PDF::Reuse 0.33

PDF::Reuse is a Perl module that can reuse and mass produce PDF documents.

SYNOPSIS

use PDF::Reuse;
prFile(myFile.pdf);
prText(100, 500, Hello World !);
prEnd();

This module could be used when you want to mass produce similar (but not identical) PDF documents and reuse templates, JavaScripts and some other components. It is functional to be fast, and to give your programs capacity to produce many pages per second and very big PDF documents if necessary.

The module produces PDF-1.4 files. Some features of PDF-1.5, like "object streams" and "cross reference streams", are supported, but only at an experimental level. More testing is needed. (If you get problems with a new document from Acrobat 6 or 7, try to save it or recreate it as a PDF-1.4 document first, before using it together with this module.)

Templates

Use your favorite program, probably a commercial visual tool, to produce single PDF-files to be used as templates, and then use this module to mass produce files from them.

(If you want small PDF-files or want special graphics, you can use this module also, but visual tools are often most practical.)

Lists

The module uses "XObjects" extensively. This is a format that makes it possible create big lists, which are compact at the same time.

PDF-operators

The module gives you a good possibility to program at a "low level" with the basic graphic operators of PDF, if that is what you want to do. You can build your own libraries of low level routines, with PDF-directives "controlled" by Perl.

Archive-format

If you want, you get your new documents logged in a format suitable for archiving or transfer.

PDF::Reuse::Tutorial might show you best what you can do with this module.

JavaScript

You can attach JavaScripts to your PDF-files.

You can have libraries of JavaScripts. No cutting or pasting, and those who include the scripts in documents only need to know how to initiate them. (Of course those who write the scripts have to know Acrobat JavaScript well.)