Configure PDF Output

Note

All settings (except PDF/UA Compliant) are relevant to EMF-based PDF output and rich-text-based PDF output.

PDF/UA Compliant is relevant only to EMF-based PDF output and is available in Lasernet 10.11 and later.

Note

Lasernet generates PDF v1.7 documents.

Settings

The PDF Output has the following settings.

PDF/A Compliant

PDF/A is a PDF format typically used for the long-term archiving of electronic documents. Fonts and color profiles will be embedded in the PDF file.

PDF/UA Compliant

PDF/UA stands for Portable Document Format / Universal Accessibility. PDF/UA-compliant documents make their content readable by assistive technologies (such as screen readers), so that a computer can read it aloud to the user. In some areas, local laws require that generated PDF documents are accessible in this way.

Assistive technologies are able to do this because the significant and decorative content in PDF/UA documents is semantically tagged. Significant content, such as line item data, carries information and is meaningful. As a result, it is content that the user must hear. Decorative content, such as drawn shapes, is not meaningful.

Within the PDF document, the semantic tags for significant content form a structure tree that describes the order and hierarchy of the information content within the document. This structure tree enables a screen reader to understand what document content to read, and the correct order to read it in.

PDF/UA-compliant documents also provide “alt text” for each significant image. This is text that describes the image. A screen reader will read this alt text in place of the image.

Important

PDF/UA compliance for Lasernet is being developed in an iterative way; Lasernet 10.11 is the first step of that process. As a result, the PDF/UA functionality in Lasernet 10.11 does not deliver full compliance with PDF/UA. However, this functionality is provided to enable wider testing and feedback, which will help us with our continuous improvement program to increase compliance in subsequent releases.

Enable Lasernet to Generate PDF/UA Documents

To enable the generation of PDF/UA-compliant documents, follow these steps:

1. On the PDF tab of the Sheet Options window, select PDF/UA Compliant.

2. Enter a Title for the PDF document.

3. Enter an Author for the PDF document.

4. Enter a Subject for the PDF document.

5. Enter a Language for the PDF document. This can be a language code (for example, en) or a locale code (for example, en-US).

6. Click Ok.

After you deploy the configuration to a Lasernet server, that server will generate PDF/UA documents. When processing a job, the PDFUaStructureTree JobInfo contains JSON that describes the structure tree.

Note

The Preview function within Lasernet Form Editor does not generate PDF/UA documents. To generate a PDF/UA document, you must send a job to a Lasernet server that is running an appropriate configuration.

What Does Lasernet Add to PDF/UA Documents?

Lasernet adds tags and alt text to documents.

Tags

As described above, Lasernet tags content within the PDF document. The tags for significant content form a sequence within the PDF/UA document’s structure tree and, where relevant, are nested to create a hierarchy.

The structure tree’s root tag is <Document>. Lasernet applies the following tags to PDF content, and then adds the tagged content to the structure tree:

• <Sect> groups absolute rearranges.

  • <P> around absolute rearranges.

  • <P> around text.

• <Sect> represents conditional areas and contains the following tags:

  • A <Div> for each line item in a pattern, which can contain:

    • <P> around rearranges.

    • <P> around text.

• <Figure> around barcodes, images, and charts.

The order in which Lasernet renders patterns in the PDF determines the order in which elements are added to the structure, and consequently (to some extent) the reading order.

Decorative content is tagged as <Artifact> and is not included in the structure tree.

Alt Text

To make images accessible, you can add alt text to them. This alt text is added to the relevant element in the PDF/UA document’s structure tree.

For information about how to add alt text to images, see the Alt Text section of What Do I Need to Do When Designing a Form?

What Do I Need to Do When Designing a Form?

When designing a form, you can modify the reading order of items in the form design and you can add alt text to images.

Modify Reading Order

To ensure that the semantic content tags in the structure tree are appropriately ordered, you can alter the Reading order value for rearranges, text labels, images, charts, and barcodes.

For any of these items in the form design, double-click the item in the Form Editor design area to open its properties window (for example, the Edit Rearrange window). On the PDF/UA tab, change the Reading order value. Lasernet compares the Reading order of each item to determine the relative order of the corresponding elements in the structure tree.

Each item has a default Reading order of 100. It is recommended that you apply distinct and appropriately separated values to items, to correctly order them and to provide space for inserting new items into the ordering. For example, if the form contains four rearranges, you could give them Reading order values of 150, 160, 170, and 180, respectively. This would appropriately order the items, and it would also enable you to add a new item and order it fourth in the sequence by giving it a Reading order value of 175.

Alt Text

To make images accessible, you can add alt text to them:

1. In the form design area of the Form Editor, double-click the image.

2. On the PDF/UA tab of the Edit Image window, enter the alt text in the Alt Text box.

3. Click Ok.

   

Limitations

The current PDF/UA feature has the following limitations:

• XHTML that is read from the input file and rendered directly into the output document is omitted from the structure tree.

• A conditional area that spans multiple pages is split and described by multiple structure tree elements (rather than only one).

• Text and rearranges that are in the form design footer (so that they appear below the line items in the PDF) occur in the structure tree order before the conditional rearranges that represent those line items. This happens because they are included in the <Sect> tag that groups all absolute rearranges (regardless of their position in the form design).

• ActualText attributes are not supported.

• Manually setting tag types is not supported.

• Tables are ignored. The data within the table is included in the structure tree, but it is not semantically described as a table.

• Overlays are ignored and their use should be avoided.

• Splitting or combining PDF/UA documents is not supported.

• It is not possible to add alt text to images that are inserted by scripting code.

• PDF/UA support applies only to documents whose underlying format in Lasernet is EMF. PDF/UA support for RTF-based PDF documents is not available.

• PDF/UA is not compatible with the features available on the PDF Security tab of the Sheet Options window.

Multi Language Support

By default, the PDF format includes a 7-bit ASCII characters only. Multi-language support must be activated to support and embed additional characters and fonts.

Embed Fonts

Determines what fonts are embedded in the PDF file. Font embedding is used to assure correct output on other client computers.

Title, Author, Subject and Keywords

These fields provide the descriptions that will be included in the document properties of the generated PDF file.

Image Compression

Three Compression options and a JPEG Quality value (default 80%) are available for compressing images:

PDF/A-3 - Tunneling Attachment(s) into PDF

The PDF output has a support for PDF/A-3 (ISO 19005-3:2012, PDF1.7). It allows embedding the previous sheets (such as XML, CSV, EDI, PDF, TIFF, XHTML) into documents that conform to PDF/A standards, plus additional PDFA schemas in a metadata section.

Embedding files in a PDF requires a set of JobInfos per file to be defined before PDF creation.

Any number of files can be embedded by creating an array of the JobInfos described above. The files are embedded at the PDF document level (it is currently not possible to embed files per page).

It is possible to embed files when using regular PDFs and PDF/As. If PDF/A is enabled, Lasernet will generate PDF/A-3B instead of PDF/A-1B.

Embedding PDF/A Extension Schemas and additional metadata elements to a PDF/A.

Additional PDF/A Extension Schemas and additional XMP Metadata can be embedded in the PDF. Certain formats, such as ZUGFeRD, used for electronic invoicing in Germany, require both features.

The PDFEmbedPDFAExtensionSchema JobInfo is used for PDF/A Extension Schemas. Any number of schemas can be embedded by creating an array. Each entry must be valid XML.

The PDFEmbedAdditionalMetadataElement JobInfo allows you to embed any number of additional XML metadata elements in the PDF by creating an array. Each entry must be valid XML.

XMP Metadata (and PDF/A extension schemas) are only included in the PDF when using PDF/A.

PDF Security

The PDF security features enable you to set PDF protection to prevent others from changing content, printing, copying content, adding notes, modifying form fields, or signing.

Note

PDF security features are not compatible with the PDF/UA Compliant option on the PDF tab.

Encrypt

PDF encryption allows you to secure the contents of your PDF with a password. It also allows you to define which operations will be allowed by the user reading the PDF.

The user and owner password created for the PDF document can be overwritten at runtime by setting the following JobInfos:

• PDFOwnerPassword

• PDFUserPassword

Note

Encryption is not allowed when working with PDF/A (ISO 19005-1-2005).

Algorithm choice

The following algorithms can be used to encrypt the PDF. Each algorithm has its own advantages and disadvantages, which should be taken into consideration when deciding which one to use.

Passwords

Two passwords are defined when enabling encryption. The user password is the password that must be supplied to the recipient of the PDF. When opening the PDF with the user password, the restrictions defined in the document permissions are enforced.

Opening the PDF with the owner password overrides any document restrictions. You will also be able to change the operations allowed by the recipient.

If the user password and the owner password are the same, the user password has priority, which means you will not be able to circumvent the restrictions defined in the document permissions.

Permissions

You can define which actions will be allowed when opening the encrypted PDF with the user password. This allows you to prevent the document from being modified, printed or copied from.

Sign

By signing your PDF using a digital certificate, you enable the recipient to verify the origin and the integrity of the document so that they can be certain the document came from your organization and has not been changed since it was created. Digital signatures are supported from PDF 1.3 (Acrobat Reader 4.0) and are allowed in PDF/A.

Certificate

To sign the PDF using a digital signature, you must have a valid and appropriate certificate installed for the user account that the Lasernet service is running under.

Reason

The Reason field allows you to enter a text string that will be displayed when viewing the signed PDF. This provides a visual representation of the signature to the user. You can select text and background color for the text field.

Location

The physical location where the signature is added, for example, “Zurich, Switzerland”. If this property is set to an empty string, no entry is created.

Timestamp

By signing your PDF with a timestamp provided by a trusted source, you can make sure that the PDF will still show a valid signature after your certificate expires. If you choose not to timestamp your PDF, the recipient will receive a warning that the certificate used to sign the PDF has expired.