and better compatibility with libraries, …)

For a full list of changes and corrections see the changelog.

Important release notes und upgrading information can be found in the readme.

The PDFreactor 9.1 installation packages are available for download in the download area.

RealObjects Support Portal

Recently we also launched our new RealObjects Support Portal, which you can find at https://support.realobjects.com

The Support Portal integrates a regularly updated knowledge database and a ticket system. It will give our customers easier access to our tech support resources and a better insight into the lifecycle and history of their support tickets.

The benefits of the new portal include:

  • A constantly growing knowledge base covering frequently asked questions about PDFreactor – and soon also including Nimbudocs Editor.
  • Register your own Support Portal account and get an overview of the status of your support tickets, including your ticket history.
  • Easily upload files related to your tickets.
  • Automated ticket escalation based on our SLA.

We recommend using our new Support Portal for all technical support questions and issues to ensure swift processing of your tickets. Please submit your new tickets here: https://support.realobjects.com/support/tickets/new

You will have the option to create an account in our Support Portal at any time – no account is required to create a ticket, but some Portal features such as ticket overview and history are only available for users with an account.

If you have any questions regarding the new PDFreactor 9.1 release or the new RealObjects Support Portal, please get in touch with us.

Accessibility Foundation uses PDFreactor for accessible reporting

The Accessibility Foundation is the knowledge center on digital accessibility in the Netherlands. In Europe, they are an important provider of expertise in the digital accessibility domain and active in many European and local projects. They research, test and develop accessibility solutions. Accessibility Foundation provides support, consultancy and accessibility audit services for websites and apps.

The Accessibility Foundation supports their customers to make their websites and apps accessible. This is done by performing accessibility audits on websites or mobile apps. The resulting reports are presented in an accessible PDF document. By integrating PDFreactor they have an automated workflow to generate well-formed accessible PDF/UA documents from their own datasets. Because the input is clean HTML, it is easy to add additional documents without having to change the way the PDF generation is carried out.

PDFreactor was the only tool Accessibility Foundation could find that was able to reliably and consistently convert HTML documents into accessible and well-formed PDF/UA documents. Using the online documentation and RealObjects’ helpful support people, it was quite easy to set up a working document. And because the command-line tool has lots of features, it wasn’t even needed to write any code for the conversion process.

Please also read the related case study.

About the Accessibility Foundation

The Accessibility Foundation is the knowledge center on digital accessibility in the Netherlands. In Europe, they are an important provider of expertise in the digital accessibility domain and active in many European and local projects. They research, test and develop accessibility solutions. Accessibility Foundation provides support, consultancy and accessibility audit services for websites and apps.

They are involved in the development of international standards on digital accessibility. Accessibility Foundation works for large organizations like the Dutch Government, banking and insurance industry, online retail companies, public transport organizations and many others.

About RealObjects

Headquartered in Saarbrücken, Germany, RealObjects provides W3C standard-compliant, cross-platform software tools for electronic publishing, content authoring and web-to-print.

The company ranks as a pioneering developer of easy-to-use, affordable and quick-to-deploy online HTML editor solutions, which enable content authoring in web- and Java-based applications. The latest Nimbudocs Editor is the perfect editing component for cloud and web applications. It provides real-time collaborative WYSIWYG editing functionality with PDF preview & export and easily turns cloud or web applications into live document services. As a professional online document editor it is a perfect fit for web-to-print solutions and seamlessly integrates with a wide range of workflows and production platforms.

RealObjects’ W3C standards-based publishing solution PDFreactor is another industry-recognized flagship product, which is used for server-side conversion of HTML to PDF whenever electronic and typeset-quality print output of business content is required. It is the perfect printing component for web applications, incl. database publishing, web-to-print, PIM, DMS, MDM, WCMS, VDP etc.

All current RealObjects products emerged from Project MARTHA, an integrated application frame-work that enables enterprise developers to create powerful HTML and XML editing as well as rendering applications in pure Java.

Founded in May 2000, the privately held and self-funded software company has about 3000 corporate customers in over 40 countries, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, educational institutions as well as government and non-profit organizations. A network of strategic business alliances, resellers and OEM partners or customers has been established over the years.

Contact:

Michael Jung
RealObjects, Managing Director
michael.jung@realobjects.com
Tel. +49 681 985 790

EDGE Learning Media integrates PDFreactor into Content Management System

EDGE Learning Media is a leading provider of learning material. They believe in creating effective and efficient content, and enriching learning experiences. EDGE Learning Media has a national footprint, which is testament to the hard work done to establish meaningful relationships in education and industry. It is also testament to EDGE’s reputation for developing clients’ enriched learning experiences on time and to budget.

In order to streamline its process and ensure that the same quality content available in its books is provided through a variety of online channels, EDGE embarked on a project to digitize all its content. From textbooks to concept videos to multiple choice questions to case studies, all content was moved from a variety of formats and software packages into a centralized Content Management System.

After significant research, PDFreactor was selected to provide the backbone for this extraction process, thanks to its proven reliability and accuracy in rendering a variety of content. Integrating PDFreactor into the CMS and publishing process has enabled EDGE Learning Media to produce high quality print ready PDFs. Incorporating all the complexity of publishing textbooks, from images and graphs to complex accounting tables has been achieved under the watchful and detailed eye of experienced typesetters.

Please also read the related case study.

About EDGE Learning Media

EDGE Learning Media is a leading provider of learning material. They have pioneered the integration of offline and online learning platforms. EDGE Learning Media believes in the power of education to improve individuals’ lives, and to improve the community at large. Students deserve high-quality, innovative and professional learning media. Their material is developed by dedicated staff, who bring subject expertise, academic integrity and technical skill to bespoke projects.

About RealObjects

Headquartered in Saarbrücken, Germany, RealObjects provides W3C standard-compliant, cross-platform software tools for electronic publishing, content authoring and web-to-print.

The company ranks as a pioneering developer of easy-to-use, affordable and quick-to-deploy online HTML editor solutions, which enable content authoring in web- and Java-based applications. The latest Nimbudocs Editor is the perfect editing component for cloud and web applications. It provides real-time collaborative WYSIWYG editing functionality with PDF preview & export and easily turns cloud or web applications into live document services. As a professional online document editor it is a perfect fit for web-to-print solutions and seamlessly integrates with a wide range of workflows and production platforms.

RealObjects’ W3C standards-based publishing solution PDFreactor is another industry-recognized flagship product, which is used for server-side conversion of HTML to PDF whenever electronic and typeset-quality print output of business content is required. It is the perfect printing component for web applications, incl. database publishing, web-to-print, PIM, DMS, MDM, WCMS, VDP etc.

All current RealObjects products emerged from Project MARTHA, an integrated application frame-work that enables enterprise developers to create powerful HTML and XML editing as well as rendering applications in pure Java.

Founded in May 2000, the privately held and self-funded software company has about 3000 corporate customers in over 40 countries, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, educational institutions as well as government and non-profit organizations. A network of strategic business alliances, resellers and OEM partners or customers has been established over the years.

Contact:

Michael Jung
RealObjects, Managing Director
michael.jung@realobjects.com
Tel. +49 681 985 790

RealObjects PDFreactor 9 Released

The leading HTML to PDF conversion engine just got even better: PDFreactor 9 is now available.

PDFreactor 9 is a major upgrade with great new features and improvements:

  • Flexible Box Layout (experimental)
  • PDFreactor now supports the following CSS(3) features:
    • box-shadow
    • text-shadow
    • filter
    • “blank”, “recto”, “verso” page pseudo classes
    • opacity
    • word-spacing
  • Web service improvements
    • RESTful monitoring API
    • Support for callback URLs for events during conversion
    • Support for configurable API keys to authenticate clients
    • Support for zipped asset packages containing the input document an its resources
  • Improved JavaScript support.
  • Raster Image Output can now be configured to output grayscale images.
  • PDFreactor now supports “systemd” in Linux installer

For more information about PDFreactor 9, please visit www.pdfreactor.com. Make sure to check out the samples, highlighting the new features.

For a full list of changes and corrections see the changelog.

Important release notes und upgrading information can be found in the readme.

The PDFreactor 9 installation packages are available for download in the download area.

Upgrading to PDFreactor 9

The new version is a free upgrade for all PDFreactor customers with a valid support and maintenance subscription. A version 9 license key is required and should be requested at support@realobjects.com or here. PDFreactor 9 will not work with PDFreactor 8 or older license keys.

If you do not have a valid support and maintenance subscription, please contact support@realobjects.com to purchase an upgrade.

When upgrading to PDFreactor 9, you might have to update your integration code or documents. Please make sure to consult our migration guide.

AdvancED® Integrates PDFreactor into eProve™ School Improvement Platform

AdvancED is the largest community of education professionals in the world. They are a non-profit, non-partisan organization that conducts rigorous, on-site external reviews of Pre-K-12 schools and school systems to ensure that all learners realize their full potential.

Most recently, AdvancED introduced the next generation school improvement platform – eProve™. The eProve platform is comprised of several applications that use common platform RESTful APIs and services for various functional areas, PDF generation being one of these common services used by each application for its PDF reporting needs.

One of the key features of the eProve product offering is the ability to generate rich and visually appealing PDF reports. Previously, the PDF generation layer used iText, a popular Java PDF library, for programmatic construction of PDF documents. One of the drawbacks of this library had been the inability to customize and enrich PDF output without having to write custom Java code for each customization, which has proven effort and resource intensive.

A new, flexible and feature-rich PDF solution was needed, and after careful analysis and testing of several leading products, the decision was made to use PDFreactor, the market-leading product featuring advanced customization and cutting-edge visual design capabilities. PDFreactor has allowed AdvancED to take its PDF reports, a critical customer-facing feature, to the next level of freedom with modern visual design and flexibility.

Please also read the related case study.

About AdvancED

AdvancED is the largest community of education professionals in the world. They are a non-profit, non-partisan organization that conducts rigorous, on-site external reviews of Pre-K-12 schools and school systems to ensure that all learners realize their full potential. While their expertise is grounded in more than a hundred years of work in school accreditation, AdvancED is far from a typical accrediting agency. Their goal isn’t to certify that schools are good enough. Rather, their commitment is to help schools improve.

Combining the knowledge and expertise of a research institute, the skills of a management consulting firm and the passion of a grassroots movement for educational change, they serve as a trusted partner to 34,000 schools and school systems—employing more than four million educators and enrolling more than 20 million students—across the United States and 70 other nations.

About RealObjects

Headquartered in Saarbrücken, Germany, RealObjects provides standards-based, cross-platform software solutions for both electronic publishing as well as content authoring.

The company ranks as a pioneering developer of easy-to-use, affordable and quick-to-deploy online HTML editor solutions, which enable content authoring in Web- and Java-based applications. They are a perfect fit for Content Management, Knowledge Management and e-Learning systems.

RealObjects’ W3C standards-based publishing solution PDFreactor is another industry-recognized flagship product, which is used for server-side conversion of HTML and XML to PDF whenever electronic and print output of business content in typeset-quality is required. The latest RealObjects products emerged from Project MARTHA, an integrated application framework that enables enterprise developers to create powerful HTML and XML editing and rendering applications in pure Java.

Founded in May 2000, the privately held and self-funded software company has more than 2500 corporate customers in over 40 countries, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, educational institutions as well as government and non-profit organizations. A strong network of key business alliances, resellers and OEM partners has been established.

Contact:

Michael Jung
RealObjects, Managing Director
michael.jung@realobjects.com
Tel. +49 681 985 790

ReviewPro Integrates PDFreactor® for Client Reporting

ReviewPro is the leading provider of Guest Intelligence solutions to independent hotel brands worldwide. Their suite of cloud-based solutions includes Online Reputation Management (ORM) and the Guest Survey Solution (GSS), which enable clients to obtain a deeper understanding of reputation performance as well as operational/service strengths and weaknesses. More than 25,000 hotel brands worldwide are currently using ReviewPro’s solutions.

At ReviewPro they provide their clients with the most relevant and insightful information delivered in the most actionable way possible. Downloadable reports, in both excel and PDF, are a vital component in how their clients manage their guest satisfaction, teams, tasks, day-to-day activities, and organizational and management meetings.

A static reporting solution was not an option for ReviewPro, and their challenge was to provide a dynamic reporting solution across their platform that would give their clients the customized information they needed, in the simplest and most efficient way possible. It had to be a scalable solution that they could implement across both existing and new functionality.

After comparing various options, their engineering and product teams selected PDFreactor as the product most suited to their use case. PDFreactor allows their clients to get real-time reports that are completely customizable to their role and informational needs. When their users are in the ReviewPro tool they are able to customize their view of the information on screen, and PDFreactor allows them to then immediately translate this into a printable and sharable PDF report.

Please also read the related case study.

About ReviewPro

ReviewPro is the leading provider of Guest Intelligence solutions to independent hotel brands worldwide. Their suite of cloud-based solutions includes Online Reputation Management (ORM) and the Guest Survey Solution (GSS), which enable clients to obtain a deeper understanding of reputation performance as well as operational/service strengths and weaknesses. They provide actionable insight to increase guest satisfaction, rankings on review sites/OTAs and ultimately revenue.

They offer the industry-standard Global Review Index™ (GRI), an online reputation score, which is used by thousands of hotels worldwide as a benchmark for reputation management efforts, based on review data collected from 175 OTAs and review sites in over 45 languages. More than 25,000 hotel brands worldwide are currently using ReviewPro’s solutions.

About RealObjects

Headquartered in Saarbrücken, Germany, RealObjects provides standards-based, cross-platform software solutions for both electronic publishing as well as content authoring.

The company ranks as a pioneering developer of easy-to-use, affordable and quick-to-deploy online HTML editor solutions, which enable content authoring in Web- and Java-based applications. They are a perfect fit for Content Management, Knowledge Management and e-Learning systems.

RealObjects’ W3C standards-based publishing solution PDFreactor is another industry-recognized flagship product, which is used for server-side conversion of HTML and XML to PDF whenever electronic and print output of business content in typeset-quality is required. The latest RealObjects products emerged from Project MARTHA, an integrated application framework that enables enterprise developers to create powerful HTML and XML editing and rendering applications in pure Java.

Founded in May 2000, the privately held and self-funded software company has more than 2500 corporate customers in over 40 countries, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises, educational institutions as well as government and non-profit organizations. A strong network of key business alliances, resellers and OEM partners has been established.

Contact:

Michael Jung
RealObjects, Managing Director
michael.jung@realobjects.com
Tel. +49 681 985 790