Substituting outline fonts for bitmap fonts in archived PDF files

As collections of archived digital documents continue to grow the maintenance of an archive, and the quality of reproduction from the archived format, become important long-term considerations. In particular, Adobe s PDF is now an important final form standard for archiving and distributing electronic versions of technical documents. It is important that all embedded images in the PDF, and any fonts used for text rendering, should at the very minimum be easily readable on screen. Unfortunately, because PDF is based on PostScript technology, it allows the embedding of bitmap fonts in Adobe Type 3 format as well as higher-quality outline fonts in TrueType or Adobe Type 1 formats. Bitmap fonts do not generally perform well when they are scaled and rendered on low-resolution devices such as workstation screens. The work described here investigates how a plug-in to Adobe Acrobat enables bitmap fonts to be substituted by corresponding outline fonts using a checksum matching technique against a canonical set of bitmap fonts, as originally distributed. The target documents for our initial investigations are those PDF files produced by (La)TEXsystems when set up in a default (bitmap font) configuration. For all bitmap fonts where recognition exceeds a certain confidence threshold replacement fonts in Adobe Type 1 (outline) format can be substituted with consequent improvements in file size, screen display quality and rendering speed. The accuracy of font recognition is discussed together with the prospects of extending these methods to bitmap-font PDF files from sources other than (La)TEX.

Vector Graphics: From PostScript and Flash to SVG

The XML-based specification for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), sponsored by the World Wide Web consortium, allows for compact and descriptive vector graphics for the Web. SVG s domain of discourse is that of graphic primitives whose optional attributes express line thickness, fill patterns, text size and so on. These primitives have very different properties from those of traditional document components (e.g. sections, paragraphs etc.) that XML is normally called upon to express. This paper describes a set of three tools for creating SVG, either from first principles or via the conversion of existing formats. The ab initio generation of SVG is effected from a server-side CGI script, using a PERL library of drawing functions; later sections highlight the problems of converting Adobe PostScript and Macromedia s Shockwave format (SWF) into SVG.

Mapping and Displaying Structural Transformations between XML and PDF

Documents are often marked up in XML-based tagsets to delineate major structural components such as headings, paragraphs, figure captions and so on, without much regard to their eventual displayed appearance. And yet these same abstract documents, after many transformations and 'typesetting' processes, often emerge in the popular format of Adobe PDF, either for dissemination or archiving. Until recently PDF has been a totally display-based document representation, relying on the underlying PostScript semantics of PDF. Early versions of PDF had no mechanism for retaining any form of abstract document structure but recent releases have now introduced an internal structure tree to create the so called 'Tagged PDF'. This paper describes the development of a plugin for Adobe Acrobat which creates a two-window display. In one window is shown an XML document original and in the other its Tagged PDF counterpart is seen, with an internal structure tree that, in some sense, matches the one seen in XML. If a component is highlighted in either window then the corresponding structured item, with any attendant text, is also highlighted in the other window. Important applications of correctly Tagged PDF include making PDF documents reflow intelligently on small screen devices and enabling them to be read out in correct reading order, via speech synthesiser software, for the visually impaired. By tracing structure transformation from source document to destination one can implement the repair of damaged PDF structure or the adaptation of an existing structure tree to an incrementally updated document.

Dynamic Link Inclusion in Online PDF Journals

Two complementary de facto standards for the publication of electronic documents are HTML on theWorldWideWeb and Adobe s PDF (Portable Document Format) language for use with Acrobat viewers. Both these formats provide support for hypertext features to be embedded within documents. We present a method, which allows links and other hypertext material to be kept in an abstract form in separate link databases. The links can then be interpreted or compiled at any stage and applied, in the correct format to some specific representation such as HTML or PDF. This approach is of great value in keeping hyperlinks relevant, up-to-date and in a form which is independent of the finally delivered electronic document format. Four models are discussed for allowing publishers to insert links into documents at a late stage. The techniques discussed have been implemented using a combination of Acrobat plug-ins, Web servers and Web browsers.

CD-ROM Acrobat Journals Using Networks

The available technologies for publishing journals electronically are surveyed. They range from abstract representations, such as SGML, concerned largely with the structure of the document, to formats such as PostScript which faithfully model the layout and the appearance. The issues are discussed in the context of choosing a format for electronically publishing the journal: Electronic Publishing -- Origination, Dissemination and Design. PostScript is neither widely enough available nor standardised enough to be suitable; a bitmapped pages approach suffers from being resolution-dependent in terms of the visual quality achievable. Reasons are put forward for the final choice of Adobe s new PDF document standard for creating electronic versions of the journal.

Experience with the use of Acrobat in the CAJUN publishing project

Adobe's Acrobat software, released in June 1993, is based around a new Portable Document Format (PDF) which offers the possibility of being able to view and exchange electronic documents, independent of the originating software, across a wide variety of supported hardware platforms (PC, Macintosh, Sun UNIX etc.). The fact that Acrobat's imageable objects are rendered with full use of Level 2 PostScript means that the most demanding requirements can be met in terms of high-quality typography and device-independent colour. These qualities will be very desirable components in future multimedia and hypermedia systems. The current capabilities of Acrobat and PDF are described; in particular the presence of hypertext links, bookmarks, and yellow sticker annotations (in release 1.0) together with article threads and multi-media plugins in version 2.0, This article also describes the CAJUN project (CD-ROM Acrobat Journals Using Networks) which has been investigating the automated placement of PDF hypertextual features from various front-end text processing systems. CAJUN has also been experimenting with the dissemination of PDF over e-mail, via World Wide Web and on CDROM.

Journal publishing with Acrobat: the CAJUN project

The publication of material in electronic form should ideally preserve, in a unified document representation, all of the richness of the printed document while maintaining enough of its underlying structure to enable searching and other forms of semantic processing. Until recently it has been hard to find a document representation which combined these attributes and which also stood some chance of becoming a de facto multi-platform standard. This paper sets out experience gained within the Electronic Publishing Research Group at the University of Nottingham in using Adobe Acrobat software and its underlying PDF (Portable Document Format) notation. The CAJUN project1 (CD-ROM Acrobat Journals Using Networks) began in 1993 and has used Acrobat software to produce electronic versions of journal papers for network and CD-ROM dissemination. The paper describes the project's progress so far and also gives a brief assessment of PDF's suitability as a universal document interchange standard.

Document analysis of PDF files: methods, results and implications

A strategy for document analysis is presented which uses Portable Document Format (PDF the underlying file structure for Adobe Acrobat software) as its starting point. This strategy examines the appearance and geometric position of text and image blocks distributed over an entire document. A blackboard system is used to tag the blocks as a first stage in deducing the fundamental relationships existing between them. PDF is shown to be a useful intermediate stage in the bottom-up analysis of document structure. Its information on line spacing and font usage gives important clues in bridging the semantic gap between the scanned bitmap page and its fully analysed, block-structured form. Analysis of PDF can yield not only accurate page decomposition but also sufficient document information for the later stages of structural analysis and document understanding.

Towards structured, block-based PDF

The Portable Document Format (PDF), defined by Adobe Systems Inc. as the basis of its Acrobat product range, is discussed in some detail. Particular emphasis is given to its flexible object-oriented structure, which has yet to be fully exploited. It is currently used to represent not logical structure but simply a series of pages and associated resources. A definition of an Encapsulated PDF (EPDF) is presented, in which EPDF blocks carry with them their own resource requirements, together with geometrical and logical information. A block formatter called Juggler is described which can lay out EPDF blocks from various sources onto new pages. Future revisions of PDF supporting uniquely-named EPDF blocks tagged with semantic information would assist in composite-pagemakeup and could even lead to fully revisable PDF.

Move, for string quartet, piano, percussion and electronics

MOVE is a composition for string quartet, piano, percussion and electronics of approximately 15-16 minutes duration in three movements. The work incorporates electronic samples either synthesized electronically by the composer or recorded from acoustic instruments. The work aims to use electronic sounds as an expansion of the tonal palette of the chamber group (rather like an extended percussion setup) as opposed to a dominating sonic feature of the music. This is done by limiting the use of electronics to specific sections of the work, and by prioritizing blend and sonic coherence in the synthesized samples. The work uses fixed electronics in such a way that allows for tempo variations in the music. Generally, a difficulty arises in that fixed “tape” parts don’t allow tempo variations; while truly “live” software algorithms sacrifice rhythmic accuracy. Sample pads, such as the Roland SPD-SX, provide an elegant solution. The latency of such a device is close enough to zero that individual samples can be triggered in real time at a range of tempi. The percussion setup in this work (vibraphone and sample pad) allows one player to cover both parts, eliminating the need for an external musician to trigger the electronics. Compositionally, momentum is used as a constructing principle. The first movement makes prominent use of ostinato and shifting meter. The second is a set of variations on a repeated harmonic pattern, with a polymetric middle section. The third is a type of passacaglia, wherein the bassline is not introduced right away, but becomes more significant later in the movement. Given the importance of visual presentation in the Internet age, the final goal of the project was to shoot HD video of a studio performance of the work for publication online. The composer recorded audio and video in two separate sessions and edited the production using Logic X and Adobe Premiere Pro. The final video presentation can be seen at geoffsheil.com/move.

Laying out the future of final-form digital documents

It is just over 20 years since Adobe's PostScript opened a new era in digital documents. PostScript allows most details of rendering to be hidden within the imaging device itself, while providing a rich set of primitives enabling document engineers to think of final-form rendering as being just a sophisticated exercise in computer graphics. The refinement of the PostScript model into PDF has been amazingly successful in creating a near-universal interchange format for complex and graphically rich digital documents but the PDF format itself is neither easy to create nor to amend. In the meantime a whole new world of digital documents has sprung up centred around XML-based technologies. The most widespread example is XHTML (with optional CSS styling) but more recently we have seen Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) emerge as an XML-based, low-level, rendering language with PostScript-compatible rendering semantics. This paper surveys graphically-rich final-form rendering technologies and asks how flexible they can be in allowing adjustments to be made to final appearance without the need for regenerating a whole page or an entire document. Particular attention is focused on the relative merits of SVG and PDF in this regard and on the desirability, in any document layout language, of being able to manipulate the graphic properties of document components parametrically, and at a level of granularity smaller than an entire page.

ültimas tendencias del diseño web: herramientas básicas

Iniciación a la creación y diseño de un portfolio digital a través del software Adobe Muse y el Estudio de caso de varios sitios web de reconocidos artistas visuales.

Técnicas de reabilitação e reforço em edifícios tradicionais

O presente trabalho tem como base a reabilitação e reforço de edifícios tradicionais, mais concretamente as técnicas aplicadas nesta área. A abordagem deste tema surge essencialmente devido ao panorama atual, com a existência de um grande número de edifícios tradicionais, que devem ser conservados de forma a preservar o património arquitetónico português. Desta forma pretende-se conhecer os tipos de edifícios tradicionais existentes em Portugal e no estrangeiro, as anomalias principais e suas típicas causas e por fim as técnicas de reabilitação e reforço a aplicar, de maneira a serem feitas comparações entre países. Para além disto pretende-se apresentar uma visão geral sobre os custos de reabilitação e reforço de edifícios tradicionais. No fim, apresentam-se algumas conclusões sobre o assunto e propostas de trabalhos futuros, de modo a se facilitarem os conhecimentos e investimentos nesta área.

Búsqueda de triatóminos en el entorno familiar y presencia de la enfermedad de chagas en la población de 5 a 15 años, caserío San Rafael, cantón Guanacaste, municipio de Ciudad Barrios, departamento de San Miguel en el período de mayo a julio de 2014

La enfermedad de Chagas, también conocida como tripanosomiasis americana o Mal de Chagas-Mazza, es una enfermedad parasitaria tropical, generalmente crónica, causada por el protozoo flagelado Trypanosoma cruzi. Esta enfermedad afecta mayormente a las zonas con un gran índice de pobreza, siendo un problema en El Salvador, por lo cual se realizó el estudio de búsqueda de triatóminos en el entorno familiar y presencia de la enfermedad de Chagas en la población de 5 a 15 años, caserío San Rafael, cantón Guanaste, municipio de Ciudad Barrios, departamento de San Miguel en el período de mayo a julio de 2014. Se plantearon como Objetivos Aplicar los indicadores entomológicos en los vectores capturados y las viviendas inspeccionadas donde habita la población de 5 a 15 años de edad del caserío San Rafael y determinar la presencia de la enfermedad de Chagas en la población de 5 a 15 años de edad. La Metodología empleada en el estudio es de tipo prospectivo de corte transversal, descriptivo, de campo y de laboratorio. La población estuvo formada por 63 menores de edad y 37 viviendas. Resultados de esta investigación son: respecto a las viviendas se estudiaron 37 casas donde residen menores de 5 a 15 años de edad, encontrándose en viviendas un total de 22 vectores transmisores de la enfermedad, de las cuales en 3 (13.6%) de estas se encontraron positivas al parásito Trypanosoma cruzi; favorece a la proliferación de este vector en la comunidad el tipo de construcción de las viviendas, en las cuales predominó las casas de pared, piso y tierra con adobe, tierra y teja y bahareque, tierra y teja, respectivamente En la población se examinaron a 63 menores entre 5 a 15 años, de estos se detectaron 9 casos sospechosos y confirmaron 6 casos positivos, lo que equivale al 9% a la presencia de la enfermedad de Chagas. Conclusiones Se estudiaron 37 viviendas dado que en ellas habitan menores de 5 a 15 años, 10 de estas se encuentran infectadas con el vector. Encontrando un total de 22 chinches con un porcentaje de 27.02% de infestación de vivienda por Triatoma dimidiata. Se realizó una búsqueda dentro de las viviendas, con un índice de infestación intradomiciliar de 27.02%. A pesar de la búsqueda exhaustiva realizada en el área peridomiciliar de las viviendas no se logró encontrar el vector por lo tanto el índice de infestación peridomiciliar es de 0.0%. Al realizar la compresión abdominal de los 22 triatóminos capturados 3 resultaron positivos a la presencia del parásito, obteniéndose el índice de infestación natural de T. cruzi de 13.6%. De las chinches positivas, 2 de ellas fueron encontradas en viviendas de menores que salieron negativos a las pruebas parasitológicas directas e indirectas. Un factor importante para la detección de la enfermedad es que la comunidad esté informada completamente sobre los signos y síntomas de esta, y así evitar que la enfermedad pase desapercibida.

Olkapään alueen makroskooppinen anatomia – video-opetusmateriaali anatomian opiskeluun

Anatomian opiskelu perustuu edelleen pitkälti kirjojen piirrettyihin kuviin. Opinnäytetyöni on tarkoitettu täydentämään kirjojen sisältöä ja tukemaan anatomian opiskelua. Tarkoituksena oli tuottaa havainnollinen videomateriaali olkapään alueesta käytettäväksi Turun yliopiston lääketieteellisen tiedekunnan anatomian kursseilla sekä itseopiskelumateriaalina. Videolla keskitytään kahteen erilliseen isoon kokonaisuuteen: kiertäjäkalvosimeen sekä lapaluuhun ja siihen kiinnittyviin lihaksiin. Suomenkielisen opetusvideon avulla opiskelijat voivat ymmärtää paremmin olkapään kolmiulotteista anatomiaa ja hahmottaa rakenteiden välisiä suhteita oikeassa kehossa. Ennen videon kuvaamista kertasin olkapään alueen anatomian, suunnittelin videon sisällön sekä harjoittelin preparointitekniikoita. Preparointia harjoiteltiin yhdellä formaliinivainajalla ja yhdellä tuorevainajalla. Avaussalityöskentelyssä tein yhteistyötä neljän muun opiskelijan kanssa. Kuvasimme kukin omien opinnäytetöidemme aiheet samasta tuorevainajasta yhden viikonlopun aikana 19.–22.12.2014. Video kuvattiin kokonaisuudessaan Turun yliopiston Medisiina- laitosrakennuksen anatomian opetusavaussalissa. Kuvaamisessa käytettiin Kliinisten taitojen oppimiskeskuksen Portin kameraa ja kuvausvälineistöä. Kuvausmateriaali muokattiin lopulliseksi videoksi käyttämällä Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014 -videonmuokkausohjelmaa. Jälkikäteen videoon lisättiin ääniraita sekä anatomian käsitteitä selventämään videon kulkua. Lopullinen opetusvideo on noin 12 minuuttia kestävä tiivis kokonaisuus olkapään alueen anatomiasta. Se koostuu kolmesta osasta. Ensimmäinen osa on suurin kokonaisuus, jossa käsitellään lapaluun merkittävimmät luiset rakenteet sekä lapaluuhun kiinnittyvät lihakset erikseen edestä ja takaa. Toisessa osassa keskitytään kliinisesti merkittävään olkapään rakenteeseen, kiertäjäkalvosimeen, josta esitellään tarkasti kaikki neljä lihasta ja niiden sijainnit kuvattuna eri suunnista ja eri etäisyyksiltä. Videon lopuksi käydään läpi vielä olkapään kymmenen eri liikettä, jotka esitetään videolla.