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pdfaPilot

Archival
Enterprise PDF processing
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pdfaPilot is a powerful solution for converting PDF files, native documents, and emails into robust, searchable PDF or PDF/A files for reliable long-term archiving. It was specifically designed for use in long-term preservation, accessibility, and enterprise environments. While this remains its primary focus, pdfaPilot also includes the full range of print-oriented functionality available in callas pdfToolbox.

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Features

Product Illustrations_pdfaPilot_01 Support for archival workflows

Support for archival workflows

callas actively participates in the ISO committees working on the PDF/A standard for long-term archival using PDF. As a result, all different versions and flavors of the PDF/A standard are fully supported by pdfaPilot. It can check whether PDF files comply with the standard or convert incoming PDF files to PDF/A.

Such conversions can be done with minimal to no quality loss for PDF files where possible, but fallback mechanisms can be used to ensure the highest possible percentage of PDF files are converted into PDF/A.

Product Illustrations_pdfaPilot_02 Accessibility

Accessibility

More and more legislation requires PDF files to be accessible. In most cases, this means that the PDF must comply with the PDF/UA (which stands for PDF for Universal Accessibility) ISO standard. pdfaPilot can verify that a PDF is compliant to the PDF/UA standard for those aspects that are machine-verifiable.

Additionally, pdfaPilot integrates technology that converts tagged PDF files into HTML with different visualizations of the structure and tagging present in the PDF file. This is designed to facilitate human verification of the quality of the structure and tagging in the tagged PDF file.

Product Illustrations_pdfaPilot_03 Email conversion

Email conversion

pdfaPilot has integrated “email-to-PDF” functionality that takes common email file formats and converts them into standards-compliant PDF/A files. The advantages of the technology are that the template used to represent the email in PDF is fully customizable (and thus can be adapted to specific workflows or use cases), and that pdfaPilot offers a variety of options on how to handle email attachments. Using PDF/A-2 or PDF/A-3, the attachments are embedded in their original format and/or converted into PDF/A.

Product Illustrations_pdfaPilot_04 Electronic invoicing

Electronic invoicing

pdfaPilot has supported the German ZugFeRD electronic invoice standard from the very beginning. It could create a ZuGFeRD invoice from an XML and PDF version of the invoice, verify compliance of an existing electronic invoice, or extract the XML component from it for further processing. With the electronic invoicing initiative being picked up as a European standard, pdfaPilot still supports handling such documents.

Variants

pdfaPilot variants

The pdfaPilot technology makes long-term archiving simple and reliable, from single documents to enterprise workflows, and offers the right variant for every need.

Desktop Server CLI SDK

pdfaPilot Desktop is designed for manual PDF/A conversion and validation, available as a plug-in in Adobe Acrobat Pro or as a standalone application.

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Manual verification made easy

With pdfaPilot Desktop, you can manually inspect and fix PDF and document files before archiving. The software allows you to check for compliance with PDF/A and PDF/UA standards, apply corrections interactively, and ensure every document meets your quality requirements.

Important actions in three clicks

The Switchboard in pdfaPilot Desktop is a central hub for all your archiving and conversion needs, offering an intuitive interface that brings the most common document-processing actions within easy reach. Whether you need to convert emails to PDF, transform PDF files into compliant PDF/A documents, or verify existing files for long-term preservation, the Switchboard provides instant, out-of-the-box functionality.

Ensures PDF accessibility

PDF/UA offers a unique challenge: part of the requirements can be verified by software, but the other part requires human intervention. pdfaPilot handles the first part of the verification process completely. For human verification, functionalities are integrated to view the document in a structured and highlighted web view. 

pdfaPilot Server enables fully automatic, hotfolder-based document processing, perfect for automated, standardized workflows in production environments.

Good versus bad

When setting up hot folders in pdfaPilot Server, there is always one input folder from which PDF files are picked up. Next, you can define multiple output folders, and the processed PDF file will be dropped in one of those output folders depending on the processing result. This makes it possible to setup a workflow where all good files (the ones not generating any errors during preflight for example) are dropped in one output folder, while files with errors are dropped into another folder.

Knowing what is wrong

While processing a PDF file, pdfaPilot Server of course keeps track of the informational items, warnings, and errors it detects. This information, together with generic information about the PDF file itself, can be exported in the form of a preflight report. pdfaPilot Server supports the same report types as pdfaPilot Desktop (PDF, XML, JSON, TXT) and for each output folder you can choose which report type should be generated. 

Configuring hot folder setups

pdfaPilot Server can be fully configured and controlled directly from pdfaPilot Desktop — even if they’re running on separate machines or operating systems. For example, you could have a Linux machine in your datacenter with pdfaPilot Server running, but use your macOS or Windows desktop to configure the hot folders on that machine or push an updated profile to one of the hot folder setups.

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

Easy integration via CLI

pdfaPilot CLI is ideally suited for automation and integration. It can be called from any development platform, such as JavaScript, PHP, or .NET, and the command syntax is straightforward yet very complete. It is available for macOS, Windows, and virtually all Linux systems, with no external libraries or database dependencies.

Optimized for performance

The command-line interface is optimized for efficient, high-volume processing. It handles up to eight parallel processes simultaneously to manage large document workloads with ease. In combination with a server/satellite configuration, it ensures balanced workloads and reliable, uninterrupted operation.

Go virtual, use what you need!

pdfaPilot CLI can easily be deployed in virtual and auto scalable environments. This way you can deal with peak periods in production and can be assured that everything keeps running. With the callas License Server, you can upgrade whenever you need to scale up your production.

pdfaPilot SDK is a true software development kit designed to integrate pdfaPilot functionality directly within your own application through programming libraries.

Fully integrated PDF/A conversion for long-term archival

The software development kit (SDK) allows you to integrate the full functionality of pdfaPilot directly into your application. Since it doesn’t rely on command-line or hot folder integration, it offers the highest level of control and seamless development integration for the parent application.

High-performance and future-proof

pdfaPilot SDK offers native libraries in C and C++, with .NET and Java wrappers, enabling developers to integrate its powerful PDF/A functionality directly into their own applications, ensuring maximum performance and scalability. It is built for flexibility, allowing developers to add preflight, correction, and conversion capabilities as deeply or lightly as needed.

 

Comprehensive development resources

The SDK package includes ready-to-use sample code and detailed examples, allowing developers to get started quickly. The samples contain executables and source code for all supported environments (C/C++, C# and Java). Each example demonstrates common use cases and best practices for integrating pdfaPilot features, helping teams reduce development time and avoid common pitfalls.

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All pdfaPilot variants are available for a free 14-day trial, giving you full access to explore the features and see how it fits your workflow.

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Documents

Documents

All pdfaPilot system requirements and related documents in one place.

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System requirements

View the complete system requirements and hardware recommendations for pdfaPilot here.

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