PDF + Data suggestions

Hi,

I have a project coming-up in which I have to scan records into PDF.

Firstly, I want to tag each page with what type of document it is.  One PDF may have an invoice, a request letter, a set of records, and a set of billing documents.  I want to tag each page accordingly.  These tags are for automated processing and not for user reading.  My guess is to create a layer and move it behind the top layer, so that it is not visible.  Then, tag the pages with annotations.

Secondly, I have to capture information about the records, including:  name, one or more addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, etc.  Like the page tags, this information is for automated processing rather than user review.  I only need to record the information once per PDF and not for each page.  Should I create a layer and move it to the back and use annotations to record the information?  Or is it possible to embed XML inside of a PDF?  XML seems like it may be a better way to handle this requirement.

Thanks,

David

Hi David!

To tag each page with (for example) "invoice" you should use the normal drawtext-functions 'cause it's possible to write outside the page dimensions. If you have a width of 842 psunits you should start writing at 843. So nobody can see the tag in a reader but you can extract it with the textextractfunctions.

For the special tags like "name", "adress", ... you should use the metadata-functions but don't serve the standard metadata-fields 'cause possible you can overwrite existing content. Use your own metadata. With SetCustomInformation and GetCustomInformation you can manage your own tags very well.

Cheers, Ingo

Hi,

As a side note, it is not a problem if the user is able to see any of this information.  Most of these PDFs will be printed and this information should not be printed.  Also, I would hide the information, by default, but if the user is able to access it manually, it is not a problem.

I just looked through the functions.  I think I see why you said to use SetCustomInformation.  CatalogInformation is root to the structure of the PDF and I don't want to mess with that.  DocumentInformation is all meta-data stored in the PDF as XMP, I'm guessing in Adobe's proprietary version of XML.  CustomInformation accesses specific tags within within the XMP meta-data.

I like the idea of storing the document related information with the PDF itself and not tied to one page that may be deleted.  So, I can use CustomInformation for specific tags only.  Or I can use DocumentInformation, but be aware that there may be other meta-data there that I may overwrite.  Is that it?

Thanks again.

David


Edited by bb46970 - 19 Dec 09 at 3:14PM