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Webinars and video recordings

All software uses its own terminology to some extent.
So does callas pdfToolbox when it comes to preflight.

This video provides an overview of the terminology used
around preflight checks and corrections so that it becomes easier
to understand the documentation and find your way around the software.

Building quality control into your PDF workflow isn't rocket science,
but you definitely have to do it right.
It's crucial to pay attention to international standards such as
PDF/X and the Ghent Workgroup (GWG).

You should also consider your own requirements,
such as ink coverage, image resolution, overprint, and
transparency. All of these are important!

But everything starts with understanding the language the tools use.
After watching, "preflight checks", "fixups", "conditions", "hits", and
"severity levels" will make sense!
You'll know what an "apply to" filter is in a correction,
whether to use warnings or errors and how to
set that up in a preflight profile. Have a look!

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

callas pdfToolbox is a great tool to do quality control ("preflight"),
correct PDF files so that they are production ready,
and even perform imposition or create proof templates.

However, all of these tasks require preflight profiles,
or process plans and a battery of checks, fixups (corrections),
imposition configurations, ICC profiles...

How do you keep all of that organized?
Luckily, callas pdfToolbox also has a "library" concept.
Libraries provide independent storage for profiles,
process plans, and the underlying resources they may use.

Almost all functionality in callas pdfToolbox
(preflight, correcting PDF files, merging, splitting,
rendering PDF into images, imposition, you name it!)
can be automated.

And one of the super easy ways to accomplish this
is by using pdfToolbox CLI (Command-Line Interface).
This can be used in a terminal window through a command prompt by someone,
but normally it is integrated into an environment using for example a scripting language.

The command line interface of pdfToolbox is straightforward
flexible and extremely complete, making it ideal for even complicated integrations.
But how do you get going with the CLI? How do you learn to use it?

Of course, you can use the online documentation at help.callassoftware.com.
Still, the CLI application has built-in help capabilities that
take you a long way to becoming proficient.
And this video tells you all about it!

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

callas pdfToolbox is an excellent tool for doing quality control (preflight),
correcting PDF files to be production-ready, and even performing imposition or
creating proof templates.

However, all of these tasks require preflight profiles,
or process plans and a battery of checks, fixups (corrections),
imposition configurations, and ICC profiles...

How do you organize all of that?
Luckily, pdfToolbox also has a "library" concept.
Libraries provide independent storage for profiles,
process plans, and the underlying resources they may use.

How do you create one of these libraries?
What are your options, and how do those affect your new library?

This video walks you through creating a new
pdfToolbox library and explains all available options.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

callas pdfToolbox has a complete imposition engine on board.
It can be used in very simple ways, or using more advanced imposition configurations
that can even use JavaScript.

This video shows one of the simple imposition actions,
used to perform step-and-repeat imposition.

The step-and-repeat functionality is available in
callas pdfToolbox Desktop as a manual action,
but it can also be automated using hot folders,
or by integrating with callas pdfToolbox CLI or SDK.

Step-and-repeat imposition allows creating imposed sheets
with a predefined number of rows and columns.
Additional parameters specify the spacing between placed items,
the margins around them, and much more.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Checks are the heart of the preflight engine in callas pdfToolbox.
Each check inspects the PDF document and figures out
whether it is compliant with the rules or not.
But how do you create preflight checks?

This video talks you through the creation of you
first preflight check in callas pdfToolbox.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

callas pdfToolbox CLI isn't limited to running profiles or process plans;
it also has a long list of actions that perform specific tasks without needing a profile.

This video introduces the "Save as image" action that converts pages
from a PDF document into images in different formats.
The rendering handles transparency, overprint,
and other print production details correctly so that the image
that is created matches what you would get through the RIP.

The video explores what image formats are supported,
what some of the interesting parameters are,
and how you can know what is supported exactly.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Many preflight checks can use the same parameters for all jobs.
Sometimes however, it makes more sense to have dynamic parameters
that can differ for each processed PDF file.
callas pdfToolbox supports this with the use of variables.

This video explores how you can create a preflight check
that uses simple variables so that each PDF is (or can be) checked differently.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

The place content functionality in callas pdfToolbox
has been designed to decorate PDF files.
What does that mean?

This video explains the different ways the place content engine
can be used to add elements such text, page numbers, lines,
barcodes and much more complex things.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Why does callas pdfToolbox have preflight profiles and
process plans for processing PDF documents?

What are the differences, and when should you use
a preflight profile or a process plan?
Or is the difference just historical, and doesn't it matter very much?

This video explains where the difference between the two comes from,
and why it is important for you to make the right choice!

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

In callas pdfToolbox, variables are usually used to modify how
checks, fixups, profiles... are executed on PDF documents
on a document per document bases.

However, they can also be used for different reasons,
and one of the most powerful uses is to make preflight checks
more user-friendly in how they report issues in a preflight report.

In this video, you'll see how to use both simple variables and
JavaScript variables to modify the name of a check.
As the name of a check is also used in the preflight report,
this technique lets you completely customize a preflight report.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Process plans are one of the most flexible parts of pdfToolbox,
as they allow conditional processing, processing of PDF documents
through multiple steps, the use of JavaScript and much more.

How do you get started with process plans? Have a look at this video!

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

callas pdfToolbox has two types of variables:
simple variables for external input and
JavaScript variables for internal calculations.

Can you use the input provided by simple variables
in one of your Javascript variables?
Of course you can!

The video shows a simple example that tells you
how to access simple variables in a JavaScript variable.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Preflight checks in callas pdfToolbox
are built from individual conditions.
Each check requires at least one condition
- but you can add as many conditions as you need
to meet your specific requirements.

Combining these conditions is what makes preflight checks
in callas pdfToolbox so flexible and powerful.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

What if you need information from a PDF,
but don't want to run a full preflight?

callas pdfToolbox quickcheck provides an extremely fast and lightweight way
to retrieve information such as the number of pages or TrimBox size
- which is especially useful for large or complex files.

This video shows you how to use quickcheck on the command line
to quickly extract information from your PDF.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Getting the perfect PDF often means applying fixups
- but what if you only want to apply a fixup to certain pages or objects?

In this video we take a closer look at
the ""Apply to"" option in pdfToolbox fixups.
By using a preflight check as a filter,
you can control exactly where changes are applied in a PDF.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

callas pdfToolbox includes its own powerful imposition engine,
and there are three types of imposition you need to know about:
Simple imposition, JavaScript based imposition, and old-style imposition.

This video will give you an overview of the different ways
to use the imposition engine in callas pdfToolbox.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

If a profile in callas pdfToolbox contains variables,
pdfToolbox will display the ask-at-runtime dialog before execution.
By default, the variables are shown in alphabetical order
- which sometimes isn't the best choice and not what you want.

This video shows how you can easily control the order of
these variables in the dialog with just a little bit of JavaScript.
Don't worry – it's easy to do, even if you're not a scripting expert.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

If you want to know the size of the TrimBox in your PDF document,
specifically the width and height, and store it in a variable,
you can do it easily with a little JavaScript.

This video shows how to calculate the width and height
of a page box in your preferred unit in pdfToolbox.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

callas pdfToolbox CLI offers a fast and easy integration of
the pdfToolbox technology on a wide range of platforms
through a command-line interface.

This video shows how to activate and deactivate callas pdfToolbox CLI.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

For certain features in callas pdfToolbox it's important to
have a flexible way to select which pages to process.

Whether it's all even pages, odd pages, specific ranges or every nth page,
the page selector gives you the flexibility to specify exactly which pages to include.

This video demonstrates several page selector expressions
that you can use in various checks, fixups, and on the command line.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

callas pdfToolbox uses preflight profiles to check and fix PDF files.
The Result window provides a detailed summary of
the processing actions and the final results.

This video explains how the Result window is structured
and how to navigate the result window to review
errors, warnings, and detailed trigger information.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

A profile in callas pdfToolbox can contain
simple variables to make it more flexible.
But how do you run a profile with
simple variables on the command line,
and how can you assign a value to those variables?

This video shows you how to use
the --setvariable parameter to pass values to
simple variables in pdfToolbox CLI.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

A fixup in callas pdfToolbox is a correction,
so you can use Fixups to fix problems or
potential issues in a PDF, like doing color conversions,
removing objects, or adding cut lines and much more.

This video shows you how to create
your first fixup in callas pdfToolbox Desktop
and explains the basic setup steps.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

The JavaScript editor in callas pdfToolbox
allows you to write your own JavaScript,
for example to create imposition configurations
or JavaScript variables.

The editor offers helpful features like syntax completion,
a dialog with all available JavaScript objects in pdfToolbox
and reusable JavaScript snippets for common tasks.

This video gives you an overview of these useful tools
that make scripting easier and more efficient.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

The "Place barcode" Fixup in callas pdfToolbox
lets you create and place a wide range of
barcodes and matrix codes on a PDF file.
Advanced barcode parameters allow for
greater customization of their appearance.

This video demonstrates how to use
the Advanced Settings tab to add
JSON-based key-value pairs to define
any supported advanced parameter,
such as removing text from an EAN-13 barcode
or placing a rectangular matrix code.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Regular expressions (RegEx) are patterns used to match specific text
- powerful tools for searching and validating content.

With the Preflight Check “Text on page” callas pdfToolbox
lets you use RegEx to find specific words, patterns, or
character combinations in your PDF documents.

This video shows you how to use RegEx in callas pdfToolbox
to locate targeted text on a page quickly and effectively.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Profiles in callas pdfToolbox are
collections of Checks and/or Fixups
that can be run together in a single step.

This video shows you how to create a Profile in
callas pdfToolbox Desktop from Checks and Fixups,
and explains the basic steps to set it up.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

The object inspector in callas pdfToolbox Desktop provides a
detailed, interactive view of all objects on a PDF page
and provides important object properties like
font, color space, object type, and more.

This video shows you how to use the object inspector
to explore and examine page content in your PDF files.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

With the object inspector in callas pdfToolbox Desktop,
you can examine all the page objects in your PDF.

But that’s not all!
You can also use it to derive preflight checks based on
the object properties provided by the inspector.
This makes it easier and faster to set up
complex checks for specific elements.

This video shows you how to use the object inspector to
generate preflight checks directly from selected page objects.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

If a Profile in callas pdfToolbox contains variables,
the ask-at-runtime dialog appears before execution to let you enter values.
By default, it shows all variables, but in some cases,
you may want to hide or disable certain ones based on specific conditions.

This video shows you how to customize the ask-at-runtime dialog
using a bit of JavaScript to control the visibility and behavior of variables.

More details on this topic can be found in
callas pdfToolbox online documentation on:

• "Adjusting the ask-at-runtime dialog"

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Process Plans in callas pdfToolbox are a powerful way to define flexible,
step-by-step instructions for working with PDF files.
However, as functionality grows, things can become complex quickly.

In this video, we’ll show you how to add annotations to your
Process Plans to document specific steps, provide helpful context,
and visually group tasks to keep things organized and easier to understand.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

The imposition engine in calls pdfToolbox is powerful.
Using JavaScript imposition configurations makes working with it easier.
However, to get started, you need to know which objects exist and
which functions you can use to define your imposition.

This video shows you how to use JavaScript imposition snippets in pdfToolbox.
These snippets provide essential utility functions and objects
that can easily be adapted to your needs.

More details on this topic can be found in
callas pdfToolbox online documentation on:

• Imposition

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

It’s nothing new that you can generate bleed for irregular shapes.
But what if you just want to check if a PDF
has enough bleed along a cutcontour?

This video introduces the “Bleed missing for irregular shape” check,
which determines if a PDF with a cutcontour has adequate bleed.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

When you have a Process Plan in callas pdfToolbox,
one of the powerful things you can do is
reuse information from a previous step.

This video shows you how to access preflight results
from an earlier step using just a little bit of JavaScript.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

For large format products, grommets are often needed
to mark where holes will be placed after printing.
callas pdfToolbox Desktop offers Switchboard actions to add grommets,
either by distance or by number, but these only work on rectangular files.

This video shows you how to add grommets along
a vector path using the “Place file on path” Fixup,
giving you full flexibility for non-rectangular designs.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

When a preflight Profile in callas pdfToolbox
contains multiple Checks and Fixups,
in what order are they executed?
And can you influence that order?

This video answers these questions and explains
how callas pdfToolbox processes Profiles.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Checking or correcting multiple PDF files one by one can be time-consuming.
Batch Processing in callas pdfToolbox Desktop can help with that.

This video shows you how to use the Switchboard's Batch mode
to process up to 100 PDF files automatically one after another.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

All versions of callas pdfToolbox use Profiles to check and fix PDF documents.

With the CLI version,
you can run Profiles and Process Plans directly from the command line.

This video shows you how easy it is to run a Profile using the CLI.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

After running a Profile in callas pdfToolbox,
you may want to share the results with colleagues or customers.
The best way to do that is by creating a PDF report.

This video shows you the two types of reports in callas pdfToolbox
and how you can add a copy of the preflighted PDF where all errors,
warnings, and infos are highlighted either by layers or masks.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

The imposition engine in callas pdfToolbox is really powerful and can
be used in two different ways to create imposition configurations:
old-style imposition and JavaScript imposition.

Because it offers so much flexibility, it’s important to
understand how it works and what terminology it uses.

In this video, we explain common terms like sheet configuration,
runlists, slots and decorations, so you’ll know exactly what they mean
when working with imposition in callas pdfToolbox.

For more details, see:

• General imposition configuration terminology

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

The Switchboard is the first thing you’ll see in callas pdfToolbox Desktop
and the best place to start if you’re new to callas pdfToolbox
since it offers easy-to-use actions for common tasks like
imposition, color handling, and prepress.

This video shows you how to navigate the Switchboard
and run actions on your PDF files.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Sometimes you have PDF documents that can’t be automatically fixed.
Adjusting page geometry boxes, like the TrimBox, BleedBox, or CropBox,
is one of those tasks where you may need to visually inspect the page
and manually set the boxes where they need to be.

This video shows you how to correct page geometry boxes
using the page box editor in callas pdfToolbox Desktop.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

The Test Mode in callas pdfToolbox Desktop lets you test
Profiles, Checks, Fixups, Process Plans and more
while you’re building or editing them.

This video explains what Test Mode is, how it works
and how to launch it directly from any editor to
instantly see the result of your processing
all without saving a modified file.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

This is the second part of our look at Test Mode in callas pdfToolbox Desktop.
In the first part, we explained what Test Mode is and how it works.

In this video, we dive deeper into the additional tools,
helpful previews, and detailed views that make testing even more powerful.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Writing a text file from a Process Plan makes it possible to send
information from callas pdfToolbox to external systems
such as web-to-print platforms or MIS workflows.

In this video, we show you how to use the “Create file” action
to generate text-based output, like JSON, XML, or CSV,
directly from a Process Plan and export preflight results
for further automated processing outside of callas pdfToolbox.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Custom PDF reports in callas pdfToolbox already give you full control
over layout and design using HTML and CSS, but sometimes you need
more than the standard overview page with the basic preflight results.

Maybe you want to share extra details with colleagues or customers,
such as spot color information, ink coverage, or separation previews.

In this video, we show you how to easily add additional report pages
to your PDF report so you can include exactly the information you need.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Some workflows in callas pdfToolbox need user input at runtime,
for example a viewing distance, a scaling factor,
or any other value that influences how a
Profile, Check, Fixup, or Process Plan behaves.

When such values are required,
callas pdfToolbox can automatically show an Ask-at-runtime dialog
to collect the necessary information from the user.

In this video, we show you how to use the app.requires object
to define these variables directly in your JavaScript,
control their labels and default values,
and even limit the available choices.

Se more under:
"Step by step - Learn how to use callas pdfToolbox":

• Defining variables using app.requires
  with closed choice of allowed values

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Too much ink coverage in certain areas of a PDF
can cause serious printing problems.
That’s why identifying these problem areas early is important.

In this video, we show you how to use the ink coverage Visualizer
in callas pdfToolbox Desktop to set an ink limit and visually inspect
the pages using a heatmap that highlights areas where
ink coverage exceeds the limit.

This video is part of a weekly series explaining
different callas pdfToolbox features and functionality.
Make sure you don't miss any of them!