PDF Handling

PDFs are widely used in many and various industries, and presently are the only non-image file type that DWT supports. In this next section, we will address all the input and output operations that allow the user to properly handle PDF files.

Environment

Desktop and Mobile.
Service mode and WASM mode.

Including the PDF addon

To include the PDF addon, simply add a reference to the corresponding JavaScript file, included in the resources folder.

If you are using the dwt package, the barcode reader is already included in the main JavaScript file ( dynamsoft.webtwain.min.js or dynamsoft.webtwain.min.mjs ) which means you can skip this step.

<script src="dynamsoft.webtwain.addon.pdf.js"></script>

Input

When loading in a PDF file, DWT tries to extract images from that file, which is why the SDK can handle image-based PDF documents by default. However, most existing PDF files contain much more than just images. In this case, we need to make use of the PDF Rasterizer (PDFR for short), the main component of the PDF addon.

How PDFR works: As the name suggests, PDFR rasterizes a PDF file page by page much like a scanner. You set a resolution and you get the resulting images in that resolution after the rasterization.

The following code shows the basic usage

var onSuccess = function() {
    console.log("Loaded a file successfully!");
};
var onFailure = function(errorCode, errorString) {
    console.log(errorString);
};
DWObject.IfShowFileDialog = true;
// PDF Addon is used here to ensure PDF support
DWObject.Addon.PDF.SetResolution(200);
DWObject.Addon.PDF.SetConvertMode(Dynamsoft.EnumDWT_ConvertMode.CM_RENDERALL);
DWObject.LoadImageEx("", Dynamsoft.EnumDWT_ImageType.IT_ALL, onSuccess, onFailure);

The method SetConvertMode() decides how PDFR works and SetResolution() specifies the resolution. These two methods configure PDFR to detect and, if necessary, rasterize any PDF file that comes thereafter.

Questions

Q: When shall I use PDFR?

A: PDFR is only required for text-based PDFs, to find out whether a file is text-based. Use the method IsTextBasedPDF() .

Q: When is it effective?

A: Once PDFR has been configured, it will automatically detect if a file needs to be rasterized and if so, it will convert it to an image(s) with the set resolution(if no resolution is set, the default is 200). This happens when you call any of the following methods

PDFR also works when you drag and drop the file onto the viewer to load it

Other methods

GetConvertMode() : This method returns the current convert mode.
SetPassword() : This method sets a password which is used to open encrypted PDF file(s).

Output

DWT can output one or multiple images in the buffer as image-based PDF file(s). This feature is built into the core module and no addon is required as was covered in the output section.

However, some advanced features are only possible with the help of the PDF addon. At present, that means configuring the resulting file(s) with the API Write.Setup() as shown below

DWObject.Addon.PDF.Write.Setup({
    author: "Dynamsoft-Support-Team",
    compression: Dynamsoft.EnumDWT_PDFCompressionType.PDF_JP2000,
    creator: "DWT",
    creationDate: "D:20200930",
    keyWords: "TWAIN, DWT, Dynamsoft",
    modifiedDate: "D:20200930",
    producer: "Dynamsoft Corporation",
    subject: "Demoing File",
    title: "Sample PDF Made by DWT",
    version: 1.5,
    quality: 80
});
DWObject.IfShowFileDialog = true;
DWObject.SaveAllAsPDF(' ', function() {}, function() {})