pdfChip is designed for production environments where PDF files need to be generated automatically from templates and incoming data. In these workflows, speed alone is not sufficient: the resulting PDF files must be reliable, repeatable, and suitable for print production without manual intervention. It converts HTML, CSS, and JavaScript directly into production-quality PDF files, using standard web technologies to provide precise control over layout and logic. The generated PDFs fully support advanced print features.
Regular HTML files do not support a wide range of print-PDF features; things such as overprint, print color spaces (CMYK, Lab, spot colors…), page boxes (trim box, bleed box…) are entirely unsupported in HTML. With additions to the HTML and CSS syntax, pdfChip supports all professional print functionality. It is even possible to create PDF/X-compliant PDF files directly from pdfChip.
In some workflows, output PDF files can’t be generated in a single pass, because the data is only available after PDF generation. For example, in some workflows it’s only known after generation of the output PDF how many pages are generated exactly. In such workflows, pdfChip supports multi-pass processing to flexibly add additional content after the main output PDF file was created.
HTML templates can use JavaScript to generate single-page PDF files or output PDF files with thousands of pages, with variations on each page. Because of this, pdfChip is an ideal variable data workflow engine. With proper HTML templates, performance is close to linear between generating 10-page and 100,000-page PDF files. The template can control whether a large multi-page PDF file is going to be output, or many smaller PDF files. Because the output files can be production-ready, it is even possible to output fully imposed print sheets and skip a separate imposition step.
Because pdfChip uses a modified WebKit engine, it can use advanced content to create the final output PDF. Instead of using PNG or JPEG images for example, pdfChip is capable of using PDF as an image format. High-quality logos or other high-quality content can thus be integrated into the output PDF file without loss of quality.
Another example is support for barcodes. pdfChip has an integrated barcode library, which supports more than 100 different barcode types. These can be inserted into the HTML template as special HTML objects and are converted into high-quality barcodes in the output PDF file. Advanced barcode parameters such as bar width reduction, crucial for printing readable barcodes, are fully supported.
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