Creating Profiles

If you want to apply a number of Checks and/or Fixups to a document, it would be very time-consuming to perform each step individually. For these use cases, you should use Profiles. A Profile is a collection of any number of Checks and/or Fixups.

If the Profile contains both – Checks and Fixups – all Fixups are executed first. After modifying the document, pdfToolbox will run the Checks. This means that a Profile always executes the Fixups first and then the Checks.

The Profile window

pdfToolbox provides a wide range of Profiles from a number of different categories, including digital printing, prepress, PDF analysis, PDF Fixups and PDF standards.

  1. A number of predefined Profiles are supplied as standard. Clicking on an entry in the list will provide a short description of the Profile.
  2. The highlighted icon indicates we're in the Profile section of the Profiles window. 
  3. After clicking on the "Edit…" button the "Edit Profile" window will be opened. In this window you can adjust the predefined Profile.
  4. The "Analyze" button only does a quality control and will never change the PDF document: in the Profile you have selected, it will only execute the Checks. The "Analyze and fix" button also runs the Fixups of the selected Profile in addition to the Checks. The document may be modified in this case.
  5. Profiles can be created from scratch. The following section is a step-by-step description of how to create a new Profile.
  6. One or more profiles (multiple selection) can be assigned to another or a new group.
  7. It is possible to duplicate an existing Profile and alter specific elements as necessary.
  8. Profiles can be deleted. Either you delete only the Profile (all Checks and Fixups contained in it remain) or you delete the Profile together with all referenced Checks and Fixups.
  9. Profiles can also be exported and imported. This may be of interest if you need to forward or distribute them within your organization, or if you work with external partners. Bulk export Profiles: Allows you to export multiple profiles at once. It opens a new dialog box where a selection of profiles can be made to be exported all at once.

How to create a new Profile?

  1. Click on the “Create Profile...” in the pull-down menu.

The “Edit Profile” window: an overview

Edit Profile: General information

  1. The name should be specified according to the purpose of the profile. The orange triangle (here and elsewhere) allows you to include  variables and scripts.
  2. A Profile can be unlocked, locked or password protected.
  3. The Purpose field allows you to add explanatory text that will later be displayed in the profile list when a profile is selected.
  4. Author and Email are intended to provide information about the author of the Profile.
  5. Under Group, you can specify whether the profile should be stored under Custom Profiles or in another group.
  6. The Profile can also be supplied with a script.
  7. If checked, the Profile will be hidden in the list of Profiles in the Library.
  8. At the lower right part of the window, you will find the Usage... button (Info in which Process Plan this Profile is used), as well as Test (lets you test the Profile within their respective editor), Cancel and OK button (4).

Edit Profile: Convert to standard

The Convert to standard section is particularly extensive.

It is divided into conversion parameters for PDF/X (prepress), PDF/A (long-term archiving) and PDF/E (digital construction drawings).

This section converts and fixes PDF files, rather than simply checking them.

  1. Under Convert PDF document to PDF/X, you can choose from a range of PDF/X versions from a pull-down menu (PDF/X-1 - PDF/X-6). You can optionally Apply Fixups by checking the box. Depending on the standard selected, two other options will be available: Convert device independent RGB or Lab color into destination color space and Decalibrate device independent Gray or CMYK.
  2. Under Convert PDF document to PDF/A, you can choose from a range of PDF/A versions from a pull-down menu. The Apply Fixups box can be checked. If regular conversion fails, a number of additional options are available. Re-convert via PostScript, Convert pages with problems into images, or Convert all pages into images. The last two of these options allow you to specify an Image resolution.
  3. The third standard is PDF/E. You can again Apply fixups here.
  4. Finally, you can also select the Output Intent from a pull-down menu. Two options are available here: Use embedded Output Intent if present and Omit ICC profile unless embedding is required (e.g. with modern Output Intents; this allows you to reduce the size of the resulting file to the size of the Output Intent).

 

To learn more about the Fixups that will be applied during each conversion type, click on the green question mark button to open the corresponding list. (The button is gray, meaning inactive, when a conversion type is also inactive.)

Edit Profile: Convert to standard for embedded files

Convert to standard for embedded files offers very similar parameters to those shown in the previous step, but in this case they relate to embedded PDF files.

  1. The first section deals with the special case of PDF/A-3 and PDF/A-4. These PDF standards also allow you to embed files left in their original state (not just PDF, but also other formats). Do not convert but set relationship entry (PDF/A-3, PDF/A-4) to ... allows you to define the relationship in one of a number of different ways, including Source, Data, Supplement and others.
  2. Convert embedded PDF document to PDF/X enables a number of different options as well as optional Fixups.
  3. Convert embedded PDF document to PDF/A enables a number of different options as well as optional Fixups. In addition, there are also the same backup options as before to determine how to proceed if regular conversion fails.
  4. Convert embedded PDF document to PDF/E plus optional Fixups.
  5. Output Intent settings.

Edit Profile: Standards compliance

The Standards compliance section relates to the various ISO standards available for the Portable Document Format.

  1. The category PDF is not compliant with any of allows you to integrate all currently available PDF standards into the query.
  2. Using the pull-down menu (as with the other entries) you can specify how to report anomalies - as an error, as a warning, or as info. By default, this setting is inactive.
  3. "Report PDF syntax issues" indicates any issues with the PDF syntax like missing color space or missing XObjects etc.
  4. Here, you can determine whether a PDF contains a PDF/X Output Intent for an RGB printing condition.
  5. The first item affects PDF functions depending on the PDF version: “The PDF document uses features that require at least Acrobat 4.0 (PDF 1.3) and others.
  6. An embedded PDF/X Output Intent can also be compared against a custom list of Output Intents.

Edit Profile: Standards compliance for embedded files

The Standards compliance for embedded files section offers the same parameters as in the previous section. In this case, however, they relate to embedded PDF files:

  1. The PDF is not compliant with any of option again relates to all currently available PDF standards.
  2. The second section again turns to the PDF/X standard for PDF printing.

Edit Profile: Custom Fixups

Under Custom Fixups, you can select entries from the list of all available pdfToolbox Fixups and integrate them into the new Profile.

The window is structured as follows:

  1. The right hand side shows the list of Fixups available in pdfToolbox. It can be considered the “inventory” available to you.
  2. The Fixups shown will be those available in the currently selected Library (in this example, Essentials).
  3. If you know the name of a given Fixup, you can use the Search tool to make it easier to find.
  4. Click on a Fixup in the list to see more detailed information.
  5. Click on the blue arrow symbol to the left to move the selected Fixup to the middle column. This will add it to the Profile you are currently creating or editing.
  6. The middle column shows all Fixups used in the current Profile.
  7. You can enable or disable this Fixup.  
  8. The buttons allow you to add, duplicate, edit, import and delete Fixups.

 

Edit Profile: Custom Checks

Under Custom Checks, you can select entries from the list of all available pdfToolbox checks and integrate them into the new Profile.

The window is structured as follows:

  1. The right hand side shows the list of Checks available in pdfToolbox. It can be considered the “inventory” available to you.
  2. The Checks shown will be those available in the currently selected library (in this example, Prepress, Color and Transparency).
  3. If you know the name of a given Check, you can use the Search tool to make it easier to find.
  4. Click on a Check in the list to see more detailed information.
  5. Click on the blue arrow symbol to the left to move the selected Check to the middle column. This will add it to the Profile you are currently creating or editing.
  6. The middle column shows all Checks used in the current Profile.
  7. You can use the pull-down menu to specify whether the Check should return an Error, a Warning or an Info message. You can also use the orange triangle to add and manage variables and scripts.
  8. You can enable or disable this Check.  
  9. The buttons allow you to add, duplicate, edit, import and delete Checks.

Edit Profile: Summary

In the Summary, you can see a detailed overview of all Checks and Fixups included in the newly created (or edited) Profile.

  1. The entries are grouped by section, i.e. Document, Pages, Images, Colors, Fonts and so on.
  2. Optional: You can Save the Profile overview. Click on the corresponding button to have the program save a comprehensive report in PDF format.
  3. Optional: You can also generate a customizable profile based on the current Profile - a duplicate, in other words - which you can configure further.
  4. At the lower right of the window, you will find the Usage... button (Info in which Process Plan this Profile is used), as well as Test (lets you test the Profile within their respective editor), Cancel and OK button (4).