Prepress

brandbox creates web and printable PDF files with callas technology from a single source

Monday 06. July 2020 - From now on, users of brandbox, a product of Konmedia GmbH, can automatically process PDF files with pdfToolbox from callas software. brandbox is a universal marketing instrument that enables cross-media product communication. Since different requirements regarding the provision of PDF files are involved, Konmedia has decided to extend its brandbox with the functionality of callas pdfToolbox. This allows users to create PDF files for specific application purposes from the same database without wasting time.

With brandbox, companies can optimize their product communication by capturing and structuring catalogs and price lists in a database-supported manner. The template engine then creates PDF files at the push of a button, which can be immediately published cross-media on the web and/or printed. “We have already integrated pdfToolbox on the server side for extensive conversion processes in the print sector and have relied entirely on callas technology since switching to the open source system Kubernetes”, says Christoph Schmid, Managing Director of Konmedia GmbH, and explains: “This has the advantage that both profiles can be stored in the brandbox for publishing PDF files on the Internet as well as for printing”.
Versatile configuration options for the creation of high-quality PDF files
A cornerstone of the services and solutions offered by brandbox is the web-to-print functionality. “If PDF documents are to be made available on the Internet, for example, as a download, they must meet different requirements than those for printing,” says Dietrich von Seggern, Managing Director of callas software GmbH. “pdfToolbox supports both by allowing users to create profiles for the respective application areas, so they can create suitable results based on the same database” Users either use proven standard profiles for print and web or define a custom profile. These profiles can be prepared, tested and updated at any time via the desktop application. In this way, all publishing specific requirements can be addressed to a PDF file from a pool of several hundred possibilities.
In addition, brandbox users benefit from further features of pdfToolbox, such as
– the addition of print marks, punch lines, varnish, white underlay or any other print control elements,
– the automatic conversion of Office formats into PDF files and the associated optimization of document formats and colors for the printing process,
– the optimization of PDFs for mobile devices or the Internet: resizing, cutting out invisible parts of images, converting to RGB, etc,
– creating PostScript and EPS files from PDF files,
– a high quality conversion of PDF pages into images with any resolution
– the re-distillation to correct problems,
– a powerful imposition engine for the creation of brochures, the use of multiple-ups and self-created imposition schemes,
– the splitting of PDF files into single pages or “page packages”, the merging of several individual PDFs and the protection of PDF files by passwords.
Flexible licensing model
Konmedia uses pdfToolbox with the callas License Server. This dynamic billing model allows capacity based processing and load balancing across multiple instances in the cloud. This allows Konmedia to react flexibly to incoming order volumes at any time and reorder order units as needed.
Based on the positive experience in catalog production so far, Konmedia plans to integrate pdfToolbox with web-to-print editors in the brandbox also in its marketing portal. Here the PDFs are generated page-oriented and can then be checked with the preflight engine.