NAME
PDF::API2::HOWTO - A basic set of guidelines to use PDF::API2.
THEORY
Coordinates and Units
Transformations
Colors
R-G-B
C-M-Y-K
H-S-V
THE BASIC DOCUMENT
A Hello World.
$pdf = PDF::API2->new;
#
$fnt = $pdf->corefont('Helvetica-Bold');
#
$page = $pdf->page;
$page->mediabox('A4');
#
$gfx = $page->gfx;
$gfx->textlabel(200,700,$fnt,20,'Hello World !');
#
$pdf->saveas('/this/new/document.pdf');
$pdf->end;FONTS AND TYPESETTING
INTEROPERABLILITIES
Adobe Reader & Acrobat (Windows)
The Acrobat/Adobe Reader will open and print files created with PDF::API2, but sometimes Acrobat (Full Product) will be unable to edit/update them.
Adobe Reader (Linux)
Since the MS Core Fonts may not be available via X11, those corefonts may either look/print odd or may be entirely missing (dependent on installation).
Macromedia Freehand (Windows)
Any version of Freehand is unable to open files either created or updated by PDF::API2. Redestilled files do work, but embedded fonts are missing, which is probably bug in Freehand's pdf engine.
Ghostscript
Versions before 7.03 had problems reading PDF::API2 created pdfs.
PDF::API2 versions prior to 0.30_7x embedded Type1 Fonts not digestible by gs.
Redmon / FreePDF (Windows)
Since these are based on ghostscript, they can be used to redistill pdfs from and to PDF::API2.
Xpdf
Xpdf and tools need to be compiled with both freetype2 and libT1.
pdftops produces problematic ps-files if the pdf-file created via PDF::API2 contains embedded CFF (aka. Opentype) fonts.
pdftk
pdftk is a nice tool to pre/post-process pdf-files.
Version 0.91 does not support big-endian unicode metadata as PDF::API2 does use as default.
Jaws PDF
Some versions of this software (5D PDF Creator) create pdfs not consumable by PDF::API2 (if you just need a pdf-printer driver use FreePDF).
Omnipage
PDF::API2 versions prior to 0.40_17 had a bug that screws up omnipages unfortunate image name-keys and lzw-encoded page descriptions.
Open Office
PDF::API2 versions prior to 0.40_xx had a bug that screws up colorspaces of indexed images during import/save.
CHANGES
$Log: HOWTO.pod,v $
Revision 1.6 2005/03/14 22:01:05 fredo
upd 2005
Revision 1.5 2004/06/07 19:44:12 fredo
cleaned out cr+lf for lf
Revision 1.4 2004/02/22 23:45:25 fredo
added pdftk tool comment
Revision 1.3 2004/02/19 00:37:55 fredo
added interoperability section
Revision 1.2 2004/02/13 10:56:31 fredo
added hello world example
Revision 1.1 2003/12/08 22:42:19 Administrator
rudimentary skeleton