Converting PDF to WMF - pdf

Can someone suggest the best way to convert a PDF file to WMF?
I currently make Dynamic XML Form PDFs with Adobe LiveCycle Designer, but a client requires the file in WMF format for printing. Instead of filling out the form directly, they have their users answer the questions within their own UI, then print the fields to the form.
I've tried converting the PDF to PNG within Acrobat then converting it to WMF, but our client is having issues with them indicating these WMFs "appear to be graphics renamed as WMFs".
Thanks

Try writing a script that prints your PDF files into a WMF/EMF virtual printer.
There a few out there, for example:
EMF Printer (GPL, not free for commercial use).
Amyuni EMF Printer Freeware, but a bit outdated (Disclaimer: I work for Amyuni Technologies).
I believe there is another one (as source code) in the Windows Driver Kit source code samples, but I cannot find the link now.

Related

Can form field data be saved in PDF?

I am learning the basics of form pdfs now. After entering the field values, I can save the pdf with data as a pdf file. With Acrobat pro, I am able to export data in FDF and XFDF files. we need to develop a website that will allow users to fill a few form pdfs in browser and download it preferably as pdf forms filled with data. The PDFTron is a good solution, but it looks like I can download FDF file or XFDF file or the flattened pdf from it. The user should be able to modify the downloaded forms. Is this possible with PDFTron?
If it is not PDFTron, Is there any other way I could do this?
Yes, PDFTron fully supports online form filling and the export/import of XFDF data. In particular the WebViewer technology sounds like the best fit for you. It comes with out of the box form field filling, and XFDF is uses as the data interchange. A simple call in javascript to AnnotationManager.exportAnnotations() will give you all the form field data that you can use with any XFDF compliant PDF SDK.
This is the online sample for form filling. It will work on any modern browser/device.
https://www.pdftron.com/webviewer/demo/samples/forms/index.html?doctype=xod
This presentation explains WebViewer technology at a high level.
https://prezi.com/view/Aug5ft1twZNNKfBXfTIQ/
Finally, this page shows the basics of form field data interchange.
https://www.pdftron.com/webviewer/demo/tutorials/getting-started-annotations.html
I really like PDFTK and the PHP library php-pdftk. It will do everything that you want and more, they are really powerful tools, and free if you open-source your code!
PDFTK: https://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/
php-pdftk: https://github.com/mikehaertl/php-pdftk

Print to pdf that is searchable and selectable from existing pdf that is selectable and searchable

I am trying to print a section of an existing pdf to a new pdf. The original is searchable and selectable but the new pdf cannot do either. I am using "adobe acrobat reader DC" and print via "Microsoft Print to PDF". Unsure if there is any other relevant information.
After searching for a period of time I could not find an answer that allows for direct PDF to PDF print.
I did find a workaround however.
I downloaded a free software called PrimoPDF. Once installed, PrimoPDF becomes a printer option within Adobe acrobat reader. I then selected my desired pages and printed to PrimoPDf instead of Microsoft Print to PDF. This Generated a .ps file. I then imported the .ps file into PrimoPDF application and was able to generate a .pdf from that. The newly generated pdf was searchable and selectable and exactly what I needed.
Hopefully someone else finds this useful in the future.
Generally refrying (printing to PostScript then converting back to PDF) is a bad idea. The reason that Microsoft Print to PDF created a file that wasn't searchable is because when Adobe Reader detects that the printer it is targeting isn't capable of rendering the PDF correctly because of any number of reasons, like it doesn't have the right fonts for example, it will render the PDF itself and send an image to the printer. A simpler PDF probably would have worked just fine.
You are much better off getting a tool that will simply allow you to extract the pages you need to a new file rather than printing.

XFA Form conversion to PDFA-1B

We have a requirement to convert XFA Form (Adobe LiveCycle Form) to PDF/A-1B.
We're attempting to use iText 5.4.0 to parse the PDF, populate the XFA fields and then save the modified PDF back out.
All the examples I can find with iText talk about populating XFA fields into PDF.
Can I convert an XFA form ( static / dynamic and generated using LiveCycle) to PDFA 1b directly?
As need PDFA for sure and can’t live with plain PDFs. So as workaround we were thinking about converting the PDF to PDFA. Is that the right approach or we are missing something here.
You can also use Adobe LiveCycle Forms Server or PDF Generator for this purpose. It supports conversion of XFA-based forms (either static or dynamic) to either PDF/A-1b or PDF/A-1a.
Yes, you can convert XFA forms to PDF/A using iText in combination with XFA Worker. However, XFA Worker is a closed source product. So you need to be an iText customer if you want to achieve what you want.
Note that we've done exactly what you need in a project for the Ministry of Justice in Belgium. I've written the following blog post about this project: : http://lowagie.com/xfabpm
Disclaimer: I'm the CEO of the iText Software Group. This answer isn't meant to promote the product. It's a genuine answer to this question.
I was also looking for the same problem and I reached an easy solution, you can try this out:
Drag and drop it xfa format PDF into chrome, it will open in chrome browser.
You will find three options at right corner:
Rotate clockwise
Download
Print
Click on "Print"
Change destination "save as PDF" and save.
Saved PDF is flat PDF(Acroform) and can be edited easily

Disable Printing in a PDF Viewer ActiveX control?

I'm using the Adobe Acrobat PDF Viewer ActiveX (AxAcroPDFLib.AxAcroPDF) control in one of my forms to display Controlled Document PDFs and my customer would like end users to not be able to print these documents. Is there anyway to disable printing through this control?
The PDF format supports permissions and "allow printing" is one of the permissions. If you can control the PDF generation of these controlled PDFs your best bet is to disable the allow print permission for users. You can also even run existing PDFs through a conversion process to add the necessary permissions with iText, ghostscript or something similar.
Besides, even if you are able to to disable the print button on the ActiveX viewer, if the user is clever enough to realize it is merely a PDF, they could just download the PDF and print it normally.
There's a new PDF software that does this by default. You would have to save the document as .wwf rather than .pdf. If the document is already in PDF format you can re-save it in WWF format.
It's provided by the World Wildlife Foundation in an effort to reduce paper use. The end user does not need to have the software installed on their computer for it to work. You can download the software for both MAC or PC from the link below. Hope this helps!
http://www.saveaswwf.com/en/

difference between microsoft report viewer and adobe pdf reader tools?

i would like to display a pdf on my winform and am thinking of using of those tools in my vb.net application. does anyone know the difference between the two?
Microsoft Report Viewer reads report definition files and displays the report. Adobe's PDF reader displays PDF files.
Report definition files != PDF files, so you would need to make sure that you use the right tool for the right job. If you need to read PDFs, use a PDF reader.
As for consuming a PDF on a WinForm, you could host a WebBrowser control and point to the PDF. Alternately, there are several WinForm control manufacturers that read and display a PDF file (though I've not used any of them so would not be able to recommend one over another). Examples would be:
http://www.tallcomponents.com/
http://www.skysof.com/