PDF::API3::Compat::API2::HOWTO - A basic set of guidelines to use PDF::API3::Compat::API2.

Coordinates and Units
Transformations

Colors
R-G-B C-M-Y-K H-S-V

A Hello World.
$pdf = PDF::API3::Compat::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;

Adobe Reader & Acrobat (Windows)
The Acrobat/Adobe Reader will open and print files created with PDF::API3::Compat::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::API3::Compat::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::API3::Compat::API2 created pdfs. PDF::API3::Compat::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::API3::Compat::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::API3::Compat::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::API3::Compat::API2 does use as default.

Jaws PDF
Some versions of this software (5D PDF Creator) create pdfs not consumable by PDF::API3::Compat::API2 (if you just need a pdf-printer driver use FreePDF).

Omnipage
PDF::API3::Compat::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::API3::Compat::API2 versions prior to 0.40_xx had a bug that screws up colorspaces of indexed images during import/save. $Log: HOWTO.pod,v $ Revision 2.0 2005/11/16 02:16:00 areibens revision workaround for SF cvs import not to screw up CPAN Revision 1.2 2005/11/16 01:27:48 areibens genesis2 Revision 1.1 2005/11/16 01:19:24 areibens genesis 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