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1. How is activePDF Server licensed?
2. What are activePDF Server "threads" and how are they licensed?
3. Is using activePDF Server difficult?
4. Why is activePDF's PostScript to PDF conversion better than 3rd
Party GDI (Graphics Device Interface) drivers?
5. How fast is activePDF Server?
6. Does activePDF Server offer straight PostScript to PDF conversion?
7. What about other formats?
8. What is linearization?
9. What is encryption and decryption?
Q. How is activePDF Server licensed?
A. activePDF Server is licensed to an individual entity (individual or company)
on a per server basis. There are no penalties for multi-processor machines.
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Q. What are activePDF Server "threads" and how are they
licensed?
A. The base configuration of activePDF Server includes licensing for 2
PDF generation threads. A thread for activePDF Server is the process of
actually generating the PDF. When designing activePDF Server, we did not
want to hinder the performance of the Spooler by locking down concurrent
generation of print documents. Instead, activePDF Server uses internal NT
mechanisms to insure that only the permitted number of threads is actually
converting the PostScript internally to PDF. Additional 3 thread, per-server
licenses can be purchased for a nominal price.
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Q. Is using activePDF Server difficult?
A. Not at all. To use activePDF Server, we require only 2 things :
1) Your environment supports COM. Most modern programming languages (e.g.
Visual Basic, Active Server Pages, Visual FoxPro) support COM interfaces.
2) Your application that prints resides on the server. activePDF Server
is not designed for desktop operation. The product was built with web servers
and distributed applications in mind.
With those 2 parameters met, using activePDF Server is as easy as calling
the StartPrinting method, assigning your printer to an activePDF Server
virtual printer and then printing as normal.
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Q. Why is activePDF's PostScript to PDF conversion better
than 3rd Party GDI (Graphics Device Interface) drivers?
A. For a few different reasons:
- The output from PostScript is richer than just plain GDI. The GDI
command interface limits you to output that display devices can present.
PostScript, on the other hand, offers a much more robust printing technology
that can deal with things like CMYK colors, transparency and PostScript
fonts.
- Font support is better. In order for the GDI interface to work, the
fonts must actually be installed on the system. With activePDF
Server's PostScript to PDF conversion, the fonts just need to be on
disk.
- Post-processing commands can be appended to the print stream. With
GDI you are limited to just printing your document. With activePDF's
support for /PDFMark (PDF PostScript commands), you can add all kinds
of functionality, such as bookmarks, field addition and article creation.
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Q. How fast is activePDF Server?
A. Generally, activePDF Server has been timed at being at least 10% faster
than other PostScript to PDF conversion products. Where activePDF Server
shines, however, is in multi-user PDF generation. Other products claim to
operate in a multi-threaded environment, but in reality, they are single-threaded
in execution. With these other products, if you have 5 users generating
PDF, the 5th user needs to wait until the previous 4 generations are complete.
With activePDF Server, generation occurs in a true multitasking fashion
where simultaneous conversion is possible.
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Q. Does activePDF Server offer straight PostScript to
PDF conversion?
A. Yes it does. activePDF Server has a method for just converting PostScript
to PDF. You have full control, via your PostScript code, of the generated
output.
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Q. What about other formats?
A. activePDF Server can also convert over 40 image types directly to PDF.
For HTML conversion, we offer activePDF WebGrabber and for other document
types, you can convert them yourself with the application's native API or,
use our activePDF DocConverter, which can render over 280 file formats to
PDF.
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Q. What is linearization?
A. Linearization is the process of preparing a document for "byte-serving".
Byte-serving permits individual pages to be downloaded by performing byte
range requests to the web server. The benefit is best illustrated when an
extremely large PDF document is downloaded. Instead of waiting for the entire
document to stream down to the browser, byte-serving allows for the first
page (or any desired page) to load almost instantaneously. For byte-serving
to work, both the web browser and the web server must support HTTP 1.1 Byte
Range requests. Most modern browsers (e.g. IE 4.x and higher and Netscape
4.x and higher) and servers (e.g. IIS 4.x and higher) support this functionality.
There are PERL scripts available on the Internet for those web servers that
do not support byte range requests.
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Q. What is encryption and decryption?
A. Acrobat 3.0 introduced the concept of security to PDF files. This security
is two-fold : 1) Secure the document from being opened by unauthorized users
("Open Password") and 2) Secure the document from having certain
functions such as printing, selecting and modifying from being performed
("Owner Password"). Until recently, the size of the encryption
key was limited to 40 bits. Acrobat 5.0 introduced keys consisting of 128
bits which generally produces a more secure document. activePDF was the
first company to provide any level of security to server-side PDF generated
products and was the first to provide the 128-bit level of encryption.
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